Swati Agrawal, chief general manager and regional head, north, CARE Ratings, leads a team of analysts and is responsible for overseeing rating reports, mapping company risk profiles, promoting business development, identifying new opportunities and obtaining market intelligence.

Agrawal describes her association of more than a decade with the country’s second largest credit rating agency as challenging but stimulating. “The opportunity to work with a diverse range of companies across industries makes for a great learning experience. Moreover, it is a challenge to be in a profession where one gets to take a call on how leading companies are going to perform from the credit point of view, particularly in an industry like telecom, which is subject to regulatory challenges,” she says.

Agrawal, who has more than 15 years of industry experience behind her, observes that the role and scope of work for credit rating agencies in the country have undergone a sea change following the introduction of Basel II banking norms in 2004. This resulted in a whole new spectrum of companies coming under the purview of credit rating agencies. “This, in turn, presented professionals like us the challenging task of analysing the performance of smaller as well as medium companies along with proprietorship and niche market companies. In addition, over the years, the analytical tools used for carrying out research work and data analysis have evolved to a great extent,” she points out.

As an industry watcher, Agrawal is focused on tracking emerging trends in the telecom sector. She foresees exponential growth in the uptake of data services, which, in turn, will lead to the development of a large number of new and innovative value-added services going forward. In addition, she expects a liberal merger and acquisition policy to contribute to a wider industry base and the emergence of a few strong players.

As a manager, Agrawal empowers her team to make independent decisions and take ownership of their work. Describing her management style, she says, “I delegate a lot and step in only occasionally to ensure that my team is working in the right direction, to achieve the broader goals set for them. Since CARE Ratings has a large number of analytical teams, as a manager I take care that there is no conflict of interest between teams.”

Agrawal unwinds by watching movies. She enjoys travelling and wishes she could squeeze out time from her extremely busy schedule to travel more often.