If God Was A Banker (25 page)

Swami became very people oriented. He started getting involved in everything that concerned his people. He worked with his team on resolving issues, encouraged collaboration among his team members, frowned at distracting organisational politics, and rewarded hard work and effort, even if they did not bring in the desired results.

In all this, Kalpana was a major source of support for him. In her role as an HR compliance officer, she helped Swami put together the compliance hotline service for all staff. Swami used it to cleanse his system. A compliance hotline was nothing but a toll-free telephone line with a recorder at the other end. The number of this telephone was widely publicised among the employee community. Anyone who found anything fishy taking place in the system could call on this line and complain. A process was put in place so that all these queries would be looked at and addressed at a senior level.

Swami never killed the messenger. He never went looking for good news. His philosophy was that good news travels to you, even if you do not ask around. It is the bad news that one has to hunt for, as it hides below files and paper. Swami diligently went about finding the bad news and fixing things.

Once NYB employees started trusting the system, they began to come out in the open. Swami had tremendous faith in this system and ownership of the process at the top helped. He would seriously monitor each and every complaint that came in.

Aditya was Swami's aide. Swami would bounce all his ideas off Aditya before he implemented them.

A key focus area for Swami was cost control. His past experience also helped him here. He started doing away with the business intermediaries. He had spent enough time in BOCA to know that scale in outsourcing always helps. He set up his own telecalling team in BOCA rather than rely on what was left of Naresh's call centre. He also set up an in-house sales channel which was more productive and hence cost effective as compared to a DSA outfit.

He dramatically cut down the payments made to the Nareshs of the world. When they came complaining, he categorically told them that the bank could not afford anything more than what was being offered and that it was up to them to either take it or leave it. Naresh was very upset. He complained to Kailash. But even Kailash, who was now close to retirement, told him there was little he could do to help him. This was the first time in over a decade that even Naresh was helpless.

NYB had a very efficient system of global audit. This audit would grade countries by effectiveness of control, adherence to policy, and efficiency of operation. Basing on the above three gradings, countries would be classified into low, medium and high risk categories. The global audit team would audit the high-risk countries once a year, and the medium risk countries would be subject to audit once in two years.

After the mutual fund fraud, the rating of the India business was changed to high risk and towards the later half of 2005, the global audit team decided to visit India.

Global audit was a very serious exercise, which was at times career threatening. There had been instances in the past in which a poor global audit had led to shutting down of businesses or sent high-flying careers tumbling down. Everyone, including Swami, was paranoid about the consequences of a poor global audit.

Around the same time Mona Albance, a member of the Global HR team, was expected to visit India for a week. She was in charge of diversity and work environment.

E
kta was one of the senior most female employees of NYB and was the Head of Training for India. As Swami would be tied up with preparations for the global audit, he requested her to manage Mona's visit.

Preparations for the audit had begun in earnest, over a month before the team actually landed. Though Kailash was not too concerned about NYB clearing the audit, Swami was not taking any chances, the perfectionist that he was. Although the preparedness, the controls, and the basic banking discipline had improved since Swami took over the reigns, there was always work to be done till the last day.

All critical areas were checked, documents revisited, key files eyeballed again, and any shortfalls taken care of. All processes were critically re-examined for compliance with regulatory requirements. Nearly half the bank was working on getting in shape for the audit. 'You can always make up for lost business, but can never make up for a screwed up audit,' Swami had once said.

