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HLS Global in India: Bridging Business Boundaries between India, Japan & the World

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 Manu Srivastava,  DirectorThe modern day business landscape is highly volatile. With stringent regulations and compliances being put into effect, businesses must traverse through various complexities to maintain efficient financial processes while keeping every form of business risk at bay. As a consequence, Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) has found its place on top of leadership agenda across the globe. A report by Grand View Research concluded that the global enterprise GRC market size is expected to grow at 12.9 percent CAGR to reach $64.62 billion by 2025. Businesses across the world today rely on GRC in order to facilitate change and integrate a compliance/ risk management focus into every aspect of their business.

However, the emphasis on improving GRC standards in organisations has prompted a greater focus on regulatory compliance and internal controls, efforts that to some have seemed separate and dissimilar from efforts to improve business performance and drive value. Some organisations believe that the controlled focus required by the regulatory mandates has diverted energy and resources from business improvement activities without providing compensatory value. Helping to change this perspective by enabling organizations increasingly drive business value by achieving a balance between risk management and business improvement is HLS Global, a provider of ‘End-to-End’ business support services.

Founded in 1990 as Hotta & Co(present Hotta Liesenberg Saito in Los Angeles, US), the firm’s complete roster of services include accounting, tax, audit, finance, operations, IT consulting, business consulting and business expansion advisory. Having expanded its services across the US, Japan and Mexico, the firm established HLS-SJM Advisors India Pvt. Ltd. in New Delhi in 2016. Spearheaded by Manu Srivastava & Jyoti Kukreja (Directors), HLS India has developed deep expertise in services pertaining to India entry, compliance, advisory and Japan Desk. Leveraging its 30 years of global experience, HLS Global has amassed over 800 prestigious clients from varied industries such as capital goods & trading, auto & auto components, defence & aerospace, IT & ITeS, pharmaceuticals & medical devices, new & renewable energy, chemicals, electronic system design & manufacturing, leather & footwear, textiles & apparels, food processing, gems & jewellery, construction, shipping and railways.

Building Globally Compliant Organizations
The business world sits a top a precarious axis and is susceptible to internal and external changes propelled by unforeseen circumstances. In order to build a resilient organization, companies must make compliance with laws and regulations an integral part of any corporate strategy. “Compliance with government regulations involves significant effort and poses considerable challenges. At the same time, these regulations require a level of introspection that can reveal opportunities for business and risk management improvements that go well beyond financial controls,” explains Jyoti.

Consequently, many companies are seeking to leverage their compliance efforts to drive concurrent business improvements, which could include business process enhancements, risk mitigation, transformed controls and increased business value. Specializing in audit & assurance, taxation & assurance, and taxation & transfer pricing, HLS India ensures that these improvements not only help a business perform better but also fundamentally reinforce the primary purpose of regulatory mandates, improved transparency in business management and bolstered investor/market confidence.

Ensuring Efficient Governance
In addition to ensuring compliance to every law and regulation, organizations must also lay emphasis on establishing and implementing good governance practices in order to achieve an organisation’s vision and mission. Including strategies to direct, administer and control an organization’s robust corporate governance practices can protect Directors from potential personal liability, and the company from reputational harm.

For instance, a Japanese auto component manufacturing company was looking to terminate certain employees and workers due to issues related to below par job performance. Unfortunately, the notice of termination created dispute between certain employees and the management. The organization enlisted HLS India’s services in order to find a fix to control the situation. Drawing from its experience in controlling such situations in the past, the firm negotiated with disputed employees on behalf of the management based upon legal tools. The HLS India team further reviewed, advised and re drafted key employment and vendor contracts from a perspective of labour laws in order to avoid and manage similar disputes in future. The client eventually benefitted by avoiding any loss of reputation, cost of unreasonable compensation and litigation cost.


“In today’s time, where ownership and control are separated, corporate governance is required to create corporate culture of transparency, accountability and disclosure,” adds Jyoti. HLS India helps organisations to inculcate good governance practices at all levels within the organisation. The firm adopts an integrated governance approach while ensuring that its implementation process goes beyond the Board of Directors, as it includes all stakeholders, including employees, suppliers, partners, customers, government and communities.

