The Incredible Banker Read online

  "Ihey have issued us a show cause notice and have just stopped short of accusing us of waging a war against the nation. This is serious. It can even threaten our licence if we don't do anything about it right now.'

  'Hmm...does not sound good.'

  'Yes, It doesn't. See me in my room in the next thirty minutes? I also want to meet Inder, Bhisham and Ramneek. Tell them to be in my room by the time I get in. Tell them to drop everything they are doing and focus on this. We cannot afford to screw it up. Do you understand, Saurabh? Tell Bhalla to be there, too.'

  'Yes, Ronald.' Saurabh could not say anything else.

  Ronald was already thinking of how to sort out the issues raised by the RBI. How was he going to convince them that he ran a controlled business and that what had happened was a strange tryst of fate?

  However, the damage had been done. Unwinding the same was a long and tedious process. It would take time but there was no alternative. A blunder had happened and it had to be managed.

  August-September 2008

  Chembur, Mumbai

  LIFE at GB2 was getting tough for everyone. Michael Smith's tirade against the Indian management had impacted the structure of the country team. August 2008 saw a new leadership take over GB2. Ronald McCain was brought in to replace Girija Vaswani as the CEO for the group in India. In times of a crisis, the regional office of GB2 felt it appropriate to bring in an expat CEO who would be more aligned to their strategic directives. The pressure on the management to deliver extraordinary results had risen and Micheal Smith had no time for debates.

  Michael Smith wanted huge commitments from Ronald on the profitability and growth for 2009. 'It's now or never, Ronald,' Michael Smith had told him. And when Michael Smith said something, it was cast in stone.

  Everyone in the leadership position in GB2, all those who reported to Girija, were on tenterhooks. A new boss in tough times was always a challenge to deal with. Especially people who had a good relationship with Girija were worried that Ronald would surgically take them out. They were paranoid if they would keep their jobs. And when such paranoia strikes large teams it impacts people down the line, too.

  On the other hand, what started off as a one-off drinking session at the end of the intra-office basketball tournament had transformed into a budding friendship. It is said of friends that either sports or women get men to bond together. In this case it was the former. A common love for sport – basketball. The referees knowledge of the game really impressed Deepak while the referee was bowled over by Deepak's humility. The latter had been warm and friendly with someone not from the same economic strata – and that was an exception for Deepak. He was not known to be humble or unpretentious. At work he had always been hard-nosed, arrogant and rude. Maybe it was basketball which softened him.

  The two of them hit off very well. They started meeting almost everyday at the club. Deepak used to visit the club regularly for his practice sessions. The referee would also be there. They didn't have to make too much of an effort to hook up. Occasionally Savitha would also accompany him. On those rare occasions, she would stay aloof from the referee. She was not too comfortable with him. But she never said anything to Deepak. After all, it was his life and he was free to choose his friends.

  The referee was looking for a job and Deepak was in a position to at least guide him, if not arrange a job for him. He fixed up a few interviews for the referee in some companies where he had contacts, but nothing really worked. Recession had started to prevent friends from obliging each other. Almost every organisation where he tried to get the referee a job was retrenching. Jobs were being cut across the industry which was making it tough for the referee. People did oblige Deepak by interviewing the referee but nothing was reaching a closure. The referee, on his part, was happy that Deepak was trying to get him a job and Deepak was happy that he found a good friend in him; someone he could relate to outside the office.

  At work, things were not all that great for Deepak. August had turned out to be a better month than July...only marginally. Despite all the hectic lobbying in August, they ended the month short of target by 16 per cent. Deepak had to undergo one more round of depressing conversation with Bhalla on sales targets.

  'Look, Deepak, I genuinely do not have the patience or the time. I agree August was a better month than July. However, you not only fell short of the August numbers but also failed to cover up for the shortfall in July. Where will I get those incremental credit cards from? You are really pushing me to a stage where I am beginning to wonder if you are the right guy for the job.' Bhalla sounded nasty and ominous.

