Where this plan stands
A business plan has thirteen sections. 8 of 13 are written. 3 hold real content with a named piece missing. 1 cannot be written yet. One is waiting on a decision only you can take.
Version 3. 4 changes since draft one.
- 0The business, on one pageHow the whole thing fits togetherwritten
- 1The company on a pageWhat the record says this company iswritten
- 2Where the money comes fromWho pays, how much, and how quicklywritten
- 3What we sell, and to whomWhat the company makes, and which of it earnspart-written
- 4Market research — who else is in itWhether this industry is kind or cruel to a company this sizepart-written
- 5How the work gets doneWhat the plant can make, where the time goes, and what lets us quote at allpart-written
- 6How new customers are wonHow a buyer finds us, judges us, and decidesSales
- 7Where it is goingThe ambition, in his own words, and the lines he will not crosswritten
- 8The year's numbersWhat has to be true twelve months from nowwritten
- 9The numbers aheadRevenue, margin and cash three years outneeds your decision
- 10Who does whatThe departments, their heads, and who carries the companywritten
- 11What he expects of each departmentWhat good looks like, department by departmentwritten
- 12What this plan cannot yet knowEvery gap still open, and what closes eachwritten
What changed since draft one4 changes
Share of revenue held by the largest customer was the company's own figure at 20–22%. Tally — party-wise billing, FY24 reads 31% for the largest; 68% for the top four, so the plan reads the record instead.
25 Aug, 1:30 am · §2 Where the money comes from
2 people were told in the same message, at the same moment. No live score moved unless its owner agreed.
Collection cycle, in days was the company's own figure at 45–50 days. Tally — receivables ageing, settled invoices FY24 to date reads 74 days on settled invoices; ₹42,00,000 open past sixty, the oldest at 88, so the plan reads the record instead.
25 Aug, 1:30 am · §8 The year's numbers
2 people were told in the same message, at the same moment. No live score moved unless its owner agreed.
Power as a share of cost was the company's own figure at 3–4%. Tally — expense ledgers, FY24 reads 6.8%, so the plan reads the record instead.
25 Aug, 1:30 am · §1 The company on a page
2 people were told in the same message, at the same moment. No live score moved unless its owner agreed.
Maintenance carries a company goal out of an expectation nobody wrote. A goal with no written expectation behind it has nothing to be read against when it slips: there is no sentence saying what good looks like, so a miss is an argument rather than a fact. And with one desk there is nobody to hand it to on the day that desk is out.
3 Sept, 1:30 am · §10 Who does what
2 people were told in the same message, at the same moment. No live score moved unless its owner agreed.
00The business, on one page
The business, on one page
Customer segments
read from records- Sundaram Auto Systems — 31% of revenue
- Meridian Drivetrain Ltd — 22% of revenue
- Sharma Traders — 9% of revenue
- Beta Forgings — 6% of revenue
Party-wise billing, TallyRecord
Value proposition
written by the founder- Precision-machined auto components — housings, shafts, the tight-tolerance work not everyone can do — to Tier-1 suppliers and OEMs in the West zone, from one plant in Bhosari.
His own words, in the interview — the only block he writesStated
Channels
read from records- OEM and tier-1 rate contracts — the route every order actually arrives by
- Inbound enquiries through the website and listings — uncounted, and the last new customer came this way
Shared mailboxes and the interviewStated
Customer relationships
read from records- Top four hold 68% of billing
- Typical cycle 58 days on paper
Party ledger — repeat pattern and concentrationRecord
Revenue streams
read from records- Filed revenue ₹80 Cr — machined brackets and housings to OEMs and tier-1s
- By product line: not readable until the item masters connect
AOC-4, FY24Record
Key resources
read from records- Plant at Bhosari MIDC; 3 registered charges securing ₹6.4 Cr
MCA charges register; key-person risks named in the interviewRecord
Key activities
read from records- Precision machining to OEM drawings; quoting against annual price-downs; dispatch on the buyer's schedule
- 5 systems carry the day-to-day record — Tally, Shared Drive, Bank alerts, Shared mailboxes
What the connected systems show the hours going intoComputed
Key partners
read from records- Kalyani Steel Supply
- Pune Precision Foundry
- Metrolab Calibration Services
Supplier ledger and the charges register (lenders named)Record
Cost structure
read from records- Material the largest line — by his own count 62%, not yet a ledger figure
- Power 6.8% of cost — from the expense ledgers, replacing his 3–4%
Expense ledgers where connected; the interview where notRecord
01The company on a page
Twenty-two years in Bhosari, one plant, eighty crore, a hundred and forty people — and a reputation for the work others turn down.
