This Women’s day we have come across the story of Veni Thapar, an inspiring and well-known Chartered Accountant in practice who dons many hats simultaneously.
Veni Thapar is a senior partner in her firm, M/s.V K Thapar & Co., practicing for over 25 years with expertise in audits, taxation including international taxation, banking, and other inter-related fields across industries. She has had the experience of serving on various boards, some for the second time, and is a sitting member on the Board of Bank of India, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, and SJS Enterprises Ltd., currently. With remarkable leadership skills, she heads and participates in many committees of the board and always leads from the front.
Veni comes from a family of Chartered Accountants. Her father, also a CA, was her first role model who gave her the foundation to climb this ladder and the freedom to do her own thing. Her, father-in-law, a practicing CA, was a pillar to her and always supported and encouraged her in all her endeavors to become the successful woman that she is today.
As a young girl, she had the clarity of thought about pursuing this career and was wholeheartedly supported by her family. Initially, her mother had a little inhibition about her being able to manage a profession that was totally male-dominated in those days but seeing her strong willpower, determination, and dedication, always extended her unconditional support and groomed her to take firm decisions with the correct amount of sensitivity and humility.
Dedicated to her goals she cleared the CA Entrance and ICWA Entrance exams both while she was still in college. Immediately after completing her B.Com (H) from Jesus & Mary College, Delhi University in 1991, she cleared her intermediate exam for Cost Accountancy as well. She did her article-ship training for the Chartered Accountants degree from the renowned organization Price Water House, now known as PWC.
Getting married at an early age was no deterrent to her and with the blessings of a supportive family and an understanding husband; she pursued her studies and became a Chartered Accountant and a Cost and Works Accountant at the age of 25.
Veni says “When you are totally focused on your goals, you are driven to do your best. Productivity is always a result of intelligent planning, focused effort, and commitment to excellence.”
She is the kind of person who believes that the path to achieving the goals should in itself be an enjoyable journey and even the tiniest of achievements must be celebrated as motivators during the journey.
In between this professional journey she was blessed with a baby boy in 2002. While enjoying her motherhood and profession she pursued further studies and qualified as an ISA (Information system Auditor) from ICAI in 2004 and a CISA (Certified Information System Auditor) from ISACA in 2005.
“Work-life balance is an oft-spoken term. The art to achieve it lies in prioritizing everything with honed time management skills. Ultimately, happiness is the key to success, and a happy family your biggest support system” Veni added.
With this mantra in mind and a generally dependable and helpful nature, every step she took, motivated her to take the next, eventually leading to huge leaps presenting her with some great opportunities. Never one to shy away from responsibility or hard work, she took all the challenges in her stride to reach where she is today.
She maintains that there is no shortcut for hard work and no achievement is ever a cakewalk. There is always a lot of effort that needs to be put in to nurture every relationship, be it at work, with the clients, or the immediate or extended family.
She shared some of her key mantras with us, firmly believing that they have helped her in her professional journey throughout.
Flexibility
Veni says there has to be flexibility in everything you do. Be it your professional or personal life, being flexible and having the ability to think on the spot, enables one to adjust to any challenge or situation in delivering the desired or expected results.
Client Satisfaction
Money makes its way automatically when there is client satisfaction. Yet, satisfaction needs to be on both ends. Even the person doing the work needs to be satisfied with what they do. When hard work meets with satisfaction, the ultimate outcome is nothing but pure bliss!
Be a learner
Be a learner! Always be a learner with a readiness to acquire more knowledge and experience. Enjoy the new challenges and be willing to update your skillset continuously. It keeps one current and empowered with confidence no matter what the situation. If required, be ready to unlearn to re-learn!
Relationship
In the end, it all comes down to the kind of relationship you have with the people around you. When you work in harmony with everyone, be a team player, things get much easier for you. The key to individual growth lies somewhere within the team.
So fueled with the passion for learning and constantly updating her skill sets in this dynamic and fast-changing world, she did a certificate program in IT and Cyber Security for Board Members from the Institute of Development and Research in Banking Technology in 2018, took the certification online proficiency self-assessment Test for Independent Director’s Database from the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (under the aegis of Ministry of Corporate Affairs) in April 2020. Recently, in January 2022, she completed a valuation course from the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (under the aegis of the Ministry of Corporate affairs).
With a willingness to always share her knowledge and experiences, she continuously participates in seminars and conferences on varied subjects, including on Indian banks and the challenges they confront, reforming financial institutions, Employability Matrix and Skilling New India, preparing NBFCs for Future Challenge, Roadmap for $5 Trillion Economy; Technology & Ease of Living in Urban India; Challenges to brick and mortar in an online model; Auditors contribution to the financial sector and economy as a whole; the role of independent directors; presence and upliftment of women in board positions, to name a few, humbly guiding all those with the fire and desire to achieve.