  Deepak had no answer. What could he say? His numbers had let him down big time. 'Yes, Manish. We will surely make an attempt to do better and meet target in September.'

  "That you will, my friend. I need you to cover up for the shortfall in July and August in the remaining four months of the year. Also, remember that since the festival season begins from October, targets go up sharply in the last quarter of the year. You have to gear up for that.'

  'Yes, Manish. We will not give you a chance to complain,' Deepak assured him.

  'There won't be another chance, Deepak. Remember that,' he paused for some time. 'Look, Deepak. You are a good guy. Good pedigree. You have done well thus far. But...' and there was a threatening pause again. Deepak's heart sank. What was he going to say?

  'But I have a target to deliver. A business to run. You are today managing what is the most critical part of my business. And I can't afford my biggest region to miss its numbers every month. September is your only chance. And here is a deal. I know it is going to be difficult to cover up the July-August shortfall in September. Go all out and meet the planned September numbers. We will spread the shortfall equally in the last three months of the year. I will be fine as long as you deliver the numbers in September. Else, my friend, I will have to look for someone else. I hired you on Sanjit's recommendation. Please make sure that you live up to it.' The threat was very obvious. Deepak again fumed but there was little he could do. He also knew that the embargo on hiring had been lifted and the India business could again hire from the open market. Even Sanjit, his saviour, was no longer with the bank.

  That night Deepak and the referee went out for drinking. Savitha didn't go along as her maid had ditched her and she had to be at home, baby-sitting.

  After a few drinks, Deepak poured out all his woes in front of the referee. Deepak was not the one to get into emotional ranting after drinking. Normally, he would camouflage his thoughts well. 'If the other person gets a wind of your emotions, he can control you,' he believed. But that day was different. It showed how emotionally dependent he had become on the referee in the last three weeks. Deepak, spurred by the fact that the referee wasn't linked with the GB2 in any way, behaved in a manner which was very unlike him. He would never have opened up in front of a person who, not so long ago, was only a stranger for him.

  'Do not worry, Deepak. It is a transient phase. It will pass...and you had a better August. I am sure you will have an even better September"

  Deepak smiled and said, 'I hope so...by the way, what's happening with your job hunt? Any luck?' Referee told him that he had started trying in software companies who were also hiring graduates. Deepak agreed that it was a good idea and they said 'Cheers' to another round of Chivas. Hie referee's influence on Deepak's life was growing fast. Good or bad, only time could tell.

  The morning prayers in the second week of September was an informal review of the performance of the various businesses in August. In that session it clearly came out that GB2 had not grown the loans book in the same manner that they had grown the other businesses of the bank. The pressure was on retail banking to grow the loans book again. Ronald Maccain himself was a retail banker at one point in time and hence his fondness for cards and mortgages was not hidden from anybody. As expected, credit cards and mortgages were the two areas behind which the bank decided to put its might.

  This meant that Manish Bhalla was i
n the hot seat. He couldn't wait to download his stress to the entire team and sent out a mail the same evening asking all his reporters to join him on a conference call.

  Five minutes before the call was to begin, Manish Bhalla was prancing up and down in his small cabin. Ramneek Chahal, his boss, had put the ball squarely in his court. He had been asked to increase new credit cards acquisition by 25 per cent in the last three months of the year. At a time when he was already running short on targets, growing his acquisition was out of question. But it was a diktat from his boss, who in turn wanted to impress the new CEO – and he didn't have too much of a choice.

  The call began at 5.30 p.m. sharp. 'Hello guys,' Bhalla's voice cracked on the speaker phone. He got six 'Hi's' in return.

  'Who all are on the call?' he asked. The introduction lasted a few minutes. And then Bhalla came to the point.

  'Folks, in today's morning prayers it was decided that we will have to step up our cards acquisition. They have asked us to acquire 25 per cent more customers than the planned numbers for the last quarter of the year. The CEO has challenged us with these numbers. Do you think it is possible to push ourselves to deliver this number?'