The company on a page
Twenty-two years in Bhosari, one plant, eighty crore, a hundred and forty people — and a reputation for the work others turn down.
Precision-machined auto components — housings, shafts, the tight-tolerance work not everyone can do — to Tier-1 suppliers and OEMs in the West zone, from one plant in Bhosari.
- Registered asMehta Auto Components Pvt LtdMCA — company master dataRecord
- Since2004MCA — company master dataRecord
- WhereBhosari MIDC, PuneMCA — company master dataRecord
- WhatAuto components — precision machiningUdyam registryRecord
- Last filed revenue₹80.1 CrMCA — AOC-4 annual filingRecord
- People140Corto serves the desk layer — 38 of the 140. Shop-floor, maintenance and contract roles are out of scope. headcount stays 140 because it is the EPFO-filed fact the free report’s revenue-per-head math depends on.EPFO establishment search — monthly contributionsRecord
FY22
₹71.2 Cr
PAT ₹3.1 Cr
FY23
₹78.9 Cr
PAT ₹3.4 Cr
FY24
₹80.1 Cr
PAT ₹2.9 Cr
Changed 25 Aug, 1:30 am — Power as a share of cost was the company's own figure at 3–4%. Tally — expense ledgers, FY24 reads 6.8%, so the plan reads the record instead.
02Where the money comes from
Four customers are two-thirds of the billing, and the money comes in at 74 days against the 45–50 he believed. That sentence is the whole of the next year.
Where the money comes from
Four customers are two-thirds of the billing, and the money comes in at 74 days against the 45–50 he believed. That sentence is the whole of the next year.
- Top four customers68% of billingHe believed the largest was ~20-22%.Tally - party-wise sales ledgers, via the read-only agentRecord
- Collection cycle74 daysHe said 45-50 days.Computed by CortoComputed
- Past sixty days₹42,00,000Tally - outstanding invoices with dates, via the read-only agentRecord
- Supplier rate contracts indexed to steelNoneAll fixed. Spot purchase, annual fixed sale — his words.The founder, in his interviewStated
Where his picture and the books disagreed — kept, not corrected
- He said top customer ~20-22% · the books say 31%; top-4 = 68%
- He said money made in precision/Sundaram work · the books say margin by customer uncomputed — his own declined number
- He said inbound is junk · the books say last new customer originated inbound
- He said collections 45-50 days · the books say 74 days
- He said power is 3-4% of cost · the books say 6.8%
- He said capacity utilisation ~80% · the books say not computable from any connected source
Changed 25 Aug, 1:30 am — Share of revenue held by the largest customer was the company's own figure at 20–22%. Tally — party-wise billing, FY24 reads 31% for the largest; 68% for the top four, so the plan reads the record instead.
Top-four share baseline 68% (ledger), replacing the belief. Both owners were told in the same message, at the same moment, and no live score moved unless its owner agreed.
03What we sell, and to whom
What we sell, and to whom
Precision-machined auto components — housings, shafts, the tight-tolerance work not everyone can do — to Tier-1 suppliers and OEMs in the West zone, from one plant in Bhosari.
- Sundaram Auto Systems31% of billing
- Meridian Drivetrain Ltd22% of billing
- Sharma Traders9% of billing
- Beta Forgings6% of billing
- Nashik Gears & Shafts4% of billing
Tally - party-wise sales ledgers, via the read-only agentRecord
What is not here yet
Which product lines actually earn. The books hold one revenue total and one description of the goods; nothing splits it by what you make, so the question of which work is worth taking cannot be answered from a record.
04Market research — who else is in it
Market research — who else is in it
Precision machined components · two-wheeler and passenger vehicle
Rivalry among existing players
HIGHRoughly 2,140 registered auto-component entities in Pune district (a registration count, not a count of live competitors), low visible differentiation in machined parts, and six named firms within 40 km of your gate.
Corto's inference from the registration count, the absence of published differentiation, and six named firms within 40 kmComputed
For you: For a ₹80 Cr machining player in Bhosari, the fight is on price, delivery and certification — not on brand. That fight is won or lost in the quote.
