Assignment-Women's Day Special

7/30/2019 Assignment-Women's Day Special

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WWoommeenn''ssDDaayyWomen's Day, originally called International Working Women's Day, is markedonMarch 8every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations rangesfrom general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to acelebration for women's economic, political and social achievements. Started as aSocialist political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries,

primarily Eastern Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet bloc. In some regions, theday lost its political flavor, and became simply an occasion for men to express theirlove for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture ofMother'sDay and Valentine's Day. In other regions, however, the original political andhuman rights theme designated by the United Nations runs strong, and politicaland social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out andexamined in a hopeful manner.

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The first nationalWomen's Day was observed on 28 February 1909 in the UnitedStates following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. In August 1910, anInternational Women's Conference was organized to precede the general meeting ofthe Socialist Second International in Copenhagen. Inspired in part by the Americansocialists, German Socialist Luise Zietz proposed the establishment of an annual'International Woman's Day' (singular) and was seconded by communist ClaraZetkin, although no date was specified at that conference. Delegates (100 womenfrom 17 countries) agreed with the idea as astrategy to promote equal rights, includingsuffrage, for women. The following year, on 18March 1911, IWD was marked for the first time,

by over a million people in Austria, Denmark,Germany and Switzerland. In the Austro-
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Female members of the AustralianBuilders Labourers Federationmarch on International Women'sDay 1975 in Sydney

Hungarian Empire alone, there were 300 demonstrations. In Vienna, womenparaded on the Ringstrasse and carried banners honouring the martyrs of the ParisCommune. Women demanded that women be given the right to vote and to holdpublic office. They also protested against employment sex discrimination.Americans continued to celebrate National Women's Day on the last Sunday in

February.

In 1913 Russian women observed their firstInternational Women's Day on the last Sunday inFebruary (by Julian calendar then used inRussia). In 1917 demonstrations markingInternational Women's Day in SaintPetersburg on the last Sunday in February (which fell on 8 March on the Gregoriancalendar) initiated the February Revolution.

Following the October Revolution, the Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontai persuadedVladimir Lenin to make it an official holiday in the Soviet Union, and it was

established, but was a working day until 1965. On May 8, 1965 by the decree ofthe USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet International Women's Day wasdeclared a non-working day in the USSR "in commemoration of the outstandingmerits of Soviet women in communistic construction, in the defense of theirFatherland during the Great Patriotic War, in their heroism and selflessness at thefront and in the rear, and also marking the great contribution of women tostrengthening friendship between peoples, and the struggle for peace. But still,women's day must be celebrated as are other holidays."

From its official adoption in Russia following the Soviet Revolution in 1917 theholiday was predominantly celebrated in communist and socialist countries. It was

celebrated by the communists in China from 1922, and by Spanish communistsfrom 1936. After the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949the state council proclaimed on December 23 that March 8 would be made anofficial holiday with women in China given a half-day off, though today's youngwomen in college or before motherhood are increasingly reluctant to celebrate it forthe suggestion of the term 'women' of youth ended, prettiness lost, and relationalliberty restricted.

In the West, International Women's Day was first observed as a popular event after1977 when the United Nations General Assembly invited member states toproclaim March 8 as the UN Day for women's rights and world peace.

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On the occasion of 2010 International Women's Day the ICRC drew attention to thehardship displaced women endure. The displacement of populations is one of thegravest consequences of today's armed conflicts. It affects women in a host of ways.

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Events took place in more than 100 countries on March 8, 2011 to commemoratethe 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. In the United States,
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President Barack Obama proclaimed March 2011 to be "Women's History Month",calling Americans to mark IWD by reflecting on "the extraordinaryaccomplishments of women" in shaping the country's history. Secretary ofState Hillary Clinton launched the "100 Women Initiative: Empowering Women andGirls through International Exchanges", on the eve of IWD. In the run-up to 2011

International Women's Day, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)called on States and other entities not to relent in their efforts to prevent rape andother forms of sexual violence that harm the lives and dignity of countless womenin conflict zones around the world every year. In Pakistan, Punjab Govt. ProjectGender Reform Action Plan, District Gujranwala celebrated this day in large scalein the Gift University Gujranwala. Mrs. Shazia Ashfaq Mattu, MPA and GRAPofficer Mr. Dr. Yasir Nawaz Manj organized the events in very effective manners.Australia issued a 100th anniversary commemorative coin.


