The Hindu Business Line : First impressions

James Mathew was due to assume charge as Country Manager, India for a year, on the premise that one of the four equally promising and prospective contestants would succeed him.

Gordon Coleman, the Global HR Head handed over his brief on the four contrasting ‘avatars’ James may run into upon landing. Plotting the source of their motivation (X-axis) to the significant value-add potential of their agenda (Y axis), G ordon opined that a successful contender had to be adept at balancing their act.

Visionary CMO: Ajay Bhasin, bullish and dapper as ever, articulated the delayed decisions from HQ that was needlessly setting the Indian operations back. Armed with impressive statistics on the customer profiles and competitive moves, his in-your-face style of engagement, objectivity and research bent of mind was a welcome contrast to the ‘wool-headed ambivalence’ India had acquired a reputation for. Ajay can help build bridges with New York HQ.

Fluid performer: CIO Ashish Prabhu pointed out the ‘slack’ in our methods that required ‘shaking up the operations’ to knock off more than just a few basis points on costs. Given the reality of margin compression worldwide, with India showcasing the proof of concept, India benchmarks could be ‘baked into’ the regional level budgeting to post quantum leaps in profits. Ashish will be a hit with Strategy Planning Office, forever pulling out extra dollars hidden away in the back pockets of savvy country-level managers.

Iconoclast: Raman Dutt, the CHRO, felt that NY could be bold in containing the tendency of every new incumbent to depict his/her predecessor as a complete jerk without compromising on the values of innovation and individuality. James was reassured about Raman’s help in contending with the ‘cultural’ challenges at work.

Guardian at the GATE: Deepak Mazumdar, Chief Credit Officer, lamented that prudent lending and a quality portfolio was, of late, taking a back seat in preference to more aggressive efforts at business development. Public sentiments were turning against MNC banks that were guilty of ‘irresponsible lending’ that subjected needlessly flamboyant customer into a debt-trap; unsympathetic methods for bad debt recovery were also frowned upon. Collections are not only a risky career proposition for his collections team; it can also invite censure from Internal Audit.

Given the cultural tendency of Indians to ‘hero worship’ the CEO, James had plenty of ‘avatars’ to husband before arriving at his ‘chosen successor’!

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