If God Was A Banker (6 page)

And here were two young men with the energy, the will, and the commitment to drive this new initiative for New York International Bank. While they had thirty-six other colleagues who had joined with them, these two guys were different. Their intellect was far superior, and their understanding of business complexities supreme. These were people who could earn the respect of their colleagues in no time.

Yet, they were untested. Should he take a punt on these two guys? Would it work, or would it bomb? He couldn't make up his mind. The organisation had approved a plan to launch credit cards in the first quarter of 1987. These two prodigies were recommending that they launch retail loans before anything else, and, heart of hearts, he agreed with them. Why not challenge them with the loans business while someone else goes about launching credit cards. It would at best prepone the launch of retail banking in India. They could, irrespective of what Swami and Sundeep did, go ahead with the cards launch in March 1987 as planned. He required an organisation buy in for this. Brian had to be on his side.

'Natasha, get me Brian on the line,' Aditya's voice crackled over the speakerphone.

Natasha called back within thirty seconds: 'Brian on the line, sir.'

Aditya spoke to Brian at length about his plan. The conversation went on for over thirty minutes. Brian's room was on a floor above Aditya's. 'Aditya, why don't you come up. Let's talk this through and close it,' Brian said.

'In a minute, Brian.'

Aditya disconnected the phone and ran. He did not want this break to disrupt his thought process. When he stepped into Brian's room, he was panting.

'Relax Aditya, relax,' this statement from Brian irritated him, but he didn't say a word. After all, Brian was his boss.

The discussion was extremely animated and lasted another forty-five minutes. 'Thank you, Brian. I will ensure that I am on top of this. It seems to be the right thing to do. I will also ensure that there are no surprises in this before your successor is in place. I have lots at stake,' said Aditya as he stepped out of Brian's room.

S
undeep and Swami were in their second week of training. Mr Sawant, the training head of the bank, was taking a session on 'career progression.'

'Excuse me, Mr Sawant,' Natasha knocked on the door of the training room.

Sawant excused himself and came out of the room. 'Aditya wants to meet Sundeep and Swaminathan, ASAP,' said Natasha. ASAP meant As Soon As Possible, and Mr Sawant, an old hand, did not require anybody to tell him that when Aditya said ASAP, he meant NOW.

When Sundeep and Swami walked out of the training hall, both thought: 'Now what?' Natasha had disappeared and hence they couldn't even ask anything. They were nervous. 'I haven't done anything wrong today. Hope it is not about my passing out on Saturday night,' said Sundeep.

'If I understand Aditya correctly, he wouldn't have pulled us out of a training programme for that. And why me? If he wanted to speak to you about Saturday night, he should have called you and not both of us.' Swami had a point. But that couldn't satisfy Sundeep. He was tense again. He was beginning to wonder why he was getting tense every time Aditya called.

'Come in, boys,' said Aditya as soon as he heard the knock on the door. 'Natasha, can you please organise some coffee and join us. This is going to take some time. And before you come in, please get Kalpana also to join in.'

Swami and Sundeep gave each other blank looks. They were wondering what the hell was going on. Natasha came in. The coffee came in another six minutes, around the same time that Kalpana joined them. All this while, Aditya was doing his mail and hadn't spoken a word. This was adding to the suspense.

'OK guys,' said Aditya, getting up and moving away from his IBM notebook. 'I have something interesting to talk about, and if you guys are ready, we can start.' Everyone in the room looked at each other, then at Aditya, and nodded in unison. No one spoke.

'I had a chat with Brian. I mentioned our discussion on Saturday night. He has agreed to a change in the launch plans,' he announced. 'We will no longer launch credit cards in this market. We will first launch our loans business and then decide what we want to do next.' 'Fabulous,' everyone said at almost the same time. This was turning out to be their first strategic victory ever. Everyone's face lit up.

'I have agreed with Brian that we will launch car loans, cash loans, and, as Swami mentioned, we will get into the mass market with motorcycle loans and employee loans for corporates.' Then Aditya paused.