The UN theme for International Womens Day 2012 was Empower Rural WomenEnd Hunger and Poverty. In that year, Oxfam America invited people to celebrateinspiring women in their lives by sending a free International Womens Day e-Cardor honoring a woman whose efforts had made a difference in the fight againsthunger and poverty with Oxfams International Womens Day award.

On the occasion of International Women's Day 2012, the ICRC called for more

action to help the mothers and wives of people who have gone missing duringarmed conflict. The vast majority of people who go missing in connection withconflict are men. As well as the anguish of not knowing what has happened to themissing person, many of these women face economic and practical difficulties. TheICRC underlined the duty of parties to a conflict to search for the missing andprovide information for the families.

The Google Doodle for March 8, 2012 had an International Women's Day theme.


The UN theme for International Women's Day 2013 is "A promise is a promise:Time for action to end violence against women," while International Women's Day2013 has declared the year's theme as The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum.

Year UN Theme

1996 Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future

1997 Women and the Peace Table

1998 Women and Human Rights

1999 World Free of Violence Against Women2000 Women Uniting for Peace
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2001 Women and Peace: Women Managing Conflicts

2002 Afghan Women Today: Realities and Opportunities

2003 Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals

2004 Women and HIV/AIDS

2005 Gender Equality Beyond 2005; Building a More Secure Future

2006 Women in Decision-making

2007 Ending Impunity for Violence Against Women and Girls

2008 Investing in Women and Girls

2009 Women and Men United to End Violence Against Women and Girls

2010 Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for All

2011Equal Access to Education, Training, and Science and Technology: Pathwayto Decent Work for Women

2012 Empower Rural Women, End Poverty and Hunger2013 A Promise is a Promise: Time for Action to End Violence Against Women

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The day is an official holiday in Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,Burkina Faso,Cambodia,China (for women only), Cuba,Georgia,Guinea-Bissau,Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macedonia (for women only), Madagascar(for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal (for women only), Russia,

Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia.

In some countries, such as Cameroon, Croatia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,Serbia,Bulgaria and Chile, the day is not a public holiday, but is widely observednonetheless. On this day it is customary for men to give the women in their lives mothers, wives, girlfriends, daughters, colleagues, etc. flowers and small gifts. Insome countries (such as Bulgaria and Romania) it is also observed as an equivalentof Mother's Day, where children also give small presents to their mothers andgrandmothers.

In Armenia, after the collapse of the Soviet Union celebrations of IWD wereabandoned. Instead, April 7 was introduced as state holiday of Beauty andMotherhood. The new holiday immediately became popular among Armenians, asit commemorates one of the main holidays of the Armenian Church,the Annunciation. However, people still kept celebrating IWD on March 8 as well.Public discussion held on the topic of two Womens Days in Armenia resulted inthe recognition of the so-called Womens Month which is the period betweenMarch 8 and April 7.

In Italy, to celebrate the day, men give yellow mimosas to women. Yellow mimosasand chocolate are also one of the most common March 8 presentsin Russia and Albania.

In many countries, such as in Armenia,Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria,Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Macedonia,

Moldova,Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine the custom
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of giving women flowers still prevails. Women also sometimes get gifts from theiremployers. Schoolchildren often bring gifts for their teachers, too.

In countries like Portugal groups of women usually celebrate on the night of 8March in "women-only" dinners and parties.

In Pakistan working women in formal and informal sectors celebrate InternationalWomen's Day every year to commemorate their ongoing struggle for due rights,despite facing many cultural and religious restrictions. Some women working forchange in society use IWM to help the movement for women's rights. In Poland, forinstance, every IWD includes large feminist demonstrations in major cities.

In 1975, which was designated as International Womens Year, the United Nationsgave official sanction to, and began sponsoring, International Women's Day.

The 2005 Congress (conference) of the British Trades UnionCongress overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for IWD to be designated a

public holiday in the United Kingdom.

Since 2005, IWD has been celebrated in Montevideo, either on the principal street,18 de Julio, or alternatively through one of its neighbourhoods. The event hasattracted much publicity due to a group of female drummers, La Melaza, who haveperformed each year.

