India banks on her: Chanda Kochhar

She believes in the ability of a woman to break barriers. “I would like to tell every woman out there that there is absolutely nothing that you cannot do in today’s world,” Chanda Kochhar, managing director and chief executive director, ICICI Bank, says.

For her contribution to banking, Kochhar received the Padma Bhushan in 2011, India’s highest civilian honour. A mother of two children, she says time management was the key to her ability to give 100% both at work and at home. “There have been days when it was important for me to be with my daughter during exams or be present at my son’s squash matches. On other days, I would have to attend to work thereby missing a PTA meeting,” she explains.

Retail banking as we know it today — with ATMs, credit cards and personal loans — was introduced in India by ICICI Bank. In the early nineties, the bank’s branches began to dot India and set up ATMs where they could not set up branches. Bank’s direct selling agents introduced Indians to the ease of owning cars and living off credit, if they ran out of money.

In the nineties, Kochhar was handling the corporate loans of the bank which contributed to 50 per cent of its profits, while retail was just at 1 per cent. The then chief executive officer KV Kamath, handed her responsibility of growing retail banking to over 50 per cent. Today, over 50 per cent of the bank’s growth comes from retail banking.

“At the time, since I was running the corporate side of the bank,” she says, “I was handling almost 50 per cent of its profits, assets and business; retail accounted for less than 1 per cent of the business. Additionally, since no one had set up a retail bank in the country in the last 50 years — it was altogether a new challenge. Target was to ramp up the retail business from 1 per cent to about 50 per cent of the bank’s business and we achieved that. I still continue to endeavour that when I undertake a task — to do the job better than it has been done so far. I think when you focus on excelling at whatever you are doing, the journey upward becomes a consequence of your hard work and effort.”

Kochhar has been instrumental in implementing many woman-friendly policies within the bank —  ICICI Bank’s human resources policies include fertility leave and even an adoption leave.

“Even our male employees can avail the child care leave and adoption leave,” she says. “The Bank has also put in place a facility for women managers to travel with young children up to the age of three years. It  provides cost of travel and stay for children and their caregivers.”