‘I will be back . . . for sure,’ whispered Naik or so it sounded to Amit, as the prison door opened and he was shoved in. Thankfully, he got an empty cell. There was no one else there.
He turned around and looked at Chanda as she followed Naik out of the police station. There was no one with him. He was all alone. Why did this happen? Why was God doing this to him?
January 2003
NYB
Mumbai
Aditya had just returned from an international strategy conference where all the countries presented their five-year strategic plan. It was a forum where potential opportunities were discussed and investments identified.
The presentation by the India team had not gone off well. Aditya was pulled up by the board for the slow integration of NFS into mainstream NYB and also the lacklustre pace of growth for the NBFC in India. World over, sub-prime lending was growing big, and everyone was looking at NFS to grow that business in India.
Lack of business push at NFS was the only complaint of the regional management team, which overshadowed the growth of NYB in all other areas. In all the earlier global meets, Aditya had been a star. For him, something like this was nothing short of loss of face. He wanted to get away from the conference and come back to India, and just blast his way through. Fortunately, for people back in India, he couldn’t possibly do so.
One morning, soon after, Amit was driving when he got a call from Aditya’s office. ‘He wants to see you now.’ It was Aditya’s secretary. And when Aditya sent an instruction, no one argued. Amit, who was going to meet a client, called up his relationship manager and asked her to step in for him. A minute later, Amit’s Ford Ikon was ripping its way through Mumbai’s crazy traffic and making its way towards the main office of NYB. In forty minutes, he was standing in front of Aditya’s cabin. ‘Very fowl mood’ Melinda said when she looked at Amit. Aditya saw him there and motioned to him to come in.
Clearly, he was in a belligerent mood. His body language was aggressive and he was moving around extremely antagonistically in his room. Definitely not the normal calm and composed Aditya that he knew.
‘Do you know what all we have done in the bank in the last three years?’
Amit just nodded.
‘Did you know that we have shown the fastest growth in revenue in the entire Asia Pacific region?’
‘Yes Aditya,’ Amit nodded again.
‘Did you know that our cost saving initiatives have been spoken about at group level?’
‘Hmmm . . .’ with another vigorous nod from Amit.
‘Did you know that all our audits have been very good this year?’
‘Yes.’
‘Yet the fuckers in the regional office say that we have wasted the last three years and they will not give us any fresh investments.’
Amit knew him very well . . . well enough to know that when the boss is in a bad mood, keep your thoughts under control and do not speak. Aditya wanted to let out some steam and that’s exactly what he was doing.
‘They are saying that we have screwed around with NFS and that we haven’t really internalised it the way we should have.’
‘Hmm . . .’ What else could he have said?
‘They claim that the growth in NFS is not the same as what they would have wanted. What can I do if those fuckers at NFS don’t listen to us. They just do their own thing . . . implement their own strategies and do not look for synergies with the larger bank.’
‘I agree Aditya.’
‘Your wife works there. Does she say anything about their efficiency and strategy? Doesn’t she come and tell you that they run a “lala ki dukaan”?’
‘No Aditya, she hasn’t complained yet.’
‘I have told the region, if you want me to deliver in the NBFC, then give me complete control in NFS. Make those fuckers report only to me. I will change the place.’
At that time, NFS was a group entity of New York International Bank; however, it functioned completely independently. The managing director of NFS reported to the regional head of the consumer finance business based in the regional office in Singapore and not to the India CEO of NYB, which was Aditya. The MD though had a dotted reporting to Aditya strictly for administrative reasons.
Aditya, one would say, had indirect control over the company on account of his influence as a senior in the trade, in the industry and in the organisation. But that was it. His say in the running of the day-to-day affairs of the company was restricted to providing strategic oversight.
‘And thankfully, now they have agreed to make this change over the next six to twelve months. By the end of this year, NFS will be folded into NYB from a reporting perspective. This has been committed to me.’
Why is he telling me all this? What do I have to do with this? wondered Amit. Aditya went on for another fifteen minutes making caustic comments on the way the financial services NBFC was being run and how he would change it if he took charge of the company and what changes they would have to do starting now.
‘I need your help in this.’ Amit looked at him, unable to comprehend the meaning of this statement. The look on Amit’s face meant ‘HOW?’
Aditya understood his question. ‘I want you to move into that company.’
‘What?’ Amit nearly exclaimed. He was surprised. Shocked would be a correct description of his reaction.
Blissfully ignorant of his reaction, Aditya went on, ‘You need to be my eyes and ears in that organisation. Once you move there, I will know what goes on there and what needs to be done.’
‘But Aditya . . .’ Amit began.
‘Look Amit, you have worked with me long enough to realise that I value people who stand by me. Have faith in me. I have never let my people down.’
‘Aditya . . .’
Again, he was not able to finish his sentence. ‘Amit, I will use my influence on the managing director and move you to a position of stature and authority there. If you have to be my man there, you need to move into the senior management team of NFS. I will work out something for you. Your career is my responsibility. Let me manage it for you.’
‘Aditya, Chanda works there. How can I work in the same organisation as her? Won’t it be an issue with compliance?’ Amit couldn’t think of anything better.