Ekta had handled many visitors from the group, but she was a bit foxed on how to handle Mona. Mona hadn't given her a brief on what she wanted to achieve in those five days. How long can you spend on diversity related issues? At most you could give her a diversity-related presentation for a few hours and sit through a couple of meetings. But, five full days on diversity-related issues was a bit too much. Ekta had no clue. She did, however, line up a five-day agenda for her and sent it to Swami. Swami sent it to Mona without giving it a second glance. He was too preoccupied with audit-related issues. The agenda read as follows:

Day 1 Monday

9.00 a.m. Pick up from the hotel by Ekta and drive to NYB HO

10.00 to 1.30 Meeting with Swami and introduction to the senior management team

12.00 to 1.00 Meeting with HR Head (Abhinav Mookherjee)

1.00 to 2.30 Lunch with Ekta and the training team 2.30 to 3.30 Free time to catch up on e-mails 3.30 to 5.30 Talent management update

Day 2 Tuesday

9.30 to 12.30 Meeting with HR Managers of other financial institutions, followed by lunch

3.00 to 5.00 Review of recruitment policy, equal opportunity employer

5.00 to 6.00 Discussion with Swami

Day 3 Wednesday

Day visit to Agra, see Taj Mahal

Day 4 Thursday

9.00 a.m. Drive to South Mumbai branch, interact with the branch team 12.45 p.m. Lunch with South Mumbai branch team 2.30 Drive back to the HO with Manager-Women's Accounts

3.30 to 5.00 Meeting with Vivek J and Akshay Bhalla to understand their business needs

7.30 Dinner with key women executives of the bank

Day 5 Friday

Morning-Meeting with three women executives of the bank

Lunch with Swami at Taj Lands End

Wrap up and free time

7.30 p.m. Drive to the airport with Ekta

Mona Albance landed in India three days before the audit was supposed to begin. As her flight taxied into Terminal A of the international airport, she took a deep sigh. She had come here on a mission. No one in the India team was aware of her mission. Actually, not many people anywhere knew anything about it. This was her first visit to India, and not many from the India management team had ever met her. The impending audit had ensured that her visit kept a low profile. She reached the hotel well past midnight. The jetlag didn't let her sleep.

Monday morning, when Ekta went to pick her up from the hotel, she was surprised. She was expecting a fifty-year-old woman. On the contrary, she found Mona to be a young and attractive woman in her mid-thirties.

As they drove in Ekta's Merc to the head office of the bank in Bandra Kurla Complex, Mona was a little taken aback by the obvious poverty on street display. The south Mumbai hotel where Mona was staying seemed to be an upmarket location lined with high-rises, sprinkled with buildings with a colonial architecture. On her way to the hotel last night, she had seen a number of slum dwellers sleeping on the pavement.

'How come there is so much disparity in the lifestyles of people?' she asked.

The Indian corporates are always ready for these usual questions from visiting foreign dignitaries. Ekta gave her a prepared speech on population growth, lack of infrastructure, India's GDP, its purchasing power parity and so on. Mona wasn't satisfied, but she didn't want to embarrass Ekta and kept quiet.

They reached the HO fifteen minutes late. Swami was waiting for her in his room.

'Welcome Ms Albance, it's a pleasure to have you with us.'

'Pleasure is mine, Swami.'

'Hope you had a comfortable flight to Mumbai. Was it on time?'

'Oh yeah. BA is normally on time.'

'And the hotel? Hope your room is comfortable too.'

'Thanks for asking, Swami. Yes, it was very comfortable.'

The pleasantries went on for a few more minutes, after which Swami's management committee also joined in.

Mona seemed quite happy to meet Swami and his team. 'Is this the team which worked with Sundeep too?' she asked.

'Part of this team also worked with Sundeep,' said Swami.

Mona did notice the squirming at the mention of Sundeep's name. Was 'Sundeep' a dirty word? She didn't know.

After a round of basic introductions, Swami gave her a small docket.

'Mona, this is the itinerary that Ekta has drawn up for you. We had e-mailed it to you earlier. We have covered all that we thought would be relevant to you and where we would need your support. It will also help you spend your time here effectively. Do let us know in case you want to cover anything more and we will be happy to provide you with all the inputs that you may need.'

She opened the docket and quickly glanced through the agenda.

'Thanks Swami. This looks fairly extensive. I just have one comment. I pretty much know what I need to do in these five days. I do not want anyone to baby sit me or manage me. I will pretty much manage on my own. I might need some support in these five days. It would be nice if you could assign someone to work with me while I am here.'

