Dr. Uppiliappan Gopalan- Turnaround Specialist with strong passion towards the principles of Arthasastra! Dharma is law in its widest sense—spiritual, moral, ethical, and temporal. Every individual, whether the ruler or the ruled, is governed by his or her own dharma. To the extent that society respected dharma, society protected itself; to the extent society offended it, society undermined” – Playing to win is all about inspiration! Having a great idea and assembling a team to bring that concept to life is the first step in creating a successful business venture.
While finding a new and unique idea is rare enough; the ability to successfully execute this idea is what separates the dreamers from the visionaries! Dr. Uppiliappan Gopalan stands as an epitome for this adage. Dr. Uppiliappan Gopalan who is an astute strategist with impeccable business acumen is a Chemical Engineer (B Tech) and an MBA from IIM-Bangalore with Finance & Operations Specialization. He holds an Executive Diploma in Advanced Financial Analytics from the globally renowned London Business School (LBS). Adding feather in his cap, he holds a Doctorate Degree in Supply Chain & Finance Integration from the Indian School of Business & Management. Dr. Uppiliappan received Peter Drucker Award for the year 2016 for his outstanding performance in Finance & Business Process Improvement in strengthening & turning around business operations. Dr. Uppiliappan is one of the 100 Best SAP-S4-HANA Practitioner – APAC Region – through the passion and his acute understanding of Business Processes and he has been associated with the board of SAP’s Product Forum for the last 10 years.
Dr. Uppiliappan is also a qualified Chartered Business Law Practitioner (CBLP) specialized in Insolvency Provisions and this has made him the perfect fitment in terms of making a total coverage of Business / Systems / Operations / Risk & Compliance. Strategic think-tank with close to 21 years of corporate exposure in FMCG/Retail/ EPC/ utomotive/Trading of Fortune 500 Companies. Dr. Gopalan is a well-known adjunct faculty for Finance & Supply Chain and has been invited by various forums as Conference Speaker & Conference Chair of
- Technical Advisory Committee Titanium Conference (Ireland) – Finance).
- Conference Co-Chair for 17 International Symposium of Banking, Finance, & Economics (Singapore).
Uppiliappan – Exemplars of Absolute Accolades
Under U Gopalan’s guidance, organizations have achieved turnaround success. Dr. Gopalan’s core strength lies in Strategy Planning, Mergers and Acquisitions, Emerging Markets evelopment, Technocommercial Evaluations, Financial Modelling and Business Valuations, Project Management (Greenfield / Brown Field), & Blue Ocean Strategies. With hands-on expertise in handling a revenue size of 600 Million USD, Dr. Gopalan is versatile in P & L Management, Operational Excellence, Excellence in Financial Management, & Projects Management.
Inspiration is a Requisite Even for Leaders U
Gopalan’s responsibilities lie in streamlining operations, optimizing cash conversion cycle, increasing market share, augmenting business strategies that are focused on bottom-line with the right blend of people and task. The Leadership Journey of Mr. Gopalan is quite inspirational and noteworthy to mention in his diary of events. DNA of personal values and corporate values have been seeded inside him through his acquaintances and corporate honchos.
Dr. Gopalan is respectful and feels indebted to Mr. Arif Muhammad Sayani (Managing Director of Trinity Holdings, UAE), Mr. M V Subbaiah (Chairman Emeritus of Murugappa Group), & Dr. Prof. Bala V Balachandran (Distinguished professor in the renowned Kellogg School of Management at Chicago & Founder of Great Lakes Institute of Management), Mr. Mayur Shah (Sr Executive Director – Kenafric Industries Limited), & Mr. Ahmed Hashi (Chairman – Hashi Energy Holdings -Mauritius). Dr. Gopalan under the tutelage of corporate honchos imbibed the art of empowering people, demonstrating humility, & exhibiting a down-to-earth attitude besides Managing Interpersonal Relationships, Effective Decision-Making Skills, and Fostering Cross-Functional Competencies & Co-creating invigorating work culture amongst the workforce.
Being a Finance Professional by design transformed out to be an Operations Expert, Uppiliappan always emphasizes on
data and data management. Uppiliappan considers his mission lies in designing a leaner team with reduced costs and increased productivity. Empowering people fosters a multi-tasking culture and in turn augments productivity and reduces overall costs of operations.
Enlightening Organizations to be Bold
Dr. U Gopalan has enlightened organizations to take courageous actions like Promoting Cross-Functional Competence across Organizations, Contemporary Asset Restructuring Exercise, and Debt Restructuring, Deployment of Article 391 of Indian Company’s Law to manage the long-term creditors as part of debt restructuring exercise. His network extends to more than 20 Countries where he is well known for setting up businesses and turning around them Gopalan has always tried to give his best to employees with employee engagement & non-monetary benefits, institutionalizing a culture of transparency and trust, creating a culture as a manifestation of performance & role. His values deployment drive from top to bottom as part of a value cascading exercise to reinforce value systems. U Gopalan has a vision that is highly dynamic with 100% transparency to all employees and stakeholders. With his insights, companies lead to year-on-year growth without violating the principles of corporate ethics and corporate governance – grow with deep-rooted values and demonstrate values through sustainable growth.
Encouraging Creative Thinking within your organization?
U Gopalan recommends “The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success” and “Dare to dream: the journey of distinguished Prof. Bala V. Balachandran” to scrutinize leadership qualities.