Today, many events are held by women's groups around the world. The UK-basedmarketing company Aurora hosts a free worldwide register of IWD local events sothat women and the media can learn about local activity. Many governments andorganizations around the world support IWD.

70% of those living in poverty are women and Oxfam GB encourages women to GetTogether on International Women's Day and fundraise to support Oxfam projects,which change the lives of women around the world. Thousands of people holdevents for Oxfam on International Women's Day, join the celebration by visiting thewebsite and registering their events.

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In some cases International Women's Day has led to questionable practices that

discriminated against men. For example Tower Hamlets Council closed off one ofits libraries to all males to "celebrate" the occasion, forcing them to travelelsewhere, going as far as even banning male staff from the premises.

In Communist Czechoslovakia, huge Soviet-style celebrations were held annually.After the fall of Communism, the holiday, generally considered to be one of themajor symbols of the old regime, fell into obscurity. International Women's Day wasre-established as an official "important day" by the Parliament of the CzechRepublic only recently, on the proposal of the Social Democrats and Communists.

This has provoked some controversy as a large part of the public as well as thepolitical right see the holiday as a relic of the nation's Communist past. In 2008,

the Christian conservative Czechoslovak People's Party's deputies unsuccessfullyproposed the abolition of the holiday. However, some non-government
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organizations consider the official recognition of International Women's Day as animportant reminder of women's role in the society.

International Women's Day sparked violence in Tehran, Iran on March 4, 2007,when police beat hundreds of men and women who were planning a rally. Police

arrested dozens of women and some were released after several days of solitaryconfinement and interrogation. Shadi Sadr, Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh andseveral more community activists were released on March 19, 2007, ending afifteen day hunger strike.

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A popular apocryphal story which surfaced in French Communist circles claimedthat women from clothing and textile factories had staged a protest on 8 March1857 in New York City. The story alleged that garment workers were protesting

against very poor working conditions and low wages and were attacked anddispersed by police. It was claimed that this event led to a rally in commemorationof its 50th anniversary in 1907. Temma Kaplan explains that "neither event seemsto have taken place, but many Europeans think March 8, 1907 inauguratedInternational Women's Day." Speculating about the origins of this 1857 legend,Liliane Kandel and Franoise Picq suggested it was likely that (in recent times)some felt it opportune to detach International Women's Day from its basis in Soviethistory and ascribe to it a more "international" origin which could be painted asmore ancient than Bolshevism and more spontaneous than a decision of Congressor the initiative of those women affiliated to the Party.

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Ms. Chanda Kochhar

Managing Director and Chief ExecutiveOfficer, ICICI Bank Limited
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Ms. Chanda Kochhar is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ICICIBank Limited, India's second-largest bank and the largest in the private sector. Sheis widely recognised for her role in shaping the retail banking sector in India andfor her leadership of the ICICI Group, as well as her contributions to variousforums in India and globally.

Ms. Kochhar began her career, with erstwhile ICICI Limited in 1984 and waselevated to the Board of Directors of ICICI Bank in 2001. She was instrumental inestablishing ICICI Bank during the 1990s, and subsequently headed theinfrastructure finance and corporate banking business in ICICI Limited. In 2000,she took on the challenge of building the nascent retail business, with strong focuson technology, innovation, process reengineering and expansion of distribution and

scale. The Bank achieved a leadership position in this business. During 2006-2007, she successfully led the Bank's corporate and international bankingbusinesses during a period of heightened activity and global expansion by Indiancompanies. From 2007 to 2009, she was the Joint Managing Director & ChiefFinancial Officer during a critical period of rapid change in the global financiallandscape. She was elevated as Managing Director & CEO of ICICI Bank in 2009and is responsible for the Bank's diverse operations in India and overseas. She alsochairs the boards of the Bank's principal subsidiaries, which include India'sleading private sector life and general insurance companies.

In addition to her responsibilities at the ICICI Group, Ms. Kochhar is a member of

the Prime Minister's Council on Trade & Industry, the Board of Trade, High-LevelCommittee on Financing Infrastructure, US-India CEO Forum and UK-India CEOForum. She is Deputy Chairperson of the Indian Banks' Association, and a memberof the boards of the Indian Council for Research on International EconomicRelations, National Institute of Securities Markets, Institute of InternationalFinance and International Monetary Conference. She was co-chair of the WorldEconomic Forum's Annual Meeting in 2011.