HLS India helps organisations to inculcate good governance practices at all levels within the organisation


Additionally, keeping in mind that risk is inherent to every business, HLS India also specializes in managing financial and non-financial risk. “While non-financial risk may not have any immediate financial impact on business, however, the consequences could be serious in nature and cause financial impact at a later stage,” explains Jyoti. Encompassing a wide range of risk such as business, strategy, compliance, fraud, reputation, transaction and disaster, HLS India has developed a holistic approach to addressing it all. Integrating risk management into business, strategic policies and processes, the firm develops tools, processes and organisational structures to build robust risk management programmes. Specializing in risk reporting & monitoring and risk governance, the HLS India team renders risk-based decision support that ensures longterm business sustainability.

Jyoti Kukreja, Director

India Entry & Japan Desk
A strong player in the India entry advisory space, HLS India’s multi disciplinary team specializes in India market study & research, India strategy (including localization), business setup & powering operations, business growth and expansion. With a staunch focus on facilitating Japanese organizations to enter the Indian market, the firm renders a unique ‘Japan Desk’ support service that helps multinational companies to succeed in their endeavours in India. Taking care of business and non-business issues & challenges, the Japan Desk service ensures that clients experience a successful and pleasant stay in India.

"Implemented by a cohesive team of experts that include management graduates, lawyers, CPAs and industry specialists, HLS India provides the most simple and effective solutions to all its clients"

Implemented by a cohesive team of experts that include management graduates, lawyers, CPAs and industry specialists, HLS India provides the most simple and effective solutions to all its clients. Beginning with the India orientation program, which includes India visit and Indian culture & business training, the team also specializes in rendering communication support that includes translation/ interpretation support, interview assistance, legal contract drafting and review. The service also aids clients with vendor & customer negotiation support, along with coordinating & appointment of meetings with various Government and regulatory authorities in India.

The firm also provides Japanese Expatriate support services such as assistance with Visa, FRRO, accommodation, dealing with taxation, healthcare, travelling & transportation, communication support, trouble-shooting and other non-business related issues. Additionally, HLS India’s business advisory services include labour/employee dispute management, India market entry, mergers & acquisitions(M&A) advisory, compliance, and taking care of other business oriented issues.

Leaving no stones unturned to help clients make a successful entry into the India market, HLS India is conducting a host of events for Japanese expats in India in 2019. Covering topics such as insights on Indian annual budget from Government of India, profit improvement opportunities for Japanese companies in India and managing harmonious & cordial relations with HR in India, the company intends to cover a wide variety of important business aspects. Additional event topics include prevention & detection of frauds in Japanese companies operating in India, industrial relations and dispute management with workers, achieving cost reduction in manufacturing operations, and tax saving opportunities on Japanese expatriate salary, among various others. Helping clients stay abreast with cultural, taxation, risk management and other financial business aspects, HLS India is successfully bridging the boundaries between India, Japan and the world.

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Key Management:
Jyoti Kukreja, Director
A Law Graduate and Fellow Member of Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), Jyoti has worked for Maruti Suzuki and Casio in India before co-founding SJM Advisors in 2012. Specializing in Regulatory services, she leads HLS India’s M&A Tax & Regulatory practice.

Manu Srivastava, Director
Armed with more than 12 years of experience, Manu specializes in matters related to India Market Entry, FDI, Assurance, Internal Control, International Taxation, Business Performance Improvement and M&A. Responsible for strategic growth initiatives & implementation besides managing the growing firm in India, Manu also maintains the firm’s commitment to high quality service delivery to its clients.

Offerings: Compliance, India Entry, Audit & Japan Desk
Offices: New Delhi, Gurugram, Neemrana, and Lucknow

A Case to Consider:
When a German chemical manufacturing company was faced with challenges owing to its audit findings, lacking business strategy and performance insights, the firm put its faith in HLS India’s audit and compliance services. The audit was largely a compliance driven approach and lacked a more comprehensive approach that would additionally offer a broader, more holistic view of the business. HLS India thus deployed its multidisciplinary industry specialist team to focus on business and compliance issues. In addition to assurance services, the HLS India team elicited insights pertaining to reporting on business and accounting during the audit. The service helped communicate risk assessments, which highlighted areas of focus for the audit to the management and provided them with greater transparency for their oversight tasks. HLS India’s risk based audit approach helped the client’s management to identify relevant risks and focus on designing and implementing effective controls. Additionally, an impactful Management Letter highlighted areas of improvement in the financial reporting processes.