The Incredible Banker Page 7
Regards,
Karan
'Would you like to say anything about this, Deepak?'
Deepak did not know what to say. He definitely seemed to be searching for words in his defense.
'What time was it sent?' Deepak asked.
'Sometime yesterday morning, though the mail doesn't state that. That's what Vikram told me when he called. '
'Hmm, now I understand. ' Deepak pretended to have suddenly discovered something
'What?'
'Wait, ' said Deepak as he pulled out a phone from his pocket. It was a new Iphone. 'Remember I had a different phone earlier. That one got stolen the night before. I bought this one yesterday. It's not even active. I have asked for a duplicate SIM which will come today. I have been using my Blackberry for making calls all day. If only someone had spoken to me before making it so big, I would have clarified. '
'What exactly do you mean?' Bhisham looked perplexed by Deepak's explanation.
'Obviously someone has found my phone in office, someone who knows about the issues Karan and his team have with my team, and he has exploited the situation. Or maybe someone just wanted to create some nuisance. Or wait a minute... '
'What?' Bhisham was incredulous.
'Could it be that Karan has an inkling of what's coming his way in the audit report? Maybe he is just trying to be aggressive here so that he can blunt the blow of the audit report by diverting attention, ' Deepak said, making an attempt at rationalizing Karan not approaching him prior to shooting out a mail to the CEO.
'As in?'
'By using this SMS he will claim that I am vindictive towards him and thus have been deliberately unfair in the audit report. Yes, yes... now I understand his game plan. What a mastermind he is!'
'Hmm... possibly, Deepak. I always thought he was a clean guy. Anyway, now that you speak of this angle... ' he paused for a few seconds and then said, 'anything is possible in this world. Listen, why don't you draft a formal message for me to send to Vikram? Since he called me to discuss this, I will have to go back to him formally. ' Bhisham was not interested in the Deepak-Karan politics. He just wanted to make sure he responded to Vikram as early as possible and got the matter off his back.
'Right away, Bhisham. '
The moment he got out of Bhishams room he took out his Blackberry and called on a number. 'Hi. '
"Thanks, baby. Good that you told me about the chaos. Helped me weave a story and they bought into it. I didn't even know that the SMS had gone to Anil till you told me. All this while I was wondering why Amit didn't respond to my message. Thank God I got to know about this on time. And, babes, you are the one because of whom I missed all the calls on my other mobile yesterday. That's what saved me today. ' Deepak felt relieved.
'But how? How am I responsible for that?'
'Dumbo, the whole day we were in touch na... on Facebook. And I spoke to you for hours on my Blackberry. I ignored all the calls that came on my other phone. And I never returned those calls because yesterday was a holiday. In case someone checks my phone records, it will show that no calls have been made or received yesterday. ' The previous day, Deepak had spoken to Savitha only from his official Blackberry and never on his personal phone so that his wife would not suspect anything fishy. Whenever Radhika saw him on his Blackberry, she would assume that he was on some official call.
'Haha... smart boy. Now Karan has no story to tell. '
'Yes, babes. Now see how I hit back at him. Watch out for the report. It's based on what you told me yesterday. And one more thing before I forget, just be careful this month-end. Even if you don't meet your targets this month, it's fine. You will have enough excuses once the month gets over. But I assure you, there will be no one to whom you will need to make those excuses. ' Clearly indicating that Karan would be history soon, Deepak added, 'My SMS might have gone to the wrong person but there is no let down in the intent. '
'Yes, I know that. ' Savitha laughed. 'But be careful about what?'
'Just be careful that you don't do anything stupid this month-end. Follow the process. Control your sales force. Targets are secondary. Don't get caught doing anything which is not acceptable from a sales process perspective. After this month-end Karan won't exist. ' Deepak was confident of Karan's downfall.
'Be careful, baby. ' This was the first time Savitha had called him like that. And Deepak liked it. He wanted to hear it again.