She was conferred with the Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilianhonours, in 2011.

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2012 Topped the list of "50 Most Powerful Women in Business" by Fortune India. Ranked 18th in Fortune's list of '2012 Businesspersons of the Year'. This is

Fortune's annual ranking of 50 global leaders who are "the best inbusiness".

Ranked fifth, for the second consecutive year, in Fortune's international listof "50 Most Powerful Women in Business."

Ranked 59th in the World's 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes. Named amongst the nine Indian women in the Forbes' inaugural "Asia PowerBusinesswomen" list.


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Ranked fifth in the list of the "Most Powerful CEOs" in India by TheEconomic Times and first in the list of "Top Women CEOs" in the country.

Conferred with CNBC Asia's India Business Leader of the year award andCSR award.

Named the "Business Person of the Year" by Business India

Named amongst the "25 most powerful professional women" in the countryby India Today for the second year.

22001111 Ranked fifth by Fortune in the International list of "50 Most Powerful Women

in Business". Ranked 17th among the "25 Most Powerful CEOs" in Asia by Fortune. Ranked 43rd "Most Powerful Woman" in the world by Forbes. Named among the "50 most influential people in global finance" by

Bloomberg Markets magazine. Named among the "two best Indian CEOs "in an annual poll by Finance Asia. Ranked 10th by Financial Times in the "Top 50 Women in World Business". Received the "Global Leadership Award" from the US-India Business

Council. Named "Most Powerful Woman in Indian Business" by Fortune India. The first woman to be named as the "Business Leader of the Year" by The

Economic Times. Featured in the "Hall Of Fame - Most Powerful Women in Indian Business"

by Business Today. Conferred with the "Transformational Business Leader of the Year", award by

All India Management Association.

22001100 Ranked 10th in the list of "Most Powerful Women in Business" by Fortune. Ranked 92nd in the list of "Most Powerful Women" in the world by Forbes. Conferred with the "Outstanding Woman Business Leader of the Year" award

by CNBC TV18. Conferred with the "Banker of the Year Award" by Financial Express. Featured in the list of "30 Most Powerful Women Leaders" in Business Today

for eight consecutive years from 2002 to 2010.

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Kochhar was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan and raised in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Shecompleted her schooling from St. Angela Sophia School, Jaipur. She then movedto Mumbai, where she joined Jai Hind College for a Bachelor of Arts degree. Aftergraduating in 1982 she then pursued Cost Accountancy ICWAI, Later, she acquiredthe Masters Degree in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute ofManagement Studies, Mumbai. She received the Wockhardt Gold Medal forExcellence in Management Studies as well as the J. N. Bose Gold Medal in Cost

Accountancy for highest marks in the same year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodhpurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaipurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_Hind_Collegehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICWAIhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamnalal_Bajaj_Institute_of_Management_Studieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamnalal_Bajaj_Institute_of_Management_Studieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamnalal_Bajaj_Institute_of_Management_Studieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamnalal_Bajaj_Institute_of_Management_Studieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICWAIhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_Hind_Collegehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaipurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodhpur


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Kochhar resides in Mumbai, and is married to Deepak Kochhar, a wind energyentrepreneur and her Business schoolmate. She has two children, a son and adaughter.

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1199884411999933In 1984, Kochhar joined the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of IndiaLtd. (ICICI). as a management trainee after her Master's degree. In her early yearsin ICICI, she handled Project Appraisal and Monitoring and projects in variousindustries like Textile, Paper and Cement.

1199993322000066

In 1993, Kochhar was sent to ICICI bank as part of a core team to set the bank.She was promoted to Assistant general manager in 1994 and then to Deputygeneral manager in 1996. In 1996, Kochhar headed the newly formedInfrastructure Industry Group of ICICI, which aimed "to create dedicated industryexpertise in the areas of Power, Telecom and Transportation". In 1998, she waspromoted as the general manager and headed ICICI's Major Client Group, whichhandled relationships with ICICI's top 200 clients. In 1999, she also handled theStrategy and E-commerce divisions of ICICI. Under Kochhar's leadership, ICICIbank started the Retail business in July 2000 and emerged the largest retail

financer in India, in the next five years. In April 2001, she took over as ExecutiveDirector, heading the in ICICI Bank.