Bargaining power of buyers
HIGHOEMs and tier-1s set the terms in this segment, and annual price-down clauses of 2–5% are standard in rate contracts.
Standard OEM and tier-1 rate-contract terms in this segmentStated
For you: A supplier whose four largest customers carry most of the revenue cannot refuse a price-down. The ability to say no is a function of concentration.
Bargaining power of suppliers
MEDIUM-HIGHPrimary steel is concentrated in a handful of producers who set the coil price; a ₹80 Cr buyer takes the list, it does not negotiate it.
Published HRC price index; producer concentration in primary steelStated
For you: Whether a steel move reaches your margin depends entirely on what your rate contracts say about pass-through.
Threat of substitutes
MEDIUMAluminium and composites keep taking weight-sensitive parts, and EV architectures delete some assemblies outright.
Industry reporting on material substitution and EV powertrain contentStated
For you: Brackets, housings and suspension parts largely survive the transition. Engine and transmission work largely does not.
Threat of new entrants
LOW-MEDIUMCapital and IATF certification are genuine barriers to a portfolio — but a single part family can be taken by one entrant with a modern CNC cell and a hungrier price.
Corto's inference from the certification barrier and the cost of a modern CNC cellComputed
For you: Certification protects the portfolio, not the part. Every part family is defended separately, every year.
What is not here yet
Who your competitors are, by name, and what each of them wins on. Nothing in the public record or your own systems holds it — a filing does not say who you lost a quote to. It needs forty minutes with you and your sales head, and it is the one part of this plan no software can find for you.
05How the work gets done
How the work gets done
What the plant is asked to make
- Mounting bracket MB-114min 200 · 12 days
- Gearbox housing H-22min 100 · 18 days
- Input shaft S-9min 500 · 15 days
Bought in: EN8 bar stock, 32 mm (9 days) · H-22 rough casting (21 days). The longest of those sets how early an order has to be taken.
How the work leaves
Suresh Kamble has updated the dispatch record 38 days running — last at 25 Aug, 12:40 pm, 14 rows changed the day before.
It is the most disciplined record in the company, and it is a spreadsheet on a shared drive.
Dispatch Tracker (shared drive), mappedRecord
Whether material arrives when it was promised
- Kalyani Steel Supply moved its own date by 9 days, and said so 2 days before it was due. Mill delay — the supplier's own supplier; told us on the 3rd, not the 5th
- Pune Precision Foundry moved its own date by 3 days, and said so 2 days before it was due. Furnace maintenance, two days
- Kalyani Steel Supply (Bar stock) — One PO in two moved, told two days early. Reliable to tell, not always to deliver.
- Pune Precision Foundry (Castings) — Batch 7 porosity — first rejection this year.
- Metrolab Calibration Services (Calibration) — No PO yet this year.
Corto procurementRecord
What goes wrong, and why
- Bracket MB-114 — 180 of 2400 rejected. Hole pitch out of tolerance — drill jig drifted after the die change
- Bracket MB-114 — 40 of 600 rejected. Hole pitch out of tolerance — same jig, before the fix
- Housing H-22 — 12 of 300 rejected. Porosity at the boss — casting supplier's batch 7
Corto, rejections and non-conformancesRecord
The production log — kept, and unreadable
Vinod Shirke has updated Daily Production Log.xlsx 12 days running, last at 26 Aug, 12:50 am. Corto can see that it is kept and how often. It cannot see what is in it: merged cells and formula columns — content parsing off, update cadence tracked.
Daily Production Log (shared drive), registered cadence-onlyRecord
What is not here yet
Utilisation — what the plant can make in a month against what it made. The Daily Production Log is kept, and kept well: Vinod has updated it twelve days running. What Corto cannot do is read it. Merged cells and formula columns mean the file's cadence is trackable and its contents are not, so every capacity number would rest on a file nobody can parse. That is what the goal below rebuilds — not the habit, which is already there, but the shape of the sheet.
What closes it: “Rebuild the production log so utilisation can be computed” — Vinod Shirke, Production.
06How new customers are won
How a buyer finds this company, satisfies themselves it can do the work, and decides.
How new customers are won
How a buyer finds this company, satisfies themselves it can do the work, and decides.
Not written yet
How a buyer learns you exist, how they satisfy themselves you can do tight-tolerance work before the first order, and what it costs to win one.
Why not: Enquiries arrive in a shared mailbox and nobody counts them, so there is no denominator — we cannot say how many came, how many were answered, or how many became orders.