'What, babes? What did you just say?'
'I said be careful, baby. Now go. I have work to finish. '
That was the end of their conversation.
Deepak couldn't wait for the end of that month. He spoke with Bhisham and extended the audit by a few more days so that it would include month-end. Bhisham, too, quietly agreed. He had time and again proved to be a spineless boss who could not take a stance. He had to be pushed at all times. Deepak always had his way with him.
August was turning out to be an extremely bad month for Karan. Against a target of 110 crore of home loan disbursals for the month, he was at 52 crore on the twenty-seventh of August. With four days to go, he had to get another 58 crore of disbursals. The same month-end jinx was catching up. In July, Deepak's histrionics had made them miss their targets. The hangover seemed to continue in August.
In desperation he called for a meeting of all his sales managers. Everyone came in at 9. 00 a. m. Karan was already there. The numbers didn't look good. They were not stacking up. The best-case scenario for everyone added up to 115 crore and as anyone in sales would know, the best-case scenarios seldom worked out for everyone at the same time. Someone or the other would screw up. And the final numbers would always fall short of the cumulative best-case scenarios. He was most likely to end the month at around 80-85 crore of home loan disbursals – a shortfall of approximately 20 per cent on his target. For a second month in a row he would be below his target and this made him nervous.
'Get the loans. At any cost! Give whatever pricing the customer wants and make sure we don't lose a single case, ' he thundered to his team.
It always paid to take loans from banks on a month-end because suddenly the banks would become a lot more flexible, more willing to take risks and they also offered significant discount on interest rates. A customer always gained in this desperation that banks demonstrated on a month-end.
'Let's meet up in the evening at eight after all your teams return from their respective calls. I want to personally meet every one of your executives. So make sure no one goes home till I have spoken to them. ' Karan gave strict orders to his sales managers.
The same evening twenty sales officers of the Mumbai mortgage team assembled in the conference room on the third floor, eagerly awaiting Karan's lashing. They were initially very quiet. The poor numbers were reflecting in their drooping shoulders and weak body language. Their confidence was low and they seemed quite nervous. The nervous silence slowly changed into whispers as they confided their fears to each other, which then transformed into an incessant chatter.
Soon everyone began to laugh and gossip when the door was flung open all of a sudden. Most of them expected Karan to come in and impulsively stood up. But it was not Karan who entered the room.
'Good evening everyone, ' thundered Deepak as he walked into the room unannounced. Behind him were three other members of his team. And standing with him was Amit Sharma – the mortgage credit head. All the guys in the room were wondering why Deepak was there, especially when they were expecting Karan.
As if he knew what they were thinking, Deepak began to talk, 'I am sure you must be wondering why I am here. '
'What's going on? Why are you here?' Karan had just walked into the room where he was supposed to do a sales review, only to find Deepak already there.
'I am glad you are also here. We are here to do a quick audit of the sales process. We need to check the bags of all your sales RMs. This is our standard operating procedure and we have a sanction from Bhisham. Hope you will not have no problem with it, Karan?'
'Oh yes, Karan. We would have done it. However, in this case it is supposed to be a surprise check and even the channel heads are not informed about such surprise checks. '
'What??' Karan had an annoyed look on his face. He knew he did not have a choice. His entire team was present in that room and all of them were to be subjected to the random audit. They could be exposed in case something problematic was detected. He prayed everything was in order.
Savitha, too, was in the room. She looked at Deepak and smiled. She knew she was safe. Hadn't Deepak warned her to be careful?
Karan tried to protest but no one listened. He could have asked his team to leave the room immediately but that would have upset his credibility. He could also be held guilty of obstructing an audit, which in GB2 was viewed very seriously. He could even be sacked for something like this.
He went out of the room and called his boss, Rajneesh Chatterjee, the business head of mortgages.
'Rajneesh, there seems to be a witch-hunt on, ' he said and explained the whole episode.