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In April 2006, Kochhar was appointed as Deputy managing director of ICICI Bank.She managed the Corporate and Retail banking business of ICICI Bank. FromOctober 2006 to October 2007, she handled the International and Corporatebusinesses of ICICI Bank. From October 2007 to April 2009, Kochhar was also thebank's chief financial officer (CFO), Joint managing director (JMD) and the official

spokesperson. She also headed the Corporate Centre of ICICI Bank. She is also adirector of different ICICI group companies. She is the chairperson of ICICI BankEurasia Limited Liability Company and ICICI Investment Management CompanyLimited. Kochhar is the Vice-Chairperson of ICICI Bank UK PLC and ICICI BankCanada. She is a director in ICICI International Limited and ICICI Prudential LifeInsurance Company Ltd. and part of the Governing Council in 1964. The ICICIFoundation for Inclusive Growth-Member.

Kochhar is CEO and MD of ICICI Bank from May 2009 for a period of five years.She succeeds K. V. Kamath, who was CEO of the bank since 1996.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICICI_Bank_Canadahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICICI_Bank_Canadahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICICI_Prudentialhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._V._Kamathhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._V._Kamathhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICICI_Prudentialhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICICI_Bank_Canadahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICICI_Bank_Canada


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CChhaannddaaKKoocchhhhaarr''ssssuucccceessssssttoorryy

The 11th floor conference room in the South Tower at ICICI Banks headquartershas witnessed many stormy meetings. Like the one in progress that warm April day

in 2008.

KV Kamaths A-teamChanda Kochhar, V Vaidyanathan, Madhabi Puri-Buch, KRamkumar and Sonjoy Chatterjeehad assembled there, a day before presentingthe banks budget to the board. Kamath had told them they ought to focus onreining in costs.

But a consensus seemed to elude the group. That was because Kochhar, widelytipped to take over from Kamath, was unconvinced. Everybody else in the roomreckoned Rs 7,900 crore in operating expenses was a fair number.

The debate went on, until abruptly, Kochhar stood up and said: With this kind of

numbers, we wont have a bank to run next year. That said, she called the meetingto a close.

A couple of hours of brainstorming later without Kochhar, they reassembled in thesame room. We dont have an answer, executive director and group HR head atthe bank K Ramkumar recalls the team telling Kochhar. What is the number weought to be working on? Without blinking, she said Rs 6,500 crore.

For a few moments, there was a stunned silence in the room. Essentially, she wastelling them to maintain operating expenses at the previous years level. For peopleworking in an entity that always grew at 35 40 per cent each year, this sounded

like harakiri. The next day, Kamath nodded in approval and smiled at thenumbers. What in the devils name, they wondered, was going on? What, indeed !

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For as long as most people who have followed ICICI can remember, the bank hasremained married to one mission: Aggressive growth. That is why when newsstarted trickling out that a divorce is inevitable, we had to ask Chanda Kochhar who has since taken over from Kamath as the CEO and managing director, if this isindeed the case. Quite honestly, it was impossible to miss the firmness in anotherwise temperate voice. Growth, she said, can mean various things. It isnt

just about growing the balance sheet.

To seasoned ICICI watchers, this is the kind of language that qualifies forblasphemythe kind of thing an outsider with no clue of the banks institutionalhistory would say. But then, we all know Chanda Kocchar is, The Insider. Shesseen it all: How her predecessor KV Kamath transformed ICICI from a crumblingdevelopment financial institution (DFI) to Indias most visible universal bank; howhe grew its balance sheet five fold in less than a decade; and how he commandsfanatic loyalty from the troops. But everything Kochhar is executing right now mayseem to be at loggerheads with what her mentor believed in.

Over the next one year, she intends to grow the balance sheet by just five per centan unthinkably low number during the Kamath years. But now, she is batteningdown the hatches on two of Kamaths biggest bets plant the ICICI flag outside


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India and aggressively woo rural India. For some time to come, Kochhar promisesthere will be no saber rattling on either of these fronts.

And remember the credit card and personal loan businesses? Kamath goaded thebank into war with global giants Citi and Standard Chartered and eventually

toppled them a few years ago. One of the first things Kochhar did after taking overwas to tell her colleagues to back off from these verticals and cut losses.