‘That’s fine son. I will fix that. As long as the two of you work for different bosses, it should be fine.’
Amit didn’t know how to respond. When in doubt, remain silent, was the mantra he had learnt.
Being perceptive was one of Aditya’s key strengths. ‘You don’t seem to be excited about it.’
Amit didn’t respond.
‘What if I mentioned to you that it will be a business manager’s role?’ Aditya had expected Amit to be thrilled about it. Amit didn’t show any emotion. It hadn’t hit him yet. ‘They are looking for a mortgage business head. Hari called me yesterday, asking for some help. Chander, their head of mortgage business has quit, and Hari wants to move fast on a replacement.’ Thanks to Chanda working there, Amit knew that Hari was the managing director of NFS.
Amit looked at him. There was a glow in his eyes. Was he beginning to get interested? Aditya couldn’t say with surety. ‘Wasn’t that the job you wanted to take in GE?’ He nodded.
‘Now that’s up for grabs in NFS. How does it sound?’ Amit’s lips began to curl upwards, the traction, pushing his eyebrows up. He was now beginning to smile. His dream was about to be realised. Only the other day, Chanda had asked him about Aditya’s outstanding promise of giving him a business to run. Wasn’t Aditya an awesome guy to work for?
Seeing him still thinking, Aditya stood up, patted him on the shoulder and said, ‘Think about it, my friend. Opportunities like these don’t come all the time. Puneet Singhania has been after my life, chasing me for a move too. I can give him the job if you don’t take it. Let me know by tomorrow. I have to head to a meeting now. I will wait for your call.’ And he walked out of the room, leaving Amit in his cabin thinking about what had just hit him. That was Aditya. Not onl
y had he teased Amit into getting interested, he had also handed him out the threat of others being in the fray if he delayed the decision for too long.
‘Wow! That’s great. You and me in the same organisation, in the same office! We can go and come back together,’ exclaimed Chanda when Amit told her about the conversation.
‘But I am not comfortable.’
‘With what?’ Chanda couldn’t fathom the reason for Amit’s discomfort.
‘With Aditya’s intent in sending me there.’
‘You are thinking too much. What if he had only told you that he is giving you the mortgage business to run? Wouldn’t you have been interested?’
‘Yes, but now I know I am being given the job, not because I am good or deserve it, but because Aditya wants me to be his man there in what he sees as the enemy camp.’
‘Why do you view it as the enemy camp?’
‘My boss views it so. I don’t.’
‘Yeah. Boss wants you to go and die fighting the enemy. Give me a break Amit. Can’t you see this opportunity staring at you in the face?’
Amit didn’t respond. He thought for a while and then looked up. ‘What does Chander do?’
‘He runs it now.’
‘Runs what?’
‘Mortgages, of course.’
‘I know that, you idiot. Aditya told me about it. How is it currently being managed there, in the NFS structure?’
‘Currently mortgages are run out of the branch network. In every location, the branch manager is the king. He is responsible for business development. He has a team below him for selling personal loans, two wheeler loans, and even mortgages. All these guys report to the branch manager who manages everything at a location.’
‘OKAY . . . and the branch managers?’
‘The branch managers report to the regional managers who report in turn to Gowri.’
‘What all does he manage . . . your good old Gowri?’
‘All activities in the branch come under him. Sales for personal loans, consumer durable loans, auto loans and mortgage loans.’
‘Where does that leave Chander?’
‘Chander manages it at a country level from a product perspective. Though the sales channels have a reporting relationship with him too, he ends up managing most of the backend. Gowri’s link with the branch managers is too strong for him to get into. He doesn’t run the business . . . for all practical purposes he just runs the product.’
‘Who is accountable for the business financials? For the revenues and the profits?’
‘Gowri.’
‘Big guy!’
‘But wait . . . how are they going to position this to him?’ Chanda questioned.
‘Who . . . him?’
‘Gowri . . .’
‘What about positioning?’
‘Arre, if they make you the business manager, won’t they be taking away a business from him and giving it to you? As I said, Chander is only a product manager. Gowri runs the sales channels, the way he wants.’
‘Oh, you mean he will get pissed?’
‘Ya, because part of what you are going to do falls in Chander’s area and a significant part lies under Gowri. He is bound to get mighty pissed.’
‘That’s Aditya’s problem. If I agree to move, it’s for Aditya and Hari to manage. Not me.’ Chanda agreed with this logic of Amit and the issue was dropped.
‘So, will you be moving to the vacant cabin on the corporate floor?’ The fourth cabin from Gowri’s room, right next to Kakkar’s room was vacant. Chanda knew that.
‘If I agree to move, that is.’
‘Whenever I come up to see Gowri, I can also come and have coffee with you.’ Chanda was getting ambitious.
‘And we could go together for lunch . . . God! Are you out of your mind, woman? That would amount to overexposure!’
‘OKAY. I will not even look at you in office. Happy?’ Chanda feigned anger.
‘OKAY baba. I will have lunch with you everyday. Now smile.’
And then the discussion moved to other routine stuff. In essence, Chanda’s excitement about Amit moving to NBFC made taking the decision only simpler for Amit.