  No one answered.

  'Guys, come on!! Wake up. Do you think it is possible to deliver these numbers?' Bhalla asked again.

  There was silence again. Finally someone spoke. 'Manish?' It was Deepak. 'We are already running behind our current month's targets. Our target for the last quarter is really steep. It's at least 20 per cent more than what we are delivering in September. Then how will we accomplish 25 per cent above that? In effect, it means we have to acquire 50 per cent more cards than what we are acquiring now. I don't see us getting there.'

  'See, this is the problem with you, Deepak. Absolutely zero on aspiration! If you don't aspire for bigger targets in life, how will you even get there?' Manish was too caustic, 'and if I go and tell the new CEO that I cant meet his first demand of me, then neither will I be in this job, nor will you guys be. We better figure out a way, folks'. He continued. After Manish lashed out at Deepak, no one opened their mouth. What was the point in saying something and then getting beaten up publicly? What Deepak had said was right. It made sense. Growing by over 50 per cent of the current month's numbers was not a joke. New channels had to be built, new people had to be hired and new sales promotions had to be launched. All this required time. Even Manish knew it. But since the diktat came from the top, he was equally helpless.

  The monologue continued, 'Face it, folks. This year has not been a good year for the India business. We are nowhere close to our targets. The CEO feels that we stand no chance of meeting our targeted profit numbers. He would rather push initiatives which will give us results next year. The agenda is to invest and grow this year, so that the results come the next year.'

  Deepak, for once, smiled. Wasn't this common with a mid-year management change? The CEO Ronald McCain was new and had taken over in the middle of the year. He would not be accountable for the profit for that year. It was extremely easy for him to get away by putting the blame on his predecessor for the year bygone. It made more sense for him to rather pack the rest of the year with money-draining initiatives which would give returns in 2009, when he would be accountable for the full-year profitability. The CEO wanted to increase cards acquisitions in 2008 so that he could take the costs linked to the cards acquisition within the year, and the revenue from those cards could start coming in 2009. 'Smart CEO,' he said to himself.

  By the time the call ended, it was agreed that the new targets would apply for the October-December quarter. Deepak who was struggling to meet his numbers for the month knew that his problems were only going to be compounded by this.

  It was decided to form a task force under Deepak to figure out a list of initiatives to ensure that October turned out to be a bumper month. Manish had figured out that even though Deepak had not delivered in sales volumes, he was brighter than many others in his team.

  Over the next three days Deepak and the members of the task force met a number of times and came up with three recommendations to take the volumes to 25 per cent higher than the planned numbers, as Ronald had wanted.

  Firsdy, they recommended to launch a sales contest in October to push sales volumes. If they managed to increase the run-rate in October, all of them knew that the momentum could be sustained in November and December. People who met the highest slab stood to go overseas on a paid holiday. The winners of the highest slab would spend three days in Switzerland at the company's expense.

  The second recommendation was to increase payouts for the DSAs (Direct Sales Agents) so that they go all out after the bloated targets. The third recommendation was Deepak's masterstroke. He wanted the credit and the operations teams to be a part of this sales contest so that they could also swing into action and contribute towards it. Deepak was smart enough to understand that without the support of the credit team there was no way they could meet the targeted volumes.

  All his recommendations were accepted and a new campaign -'Chariots of Fire' – was born. It was an interesting theme aimed to push the team to ride the chariots of fire to reach an unachievable goal.

  September was an average month for Deepak. He just about met his monthly numbers. Bhalla was not ecstatic but he was not as caustic as he had been with Deepak initially. Deepak had shown some traction in generating volumes and had also exhibited good abilities in managing the growth strategy for October. More importantly, Bhalla needed him more than ever. He couldn't afford a demotivated sales team in his largest region.

