TRAINING PROJECT ON “BANKING & BRANCH MANAGEMENT”

FOR MANAGERS & OFFICERS

ALL ABOUT UNDERSTANDING YOURSELF & YOUR CAREER

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Prepared & Presented by

Mr. Vijay S Menon

Vijay S Menon

INDEX

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SrNo.

Heading PageNo.

1. Banking and Branches 3

2. Hand-Holding of a Team Member “First & Foremost investment in an employee”

5

3. All About Hiring The Right Candidate 10

4. How To Achieve Targets successfully? 12

5. Retail Branch Banking Business Process(Acquisition & Deepening)

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6. Understanding the Types Of Investments 23

7. What Bank Sells & How ? 26

8. Management–Concepts in Business 30

9. Branch Manager Roles & 8 Must do’s 44

10. Live – Case Studies & Management Game format 46

Vijay S Menon

Banking & Branches

• Banking Business – Simplified Definition

“Banking is a simple business where 4 financial services (Transaction Banking Services/Fund

based loan services / Non fund based loan services & Investment advisory services) are converted

or developed in to Products , which are delivered to consumers ( Product – Delivery) and

Serviced”

Hence Banking consists of 3 functions ( Product-Development / Product – Delivery / Product –

Service)

• Branch – Banking (Definition)

Branches are the platform (Physical) in which these “3” functions comes alive and be visible to

the customers.

Thus Branches forms an integral part of Bank Business and we can say, Banking business is all

about improvisation of 3 P’s through medium of branches.

Through out the presentation we shall discuss 8 topics relevant in branch management, which

shall help us in maintaining branches as the coordinated delivery point in the Banking Business.

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Product Development /Delivery & Service

Few questions needs to be asked and answered while Product Development in any business.

Lets analyze them.

• Is the Product Easy to Understand & Easy to Use ? ( Question highlights the importance of product being easy to understand and use)

• For whom this product is Relevant ? (Question harps on the importance of target segments, for whom the product will be relevant. However efficient and branded product may be , ultimately it’s the relevance of it in consumer’s life is “what matters” in the buying decision.

• What is the Cost budgeted / What is Profitability predicted ? ( Cost management is a critical process and it’s never done in isolation rather every cost should be accompanied with predicted profitability , similarly every prediction on profitability must be reviewed against actual profits and thus final verdict on cost management should be evaluated as success or failure of the product)

Product Delivery is all about marketing & selling the product ( Covered in coming slides under

different topics)

Product Service is all about meeting the promises and building relationship

with customer and thus creating loyalty (Covered in coming slides under different topics)

Vijay S Menon 4

Hand-Holding of a Team Member „„First &

Foremost Investment in an Employee‟‟

• It’s a well accepted practice in our homes to welcome and hand hold any new member in the family with an intention to make new member comfortable in the family and thus be a part of family and strengthen the family.

• Now we also know many families which fail to welcome the new members in the right way and ends up creating havoc in the family as well as in the new member, thus creating a bad reputation for family and weakening the family.

• Now in an organization too same logic works and choice & challenge is with the management to ensure each & every new team member is welcomed and hand held to comfort-zone in their respective business functions , which is going to decide whether a new team member remains a cost forever or becomes a source of profits and prosperity to the organization.

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Process of Welcoming & Hand Holding of

a new team member

• All about Understanding – Session

• Understand your self

Understand oneself, strengths & weakness, area of interests, career goals, Lifestyle goals and

finally how one wish to be known in the organization post 1 year.

• Understand the Organization

Understand about Management, Profits, Share Prices, Vision & Mission, and Perception &

Comments by various analysts.

• Understand the Products & Services

Understand the details about Product & Services Features, USPS etc and Comparison with

Competition, Experience by employees as well as customers.

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• Understand your role in the organization and Expected level of performance

Understand what is ones role in the team and what are the expected basic bench marks in the performance expected and why it is critical to the business (Cost Vs Return)

• Understand the benefits on performing above bench marks

Understand clearly the benefits on performing above bench marks with respect to Career

Progression / Monetary benefits & Aura of Success.

• Understand Process flow of the role assigned

Understand step by step process of the Role assigned, which is very critical hence needs

maximum attention.

Process should clearly state How to do X / Y /Z steps to achieve targeted goals, clearer the

process better the results.

