As the Founder & CEO of CapSavvy Consultants Pvt Ltd. Anil Goyal has been sharing his experience of more than 25 years across diverse industries and sectors. He is a rank holder Chartered Accountant and a Certified Business Strategist from IIM-Bangalore. He has worked with multiple organizations like ILFS, IDBI, Mexus Education, and Meril Life Sciences. He was also associated with the Navi Mumbai SEZ Project from the private sector & with CIDCO (Govt. of Maharashtra) as a partner from the public sector being on the core team for funding requirements and successfully raised funding through equity & debt by working closely with more than 25 banks.
Initial Steps During Pandemic
CapSavvy was established in late 2019, and while the world struggled with covid, by harnessing the power of social media CapSavvy struck its first deal in July 2020. Usually, the core focus of SMEs tends to be their products, but they face difficulty in managing the huge spectrum of business activities ranging from financing, accounting, product development, to marketing and customer management. To bridge this gap, CapSavvy consultants was formed focusing on providing a multifaceted financial and business advisory to growing demands of the modern businesses.
New and even established businesses face issues or don’t consider scaling up, whether it is due to the unfamiliarity, or the challenges this raises. Another factor that tends to be neglected is the management of finances which are the common factors for the downfall of a business. CapSavvy helps businesses by bringing decades of experience across industries to equip them to compete globally and to not just survive, but also thrive in the fast-paced economy.
Capsavvy has a strong network of investors eagerly looking for the next opportunity. They also have invested into creating a nationwide network of clients looking for advisory services or funding. Their team is young, motivated, and is adaptive to rapidly changing circumstances. They can alter the approach to problems to inculcate changes faster. Their senior management’s experience in the BFSI sector has immensely helped them to hit the ground running and be able to finalize a deal during the lockdown.
Distinctive Services Focusing on Client’s Satisfaction
CapSavvy is an expert financial and business advisor focusing on providing multifaceted advisory services to cater the growing demands of modern businesses in global markets. Their services are designed to upgrade businesses and accelerate their growth through a bouquet of services tailored to the needs of the clients such as:
- Business strategy.
- Start-up Advisory and Funding.
- Financial Restructuring.
- Debt Syndication.
- CFO Services.
- CRM Software/Automation Tools.
- Pre-IPO Advisory.
CapSavvy’s approach is modern and unique, focusing on serving the clients. It works with a “Business Partner Approach ” by getting into the shoes of the client and understanding their business needs to ensure personalized and effective advice. It has been providing business and financial advisory to various types of organizations from SMEs to large multinational corporations and covering new-age sectors such as E-commerce and start-ups to well established sectors such as real-estate & infrastructure.
Currently its clientele includes E-commerce, Home-Appliances, Health Products, Sports Equipment, Aircraft Maintenance, Shipyard, Real Estate, Food sector, Plastics, Logistics, and so on. CapSavvy have teamed up with business associates across India to ensure healthy and transparent services to clients keeping up with new technology and techniques to ensure service quality. It aims to provide innovative and modern solutions backed by a scientifically styled approach to provide advisory and financial services to deliver the best ROI.
Capsavvy team is focused on integrating technology even in customer relations management to increase accuracy and reduce the risk of human errors. With their proprietary software, they have access to all clients’ status within hand’s reach. They get a grass roots understanding of the clients’ business while onboarding which helps them in targeting all problems foreseen and unforeseen going forward.
Capsavvy is currently working on getting an Alternate Investment Fund, which will allow them to invest funds in businesses having potential to disrupt the market. This also helps in reducing the time delay in getting their clients the help they need, and as it is rightly said “Time is money”. Team is also working on its venture Cap70 which provides initial velocity and drive to shortlisted startups through their vast knowledge and expertise that push them to gain momentum and achieve the right path. Cap70 Angels will reduce the gap between requirements and fundings for startups by bringing founders and investors together building long lasting synergistic relations to complement each other.
Future Goals for Capsavvy
Goal: Capsavvy’s long-term goal is to be an investment bank for SMEs. It intends to provide bespoke services rivaling corporates to the upcoming businesses.
Priorities: It aims on optimizing efficiency through implementation of technology. It is coming up with a platform which will ease the connectivity between the founders and investors. Through this platform it will be providing investors with a verified list of potential investment opportunities and to the founders an easy access to potential investors.
Barriers: “The world is becoming interconnected (Global competitor) with new technologies allowing free flow of data, insight, resources, products, and services. This presents the opportunity for a foreign competitor to undercut us. With an increase in the startup culture in India, we are seeing an uptick in the clients approaching us. Having to go through all available options to present the best ones to the investors does take its toll. We’re attracting new employees with whom we’ll be much more equipped to tackle the upcoming increase.
Global economic uncertainty is always around the corner. With the 2008 market crash a large chunk of the capital in the market was wiped out. With the covid crisis, the markets and valuations dropped significantly in a short span. There’s always an uncertainty looming around the corner, we can only be best prepared to be least impacted by it. The trends in one sector of the economy are affecting other sectors.” he says
Connecting the Employees with Strategic Vision
A strategic vision is a roadmap for where your company wants to go, what you want to achieve, and how you plan on achieving it. It should be shared with everyone in your team so that everyone knows their role in achieving the vision. That’s what Capsavvy is doing by connecting the Employees with the Strategic Vision.
- “Providing excellence in client service and compliance through our unwavering commitment to our team, our understanding of financial services, and a continued focus on process improvement.”
