The Hindu Business Line : UCO Bank does away with zonal offices

New business model
GMs lose regional tag, get operations-based responsibility.
4 mega branches in metros to take care of flagship corporates.
Retail to be handled at 48 centres; SSIs get 36 dedicated offices.
New structure to be in place by June-end.

Kolkata , May 23

UCO Bank has started functioning without zonal offices with effect from Monday. There were three such offices and the employees of these offices have been redeployed in other branches.

"Acting on the suggestion of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which favoured a three-tier structure in place of the four-tier one which we had so far, we decided to wind up our zonal offices," Mr V. Sridar, CMD of the bank, told Business Line. The new three-tier structure presupposes branches, regional offices and head office.

The BCG's road map for a new organisation structure, as the UCO CMD pointed out, also included a few other things for implementation in phases. Earlier, it was geography-led, now it would be operation-based. Thus, instead of having region-based general managers in charge of East, West, South and North, the bank would now be having general managers in charge of flagship corporates (meaning big companies), mid corporates, small-scale industries and retail banking.

Even the operations of the big branches are being restructured. For example, Kolkata Main branch, a huge branch, would be split into three, one of them looking after flagship corporates and the others mid-corporates and SSIs. There would be four mega branches in four metros, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai, to take care of flagship corporates whose requirements were very different from those of others. Similarly, there would be 28 mid-corporate branches all over the country and the bank, in addition to converting some of the existing branches, might also choose to utilise new licences to open these branches.

"We will follow a different style for SSIs and retail banking," said Mr Sridar, indicating that there would be a separate workforce for these segments. "We are identifying a section of our workforce to train up to meet the new challenges," he said indicating that the retail would be handled in 48 centres while a big push would be given to SSI through 36 dedicated offices.

The new structure, he said, would be firmly in place by June-end and would help achieve the business target of Rs 110,000 crore in 2006-07 as compared to Rs 93,400 crore in 2005-06. Also, it would create promotional opportunities. There would be 338 new promotions at different levels as a sequel to the new structure. "But the full impact of the entire exercise will be felt from 2007-08," he observed.

New recruitments

UCO, as the CMD said, was also going for recruitment of officers and clerks. The recruitment of officers would be over by June while that of clerks would start towards the end of the year. "The Gurgaon-based Management Development Institute is advising us on how to revamp our HR initiative," Mr Sridar added.

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