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• Understand few Concepts & Equations of Successful Career

• Your Efforts = Your Results = Your Family Welfare

• Flow of Process = Flow of results (Better the flow, Better Results)

• {Meeting Expectations = Maintaining Pay packet

• Exceeding Expectations = Increasing Pay packet

• Below Expectations = Loosing Pay packet}

• Knowing the process = Entry in to comfort zone = Increase in Confidence = Increased Appointments = Increased Engagements = Increased Results

• Concept of Ask 3 = Some Will / Some Wont / So What…………Keep on Asking business till you get business.

• 100% Patience + 100% Faith = 100% Results

• Inspect “What you expect”

• Best follows the Best , Good follows the Good & Average follows the Average ….. Choice is yours to be “The Best or The Good or The Average”

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• Understand the Managers / Leaders Perspective

Understand the business from Leader’s Perspective / Manager and feel empathetic towards his actions than be critical.

Better the understanding, better the work environment.

• So above are the “8” Understandings which will help a new member to align to his new team and become source of profit for the organization.

Now challenge is with the Organization to ensure a Welcoming process covering all these 8 - points of understandings.

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All About Hiring The Right Candidate

Hiring an employee is the most important function for any organization as an employee’s quality

is the back bone for any business.

Hence there are few points which one should ensure while hiring an employee.

• Look and Feel

Candidates who look pleasant and create a comfortable environment while interview, highlights basic nature of the candidate like Self-Confidence, Mannerisms, Temperament and lifestyle statement. Look and feel essentially conveys first impression, which normally is the best impression.

• Communication ability

Candidate must sound clear and should have a decent flow while talking, which highlights clarity of mind and thoughts.

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• Knowledge on industry (If experienced) or general knowledge (if fresh)

Candidate must be probed on his level of knowledge according to his experience and should

possess sufficient knowledge; this will highlight his desire to develop himself to higher levels.

• Goals in life and action plans to achieve those

Candidate must be probed for his goals in life and clear goals will highlight how focused is the

candidate.

Similarly the action plans to achieve goals must be probed and clear action plan will highlight his ability to plan.

• Discussion on favorite topics

Every candidate must be given an opportunity to discuss on his favorite topics; here interviewer must push discussions in such a manner where candidate is forced to take a stand. This exercise will highlight candidate’s ability to express himself, convincing ability, listening skills and ability to bring an acceptable opinion, these characteristics are the base for any leader and highlights his leadership qualities, which can be ranked from 1 to 10 by the interviewer for comparison.

All candidates who fair well on all the above 5 points will add value to any organization as they come in with essential qualities to grow themselves and thus grow their organizations.

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How To Achieve Targets Successfully?

• Most exciting job in any organization is to accomplish any targets thrown at you by yourself or by way of your team management skills.

• Let’s understand 8 rules to be followed while achieving targets.

• Rule no.1

Target is the destination and enabler is your guide.

For ex: - When you are asked to climb down a cliff, how will you react? Many times when you see targets you will feel it’s impossible.

Now instead of just directly asking to climb down the cliff, if you are provided with a rap ling

expert and instruments like rope and other items, your reaction will be totally different to the

initial impossible reaction.

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Continued…

Similarly any targets assigned needs to be looked through enablers.

Let’s analyze few enablers:-

1. Market Intelligence

2. Man power

3. Products & Services

4. Campaigns & Activities

5. Incentives and Appreciations

• Rule no.2

Target always has a definite time period

No target is given without a time frame; either it will be days / weeks / months /years. Hence it’s not just about achieving numbers or units but achieving them within the given time frame.

For ex:- If the target is about driving a car to a destination which is 100 km away and total time given is 1.5 hrs , how will one plan.

1.5 Hrs needs to be split between driving, filling fuel, taking a bio-break, taking a drinks break etc.

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Now you decides to allocate 1.15 minutes for driving and remaining 15 minutes for all other

activities , hence you must be driving the car at about 80 km per hour and also ensure all other

activities are completed within 15 minutes.

Similarly every process defined for achieving targets needs to be broken in time zones and

achieved, for ex: - if you are given an appointment for 15 minutes, you must have a clear plan on

how much time you will spend on introductions, which are the features you are going to discuss

and when are you going to ask for conversion etc.

Until and unless you plan your process meticulously, you will never be the master of your

appointments rather you will at the mercy of your customer.

• Rule no.3

Target is the destination & Process is the path

Every target needs to have plan to achieve and the plan is nothing but process. Hence a well

defined plan or process acts as a path to reach target or destination.

Hence post identification of targets / time frame & enablers, one must work out a process using which targets will be achieved.

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• Rule no.4

Practice makes man perfect

One must practice the laid-down process in the class rooms before it’s exposed to customers.

