CEO Insights Magazine

In today's fast-paced business environment, amid unprecedented external disruption and demand for digital initiatives, the most effective CFOs don’t just approve and understand the need for change; they focus on championing growth. CEO Insights’ exclusive team engages in a conversation with one such champion of strategic initiatives, Priyadarshi Anand, C FO, M D P ictures. w ho h as a t rack r ecord of driving profitable growth and delivering business expectations for financial performance in multi-billion-dollar organizations.

Priyadarshi is a result-oriented senior management executive with 15+ years of escalating experience in finance and operational management, both in the service & manufacturing sectors. He possesses a strong knowledge and experience in developing and implementing financial controls and processes. Leveraging the same, he is helping to shape overall strategy and direction at MD Pictures and as a catalyst, instilling a financial approach and mindset throughout the organization to help other parts of the business perform better.

Let’s hear it from him!

How would you define MD Pictures as an organization and its current position in the market?

MD is one of the largest one-stop content production house in Indonesia that focuses on picture films, series, music, animation. It continuously produces high quality content for domestic and international viewers. The company is the only production house in Indonesia that has a successful track record on all platforms, i.e., TV, OTT, and Cinema. Furthermore, the company is led and supported by well-respected and competent industry figures, ‘bringing creativity to life’. We are unique because as an organization, we focus on creating, aggregating, and disseminating outstanding content for different media platforms. We are a creatively led company that believes in setting new trends and creating new niches in the market. Every business wants to move one step forward to its competitive business, and that’s why content plays an important role. We understand that and focus on attracting our audience through our creative works. MD Pictures is established over the years and has been providing multiple services to its clients by delivering contents appreciated by larger audience. We have a talented team that helps businesses build their content strategy by determining the current market needs. At the end I would say, ‘content is the king’.

As the Chief Financial Officer of MD Pictures, how do you plan to apply your long professional experience in this domain to add more stars to the organization's profile?

As the CFO, I have had the opportunity to work closely with the leadership team of the organization and understand the vision and mission of the company clearly. I was able to restructure the group and modify the financial and operational aspects of the company with a focus on improving the business, soon after I joined the organization. A significant example of the same is the period of the Covid-19 pandemic when we underwent unfavorable conditions. The time was tumultuous, but we were able to develop strategies that resulted in smoother, more economically sound business operations.

The entertainment industry was massively hit during the lockdown as theatres were shut forcing consumers to look for alternate choices of entertainment. With people confined to their homes, consumers turned to OTT platforms for their daily dose of entertainment. Taking this as an opportunity, we started delivering content to customers’ homes at their fingertips. This brought a huge change in the operation of our business, and we were able to turn around the company to even double the size of its pre-pandemic growth.

What is your leadership approach?

I believe, frequent and timely communication is a hallmark behavior that should be followed by every leader. Having worked in different sectors managing different kinds of teams, I have realized that behind delivering a successful project, there is always a well-built team; it is never a one-man’s-show. So, as a team-oriented leader, I focus on building a collaborative team environment in which the focus is on nurturing the individual strengths of each team member, encouraging them to reach their highest potential as individuals and as a team through collaboration and motivation.

What is the future roadmap you are headed towards?

The world is moving into rapid digitalization. New technologies – from social media and GPS systems to artificial intelligence and digital twins – will make the planet we inhabit unrecognizable in the coming years. We as an organization aspire to tap into every opportunity that the market throws at us and keep creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience and drive profitable customer action.

What advice would you give to the upcoming financial leaders in the industry?

Finance is a universal language; a common language that is understood by every finance professional of any part of the world. But as leaders, we must modify the financial language based on the users; simplify it in a way that the people we are working with can understand it. This ultimately helps the team to resonate with the vision that we are carrying forward for the organization and its operations. You must not only get crystal-clear on your vision and objectives but also be able to communicate them to others effectively and get your team excited about them.

Priyadarshi Anand, CFO, MD Pictures

Having more than 15 years of rich experience in the financial domain, Priyadarshi, as the CFO of MD Picturest is successfully spearheading the financial planning and analyzing the company's financial strengths and weaknesses and proposing strategic directions for higher growth.

• Hobbies: Swimming

• Favorite Cuisine: Japanese

• Favorite Travel Destination: Indonesia