The statement was a very simple one, but its meaning was profound. Here was an organisation, which was willing to value a new thought process, new ideas, new principles, and a new approach, even if they came from someone who had no exposure to this business.

'That's not all,' continued Aditya. 'There will be a team of five working on this project, and all five are in this room. This will be the core retail banking team for our bank.' Sundeep jumped out of his chair. 'Eureka! If there is anything better than sex on the beach, this is it.' Pin drop silence followed. Sundeep suddenly realised the inappropriateness of his statement and quietly sat down.

Aditya burst out laughing. Everyone else followed suit. This was the most thrilling day in the life of each one of them. To be part of a launch team for one of the largest banks in the world, and that too within two weeks of joining. They couldn't have asked for anything better.

'Swami,' Aditya continued, 'You and Kalpana will work on launching loans for two-wheelers, both scooters and motorcycles, and personal loans for corporate employees, and Sundeep, you will work on the launch of car loans.' Aditya's voice was music to everyone's ears.

Aditya went on to explain: 'We have a ninety-day deadline for the launch of these two products. In the next three months we have to get these products up and running. We are in May right now. I have committed to Brian Close that we will launch these by the end of August. We will have till the year-end to make these into successful revenue generators for the bank. Come January, we are committed to launch credit cards in this country. This is a commitment made at the board level, and we cannot go back on it. If we do not make your products a success by January, we will have to shift our focus to credit cards.'

The others in the room could not believe their ears. April got over twenty days back, so Aditya couldn't be playing an April fool prank on them. Swami was almost in tears. Natasha began to wonder what her role was, when Aditya continued: 'Since we have a lots to do and we do not have time on our hands, Natasha will be an assistant for the entire group. She will cease to be my secretary from this very instant and will move to a project role for the next three months.'

'Will we begin work on this post our training?' Kalpana asked him.

'Are you kidding? If you guys needed training, you wouldn't be here. All of you are off training from this very instant. If we harness any dreams of launching these products in the next ninety days, we cannot afford to waste a single moment from now on. I have spoken to Sawant and he has agreed to release the three of you right now,' said Aditya.

'Get cracking, guys. We will meet everyday in the evening to take stock. We cannot afford to fail. I have stuck my neck out and believe me when I say this—I do not like my neck tickled.'

'A
re you fine, Sundeep? Shall I get you something for lunch?' Louisa was getting a bit concerned since Sundeep had been behaving quite weirdly since morning. 'It's an hour past noon and you haven't had anything. Natasha called about an hour back. She wanted to know if you have eaten something, since you left quite early and didn't have breakfast at home.'

'I am fine, Louisa. I will have my regular veg sandwich, without any butter. And brown bread, please.' That was Sundeep's regular lunch, ever since he had landed in New York.

His health had been a bit erratic of late. Fluctuating sugar and cholesterol levels, sedentary lifestyles, and thirty cigarettes a day didn't look like a healthy package.

Natasha ensured that he took care of his health. She also insisted on regular medical check-ups. Sundeep was smart. He would start controlling his dietary habits a week before his regular check-ups. This would ensure decent medical reports and keep Natasha happy.

When Louisa interrupted him, he was thinking about his initiation into the world of corporate success. His first champagne toast had come within two weeks of his reporting for his first job. He was wondering how could he make that count?

K
alpana, Swami, and Sundeep slogged their butts off. Aditya was constantly on their backs, driving them crazy. But they did not mind it. They were here to learn the trade and this was an opportunity even a mad man wouldn't give them.

Sundeep, who had to launch car loans, visited every single car dealer in town. He also started making rounds of car manufacturers for exclusive financing tie-ups.

For the car manufacturers, all this was new. No bank had ever approached them, leave alone pamper them. Sundeep was able to wrangle out special customer-friendly schemes for financing new cars. The manufacturers were quick to jump on to the bandwagon as they saw great value in some financier coming along to push car sales in order to pump his loan numbers. Sundeep convinced the manufacturers that they would be able to double their sales if the easy financing options which NYB was willing to offer was bundled with the car sales.

