Today, I have carved a niche for myself and I am probably one of the very few Chartered Accountants in India who is doing sales, business strategy, and product management as a part of his job profile.
My name is Manish Balani and I am a Chartered Accountant and presently work as Business Head and Vice President - GST at VAYANA NETWORK
Now, what’s interesting to note here is In spite of being a CA, I don't do anything related to Accounts, Finance, Audit, and Taxation. Instead, I do Corporate Sales and Business & Product Strategies.
I was born in a Sindhi Middle-Class Business Family. My father was a small businessman who had his shop of Rajasthani clothing and bedquilts in Jaipur, while my mother a complete homemaker,
The family to which I belong is a traditional Sindhi business family where owning your ‘DUKAAN (shop)’ and running it was more important and status worthy, than getting any degrees, diplomas or any cushy Job.
I remember when I was 7 years old, my Father having a conversation with his friends – “Bus 6 -7 Saal aur, Manish ko Dukaan par baithayenge, kaam sikhayenge, Jyada padke kya karega” So basically, my destiny was already decided and I was taught the nuances of the business from a very tender age, plus business was in my blood.
At that time, I was studying in an average school but my scores were pretty decent but way better than my friends and family members, my parents were happy with this but as is said earlier, in a business family like ours, marks do not matter, business skills and selling goods in your ‘Dukaan’ matters.
There was a twist that happened in my life when I was 8 years old and was sent to one of the Best Schools of Jaipur – MPS; only after my aunt persuaded my parents to see my scores, my parents agreed and I took admission to that school but Still ‘Dukaan’ was the priority.
However, when I was just 9 years old Studying in Class 4th– My father expired. As a kid, I was shattered, there was no one to look after our family. My mother and my younger sister were now my responsibility, and then suddenly a 9-year-old kid had to become a 9-year-old Man.
I remember accompanying my mother and maternal Grand Father to banks and Post offices, for breaking the FDs, we had to sell off our Beloved ‘Dukaan’ to get some funds to run our monthly expenses. All this had a deep impact on my mind and I started to understand commercial terms like- savings, monthly expenses, rent, selling, duties, taxes, interest etc.
I am very thankful to my school which gave me a scholarship and charged negligible fees basis my scores and seeing my economic condition. I continued to score good marks and always remained in the Top 10 Rankers of my class until Class 12th.
Why I chose to do CA after Class 12th was based on these 3 Reasons: -
- CA as a course was the cheapest among all other options available.
- MBA from a reputed institute would have taken a minimum of 5 years (3 years Graduation/BBA + 2 years MBA) while CA takes a minimum of 4 years if you clear all exams in one go and I wanted to earn ASAP for the obvious reason of supporting my family.
- Being from a business background, CA was a more obvious choice which suited my interest.
Luckily, (this luck came in after a lot of hard work), I was able to complete my CA within 4 years of enrolment.
So, in short, I completed my CA within 4 years and was ready to take a job and make my Mother and my Late Father proud of me.
How did you rise to the highest echelons in your career? What is the best piece of advice you would like to give to those who want to rise in their careers in the corporate world?
My Story might inspire many people and help them to understand how I faced various challenges after the death of my father at a very early age and how I am following my passion instead of doing "What I should have done as per Society Norms".
I decided to do CA because that would not require much investment/money as may be required in other professional courses or for doing an MBA from a reputed institute. Since I belong to a business background, I chose to do what other traditional CAs shy away from doing i.e., Sales.
Sales, Business, Strategy, and Product Management were probably in my blood as I understand #Dhandha and its intricacies.
Today, I have carved a niche for myself and I am probably one of the very few Chartered Accountants in India who is doing sales, business strategy, and product management as a part of his job profile.
In my opinion, sales are of paramount importance for anyone to excel in his/her career. We should always remember that at any given point in time we are all doing sales.
When we go for an interview as a Fresher - we are pitching ourselves, we are selling to the prospective employer the skills we have and the dedication with which we will work in their organization, we are selling them the idea that if they hire us the organization will get hugely benefitted.
When we go for an interview as an experienced candidate - we are selling what's written on the resume, our skills and our achievements in previous organizations.
When we decide to go for our own practice we are selling our services to the clients.
When we are out on a date - we are doing sales (by impressing the other one)
When we are negotiating our appraisal with our Boss - we are doing sales.