One must remember “Opportunity lost once is lost forever” hence training and practice of

process becomes key differentiator on success and failure.

• Rule no.5

More hands on a job will ease weight of the job

Every job if defined to process and assigned to sufficient members will become easier to achieve.

For ex: - If job is to clean a room, more people you have easier it is to complete the job.

But word sufficient should be clearly understood as too many cooks can spoil the food.

• Rule no.6

Collective responsibility against pin point responsibility

Every target needs to be approached as a collective responsibility (Amongst team leaders & members) which needs to be exhibited by daily engagements between leaders and members. These engagements will help in analyzing rights and wrongs, progress of the task, corrective actions if required and most importantly Team Spirit.

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• Rule no.7

Celebrate success & analyze failure

Success needs to be celebrated and Failure needs to be analyzed and reasons needs to be

identified so that reasons are not repeated.

Failure should never be treated as a plain event rather an event happened because of errors in process implementation.

And no success should be left out without celebrated as that will diminish the value of success and thus reducing the gap between success & failure which will result in indifference.

• Rule no.8

Never forget your day

One should always capture his days on a Diary (Meetings /Appointments / Enquiries etc) must be captured daily and discussed with team leader /team members.

Diary management will help in analyzing a day / in planning next day, hence must be followed as a ritual every day.

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Retail Branch Banking Business

Process(Acquisition & Deepening)

Let’s discuss a Process oriented approach to customer acquisition at branches:-

• Step: 1

Identify the reasons on which an Individual / Entity decides to open a Bank account and as an answer we come across broadly with 6 reasons, basis which decision to open an account is taken.

Now let’s list these 6 reasons:-

• When one changes / joins new employer( Salary Accounts) or New business is started

• When a new loan is availed ( Lenders now demand EMI’s from their Bank account)

• When status changes ( Status from Resident to Non Resident or any status change minor to Major etc)

• Complaints remains unresolved (At the existing banks)

• Convenience on accessing banking channels ( Like branch /ATM /ABC Channels / RM Services etc)

• When convinced on better banking options from present.

Now post identifying reasons it’s time to go to step 2.

• Step: 2

Identify the prospects, who can be acquired as customers from the above 6 reasons and work out an elaborate prospect lists with maximum details possible.

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• Step: 3

Decide various activities to get in touch with the prospects and generate appointments.

• Step: 4

Ensure 100% of the appointments are realized and Bank is presented and sold to the prospects.

• Step: 5

Now it all looks very simple, but the challenge is in execution of points from 2 to 4 successfully and for that one should prepare well as below:-

Involving entire team in the discussion process and more the involvement better the results at each stage.

Training on Prospect generation / Appointment generation / Appointment Conversion, these are very critical and require good talent.

Now involving competition at all stages on the process amongst team members will create more excitements amongst team members and if incentives and career progression can be involved, the process starts showing results bigger than the expectations.

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Now Challenge for a Bank is in to create a process at the ground level which will be exciting for

the team members with respect to Job Profile and benefits for extra efforts and ensuring that

entire Acquiring activities are looked up to as a process.

Now there are certain Must do’s while acquiring a customer, which are as follows:-

• Always create profiles of customers, preferably at the time of acquisition with maximum details, which will be dynamic item undergoing updating every 6 months.

• Welcoming & Handholding customer to comfort zone of banking with the branch with solid process as per rules & regulations.

• Assigning of the customer to any employee if it is branch or to phone banking etc, under which quarterly contact is a must.

• A comfortable customer will be the one who will hold maximum products of the bank and be active, hence as a step 1, all the free services should be alive and active for the customer in the first quarter / minimum 2 products should be sold in the second quarter / minimum 3 products should be sold in the 3rd quarter and 4th quarter onwards all the customers meeting above criteria should be assigned with RM Services.

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Now along with this process it’s important to measure profitability of each account every

quarter by analyzing the income from deposits & other income generated, this will give branch an

idea on which segment is more comfortable with the branch and reasons, which can be used to

penetrate to the all segments profitably.

Now let’s see few checks of efficiency of process laid down:-

• Daily conversion rate on appointment generation from prospect list ( No of calls done Vs Appointment generated)

• Actual number of appointments Vs Actual number of Appointments realized

• Total Number of Appointments realized Vs Actual Conversion

• Q1 Acquisition Vs % of customers in comfort zone as per the definition above

• Q2 Acquisition Vs % of customers in comfort zone as per the definition above

• Q3 Acquisition Vs % of customers in comfort zone as per the definition above

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Now this analysis will throw up light on the efficiency of team in executing the process and which

can be worked up with training / motivation etc.