Swami and Kalpana on the other hand started visiting large corporates and public sector units for cash loans to their employees. Who wouldn't want a loan? Those were the days when banks were deposit gatherers and lending was only done to large corporates. So when the young guns of NYB went around with their loan schemes, people queued up to hear them. Only politicians and film stars were supposed to elicit such an overwhelming response. In one unit in the Kolar Gold Fields near Bangalore, there was a virtual stampede to avail NYB loans. At the end of every day, Swami and Kalpana would wonder why anyone hadn't done this earlier in this country.

The two businesses were a hit from the very start.

There, however, was one casualty. Sundeep could see that Kalpana was losing interest in him. She was no longer responding to his advances. She would spend all her time with Swami. 'They are working on the same project,' thought Sundeep and consoled himself.

In the first week of August, Aditya was called to New York. He left on a Thursday. 'Today's evening meeting has been called off, since Aditya is off to New York. He asked me to call all of you and pass on the message,' said Natasha over the phone. This was a god sent message for Sundeep.

'Have you told Kalpana?' asked Sundeep.

'You are the first one I called, heartless.'

'OK. Don't bother calling her. I will call her and inform her. I will pass on the message to Swami too.'

'Thanks. Call me if you need anything.'

Sundeep kept the phone down and called Kalpana's extension. 'Hey, glad I caught ya. Today's meeting is off.'

'Oh. Because Aditya is away in NY,' Kalpana said. 'I was hoping that we guys would meet up and talk without Aditya.'

'If you got nothing to do tonight, how does dinner sound?' Sundeep was hoping Kalpana would say yes. 'It's been a long time since we did this.'

'Dinner with you! Never,' said Kalpana.

'What the fuck is your problem?' retorted a furious Sundeep.

'Just kidding ya! I have already committed for dinner with someone else. Sorry, sweetheart. If you have time, let's pick up a quick coffee right now.'

Sundeep was quite put off, even though he realised Kalpana said that in jest.

'I am a bit caught up now. Need to go. Talk to you later.' He said and hung up.

Later he realised that he was guilty of not spending time with Kalpana. He promised himself that he will find time to ensure Kalpana gets back to him.

Natasha had just come up to Sundeep to hand over a few documents, which Aditya had given her. She had overheard Sundeep's side of the conversation with Kalpana. She could make out that Sundeep was not happy with the outcome. She was feeling bad for him and decided to step in. She invited him for dinner. 'It's been a while, Sundeep. How about tonight? I am free.' Sundeep, was quite pissed with Kalpana, and, on rebound, decided to go out with Natasha.

Natasha knew that she was not Sandeep's first choice, but she didn't mind. All through dinner, she kept wondering why Sundeep liked Kalpana so much. There were moments when she felt like expressing her feelings to Sundeep, but the fear of rejection stopped her. She preferred to wait and watch.

After returning from New York, Aditya announced at the Monday evening meeting: 'New York is extremely happy with our progress. We have managed to create a stir in the group's management. They are all waiting for the initial results. You guys are going to become stars. We cannot fail.'

After this initial euphoria, it was back to business. 'Can I now get some updates from you guys,' demanded Aditya.

'We are meeting Brij Mohan Munjal day after tomorrow. Will you be able to come with us, Aditya?' said Swami.

Brij Mohan Munjal was the Chairman of Hero Honda Motors Ltd., the largest manufacturers of motorcycles in the world. Getting a chance to meet him was a special opportunity, not to be missed at any cost. If they wanted a deal, they had to get it now. There would be no second chance.

'No, Swami. I won't be able to come with you. Why don't you go with Kalpana?'

'In case Aditya is unable to come with you, would you want me to come with you, Swami? I have worked with car manufacturers in financing tie-ups.' Sundeep was not really offering help; he wanted to somehow stop Kalpana from going alone with Swami. He had noticed her interest in Swami, but had ignored it, assuming that their closeness was purely professional.

'I think we should let the two of them go,' Aditya quickly interjected. 'You already have your plate full with car loan deals, Sundeep.'