Then there was this period when Kamath told a whole generation of Indians whyvisiting a bank doesnt make sense. Use ATMs instead, he urged. And to sell acredit-starved country all that a modern bank could offer, he recruited an army ofdirect selling agents (DSA).

It was his way of getting around infrastructural deficiencies that could otherwisehamper ICICIs growth plans.

Since the time Kochhar has taken over though, the emphasis at ICICI is to get

people into branches.

Folks at the bank used to working at its giant headquarters in Bandra KurlaComplex in Mumbai are being redeployed to run branches. And 70 percent ofICICIs DSA operations have been wound up. By next year, the bank may no longerrely on any outsourcing for business acquisition and collections.

Why, you wonder, is Kamaths protg talking in a tongue different to his? Equallypuzzling, why does Kamath approve of where she is taking the bank to? Whatchanged?

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Last September, soon after Lehman Brothers collapsed, ICICI Bank faced anunprecedented crisis. Speculation mounted that its exposure to Lehman heldenough potential to wreck the whole bank. Edgy traders hammered the stock downand nervous depositors queued up outside its premises to take their money back.It hurt us enormously when nobody believed our exposure was limited to $81million, recalls Ramkumar.

To manage the crisis, a war room was set up and the mantle fell on Kochhar to leadthe exercise. It taught me a couple of things, she says. One, if there is achallenge, your shoulder ought to become broader and your back straighter.Confidence is important. Two, you have to be the sponge that absorbs stress. Else,it passes down to the team and they cannot function efficiently.

Be that as it may, much agonising and introspection later, the team concludedthere were indeed a few problems on their hands. Mainly, in their attempt toinnovate and stay ahead of everybody else, they had gotten too damn aggressive. Orat least that is how the world perceived them now.

It also sensitised the team to a type of risk they hadnt factored in before reputation risk. Until then, as bankers, they had only understood market risk,


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credit risk and operations risk. In some part, this was the outcome of yet anothercontroversial sequence of events in the banks history. Just before this crisis playeditself out, the team had battled another.

Starting 2007, the bank came under fire in the media for allegedly using strong

arm tactics to collect credit card dues. We perhaps misjudged the power of publicperception around collections. And that impaired our ability to collect money, saysRamkumar. It finally forced the board, led by chairman N Vaghul and Kamath todismantle the entire network of collection agents.

As a challenger, being seen as aggressive is fine. But the moment you are a leader,being aggressive is often seen as someone who infringes on other peoples rights.

That is not a perception we want to live with, says Ramkumar. To that extent, theteam concluded, unbridled aggressiona leitmotif of the Kamath erahad to beburied.While it is tempting therefore to assume all of what ICICI is going through now is afunction of the Kamath-years that would be missing the point entirely. The point is

Kamath has this uncanny knack of seeing things ahead of others. Before anybodyelse did, he figured that the world was set to change dramatically.

And that if ICICI had to survive the long haul, it would have to slam the brakes ongrowth and reassess the assumptions on which it was built. That it would hurt,was obvious to him. Which is why, in a signal of solidarity with stakeholders, hedeclined to accept 300,000 stock options at Rs 400 each, for which he was eligiblein December 2008. The team followed suit.

When he had rolled his sleeves up about ten years ago, Indias 200 million strongmiddle class needed credit to buy cars, homes and everything else. The 8-10

percent economic growth gave them the appetite to go in for big ticket loans. Whichis why, by 2007, 65 percent of ICICI Banks retail assets were meant for thismarket. The downturn challenged these assumptions. And the banks existingcredit models, built on data from the past,was not tuned in to these changes.

Even as these changes were unfolding, inflation was moving up. In turn, itcompelled the central bank to tighten interest rates. Through all of 2007 and 2008,the RBI pushed up interest rates repeatedly. For ICICI, that proved disastrous andexposed another chink in its armour an over reliance on higher cost bulkdeposits. Traditionally, most commercial banks monitor a ratio called CASA. Thisindicates the percentage of current and savings accounts to total deposits. A higherCASA ratio means the bank has access to cheaper funds. This allows it to earn

higher margins when it lends.