Similarly every successful customer is a market intelligence on what works for a customer and

understands the expectation levels from similar customers and do the process of prospecting

from those segments.

Deepening - Importance

Above steps are with respect to a new branch or for new acquisition but incase of existing

branches in banking every branch probably has about 10 -15% of customer base, which are

active and contributing income, hence there lies a big opportunity & challenge for all the bankers

to understand and manage their existing books better and even 20-25 % active base will double

branches present business and incomes.

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Now let’s see what are the actionable one can implement to activate existing base of a branch.

Simple tools given below can give you an insight to a branch’s active base.

• Take out top Liability /Asset customers , say 100 (From the database) and get a list of top 100 customers from the branch team in an hour’s time and compare both , it will not be matching more than 30 to 40%.

This tells us how we are not even in contact with our top 100 customers and this should be

taken forward step by step.

• For first 100, have profiles to start with, assign amongst your members, do the Q1/ Q2 /Q3

comfort zone and analyze the profitability.

• Go to the next 100 and repeat the process and thus go on and on till you get your entire accounts contacted.

Thus following a process with respect to Acquiring as well as deepening will ensure maximum

engagements between bank and customers , which will make the bank more familiar and

preferred for customers, resulting in bank turning in to Primary Banker for the customer and

thus en-cashing full value of customers wallet.

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Understanding The Types Of

Investments

Investments can be classified in 2 groups:-

1. Necessary Investments

2. Surplus Investments

Either case money is parked with an institution (Bank /AMC) or on an Asset (Real Estate /

Commodities & Currencies) for higher returns in the future which may be either guaranteed or

Otherwise and availing certain guaranteed services based on the occurrence of an event in

future, which may happen or otherwise.

Every Investment decision needs to done post analyzing every requirement and matching those

with product features.

Banker’s job is to probe requirement of customer and match it with features of investment

product offered. Process of Probing & Matching is called financial advising /planning.

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Necessary Investments ( Must investments)

1. Cash on Hand - To be equal to present 1 month expenses * 6 , Out of this at least 20 % in SB

accounts and remaining in various forms of Tds or entire amount in TD linked SB products

2. Life Cover (Insurance) - Minimum cover should be Total Loans Outstanding + Present per

month expenses budget * 144 months or 10 years.

3. General Insurance (Medical) – At least Rs.2 lac per member in the family.

4. Pension Plans - Sufficient to generate monthly income 3 times of present monthly expenses.

5. Children or Child investment Plans -Where aim should be to build a corpus with respect to

Marriage / Higher studies etc, Corpus to be decided by parents.

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Surplus Investments ( Excess money after making Necessary investments)

1. Short -term investments (1 year or less) - A combination between FMPs & FDs (70:30), logic is FMP offers better tax advantage and Fds provides liquidity.

2. Medium-term investments (1 year to 3 years) - A combination between MFs (Balanced Funds) & FDs (70:30), logic is MF (Balanced) provides better returns with lesser risks and Fds provides liquidity.

3. Long -term investments (3 years to 5 years) - A combination between Mfs (Equity) & Fds

(70:30), logic is equity funds provide higher returns on 3 year plus time horizon and Fds provides liquidity.

4. Long- term investments for Asset creation ( 5 years & above)- A combination of Real Estates / Gold / Fds ( 70: 20 :10 ) , logic is Real-estates provides growth based on demand , gold grows again on demand and these are directly co related to demographic features and Gold also provides liquidity by way of finance availability and FDs provides liquidity.

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What Bank Sells & How?

Bankers across the world sells broadly 4 streams of products, namely Transaction Banking

Products and Investment Products.

Let’s understand these products in detail:-

• Transaction Banking Products

These are products which enables receipt and payment of money amongst various accounts held by individuals /entities.

• Fund-Based Loan Products

These are products which enables customers to borrow money for their personal / professional/business purposes.

• Non-Fund Based Loan Products

These products are normally known as Bank Guarantees / Letter of Credit etc, which are

essentially used in business towards ensuring genuiness of the business /deals.

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• Investment Advisory Services

Since in India Banks are permitted to do only Banking under their licenses, various Investment products are sold to the customers through Investment Advisory Services , which may be of companies promoted by respective Banks or purely on the basis of distribution tie-ups.

Investment products available now under IAS in India are Life Insurance Products / General

Insurance Products / Mutual Funds (Equity/ Debt) , PMS (Portfolio Management Services) , E-

Broking (Stock Trading-Individual platform) , Bullion & Silver, Creation of Will.