The next day he walked up to Aditya and said. ‘I will take it Aditya.’
‘I am glad Amit. You have made the right choice. Do not worry. I am firmly behind you.’ And then, as Amit moved out of the room, he broke into a smile. He had managed to plant his devil into the enemy territory. Natasha would have understood his game plan. But Amit didn’t realise that he was being made the guinea pig in Aditya’s battle to win over NFS and bring it under his control.
In end January 2003, Amit moved to NFS as the mortgage business head.
The Mortgage Business
NYB Financial Services
2003
The mortgage business was a large and strategically important one for NFS in every sense – over twenty percent of the income and twenty-five percent of the profits of NFS came from this business. It could be anything but small and insignificant.
At NFS, mortgage was run in a manner quite divergent from the way it was run in most of the other organisations. There was a reason to it. Only one reason – Gowri.
Gowri controlled the branch network. The one hundred and fifty strong branch network was in his vice-like grip. He ran a tight shop. Nothing escaped his eyes and ears. His people were everywhere – they swamped the place like mosquitoes in a garbage dump. Nothing there could happen without his permission. So much so that even the MD was helpless. He had a choice. Fuck around with Gowri and see the business tanking or keep Gowri happy and reap the benefits. Hari was a contended peace-loving guy and in his own interest, chose the latter of the two options. He was on a three-year stint with NFS and was happy if someone else got him the numbers while he enjoyed his life.
The branch managers were in awe of Gowri. They too wouldn’t dare to do anything against Gowri. To be fair, Gowri kept them humoured and even took care of them. His emotional quotient was very high and the connect with his people was strong. Relationships transcended the realms of professionalism and often got into the personal domain. Personal rapport mattered. You don’t run a company on relationships, but Gowri did exactly that. However, to Gowri’s credit there were no major blow-ups visible to anyone.
The branches controlled everything that happened in the location. All businesses, personal loans, mortgages, two-wheeler loans, consumer loans, auto loans, etc., were run out of the NFS branches. Even though there were individual resources at various locations running these diverse sets of product lines, they all reported to one individual – the branch manager who was in effect the general manager, responsible for delivery of numbers across products. All the products folded into one individual – Gowri. This was not the way it was intended to be. The respective businesses had heads. There was an auto business head, a mortgage business head and thereon . . . all of them on paper accountable for their respective business lines, end to end. However, Gowri, using his large network of people and political acumen had taken charge of everything within his chain of command. The business managers were resigned to doing a lesser important product management job. They were of significantly junior vintage as compared to Gowri and hence unable to challenge and wrest charge from him. Like the MD, they had also come to realise that in case they had to live in the water and survive, it always pays to be friends with the king of the marshland, the crocodile.
The company had been run in this fashion for too long and it is said that over long periods of time, practice becomes a law. Gowri had become a law of his own in NFS. No one could touch him.
‘Please enter your name,’ the guard pointed towards the register kept outside the NYS office even as Amit showed him his NYB ID card. ‘I am a staff member,’ he reiterated.
‘Woh sub bank mein chalega. Yahaan nahin.’ This statement took Amit by surprise. ‘All these cards don’t work here. You can go in only if you are a staff of NFS. Otherwise, you have to enter your name in the register.�
� The security guard’s right hand went up to his large rounded moustache and caressed them in an upward movement which matched the twirl of his lips. He then turned and looked towards the parking lot, at a new batch of employees who were walking in towards the gate.
‘Anyway, from tomorrow, I will have a new card.’ Amit considered the fact that he had to get himself a new ID card as he was going to be working in the NFS office. He signed the register and walked in.
Amit then took long strides towards the reception area. ‘I want to see Mr Hariharan, the managing director,’ he said in a crisp voice to the receptionist.
‘You will have to wait sir. He is not in yet.’
‘I have an appointment at 9 a.m.’
‘Sure sir. But you can meet him only if he comes in. I have told his secretary to let me know the moment he comes in.’ The tone and manner was curt. Was it because he was new there or was he reading too much into it. He ignored the fact that it could be because the NFS employees hated any NYBanker in their midst.
‘If Chanda was around, I would have at least had a cup of coffee with her.’ Shrugging off the thought, he settled down on the sofa in the reception.
It was the twenty-eighth of the month and he was about to take on a new role in NFS. He had moved from the secure environs of his company – NYB – to be a part of the acquired company as a management representative of the acquirer . . . not a very pleasant situation to be in. But he was up to the challenge.
Just as he was rummaging through the zillion thoughts that were crowding his mind, a young girl passed by along with a guy who looked like a goon.
‘Kitna mila gaadi ka?’
‘Phour lakh maddum.’
‘Bus? Only four lakh? But it was a new car. Just about eight–ten months old.’
‘It was approved maddum. Imtiaz sir ke approvals hain hamare paas.’
‘OKAY. Deposit the cash. Had you told me, I would have asked my boyfriend to buy it at this price.’
Amit’s interest in eavesdropping on their conversation was more to do with the girl’s cuteness quotient than any genuine longing to understand and know what they were talking about! He stopped looking in that direction when the girl moved away from the reception and went towards the cash counter. By then the discussion about the car had stopped.
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