The problem can be traced back to 2002 when shortly after the reverse mergerbetween ICICI and ICICI Bank, Kamath realised he had only two options: One,without a branch network to challenge the might of public sector banks, he couldstay content with a niche strategy, much like foreign banks. Two, he could go forscale by overlooking the CASA ratio in the short term and focus instead on pickingup wholesale deposits at a slightly higher rate. He chose the latter. It made perfectbusiness sense as well in a low interest rate regime. So, while industry benchmarkswere at 33 per cent (one third of all deposits coming via CASA), ICICI Bank wouldtouch 30 per cent at the best of times. And when the crisis hit home in October last

year and depositors made a run for their money, CASA levels dropped to analarming 26 per cent.


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And if all of this wasnt enough, the unsecured loans business (largely credit cardsand personal loans) started to bleed. Blame it partly on a bad macro-economicenvironment. And partly on the fact that ICICIs collection arms, for reasonsdescribed earlier, came under intense public scrutiny. At Rs. 9,900 crore, of whichalmost 80 per cent came from the retail business, the bad loans gave ICICI a

dubious sobriquet: It had the highest NPA levels for any Indian bank.

These numbers drove home another lesson: Unsecured credit is perhaps not thebest way to build customer relationships. Consider HDFC Bank, its fiercestcompetitor with which it shares an interesting relationship. When ICICI faced a runon its deposits, Aditya Puri, the MD at HDFC Bank, sent out an email to his peopleasking them not to poach or accept deposits from ICICIs clients until the crisis wasover. But that is digressing. The credit card base HDFC Bank caters to largelycomprises customers from its branch banking business. This means, it has accessto their credit history, and therefore they have a decent handle on a customerscredit worthiness.

ICICI, on the other hand, acquired customers using a network of outsourced agentswhose revenues were linked to the numbers of clients they got in and not theircredit worthiness. Not surprisingly, they threw caution to the wind and up saddledICICI with customers the bank would much rather not have. It was a vicious circle.The cost of acquisitions and collections for low transaction items and small ticketloans was also becoming unsustainable, says Sandeep Bakshi, deputy MD andretail head at ICICI Bank. Not only did the cost of maintaining the direct channel

jump as volumes grew, but the pressure on collections added to the costs as well.

Simple back-of-the-envelope calculations showed that each time a customer rolledover his credit card dues, the bank earned a 20 per cent interest. So even with

credit losses of around 8 percent, the bank still stood to gain a hefty spread. Butvery soon, this neat little equation was turned on its head. Losses began to mount.And a larger number of people began to default on their dues. It wasunsustainable, says Chief Financial Officer N.S. Kannan. All of this wasntapparent initially.

Through this period, insiders say there was hell to pay. In a sharply competitiveculture, the blame game had begun. And fingers were being pointed at the retailbusiness.

EEnntteerrCChhaannddaaBeginning end-January, soon after the board took a call on Chanda Kochhar asKamaths successor, she initiated a detailed review of the various businesses thebank is into. And over the next four months, she started putting a plan into placeto build a new template for ICICI that looked at variables beyond the balance sheet.I knew I had to help people understand the other dimensions of growth and thelogic behind it, she says.

Kamath knew his successor was in for a tough haul and would need the time tosettle down and gain the confidence of the team. Which is perhaps why, two

months before he stepped down, he made sure he came in a half hour late to workand left an hour earlier in the evening. And immediately after he stepped down as


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CEO, he took six weeks off from the bank to spend time with his daughter andgrand children in Seattle. It was his way of providing space to the new leader.

In any case, he had primed Kochhar for the job well in advance. That nod putKochhars plan to hold operational expenses at previous years levels firmly in the

saddle and stoked a chain of events over the next couple of months.

Vaidyanathan was given charge of pruning costs on the retail side of the business.Every Friday evening, about 20 senior managers would brainstorm in his room onhow it could be done. The ground rules were clear. Nothing was sacrosanct. He toldthem, they could question anything. If they thought his travel schedule, or that ofanybody else, imprudent, it would well be within their rights to raise the flag andcall for a review.

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In July last year, Vaidyanathan and Ramkumar addressed senior managers in theretail business. For the first time, we stood up and admitted publicly we failed inareas like unsecured credit and rural banking, says Ramkumar. We got punishedfor setting business goals ahead of capabilities. But as leaders in ICICI Bank, it isokay to stand up and say we are human, that we dont lack character. It was donewithout any embarrassment.