'We have assigned Ekta to take care of all your needs. She will be with you for the next five days.'

'Swami, I drove in with Ekta this morning. She is a wonderful woman. I need someone junior, someone who can take calls, call in people, draw up notes, etc. I don't think it is right nor is it possible for Ekta to do all this. I need someone junior.'

'Sure. If you could share the agenda with us, we will be able to streamline things.'

'I will let you know as we go along. It will help if we identify some support staff quickly.'

Swami looked at Ekta. 'Karuna? Do you think she would be able to work with Mona.'

'Not a bad idea. Let me check if she is around.'

Once Ekta came back with Karuna, Swami stepped in. 'Ekta, why don't you take Mona to meet Abhinav, by which time I will brief Karuna. You guys are already ten minutes behind schedule.'

'Thanks, that will not be required, Swami. I will brief Karuna myself,' Mona interjected. She didn't want to give anyone any time to react or over-manage issues when she was there.

Swami was a little hurt, more by the manner in which she spoke rather than what she said. He didn't like the arrogance in her tone. 'Fine,' he said, shrugging his shoulders. 'American!' he thought as she left his room.

Mona walked down the corridor to Ekta's cabin. Coffee was served on the table.

'Mona, I do not know why you reacted the way you did, but Swami is not the kind who will mislead you on anything. He is the most upright banker I have ever seen. I have no clue what was going through your mind, but your manner of speaking was very insulting, specially to someone who was looking forward to your visit. And, more importantly, it's inappropriate to talk like that to a country Retail Business Head.' Ekta's pride was also hurt a bit when she heard that conversation.

'I am sorry, Ekta. I will also apologise to Swami if you feel that it has not gone down well. My intent was to drive home a no-nonsense message to his direct reports. From the looks of it, I have managed to do so.'

'You seem to have come with an agenda. What is it?' Ekta was getting more and more curious by the minute. This was not the way normal overseas visitors would behave.

'I have five days to go, Ekta, and you want to know everything on the first day itself?' And both of them laughed.

'We are getting late for the meeting with Abhinav Mookherjee. Let's go.'

'Sure.'

On the way Mona gave instructions to Ekta for the remaining days of the visit. 'Please cancel all internal meetings. I will let you know who all I want to meet. I will keep all external appointments already fixed. It will be an embarrassment for the bank if we cancel them.'

Ekta nodded.

The meeting with Abhinav Mookherjee was a very pleasant one, but lasted only fifteen minutes. Abhinav had prepared a stand-up presentation for her. She politely thanked him and requested for a print-out of that. She said she would go through the print-out and get back to him in case she had any questions.

On the way out, she looked at Abhinav and said, 'Mr Mookherjee, I will be needing lots of information. I will give the list to Ekta. It would be nice if you could get someone to generate all the data and give me the information within twelve hours.

'Sure Mona,' said Abhinav. The moment she left his room, he dialled Swami.

'Give her anything she wants,' said Swami, 'and make sure that you give it to her on time. She is here only for five days. I don't want her to go back with a feeling that we have denied her anything she wanted.' Swami had nothing to hide.

Mona opened her briefcase and took out a sheet of paper for Ekta. The paper listed out everything that she wanted. Ekta was wondering what Mona was up to. She didn't know and Mona was not telling.

Ekta gave Mona's list to Karuna.

'Karuna, will you please speak to Abhinav and get this data organised quickly.'

Karuna glanced at the list:

1. List of all women employees in the organisation with name, date of birth, date of joining, background, designation and salary;
   
2. List of all women employees who have been promoted in the last three years;
   
3. List of salary hikes given to women employees in the last three years;
   
4. Names of women employees who have resigned in the last three years;
   
5. Performance appraisal reports of all women employees for the last three years;
   
6. List of women who have moved into Head Office in the last three years;
   
7. Gender mix, unit wise, in the last three years;
   
8. Compliance hotline complaints for the last three years;
   
9. List of all bank employed drivers (both on rolls and contractual) for senior management along with their phone numbers...