What closes it: “One place every enquiry lands, and one person who owns it that day” — Deepak Patil, Sales.
07Where it is going
His own words, kept: a hundred and fifty crore, a fifth of it export, a name that means no tension — and three things he will never do to get there.
Where it is going
His own words, kept: a hundred and fifty crore, a fifth of it export, a name that means no tension — and three things he will never do to get there.
Vision
To be the auto-component partner every OEM in the West zone names first.
Mission — drafted from his interview, edited by him
Make the part nobody worries about. Grow to one hundred and fifty crore without hanging on one customer, sell outside India for the first time, and never once be late paying the people who make it.
Three years, in his words: Rs 150Cr / 20% export / brand / de-concentrate
Never, whatever happens: equity dilution · leave Bhosari · salary delay
Debt: asset-backed debt only, by intent
What he actually said
Now the question all of this is for. Three years — if everything were in your hands, what is Mehta Auto?
“One hundred and fifty crore. Twenty percent export. And a name of our own in components — people should say, if it is a Mehta part there is no tension. And no more of this life that hangs on one customer.”
And what would you never do — even if growth stopped?
“Three things. No outside money in the company — she is like a daughter, I will not sell a share of her. I will not leave Bhosari — the people here are my people. And salaries will never be late, whatever happens.”
And how do you think about debt?
“What we have is fine. A loan for a machine is fine — a machine earns. A loan for expenses, never.”
Five years out — what should your own day look like?
“A morning round of the plant, then new customers, thinking about new markets. The daily payment-dispatch work, Rohit should handle. He understands money better than I do, honestly. The products I am teaching him.”
Destinations, and how the company means to win each
No single customer can end the company
by 2032Earn the second part, not just the first order · Sell where the rupee is worth more
Every part arrives on the promised day, and it is right
by 2032The date we give is the date it ships
Grown on our own money
by 2032Cash comes home before it is spent
08The year’s numbers — FY 2026-27
The year’s numbers — FY 2026-27
- Less of the company depends on any one customer's decision.2 key resultsagreed
- The company stops lending its customers money it has already spent.2 key resultsagreed
- The company sells outside India for the first time.2 key results· a stretchagreed
Correction — a starting number here was the founder's own estimate until the accounts arrived
- Collection cycle, in days · he said 45–50 days; the record says 74 days on settled invoices; ₹42,00,000 open past sixty, the oldest at 88 (Tally — receivables ageing, settled invoices FY24 to date). Baseline 74 days (ledger), replacing the belief of 45–50 The person who owns that target was told at the same moment the founder was, not afterwards, and their score did not change unless they agreed to it.
Changed 25 Aug, 1:30 am — Collection cycle, in days was the company's own figure at 45–50 days. Tally — receivables ageing, settled invoices FY24 to date reads 74 days on settled invoices; ₹42,00,000 open past sixty, the oldest at 88, so the plan reads the record instead.
Baseline 74 days (ledger), replacing the belief of 45–50. Both owners were told in the same message, at the same moment, and no live score moved unless its owner agreed.
09The numbers ahead
Revenue, margin and cash three years out.
The numbers ahead
Revenue, margin and cash three years out.
Not written — and it is waiting on you
Revenue, margin and cash three years out, with every assumption underneath it naming the record it rests on — the kind of forecast a bank is shown, but one where each line can be opened to what it was built from.
Why not: Your decision, before any data. A forecast is an estimate, and Corto's second law is that a number it cannot compute is suppressed with the reason rather than estimated. That law is why you can trust the rest of this document. A projection can be honest if every assumption names the record it rests on — but writing one changes what Corto is willing to assert in its own voice, and that change is yours to make, not ours.
Yours to settle, Anil. Nothing here is waiting on data.
10Who does what
Who does what
- ProductionVinod Shirke8 people
- SalesDeepak Patil10 people
- Dispatch & StoresVinod Shirke4 people
- QualityShubhangi Desai4 people
- PurchasePrakash Kulkarni3 people
- AccountsRamesh Joshi3 people
- HR & AdminMeera Kulkarni3 people
- MaintenanceDilip Waghmare1 person
140 people in the company. Corto serves the desk layer — 38 of the 140. Shop-floor, maintenance and contract roles are out of scope. headcount stays 140 because it is the EPFO-filed fact the free report’s revenue-per-head math depends on.