Both exercises paid off and blunted the edges off a blame game that could havespiralled out of control. If any traces remained, the crisis stoked by Lehmanscollapse in September buried all differences. It was the best thing that could have

happened, says Ramkumar. The team came together under Kochhar. The firstthing it did was to start pulling out of lending. But more recently, after she movedto the corner office in May, a fresh team and a new strategy is making its presencefelt.

Take Sonjoy Chatterjee who heads the corporate and international bankingbusiness. Until very recently, corporate banking relied on fees from large mergerand acquisition deals. Inherently though, this is a lumpy business. When the dealpipeline evaporates, fees follow. To get around the hump, he added a newdimension: Transaction banking. In other words, for all the major clients ICICIservices, it now manages their non-fund based businesses as well such as forexrequirements and opening letters of credit. In the past, it rarely pitched for such

businesses. But now, it does aggressively. Because what it does is provide a layer ofpredictability to the income stream from corporates. Using our clout with largecorporate clients, we will actively push for such business now, says Chatterjee.

In part, this was possible because ICICI has just got the licences to open another580 branches, over the 1,453 it already has. Of these, Kochhar has earmarked 20for special status as mega branches. These will serve corporate customers as well.In some ways, this is how Axis Bank, State Bank of India and HDFC Bankfunction.In the past, ICICI preferred to centralise operations while branches were mannedby younger staffers. The outcome was poor turnaround time. The branch staff had

little control over the outcome.


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In the new dispensation, a premium is being placed on the branches. Veteransfrom headquarters are being deployed to head them. A considerable amount ofauthority is being vested on them to solve customer issues at the branch itself. Atthe same time, the bank is targeting the government sector, and even stock marketparticipants to open current accounts to improve the CASA ratio.

The new branch licences are also a reason to wind down the direct marketingchannel, a move that brings with it considerable pain. The channel was built overthe years with assiduous wooing of partners. But now that the relationship has tobe terminated, there is angst in the system.

We had to give the better agents sufficient notice, so that they coul d findalternative employment, says Ramkumar. Where there was friction, we had to tellthem firmly we had no obligations.

The branches are now the pivot for any retail lending. They are the face of thebrand in a geography. So we need to ensure we get our best people to man them,

says Sandeep Bakshi. As things stand, these branches will take anywhere between18-36 months to stabilise.

Her biggest challenge is to meet market expectations. So far, to keep its highgrowth strategy intact, the bank has had to raise funds from the markets severaltimes. Yet at 7.8 percent, the return on equity (ROE) has been poor. As a result, itsmarket value took a beating.

In his interactions with analysts, Kannan, the group CFO, has promised an ROE of15 percent over the next three years. That will be tough. Kochhar knows that aswell and admits she doesnt know how the numbers will eventually add up. But the

roadmap, she says, is clear.

Part one of the plan involves pushing through the ambitious branch expansionplan without adding to operating costs. Which means, in the current fiscal,Kochhar will be focussed on looking at each item of the profit and loss account andbalance sheet; and perhaps restructuring it. She believes she has the time on herhand to do it right now because credit growth is moderate. When growth kicks in,which Kochhar reckons will be next year, the bank will be in a better position tocapitalize on it. And finally, in the third phase, focus on unlocking value fromsubsidiaries.

There is no alternative, Kochhar says. In a way, these are huge structural

changes. But we have to implement it. I think the actual results of this will notshow for a couple of quarters. But I know from internal reviews we are in the rightdirection.Kannan says he has built a dashboard for his senior colleagues, which capturesthe key metrics. Every fortnight, the performance is reviewed. Any coursecorrection in strategy and tactics are then implemented quickly. A lot of buildingblocks are now in place. I am very confident that people will start seeing the facts acouple of months from now, says Kochhar.

By all accounts, it will be a delicate balancing act. ICICI is hard-wired to beaggressive. Keeping that instinct at bay will take a lot out of her. Already, public

sector banks like SBI are getting aggressive in the home loan market. In the normalcourse, ICICI would have been right out there, slugging it out for the spoils andenjoying a bloody good fight. But these arent normal times at the bank. For at least


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three quarters, Kochhar needs to prove to the rest of the world that the bank canput its house in order, before it can go out there and do what it does best: Fight.

Salute to Chanda Kochhar

Salute to Women

Assignment-Women's Day Special

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Transcript of Assignment-Women's Day Special