A bunch of small, big things<\/strong><\/p> In the lives of most professionals, a few instances make all the difference. For Bhattacharya, it was an assignment in Kharagpur, when she led a team for the first time. Her boss was in Burdwan, a good 130 km away, and in a world without mobile phones, it was quite an experience. Decisions had to be taken quickly, by the person on the ground.<\/p> \u201cI faced a strongly unionised branch, and it taught me a lot about negotiation. I learnt how to do a lot with limited resources,\u201d she says, sitting in her office in Mumbai\u2019s Bandra Kurla Complex. Later, she moved to the US for a stint in New York and took the \u201cextremely tough\u201d decision to send her daughter back home for a year. At that point, her aunt was a great source of support. \u201cI still don\u2019t know if I took the right decision.\u201d<\/p> Then, there was a stint as chief general manager for new businesses based out of Mumbai. \u201cOpening a new business in a public sector bank is not easy but it turned out to be the most productive period of my life,\u201d she says. For one, Bhattacharya had to deal with a new set of regulators. \u201cTill then, it was only the Reserve Bank of India. Now, for a private equity fund, I had to talk to Sebi and RBI, and for general insurance, IRDAI; to operationalise the fund management company, I also interacted with PFRDA.\u201d<\/p> That set her up for other new assignments, one of them being SBI Capital Markets. \u201cThe SBI name opened a lot of doors. But once you are out of the bank, it\u2019s different,\u201d she says. Admitting it was a \u201crude shock,\u201d she says even for the government, she represented SBI Cap and not SBI. Nothing deterred her, though, and she used the stint as a training ground.<\/p> Bhattacharya says one should always take a chance to head an organisation regardless of its size. \u201cIt is an invaluable lesson you can never get even if you are a managing director. Unless you are the chairman, it is not possible.\u201d<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> The Big Ones<\/strong><\/p> In October 2013, Bhattacharya moved into the corner office at SBI. The best was yet to come. Reaching the pinnacle is a proud moment, though she is a little philosophical about it. \u201cIt is a little lonely and, therefore, it is important to keep your friends close. Many people will tell you what you want to hear but you must have a close set of friends to tell you the truth,\u201d she says. Growing into the role also meant being open-minded. Bhattacharya narrates how one of her managing directors gave her handy advice. \u201cWhen you start a conversation or bring up a point, you must be the last one to speak. If you speak first, the others may not have an opinion.\u201d<\/p> \u201cIf someone has a view on a subject, I should be open-minded enough to listen to it. And if that view is reasonable, I must change my stance,\u201d she says.<\/p> These skills were put to good use during SBI\u2019s merger with five associate banks and Bharat Mahila Bank. She says it was not a popular decision; the team was not too comfortable with the move. \u201cIt was a huge task and these six banks together would have been bigger than the second largest at that point in time. You were merging a really big bank into yourself, and that too in six pieces, all in one day,\u201d she says.<\/p> There was more than one sound rationale for the merger. Bhattacharya says it did not make sense for one entity to own six banks. \u201cWe were undercutting each other. There was duplication at many levels.\u201d An example: three floors in a multi-storied building occupied by three banks belonging to SBI.<\/p> Bhattacharya recollects hearing about the possible merger when she joined the bank. That was decades ago. \u201cI thought it was time and went for it,\u201d she says. Ensuring that the customer faced no hitches was important. Bhattacharya recalls one person who had an account with State Bank of Mysore and used internet banking on the day of the merger. \u201cHe wrote to me that the experience was seamless and was very pleased with the outcome.\u201d<\/p> According to Deepak Parekh, former Chairman of HDFC, SBI has had a history of competent chairmen. \u201cA lot of credit must go to the training system and the way promotions and deputations are decided. The grounding you get there is among the best in the country,\u201d he says. Bhattacharya was the first woman to hold the top job at SBI. Parekh says under her leadership, SBI pursued discipline and became a formidable force, most evident in impressive financial numbers and high stock price. \u201cCredit was given only when there was a strong case. Arundhati is a very strong person and has always stood her ground,\u201d he says.<\/p> Parekh says the challenge must be viewed in the context of manpower issues and subsidiaries not doing well. \u201cPlus, they existed in different geographies with their own culture. That entire process, with many challenges, was handled in an exemplary manner,\u201d he adds.<\/p> Another big challenge was demonetisation, which Bhattacharya calls a \u201cgoogly.\u201d At 2:30 PM on November 8, 2016, she got a call from the RBI deputy governor\u2019s office for a meeting. The heads of other banks also joined, and it became apparent that something big was unfolding. \u201cUltimately, we got to know about it with the rest of the nation,\u201d she says. She focused her attention on execution and working with a cool head.<\/p> The other focus was digital. \u201cThe power it brought to the table and the ability to do things in an error-free manner were obvious. It was clear that the future was going to be digital.\u201d<\/p> \u201cWe were at an inflexion point. Technology had to be adopted but the legacy mindset was a challenge,\u201d says Sunil Srivasatva, who was then Deputy Managing Director (Digital Banking & Corporate Strategy).<\/p> At her behest, an offsite at Lonavala for the top brass, including independent\u00a0directors, got things moving. It was also attended by the sharpest minds from Microsoft, McKinsey, BCG, Gartner and Oracle etc. \u201cThere was a lot of discussion on the digital future of the bank,\u201d\u00a0says Srivastava, who also remembers that it was perhaps the first time that the entire team travelled by bus. That effort paid off with the board soon giving the green signal for the highest tech spend ever by the bank till then. \u201cTaking along the board made a big difference,\u201d he adds. At that stage, while core banking had been stabilised, the challenge lay in the inevitability of digital banking where SBI had lagged others.