'You are overreacting, Karan. Let Deepak do his job, ' Rajneesh told him firmly. Given that Karan was handling a large part of Rajneesh's business and also was intellectually seen as a competent guy, Rajneesh was perennially insecure of Karan and tried to pull him down whenever he could.
'But this is month-end time, Rajneesh, we will get screwed on our volumes. The asshole screwed up my month-end in the last month too. We cannot afford two bad months in a row, ' Karan almost pleaded.
'If you are sensitizing me to the fact that you might miss your targets this month too, the point has been noted with regret, ' came the sarcastic retort from Rajneesh. His supervisor did not have the guts to take on the credit folks at a time when GB2 was seen as a bank weak on process control by none other than the RBI.
Karan apologised and hung up. He was probably seeking help from a quarter where none was forthcoming.
Deepak, on the other hand, continued his investigation in earnest. Their checks that day consisted of verbal investigations as well as a physical bag search of all present. Every single document available in the sales guys' bags was checked. The entire process of physical examination took over two hours. Work stood still during that time. Karan paced up and down the corridor outside the conference room but there was nothing that he could do.
The physical scrutiny was followed by a few hours of intense grilling. The sales guys were queried on the process they followed, the lead generation process, the conversion process, the approval process, how they dealt with and convinced the customers and even on the way they managed the logistics between the bank, the customer and the involved agencies like the property valuers and law firms.
After a gruelling five-and-a-half hour session, the entire audit process ended at around 2. 30 a. m. in the morning, by which time the entire sales team was mentally and physically exhausted.
Karan, who was outside the conference room all this while, had an uneasy feeling about the entire episode.
'Something is going to go wrong, ' his mind alerted him. He had no choice, but to wait.
He went back home late that night, and was in a very disturbed state of mind. Karan was definitely not among those sales guys who slept easy even on the verge of missing their sales targets. This August he was going to miss his numbers again and that, too, for no fault of his. 'Bloody idiot! I will get him one day, ' he said to himself as his car entered the basement of his building on Carter Road, Bandra.
That night, he couldn't sleep well. However, he was not at all prepared for what came his way the next morning.
29 August 2007
GB2, Mumbai
KARAN drove into the parking lot of the GB2 processing office in the morning. Despite his disturbed sleep last night, he had managed to reach office on time. He was a stickler for punctuality and he rarely missed his 9. 00 a. m. schedule. That day was no different.
As he was driving in, he saw a black Scorpio reverse out. It nearly banged into him but he braked just in time and saved his Honda City from any collateral damage. Not a good omen! He was about to scream at the driver when he saw who it was – the Scorpio had Deepak at the wheels. Karan controlled himself. Was Deepak coming to the office, or was he leaving? If he was leaving, why was he leaving at that time of the day? The look on Deepak's face didn't give him any comfort. He ignored him. 'Focus. Focus. There is a target to be achieved, ' he told himself as he removed his laptop bag from the boot of the car.
The day was chaotic. Karan and his team tried their best to meet their targeted volumes but nothing moved at the pace they wanted. Savitha was at her casual best that day. She was not serious about anything. The loan applications she was managing were getting stuck but she didn't seem to be bothered about it. Customers were suddenly not available to sign loan documents and deals were left hanging. Karan was at his wits' end, trying to push her to take her loans to closure. But all his screams, threats, orders were falling on deaf ears.
At around 3. 30 p. m., Savitha walked up to him.
'Karan, I need to leave, ' she told Karan.
'What? Are your cases under control?'
'Kind of. ' She was non-committal.
'What do you mean "kind of"? Where are you going? You are not even at 50 per cent of your monthly target. What's the problem, Savitha?'
'Karan, Aakansha is not keeping too well. I need to take her to a pediatrician. Have to leave now. My maid just called. I have given a handover of my cases to Xerxes. He will see them through. I will be in touch with him on the phone. '
When someone cites illness of their child as a reason there is no way one can ask them to stay back and work. Karan was no different. He just said 'Ok' and walked away from there.
