Our aspiration to be the most admired bank drives our vision and dreams. One of the most ambitious priorities for us this year is to align to this aspiration by creating a strong leadership pipeline not only for the bank but also for the industry. We have identified a group of around 100 people who are undergoing a custom-made program at ISB which has been developed exclusively for Bank of Baroda, and I am personally involved at least 2 days for every program. At the next level, we have another program, called “Udaan” (fly to success), that touches around 500 to 600 people which is rolled out through the year by way of a customized program designed by McKinsey & Company which allows our people to be trained by the best faculty both global and Indian, who work with our people on projects, assignments and case studies. Thirdly, we are also investing a lot on technical/ specialized skills training like treasury, credit, foreign exchange etc. These trainings are imparted across the board to people identified as having the aptitude and attitude to learn and progress in their careers.

At least 40% of my time goes on talent related activities. Talent is the USP of the organization and this is true across industries, but most importantly in services industries. In a bank, for example, the core to our business is to be able to deliver what we promise and our people are the touch points for our customers. Hence to succeed in this competitive environment, we need our employees to think alike, have the right commitment to the vision and think and action at unison toward the common goal.

And the only way this is achieved is when the CEO invests his/ her time in creating the connect with every single person in the organization. This connect happens not only by using circulars but also a combination of initiatives that touches employees in many ways to create that feeling of belonging to the larger team.

Everybody in the organization has a role to play and the role of the CEO is to paint the big picture and help people feel connected to the dream. In competitive banking scenario, organizations have the same products; operate in the same environment and regulatory systems, so the only difference we have is our ‘team power’ to win and compete.
At Bank of Baroda, we have managed to create this ‘team power’ through the power of participation, and our revenues doubled and profits tripled in the last three years.