'Every moment has its own priority'

SHE REACHES her work place each day at 9 a.m. sharp and, the first thing she does: she calls for a mug of cold coffee. Her spacious 10th floor office in her organisation's main building, next to the Western Express Highway in Mumbai's crowded suburb of Bandra, overlooks a garden, sparing her a view, farther away across the highway, of Dharavi — a warren of seedy, fetid hovels that is Asia's biggest slum. She then takes a sip of her coffee and, simultaneously, switches her computer on.

Chanda Kochhar has followed that innocuous routine religiously for the last seven years, when she was asked to head ICICI Bank's retail banking division.  Since then, she has contributed to making ICICI Bank the fastest growing in India, catapulting it to the second largest position, building a retail customer base from zero to 20 million and establishing a network of over 750 branches, 3051 ATMs, call centres and internet and phone banking channels. Today, the bank accounts for one-third of the entire country's retail loans, including for housing, cars, and credit card loans. It is now present in about 17 countries, with Dubai being their first international location.

For her sterling achievements, Chanda Kochhar, who is deputy managing director of ICICI Bank, has been named Retail Banker of the Year 2004, the highest award for retail banking in Asia, earned the 37th spot in the list of Fortune 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2005 and bagged The Economic Times Award for Corporate Excellence 2005 as the Businesswoman of the Year. Obviously, she's the most celebrated Indian businesswoman in the world today.

Yet, she's unlike any celebrity corporate star. Slim and trim, she's earthy, matter-of-fact and devoid of any show of self-importance. Though she deals in banking and finance, her speech is refreshingly free of corporate jargon. She doesn't spout high-falutin' concepts, but speaks rather plainly. Her diction is simple and is delivered in a vernacular accent. "I don't think any single person can take credit for any of our achievements," she says without fanfare, when commended for her incredible record. "We built a great team at ICICI."

She joined ICICI in 1984 in the project appraisal division, and worked through credit section, infrastructure lending, structured products group and major clients group, before being moved in 2000 to lead the bank's retail push. An MBA and a cost accountant, she did her masters in management studies from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. She topped her batch and received the Wockhardt Gold Medal for excellence in management studies. In cost accountancy she received the J. N. Bose Gold Medal for highest marks in that year. Married to a businessman, she's the mother of a teenage daughter and a 9-year-old son.

Chanda Kochhar, who was recently in Dubai for ICICI Bank's official launch at Dubai International Finance Centre, spoke to the City Times in an informal chat.

How did you transform a bank that hardly anyone knew just a few years back?

We consciously planned a strategy of ICICI's transformation about seven or eight years back. Till then, we dealt mostly in corporate banking. We realised that the next big wave of growth was going to be in retail, whereas most people didn't realise it at all. We put all our efforts behind it and started creating distribution networks, products, back-office capabilities etc. While we were going ahead and doing this, people thought we were actually building some crazy plans for a large retail distribution, because the market for retail itself was very small. But we saw the future growth and prepared ourselves for it, on the basis of what our belief was for the future, and not on the basis of the present. That's what made a big difference.

How did you come up with a string of innovative products?

We thought consumers needed a lot of innovative products. The Indian population has always been there, but the retail industry had not grown because I think things were going the same old way... just one or two products... everyone expecting the customer to come to the branch and ask for the product and take it and so on. We thought we'd give innovative products and give them in innovative ways, like you don't have to come to the branch to ask for any product. Our agent would come to meet you, whether on a Sunday or 9 o'clock in the night. We're the first bank to do this. We're also the first bank in the country to bring in electronic channels in a big way. At that time, all the combined banks across the country had just about 200 ATMs. We planned and we did put up 1000 ATMs in the next year, very large call centres, internet banking base etc. We really transformed the way Indians were used to doing banking in the country.

How did the idea of mobile ATMs come about? Nobody had thought of it before.

I think the idea came about more because of constraints. In the sense, we had already put up so many ATMs, and we couldn't afford to put more at places where we thought they would be utilised only one-fourth of the time. The constraint was investment. So, we thought: 'Could we take that same investment and move it to four places, so that it gets fully utilised.' The idea was to drive the maximum efficiency of whatever investment we made. So, we came up with standard routes for the ATMs, with one van going to four places.

But you targeted mainly the rural areas?

Yes, we targeted the smaller areas because in the metros and semi-urban area we had installed ATMs anyway, and there was enough demand for them. We're clear that we wanted to take the best of our products to smaller areas. But at the same time, we knew that we would get much smaller amount of business there, because of less number of transactions taking place. So, we made the idea viable by having one van generate business at four places.

What were the challenges you faced while setting up the mobile ATMs?