Changed 3 Sept, 1:30 am — Maintenance carries a company goal out of an expectation nobody wrote. A goal with no written expectation behind it has nothing to be read against when it slips: there is no sentence saying what good looks like, so a miss is an argument rather than a fact. And with one desk there is nobody to hand it to on the day that desk is out.
11What he expects of each department
Six departments, six cards, drafted from what he said and confirmed or rewritten by him. One he chose not to write.
What he expects of each department
Six departments, six cards, drafted from what he said and confirmed or rewritten by him. One he chose not to write.
The plant runs without you in the room. What is in your head — settings, judgment, who does what — is on paper before the year ends, and two supervisors can hold a shift without calling you. Utilisation is a number we can read, not a feeling. A machine that earns, we will buy. I am not asking you to work less. I am asking that the plant not depend on one man.
Counting on: That I can take a morning round and then leave for a customer, and nothing stops.
Sales
Deepak PatilOne hundred and fifty crore in three years, and no single customer we cannot afford to lose. New names on the board every quarter — the West zone first, then export. Every enquiry that reaches us gets a quote or a reason, and I can see both. Priya should not be the only one who brings new names.
Counting on: That the top four stop being two-thirds of us.
Quality
Shubhangi Desai"If it is a Mehta part there is no tension" — that sentence is your department. Zero rejections that reach a customer. A buyer from abroad can walk our line and audit us without being asked to come back next month. The four reports that live on laptops are in one place I can open.
Counting on: That export is a quality decision before it is a sales decision.
Purchase
Prakash KulkarniWe know what everything costs — power, steel, freight — as a number I can read every month, not a feeling. Rate contracts that index steel, so a price move is never a surprise. What we owe and what we are owed stop pulling in opposite directions.
Counting on: That I am never surprised by a cost I should have seen coming.
Accounts
Ramesh JoshiTwenty years, and I have never once had to worry. I want Rohit to be able to say the same — by December he can see where the money is, with you beside him. Collections at fifty days, not seventy-four, and I hear about the oldest invoice before it is old. Salaries never late, whatever happens.
Counting on: That the trust I have in you becomes something the company has, not only me.
HR & Admin
Meera KulkarniThe company can lose any one person without losing what they know. Every role has a written job and a named second. The people here are my people — they should know where the company is going, not guess it. Every desk in Corto, honestly.
Counting on: That you run this, and I do not have to.
Maintenance — no card yet.
He said: “Dilip is Vinod's man. The plant is one thing — write it under Vinod.” Dilip Waghmare reads nothing until he writes one.
12What this plan cannot yet know
What this plan cannot yet know
Capacity and line utilisation — no connected source. The production log is cadence-only, so nothing can be computed from it.
Found: Interview, hypothesis H5; the log's registration in the connectors
Filled by: Vinod rebuilds the production log as flat rows — the goal Anil sent back to be done this quarter, not by March
before the February machine decision
How many enquiries arrive and how many die unquoted — no system and no register. Nobody counts.
Found: Report question q12-rivalry, closed in the interview with "nobody counts"
Filled by: The enquiry register — already built, waiting on one approval; then Sales' goal counts into it
the day it is switched on
Margin by customer and by part family — needs item-level ledgers from the document collection. He declined to guess.
Found: Interview part 4; his own declined number
Filled by: Ramesh supplies the item-level ledgers Meera has already asked for
with the five documents requested
The cost of a machining hour — never computed. Quoting runs on experience.
Found: Interview part 4
Filled by: Purchase's cost visibility and the utilisation number together — one cannot be computed without the other
after utilisation is a number
Attrition and the rejection rate — held by people, not by any connected system.
Found: Interview coverage gaps; Meera and Vinod carry them in their heads
Filled by: Quality's rejection number in ninety days, as Shubhangi committed when she countered; attrition into the HR record
ninety days from her counter
No expectation written for Maintenance.
Filled by: Anil writes it — Dilip Waghmare reads nothing until he does.
before the heads' meeting
Prakash Kulkarni has not read the Purchase card.
Filled by: He opens it. Meera can see it is the one outstanding.
this week
4 of 12 department goals are not yet agreed.
Filled by: The heads' meeting, then Anil rules on each — agreed, or sent back with his reason.
before the quarter starts on 1 October
8 things this plan does not know. This section shrinks every week of onboarding.
Is this the plan?
Accepting it does not freeze it — a change after this is a revision, and it is recorded with what it changed and who was told.