\u00a0\u201cShe was not thinking in an incremental manner. Once there was the buy-in from the board, there was no stopping the transformation.\u201d Parekh says a lot of digital \u201cpathbreaking work,\u201d including YONO, was done by Bhattacharya, before Dinesh Khara \u201ctook it to the next level.\u201d<\/p> Taking Fresh Guard<\/strong><\/p> After completing her term at SBI in 2017, Bhattacharya spent the next year\u2014also her gardening leave\u2014giving lectures and attending investor conferences. Not all of this was related to banking. In fact, the first lecture was at Welham Girls School in Dehradun at their annual day. The crowd was a mix of students and alumni. \u201cThe principal told me I would have to speak in a manner that could be understood by a student in the sixth grade and also by a 70-year-old,\u201d she says. Post October 2018, she joined a few boards and took up consulting assignments.<\/p> Quite unexpectedly, during this period, a head-hunter reached out to her for a position at Salesforce. \u201cI was told the organisation is still small in India but had big growth plans. They wanted a country head,\u201d she says. That was in 2019. Bhattacharya sat on the decision for five-six months. \u201cI was apprehensive about starting a new journey at that age. Plus, it was an entirely new area, though the world of IT has always excited me.\u201d<\/p> Towards the end of that year, Salesforce\u2019s founder, Marc Benioff, invited her to the company\u2019s San Francisco headquarters. \u201cHe realised I was not able to make up my mind and asked me to meet with the team to decide.\u201d After detailed conversations with the team, Bhattacharya was comfortable, and towards the end of the trip, Benioff gave her a copy of his book. \u201cI enjoyed reading stories of someone who walks the talk. On the flight back home, I pretty much made up my mind to take up the offer.\u201d<\/p> The Tech journey<\/strong><\/p> Salesforce is a young organisation where most people address Bhattacharya by her first name. \u201cI was already used to people calling me Arundhati during my stint in New York,\u201d she says. Among the many things that excite her is that IT is a future-facing business. \u201cIf you don\u2019t prepare for what lies ahead, you are likely to become irrelevant.\u201d<\/p> In many ways, banking and IT are about high-quality customer service. \u201cYou must understand what customers want. It includes the pain points and keeping one\u2019s word on delivery,\u201d says Bhattacharya. She views the current phase as \u201cdemocratisation of IT\u201d where there is virtually no entry barrier. \u201cEarlier, you needed to know the language or coding or have some area of expertise. There will be a time when all of us will have a personal secretary who will be our agent.\u201d<\/p> Srivastava says it\u2019s remarkable what Bhattacharya has accomplished despite no formal training in technology.\u00a0 \u201cToday, she speaks the language of tech easily,\u201d he says.<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> Under her leadership, SBI pursued discipline and became a formidable force. Credit was given only when there was a strong case. Arundhati is a very strong person and has always stood her ground.<\/span><\/p> <\/div> -DEEPAK PAREKH,Former Chairman, HDFC<\/span><\/span><\/p> <\/div> <\/div> Going through the digital experience at SBI has, obviously, helped Bhattacharya run a digital-native organisation. \u201cI had gone through the challenge of converting a traditional bank into a digitised platform. That exposure coupled with the nuances of a customer\u2019s point of view has made a big difference,\u201d she says.<\/p> Bhattacharya, says Srivastava, is a consensus builder. He draws an example from SBI\u2019s merger with associate banks. \u201cThe key lay in harmonising a complicated process. Appreciating the granularity of the process across various verticals and getting all concerned on the same page was not easy, but once that was done, it became seamless.\u201d Inevitably, the vertical heads too played their part. \u201cBut the real force was the person leading the process. She intervened only when there was a need,\u201d he says, before adding Bhattacharya is \u201ca compassionate leader but with a mind of her own.\u201d<\/p> Bhattacharya\u2019s journey has had many milestones. However, she does not forget the role that her mother and aunt played\u2014\u201cboth were very strong women\u201d\u2014and how they influenced her. \u201cMy husband is all about giving me space. He has never been interfering and never held me back,\u201d she says. At 70, her enthusiasm for anything she does is infectious. Of course there is commitment, but more than anything else, it is a lesson that one must enjoy what one is doing. It could be running a bank or a tech organisation or just watching a show on Netflix.<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> @krishnagopalan<\/p> <\/div> #Lifetime #Achievement #Arundhati #Bhattacharya #CEO #Dreams #Big1774938034<\/p> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Arundhati Bhattacharya watches a lot of Netflix. \u201cIt could be any web series,\u201d she says. Her favourite right now is Sullivan\u2019s Crossing, a heartwarming series focused on neurosurgeon Maggie Sullivan, who flees a scandal in Boston to her rural Nova Scotia hometown. A welcome break in view of the challenging task Bhattacharya has set for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[20764,7152,7153,810,735,20765,20763],"class_list":["post-5553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content-marketing","tag-achievement","tag-arundhati","tag-bhattacharya","tag-big","tag-ceo","tag-dreams","tag-lifetime"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Lifetime](\"https:\/\/akm-img-a-in.tosshub.com\/businesstoday\/inline-images\/quote\/032026\/deepak.jpg\" "\\"Lifetime")
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