So, sales are being done by all of us, at some or other point in time, it's just that we do not realize it. So, let's not shy away from being called salespeople or salesman/saleswomen.
My Advice to all:
- Always carve out a Niche for yourself, being Different from Others is the Key.
- Do not be afraid of being Ambitious. Ambition is something that will take you to places you have never imagined.
- You Must Know Sales (say this 3 times), to me, Sales is holy. Sales are noble. Sales are the fabric of life no matter where you work and What you do!
To advance in your career, you have to become the Profit Centre and not be a Cost Centre.
Me and LinkedIn
LinkedIn helps you to create your network and as the saying goes "Your Network is your Net Worth". Similarly, my advice to everyone would be:-Don't shy away from Business roles, Sales, Strategy, etc. Until and unless you can sell something, you cannot excel in your career. Remember, all successful people in the world are great salesmen and great Networkers.
My Story has been covered on various platforms, And Most Importantly, by The Official Page of LinkedIn on LinkedIn and the Official Page of LinkedIn on Facebook.
Also, Happy to share that I have been featured in #inittogether campaign of LinkedIn
The TV commercial was aired during the IPL 2019 matches on Star Sports as well as on other Hindi Movies and Entertainment Channels. Also, Have been featured on Billboards and Hoardings, metro wraps & bus shelters etc in major cities of India.
Here are the links to the Advertisement on other digital mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube (YouTube video has garnered more than 4.5 million views already)
I am not really an early riser, instead, I am a night owl. I believe there is nothing wrong with following your Body Clock, everyone has a different body clock and we should listen, understand and follow what our body wants to say to us. We should never blindly believe anyone or copy their lifestyle and work schedule.
I wake up at 8.30 AM and after 30 mins of morning ablutions, I go for a 15 minute morning walk. I begin my breakfast at 9.45 AM and begin my workday at 10 AM.
The whole day is divided into 3 parts:- 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of Work and around 8 hours of learning, reading, ideating, strategizing, exercising and building a personal brand.
Several global companies have come out and thrown their support behind not needing a formal education. What is your opinion about this?
Global companies like Google, Facebook and Tesla have supported the idea of not needing any formal education or College Degree for working in their organizations. I completely agree with this norm and I hope other organizations will follow the suit.
We are heading towards a world where a 2-6 month program will lead to more jobs than a 3-4 years long college degree!
Outcome-based education is the future and the future is almost here! We need to be cognizant of the fact that now skills (that too relevant skills) will play a more important role in your career than having a degree.
How are things changing in your domain, what role will data and information play in the future?
Vayana Network, as a qualified GSP, enables the last-mile access of Corporates and ASPs to GSTN/ NIC. Apart from GST Business, we have been offering India’s largest 3rd party digital trade financing network and have delivered USD 7 Billion + invoice financing.
Our GST, E-Way Bill and E-invoice API gateway (Pass-through and enriched) powers the compliance for several ASP platforms such as SAP, few of India’s largest ASPs, two of the Big 4s, FinTechs, NBFCs, and credit bureau, several eCommerce firms, and logistics firms.
While until now the role of GSP was limited to providing access to GSTN or NIC or IRP for GST, Eway Bill and E-invoice compliance. But now it is evolving in the following ways:-
- GST Data based lending wherein historical GST data is being used to create better credit models,
- Check KYC compliance
- Create GST Filing scorecard
- Evaluate Vendor risk rating
- Sales and Purchase data analysis to find out the health of a business
- Supplier variance analysis – highlights inconsistent GST treatment for the same supplier and estimates potential under or over recovery.
- GST rate analysis – shows transactions where GST differs from the standard rate and 0% and where GST ITC has not been claimed.
- Find out other income of the business
- Help FIs in better credit assessment and post loan disbursal monitoring
- E-invoice data is being used in Treds and other platforms for Invoice discounting.
I have loved reading “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” as well as “Business School” by Robert Kiyosaki. Both these books will change the way you look at your finances and investments.
Also, I loved “the 3 mistakes of my life” by Chetan Bhagat (yes, I Read Chetan Bhagat, please don’t judge me for that)
The book which I am reading currently is “CFO Niti”, it is a compelling read of fascinating stories and life lessons of a few of the most successful CFOs of India.
In my opinion, reading books is very important as they give you a newer perspective on your life and help you in always being a learner for life, which is very important today. Because I believe “Seekhna Band toh Jeetna Band”
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