- “Working with vigor, dedication, and innovation to achieve excellence in service, quality, reliability, safety, and customer care as the goal.“
- “Earning the trust and confidence of all clients, exceeding their expectations, and making the Company a respected business recognized name.“
- “Being the best choice as financial & business advisor in managing challenges of the modern fast-changing business world.“
- “Committing to provide genuine services to the businesses that lead to measurable ROI for them.“
At CapSavvy their employees are considered as the most important aspect of the business. They focus on understanding employees and their needs to ensure that we are happy, prepared, and ready to tackle challenges that come our way. It is said in order to be successful, leaders must factor in individual employees’ personalities and preferences and take a more personalized approach to management and communication style.
“We do not believe in job roles. Instead, we implement a strategic approach wherein we assign tasks to each employee based on their strengths and their interests. This keeps the employees motivated and increases their efficiency.” he says
Handling the Disagreements and Keeping the Employees Motivated
Valuing employees Motivation is individually different. People are more productive when they feel valued. Valuing employees’ contributions and initiatives is crucial in motivating them. Allocating tasks according to the interests of the employee ensures the employee goes above and beyond the expectations. By factoring in the existing workload while delegating responsibilities helps avoid potential burnouts.
There is a saying “Disagreeing without being disagreeable”. When there are disagreements, it is important to respond without losing temper. Focusing on the issue instead of making it personal, leads to a solution faster, and doesn’t cause resentment.
Paying attention to the needs of the other person has shown to result in a decrease in employee burnouts leading to employee retention. Understanding the core of the issues faced by the employees before attempting to find a solution, results in higher efficiency. It is said that vulnerability is the root of social connection.
Allocating tasks to employees and trusting their process rather than micromanaging, makes employees more comfortable making suggestions and sharing ideas. Having an open-door policy implemented in office, we ensure that employees can come to the leadership anytime. Employees tend to appreciate authenticity and are more likely to take up initiative.
Upcoming Problems needs to be focused
The problems in business are not something new. They have been around for a long time and they will continue to be there until businesses address the root cause of the problem. Anil Goyal believes, there are some problems that Businesses might face in upcoming years and should be focused on.
Uncertainty: All of us and especially business leaders find great discomfort in uncertainty. Because of global debt and economic struggles, uncertainty is more pronounced today than in the past. The sad news is that uncertainty leads to a short-term focus.
Regulations: A changing regulatory environment is always of concern in certain industries, but uncertain energy, environmental and financial policy can be wreaking for nearly all companies. The problems to be solved are to understand the meaning of regulation in your industry, its implications for your business, and to develop the skills necessary to deal with it and stay updated with the updates to all the regulations applicable.
Cross Border Activities: Many financial institutions are known for providing services globally. Global consulting is a multi-billion-dollar industry in the current era and is only expected to grow in the future. However, with increased reach comes increased competition. There have been major disruptions and adaptations to the investment banking sector due to cross border activities.
Acquiring the right talent: A growing firm requires leadership, prospering and motivated workforce. The current trend indicates professionals deviating from long hours, and tight deadlines to running their own startups or a larger organization with lower workload. We understand that a strong employee base is crucial to develop long-term relations. This helps in gaining a competitive advantage.
Problem Solving and Risk Management: A major challenge for all companies is identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks, including human and financial capital, in addition to the macro economy. The lack of a sophisticated problem-solving competency among today’s business leaders is limiting their ability to adequately deal with risks facing their businesses.
Advice For Aspiring Business People
Get Comfortable With the Unknown
You will never know enough. You will always be forced to make a decision without fully understanding what is coming. As a founder, that is just something you have to get comfortable with.
Show, Don’t Tell
For startups, being significant about your value proposition is huge. So many startups talk about being the Killer or extraordinary, or the X for Y, and eventually position themselves prematurely as being a mega success. Instead of talking about what your company does and going to achieve… focus on delivery and show your growth and achievements to the world.
Know the Startup Hierarchy
Think of the startup community as high school: You’ve got your freshman, juniors, seniors, and then teachers and staff. When you first enter the community, whether as a founder or an employee, you’re a freshman. By all means, develop relationships with mentors and more senior, experienced people, but also foster relationships with people just one or two steps ahead of you. Ask them the ‘stupid’ questions and the things that seem silly or small; soon enough you’ll be the sophomore or junior and pulling the newbies up the ladder with you.
Do Anything and Everything
The best advice I always receive from my mentor Mr. Debasish Mallick who was MD of EXIM Bank is that ‘we all must learn to do anything and everything. When I started, I started with just one person – that’s me. And slowly and steadily, we would create an impact in the society and now proudly connected with more than 100 associates and clients.
Don’t Worry About the Noise
Ignore the hype that you see about other startups in the press. It’s usually a pack of lies, and half of them will be dead in a year. Focus on building your business so you can be the one left standing.
It’s Your Company—You Decide
I have been fortunate to have many incredible mentors throughout my journey building CapSavvy and now Cap70. But these mentors often provide conflicting advice. ‘Go after big accounts!’ ‘Go after small accounts!’ ‘Go B2C!’ ‘Go B2B!’ Mentors provide a point of view based on their professional experiences and limited perspective into our market and customer base.
We, as founders, need to understand that while mentor feedback is extremely valuable, we ultimately need to make key decisions ourselves.
And last is, be ready with Sleepless nights.