  For Deepak, as with any sales guy, the joy of meeting targets was short-lived. It lasted only for a day, after which the reality of the next month and its targets hit him. With September fading out of memory and October approaching, Deepak was faced with a bigger challenge. The Mumbai team had acquired 4,000 new credit cards for GB2 in September. That number was initially supposed to go up to 5,000 in October. But with the new diktat, it went up to 6,200 cards a month in the last quarter. He had struggled to get to 4000 in September. How on earth was he going to deliver 6,200 cards in October? He had no clue. He was happy that Bhalla hadn't made any noise about covering the July-August shortfall in the last quarter. Had he done that, the target of 6,200 would have gone up even more.

  On the night of 1st October, when the 'Chariots of Fire' contest was announced to the entire credit cards team, Deepak was on a high. Deep down he considered it to be his plan, and it was. He was happy to see it launched with so much fanfare. Even Manish Bhalla, who was normally meagre when it came to praising someone, was generous in singing Deepak's glory. Finally, the targets were put up on the screen. Deepak's heart sank when he saw them. Though he already knew the numbers, seeing them put up in black and white made his heart beat faster. The three pegs of whisky that he had downed by then suddenly lost their impact. It was the first time Bhalla had praised him publicly. He couldn't afford not to accomplish his target for October. 'Chariots of Fire' could go to no one else. It had to be him. He had to win the contest. And for that, he had to get to 6,200 cards, at any cost.

  The drive back that day was mired in introspection. How was he going to achieve the target? It was already the first of October. The next day was a holiday. He had already lost two days of the month, not knowing what to do. Savitha was with him that night. Realising that Deepak was in a thoughtful mood, she did not strike up a conversation with him. Deepak stopped the car when he reached the parking lot of the Chembur Club. He hadn't spoken a word since they left the banquet hall where they had all assembled for the launch of 'Chariots of Fire'. The ignition was still on, and Deepak was staring into the blank wall ahead of the car.

  'Deepak, are you ok?' she asked.

  'Yes, babes, I am fine.'

  'You haven't spoken a word in the last twenty-five minutes. What happened? What are you thinking so much?'

  'Nothing, baby. I am just worried about the October numbers... thinking how to get closer to them. I can't let
anyone else win this contest. I have to prove to Bhalla that I can do it. That I am the most capable guy in his team.'

  'You are, Deepak. No one in the team is more intelligent or competent than you. Come, let's get ourselves a drink. The referee will be waiting for you. You missed the game tonight.'

  'Yes, let's go,' Deepak said and stepped out of the car. The car was locked with a beep as they walked towards the bar where the referee was waiting for them.

  The discussion that night centred around the bank; the cards business, 'Chariots of fire' and the targets. The referee understood bits and pieces of the entire story but not being a banker, he found it difficult to relate to.

  'Arre, what is the problem, Deepak, I am sure you will find hundreds of people willing to take cards. Who doesn't want money? Give me one, I will take it. In this bar alone you will find thirty people willing to take your card. Then why are you getting stressed?' the referee tried to calm him down.

  'You stick to basketball, you idiot. Everyone will want to take money. But finding a guy who will return it to you on time is difficult. It's not a gift cheque, it's the cards business,' Deepak rubbished him.

  'Hmm...right. Now I am beginning to understand.'

  'From 4,000 cards in September to 6,200 in October is almost impossible', said Deepak

  'Unless we get some bulk deals', added Savitha. Deepak looked at her and nodded.

  'What do you mean by "bulk deals"?' The referee was inquisitive.

  'Corporate deals...large companies signing up bulk cards for their employees. In such deals we get 100 or 200 cards in one go. Deals like these will make life easy.' Deepak responded to the referees query. 'But they take time', he added.

  'What kind of companies do you look at for these deals?' the referee asked.

  'Companies which have around400-500 employees, multinational organisations, companies with established offices and the reputation for paying good salaries and attracting good talent.. .companies which are the target market for our corporate bank relationships,' Deepak answered. And after a pause he added, 'Actually even if they are not target market for corporate relationships, that's also acceptable.' 'Hmm...ok.'