Savitha left office and drove towards Bandra. She reached home in thirty-five minutes. There was no traffic at that time. She parked her car in the parking lot and got off. She did not pull out her laptop bag but picked up her handbag from the car, locked it and walked out of the gate straight into a waiting black Scorpio.
'Hi baby, ' she said as soon as she got into the car.
'Babes, I was waiting for you. What took you sooo long?' said Deepak as he moved towards Savitha and kissed her lightly on the lips. He cranked the ignition and the car moved. In no time both of them were cruising towards Manori Bel, a resort on the outskirts of Mumbai.
Somewhere along the way as they were crossing Goregaon, she looked at Deepak and said, 'You were great yesterday. Karan really looked stressed. '
Deepak just smiled.
'I can't work with him any longer. He is becoming such a pain. Even today he literally screamed at me. '
'Don't worry, babes. Soon he will be history. ' Deepak assured
her.
'But I don't think I want to be here for long. Is there a way to get me into your team, or into credit?'
'You really want to... ?'
'Yes, Deepak. That's the place to be in. '
'Hmm... ok. Let me speak to Bhisham. Something may come up. '
She hugged him in return.
'You have earlier been in a product role and a sales role. So I am sure we can use this experience to justify a role in underwriting or policy-making. '
'Wow, baby! That would be great!' And she gave him such a huge hug that the Scorpio wobbled a bit before getting back on track again.
While Deepak and Savitha were in Manori enjoying a wonderful evening, Karan was debating the merits of a loan application which had been turned down by Amit Sharma. His conversation with Amit was interrupted when his phone rang. He looked at his mobile and then back at Amit. 'Boss on line, will come back in a minute, ' Karan said and then picked up his phone.
'Hi Rajneesh. '
'What the hell is this, Karan?'
'What, Rajneesh?'
'I am not sure I know what you are talking about, sir. Is there a problem?'
'Have you seen the investigation report on the mortgage sales which Deepak has sent this morning to me, Bhisham, Ramneek and Sanjit?'
'No, Rajneesh. It has not been marked to me. When was it sent?'
'It was sent this morning. I have been out whole day and got to see it only now. Anyway, I am sending it to you now. If what has been written in the report is true, you have some serious explanation to do, my friend. ' Rajneesh's words sounded ominous.
Karan was left wondering about the report when Rajneesh hung up. 'Isn't it the protocol in any audit that the audited party gets an opportunity to defend all the comments raised before a final report is circulated to everyone?'
He could have taken this up and batded it but in the current scenario, where audit seemed to be everything and with a boss like Rajneesh who would not stand up for him, it was better that he did not go on the front foot. 'Never get into a battle that you are sure to lose, ' someone had once told him
Rajneesh's email popped up on the screen in front of him. He clicked open the mail. As he read the contents, he forgot the discussion with Amit Sharma on the contentious loan case.
He checked the time; the mail was sent at 8. 52 in the morning. That explained why Deepak was leaving when Karan was coming in. He had in fact stayed up the entire night to prepare the report and get done with it before anyone came in. How vengeful could anyone get?
The mail which Deepak had written to Sanjit didn't really say much. It was a very matter-of-fact mail which just said that the mortgage sales audit report was enclosed. Very unlike Deepak! Deepak was a notorious political monster who always revelled in sensationalizing things. Even during his days in branch banking he would play one against the other and work his way up. He was not known to be straightforward.
Karan quickly clicked on the icon named 'Mortgage audit report – August 2007'. The computer was slow. The attachment took some time in downloading. Karan was getting restless. He wanted to know what were the issues Deepak had highlighted. Eventually, after a long wait, when the word document opened, he found it was a twenty-two page report. Quite a long one for an audit which ended at 2. 30 p. m. the previous night.