So much of it for one person to handle ......... and so much of it for one person to achieve.......... WOW !!!! CFOClub Nomination Form Page 3 of 6 __________________________________________________________________________________________ How has this employee consistently embodied the Finance Leadership Behaviors in FY11? 1. Summary/Context of this employee’s leadership achievements: Abhishek Oberoi joined Agilent in December 2008, as a part of Account Recon Program Team. With a strong accounting background, being Bachelors of Commerce and having completed Chartered Accountancy and CPA degrees, he quickly got up to speed with the Agilent processes/ systems and soon became a key player within GAR KBF. During the past 3 years, Abhishek has numerous accomplishments to his acclaim including strengthening the B/S account reconciliation process, A Net implementation and stabilization, led the GL JV automation project and was one the key resources during Varian integration and stabilization. Abhishek is a very confident and an upbeat character, who tries to improve with each stride forward, especially in FY11, he was tested on various fronts and came out with flying colors. He has earned a great deal of support and respect not just from his peers, subordinates but also his seniors for his determination and perseverance. He has always been appreciated by customers for his prompt response and able to deliver on time. He is a reliable resource with great attitude and never say “no” spirit. With further experience and some support he can be groomed as one of the future leaders in Agilent Finance team. Some of his key accomplishments during the last one year are: ß Played pivotal role in stabilizing Varian integration through substantiation of all migrated balances as General Ledger team lead. By Q1FY11, all migrated balances were fully substantiated with minimal write offs. ß Having successfully integrated one of the complex pieces of Varian SI integration in Q1FY11, he took over the role of Revenue Accounting Varian Lead in Q2FY11, another complex process of substantiating all migrated balances in UBAR, Deferred Revenue, Deferred Profit and Distributors commission accounts and above all clearances of these balances. • Within a couple of month of joining a new team, he was able to identify a suitable business proposition to recognize revenue for Varian SI Deferred Revenue migrated balances for service contracts, which when defined resulted into Revenue recognition of $4M, understated till Q1FY11. Not only this, it also resulted in a great deal of man hour savings at business finance end with most of the business dependencies were reduced. This project was very well received by the business compliance team and was one of the highlights of the entries made to Agilent Innovates program. • Worked in Q2, Q3 and Q4 FY11 with business finance towards clearances of more than $12M of Deferred Profit and $5M of PAE adjustments, which involved looking at each deal / contract in order to correctly, assess the accounting treatment and clearing 6 natural accounts together. ß Another feather to his cap was his offsite visit to Varian Australia site, where he was required to stabilize the first MEC in the month of Nov’11 for the newly acquired Varian site in Agilent system and also close all pending substantiation issues for APAC region by working with Varian Leads. He was able to work diligently and effectively to ensure smooth operations for new sites added and was appreciated for his interpersonal skills and his process knowledge. ß His work on identifying potential currency P&L impact from Varian data migration was well received by the entire EFS fraternity. Not only was it useful from minimizing the P&L exposure and take early corrective actions but also laid foundation to deal with various acquisitions with similar situations in future. ß Another big responsibility which was entrusted to him in FY11 was to manage Deferred Revenue Team of 10 people and he did complete justice to this role as well with not only getting better LAS scores than Agilent standards but also exceeding results of all his predecessors of this team. His team also had Agilent Confidential Page 3 of 6 CFOClub Nomination Form Page 4 of 6 __________________________________________________________________________________________ the lowest rate of attrition and his biggest achievement as a manager was that he was able to create backups for all critical activities and critical resources. ß Not only this, he was also able to successfully manage activities under Account Recon Board, Currency Approvals team and SOX lead for GL team during Q1 and Q2FY11 such as Quarterly Acceleration of reconciliations, reinitiating Managerial Review of reconciliations, SOX testing for reconciliation in 1HFY11 etc. 2. Moves Forward: Specific examples (please provide three specific examples): I have seen Abhishek growing over the years simply because of his ability to grab opportunities from the onset and giving his best to the deliverables. He is a go getter and following examples justify these characteristics: a) With critical resources moving out of the Revenue Accounting process during the phase of Varian integration & stabilization in FY11, we were faced with the challenge of someone who can quickly adapt / understand the process and lead the mantle with minimum input time and deliver results as per expectations. Abhishek at this point, willingly took over the challenging role of leading Varian SI integration as Revenue accounting lead in Q2FY11 and started delivering results immediately. He rigorously worked with business compliance team for clearances of migrated balances which was one of the most complex pieces of Varian SI migration. b) As soon as Varian Balances were migrated in Q1FY11, Abhishek, being the Account Recon program lead at that time, he was quick to trigger couple of account reconciliation improvement initiatives such as second level managerial reviews and transactional ageing – with the objective that we ensure migrated balances are thoroughly substantiated in order to keep Write offs to negligible. c) One of the biggest challenges faced in Varian integration was Bruker migrated Unbilled AR balances, where Agilent had paid Bruker for these receivables in advance at the time of divesture and was required to collect this money from the customers directly. The glitch in this contract was that Agilent would collect the money from customers but services would be provided by Bruker. From the onset it seemed like non recoverable balances but Abhishek along with the business compliance team and Varian leads showed tremendous grit and strength in following up on these balances throughout the year just to ensure we are not giving up on good money. 3. Exudes Energy: Specific examples (please provide three specific examples): a) One of the key policy differences between Varian and Agilent were in the fashion both the companies were managing / handling foreign currency accounting. To bring Varian at Agilent level, we were anticipating huge P&L impact and wanted someone to correctly assess all possible scenarios leading to such impact. Abhishek took up this challenge and exhibited extreme focus while performing this critical and complex task of validating possible all scenarios leading to P&L impact. His presentation on this topic to EFS senior management was well appreciated. Agilent Confidential Page 4 of 6 CFOClub Nomination Form Page 5 of 6 __________________________________________________________________________________________ b) Abhishek has many times demonstrated flexibility and enthusiasm to pick up any extra project along with his usual tasks to continually expand his skills. This was clearly evident with the number of M&A deals he handled as GAR / GL / Revenue lead in FY11 including Signametrics Corp, A2 technology, LAB 901 and Biocius Corp. – “ I have nothing but complimentary points to raise about his performance and it was my extreme pleasure to work with him. He was very in command of his area and always kept on top of his deliverables and kept me well informed. He was very patient and accommodating to help the A2 Controller understand all the processes related to banking recons and in the development and review of a mapped chart of accounts. He supported us in the Purchase Accounting phase of the project including helping me arrange a correct booking for our UK purchase accounting entries. I felt he would appropriately delegate some tasks, but took accountability for making sure they were done so I never had to chase anyone in his area.” - Jane Christen. c) In Q1FY11, Abhishek displayed complete ownership and ability to face challenging task representing General Ledger team in transitioning / integration of Varian SI General Ledger B/S account balances. This required wholesome understanding of the Varian processes, accounting systems, creating comprehensive documentation, participating in training, understanding the intricacies of process and making sure that team develops good understanding of the balances and activities migrated / transitioned. He brought stabilization within first quarter of independent close and also ensured nil escalations from business partners and senior management with minimal write offs. 4. Inspires Others: Specific examples (please provide three specific examples): a) Personal I feel with the way he took up responsibilities after joining Revenue Accounting team was very inspirational and to top it, within a months’ time he had come up with a business proposal with business compliance team to recognize revenue for Varian SI Deferred Revenue migrated balances for service contracts, which not just solved a lot of concerns for our and business finance teams in terms of negligible movements / booking to revenue happening for these orders in Q1FY11, but also paved ways for a simple yet effective technique for similar situations in future acquisitions. b) With a lot of positive attitude, assertive communication style and ability to motivate, Abhishek was able to create positive energy. This was truly reflected throughout FY 11, where, he conducted more than 10 trainings session across EFS and Tax functions