Unveiling the Financial Maestro: Meet the CA Who Built His Own Thriving Firm

He has created a financial knowledge empire that cuts across all borders with unrelenting dedication and a commitment to excellence

In the fields of accounting and finance, MAHENDRA KUMAR AGRAWALA, a renowned chartered accountant, is a towering figure. His decades-long career has shown him to possess an unmatched breadth of knowledge and an unwavering dedication to preserving the highest ethical standards. . Numerous professionals have been motivated to work towards financial accomplishment by his guidance and mentoring. His accomplished career serves as proof of the positive impact from a  sole proprietorship firm to one of the leading patnership ca firm of the country with many patners and employeess,  his  hard work, education, and a firm adherence to the highest ethical standards may have.  The impact of MAHENDRA KUMAR AGRAWALA on the financial industry is tremendous, and his reputation as a preeminent CA serves as motivation for others who want to succeed in the industry.

He has created a financial knowledge empire that cuts across all borders with unrelenting dedication and a commitment to excellence. His company’s reputation is synonymous with dependability, expertise, and confidence, making it a reliable resource for clients looking for financial advice. In addition to building a sizable clientele, MAHENDRA KUMAR AGRAWALA has also developed a brand that stands as a beacon of quality and integrity in the area of chartered accounting. This is all because to his strategic acumen and deep grasp of the Indian business ecosystem. His incredible journey is a motivating illustration of the transformational potential of desire and knowledge.

 

How has been your Journey in CA profession right from the beginning.

 

I was not sure of pursuing CA career because of the sad demise of my father while studying B. Com in Ravenshaw College and also huge financial crisis. With moral support of my elder brother, financial support through his petty income & hand loans and my hard working including part time jobs in Kolkata, I could become CA and after servicing for 1.1/2 years in the then biggest audit firm of India at Jamshedpur, I started my sole proprietary firm in a very small room at Cuttack in the year 1984. I never thought that our firm MKPS & Associates shall be one of the leading CA firm of the Country with many Partners, employees and many offices having PAN INDIA presence. Over the years, our Head Office has shifted from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar and then from Bhubaneswar to Mumbai almost 10 years back but I being Odisha born having love for the State have not shifted to Mumbai except remaining in Mumbai for few days for work. I don’t think I have any capability other than hardworking to achieve this milestone. All this could be  possible by the blessings of my favourite Lord Hanuman.

 

What initially sparked your interest in pursuing a career in accounting, and how has your passion evolved over time?

 

The business community to which I belonged and the Chartered Accountancy being a very dignified profession sparked my interest in pursuing a career in accounting right from the college days and became a passion subsequently. The passion on the sad demise of my father while pursuing graduation in commerce got converted into absolute necessity for CA career without which my family had no future. The passion evolved after becoming CA was to glorify in the profession and making rapid strides.

 

In your experience, what common misconceptions do people have about the role of a chartered accountant, and how would you clarify them?

 

Generally, people feel that the role of Chartered Accountants is confined merely to number crunching, they look at CA as number experts only. However, that is a very small spectre of activities that CA’s do, apart from being having a strong command for numbers, the profession brings in a plethora of activities such as analysis, litigation, consulting, due diligence, Statutory Compliances, investigation, developing and updating the internal controls in any organisation. Today, because of these multifarious nature of involvement, many global companies are looking at CA as CEO’s instead of the earlier thought of confining them to CFO.

 

 

As a chartered accountant, you deal with numbers and regulations daily. How do you find creative or innovative solutions within the constraints of financial rules and regulations?

 

At the outset, the focus is always on ensuring regulatory compliances of financial rules and regulations. Today, technology has played an important role in finding creative or innovative solutions such as use of data analysis, regulation compliance /google search, software etc. which allows us to assist clients / regulators in better way by first understanding the requirement of the regulator and then providing specific responses to them.

 

How do you handle ethical dilemmas in your profession, such as conflicts of interest or pressure to manipulate financial data?

 

I have always maintained the principle of following the Ethics both in letter and spirit. To instil this in our firm, I regularly guide my team, juniors, partners, assistants on the same. I try to lead them by example in this matter. There have been instances in the past where I have declined clients who exert undue pressure for unethical things or to manipulate books.

 

Tell me about a time when you had to handle a financial crisis within a company. How did you manage it, and what lessons did you learn from the experience?

 

Since I had never been an employee in any Company, there has been no opportunity to handle a financial crisis within a Company. I have seen my clients facing financial crisis and whenever they have sought my help in mitigating the financial crisis, I have taken the same as challenge and solved. The financial crisis generally occurs due to mismanagement of funds like deploying short term funds for long term purposes and also no control on expenses. Through my advice on proper management by resetting the deployment of funds and also through cost cutting measures, the situation of financial crisis got converted into financial surplus.

 

In your view, what are the key financial trends or challenges that businesses should be prepared for in the coming years?

 

Businesses and the processes around them have evolved in multifarious ways since I qualified. There has been a sea-change in the way businesses used to function earlier. I feel that the challenge is that the business today are no longer confined to local or state or national boundaries and but exposed to global factors so businesses would need to be very watchful of global events and their immediate as well as long term impact on their business. Apart from this, we are moving towards an era of digital economy and a lot would depend on the adaption of technology across all businesses.

 

What advice would you give to someone just starting their journey to become a chartered accountant, based on the lessons you’ve learned in your own career?

 

To become Chartered Accountant has never been every easy due to very few percentage of successful ones. My advice based on what I have learned in my career is that you have to be academically more than average, hardworking, dogged approach, disciplined, humble, well behaved, self-belief, ambitious, optimistic despite failures, not only to become Chartered Accountant but also to be successful in the life.

 

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