One was security, because the vans carried cash. A bigger challenge was that we had to build an entire GPS system, so we could continuously track the vans, because all our ATMs are connected to our system. Still another challenge was educating the rural people: making them comfortable with the channels we had put in. Initially, we had our staff standing at vans and helping customers, right from how to insert the card in the machine to pressing the pin code to taking out the money. That is, literally, hand holding the customer through the transaction.

How was the financial impact of the mobile ATMs at the regional level?

I think it really facilitated wealth creation in the region. And that's what we believe: a bank should really participate in and catalyse wealth creation in whatever areas it's working in. So, our mobile ATMs not only offered deposits, but also other products like insurance, savings and loans, which help people to invest, which in turn creates production, which leads to employment, more demand, more purchasing power and so on. So, you have to participate in the full cycle. Our mobile ATMs were even disbursing low-value loans to farmers.

What role do you think private sector banks have played in today's economy?

Private sector banking has really come into its own in India. Private sector banks have transformed the way banking was done earlier in India. It brought about a lot of changes. Otherwise banking would have been continued to be done in the same old manner... you know... writing entries in a ledger, bank timings from 9 to 1 o'clock and all that. Private sector banks have even caused public sector banks to change themselves. They had to. Otherwise they would've been left behind.

You have twenty million customers. How do you manage to keep them happy and keep them coming back?

The trick is to constantly learn from the customers themselves. You can only keep customers happy if you keep on listening to their voices. I think most companies only think of their products and market them to customers. We believe you've to keep on constantly hearing from customers about what they want, rather than their general feelings, like: 'Do you like ICICI bank? Or 'Do you like ICICI products?'

From early on when our customer base began increasing four or years back, we set up a whole process of how we listen to the customer. We've a very extensive feedback system from customers at all the branches, what we call the 'moment of truth' survey. We ask them questions about particular transactions: was the waiting period too long to deposit a cheque? Was the customer happy or he thought something was wrong? This way you're then able to find out specific trends and take specific actions to correct any lapse in service. Ours is a kind of specific branch-based, transaction-based feedback system and we learn from it.

What motivates you to stay focused on growing your business?

I think it's the sheer pleasure of seeing the growth. As you see results, you get more and more motivated.

If you were to name one single attribute that contributed to your success, what would it be?  

A passion to excel. I believe whatever you do, you should do it better than others - it doesn't matter what job you are doing.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

There's no single achievement, but the last seven years I spent in retail banking have been the most challenging and satisfying for me. We started from being a non-entity in any of the retail banking businesses. Now we're the largest player in India in the retail market. We've more than 30 per cent share of all retail loans, including housing, cars, and credit card loans. It is one-third of the entire country's retail loans. Seven years ago, we had zero retail customers. Now we've 20 million pure banking customers, and 30 million if you count all those linked with lending, borrowing etc.

What do you think the one quality that a good leader should have?

One, it's very important for a leader to make sure that the team sees the same vision. Whatever is your thought process and vision has to be shared with the team, because then only are they motivated to move in the same direction. Second, it's important for a leader to have visionary thinking and at the same time, focus on details and execution. Normally, leaders get stuck with one or the other. Some become theoretical or visionary and fail to execute, or they become too involved in details and don't give enough freedom to their team to do the execution. So, to arrive at the right balance: visionary thinking and focus on execution.

What has been your greatest challenge as a woman executive and leader?

In ICICI Bank there has been no distinction between males and females. It has always been a merit-oriented organisation. If a person is capable, opportunities are given to him or her. So, I didn't face that kind of challenge in ICICI bank.

How have you managed to find work/family balance in your life?

First, it requires very effective time management. Second, you have to clearly prioritise. Work is work, home is home. You can't focus on both at the same time. Every moment has a different priority.

Why do you think they are there so few women business leaders everywhere?

I think things are changing, not only in India, but everywhere. But generally women, especially in India, tend to give up their careers at the time they start a family. So, there are fewer women to choose from when it comes to top positions.

According to one study, a woman is more likely to reach the no. 1 or 2 position in a company, if she is mentored by a woman. Do you believe that, and do you think women leaders have a responsibility to act as mentors to other women in a company?

I don't think it's relevant whether it's a male or female, because anyone who goes up higher and higher has a responsibility to be a mentor to his people. But in a way a woman would add a few more qualities to mentorship: the empathy factor a woman brings in to the situations in which others are. I think women tend to put themselves in other's shoes in a much better way and see things from others' perspective. But that doesn't mean women should be mentored only by women.

What would be your one piece of advice to career women?

I'd say women themselves harbour most mental blocks or inhibitions within them. If women can get rid of their blocks, they can do anything. They have to decide and they can decide. The world is becoming more open and women are definitely capable. So, I'd say, work on getting rid of your inhibitions. That's why, frankly, I don't believe in the issue of women empowerment and all that. Women should forge ahead on their own merit. There are opportunities and women are up to any job.