on various key topics like reconciliations – use and benefits, SOX – overview and application, currencies – revaluation and translation impact etc. This has helped in creating strong knowledge base in GAR which was sincerely appreciated by senior management and peers. c) In such a short tenure he has already worked / led multiple finance functions like GL Reconciliations, GL Month end close, Compliance, Foreign Currency accounting, Revenue Accounting, Deferred Revenue Accounting, Mergers and Acquisitions, etc. This shows his flexibility and ability to hand over and take over a process with ease and comfort. This has not just helped him in understanding various process areas but also reinforces Agilent’s strong belief in rotation is a key aspect to a persons development. 5. Thinks and Acts Strategically: Specific examples (please provide three specific examples): a) His visit to Australia - Varian site at the beginning of this year was a great success story and is not just inspirational to others but also shows maturity and futuristic thinking he applies to his process / deliverables - “Interpersonally, Abhishek worked extremely well with the team and quickly built a strong rapport with everyone.. one that will continue as we go forward. Conscious of the situation that he was working in (ie with Agilent Confidential Page 5 of 6 CFOClub Nomination Form Page 6 of 6 __________________________________________________________________________________________ most people just being told that they were leaving the organization over the coming months), he was the complete professional and I was very impressed with his ability to relate with everyone, in a humble but effective way. He has gained the respect of all the team, and also helped build an increased understanding on how the Agilent hub model operates.” – Geoff Winkett b) Besides his above specific projects/initiatives, he had effectively managed his role as a SOX lead for reconciliations in Q1& Q2FY11 driving reconciliation program team who is responsible for quarterly assertions for 10Q & 10K. He also managed team which is responsible for foreign currency accounting policies and processes and provides regular approvals and consultancy on currency related issues. “I wanted provide feedback for Abhishek Oberoi and let you know he provides CFR great support! Abhishek has a lot of knowledge regarding all aspects of finance and is very dedicated to his responsibilities. The support he provides is always the best and he’s always responsive any inquiry that may come up. Also, he knows a lot of Agilent finance history which is good when looking into past events.” – Eric Nakatani. c) As SOX lead for Reconciliation process, General Ledger JV process, General Ledger MEC process and as process manager of Deferred Revenue process, he ensured there are no Audit comments / observations in these process areas throughout. Not only was this, under his guidance Revenue accounting team able to lead Revenue Audit for the first time from Global Hub India, without any audit comments. 6. Builds Organizational Capability (applies to managers): Specific examples (please provide three specific examples): a) Abhishek demonstrates ability to lead and manage team effectively. He remained engaged with his team during the year through 1:1, team meetings and informal interactions. He also ensured that the training needs of the employees in his team are assessed and the same are provided to them on regular basis. This has been further validated with the near perfect H2 LAS scores and lowest Attrition rates. b) We could see the amount of confidence he has generated within his where each individual is now well versed / completely potent to perform activities within their domain. He has ensured that all critical resources have backups ready so that process dependencies on individuals are completely eradicated. Under his guidance and supervision, Deferred Revenue Team won top award for best reconciliation team as well as best reconciler amongst all EFS team in Presentation and Readability initiative FY11 for the first time. “Abhishek is responsive and easy to work with. During close he was always available (which worries me because your team needs to sleep). He ensures that the multitude of JVs that I request (through RP or revenue SOX processes) are done. When there are errors he quickly gets them corrected.” – Kelly Merical c) During his stint as Deferred Revenue team manager, he was able to effectively setup numerous process improvements resulting into man hour savings, better efficiency and greater compliance such as team successfully included manual JV’s also in determining ST-LT reclass requirements, Orphan – Cross Reference controls strengthened to ensure no fallouts or duplicate bookings happen, LSCA Deferral process – Process realignment, where Asia Pac region was aligned with other regions, BIA Part 1 and Part 2 form request streamlined through developing a report, Manual Rule Deferred Revenue balances brought down to only $300K for LSCA business, etc.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 16:59:53 +0000