Now let’s understand the steps of selling all these products:-

• Step: I

Understand the Products in details, like features, Unique Selling Points, Comparison with peer

products.

• Step: II

Define a sales pitch covering all the points above and practice it to make the sales pitch perfect.

• Step: III

Identify the Team for the task, define a Target and define a path /process to achieve the targets.

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• Step: IV

Detailed training on Identification of Prospects / On Meeting & Talking via Activities and

Campaigns /Conversion of Appointments /Profiling /Welcoming /Cross Selling & Engagement

(Relationship Management) / Management system especially MIS & Review systems.

• Step: V

Develop a management system, which will define Individual action plan and goal along with team action plans and goals.

A review mechanism which will track daily calls and results and weekly Targets and achievement / Daily Diary management.

A MIS system which will have every minute details on Prospects /Appointments /Daily Calls /Daily Conversions / Weekly Targets vs. Achievements / Target Vs Achievements / Current Run rates Vs Required Run rates / Individual Run rate Required vs. Actual Run rates / Commitments Vs Actual Results /Deviations from Process and Impact etc.

An Engagement system which ensure daily interaction amongst leader & team, interaction

amongst team members / peer competition / Appreciations & Motivations / Pep-Talks and

corrections.

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• Step: VI

Identify Prospects through Market Intelligence (Data on various segments), Meet & Talk with

prospects via activities and campaigns and generate appointments.

• Step: VII

Attend every appointment and present Bank Products at the best possible manner and convert appointments in to business /customers.

• Step: VIII

Handhold & Welcome every customer in to the Bank and cross sell various products so as to

develop a line of relationship which is long lasting.

Relationship is derived out of engagements and engagements are derived out of needs and needs are derived out of Profiles. Thus every customer needs to be understood by detailed profiling which should be dynamic.

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Management –Concepts in Business

• Concept of B following C or Business following Customers.

Business always follows Customer (B follows C), hence its paramount in any business to

understand Customers, How they think?, choose, decide or reject / appreciate or criticize /

recommend or not recommend.

Now let’s understand a customer from a Bankers view point.

• When do a Customer thinks about a Bank?

Broadly customer thinks about a Bank on the following occasions:-

• When C needs money

• When C has money

• When C needs to receive / pay money

• When C needs to invest money

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• Why does a Customer choose a Bank?

This is about why customer choose X bank or Y bank, when he has any of the 4 reasons

mentioned above.

Let’s analyze what all goes behind choosing a Bank.

• Past experience, if customer has past experience as a customer or as a visitor it act as a primary reason to choose a bank.

• Bank employee known to the customer (Personal contact), where personal comfort act as a reason behind selection.

• Recommendations from friends and relatives, where guidance by known helps customer in deciding selection.

• Bank’s visibility (Brand equity) ,means how well the Brand is visible via advertisements / business articles / stock performances / word of mouth publicity and general perception on a Brand /Visibility of Bank in the neighborhood by way of various promotional campaigns , here customer takes a decision based on the visibility of the brand.

• Branch Offices approachability/proximity is another factor, where if a Bank branch is near your home / office it becomes a convenient factor.

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• How a Customer decides or rejects products & services of a Bank?

Every customer walks in to a Bank with certain expectations on services as well as their products requirements.

Now it’s the most important job of the Banker to ensure that every customer knocking on the doors is welcomed well to the bank.

Hence Welcome desk in a Bank becomes the most critical place in a branch office and which needs to fulfill, below mentioned expectations of the customer.

• Greetings (Greet with a smile)

• Listening to the customer on what he wants

• Guidance to the customer on whom to meet (Concerned Officer) for fulfilling his banking requirements.

Now post welcoming, it’s about detailed engagement with customer by the Concerned Officer and first step is to know what customer really wants and what is his financial base , answer here is “Customer Profiling”.

• Profiling the customer or Customer profiler

Customer Profiling is a questionnaire covering important personal/financial information of the customer , profiling helps in understanding the customer’s financial base and potential to business , thus enabling banker with critical inputs for decision making on products & pricings to be offered to the customer.

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Once profiling is done, it’s about understanding what the customer wants and based on his/her

profile & requirements, advising the products and services of the bank which will take care of

his needs.

Now there are 4 important factors with respect to meeting customer expectations :-

1. Availability of products and services (This is very important, absence of which will ruin the image)

2. Pricing of products and services (Pricing should match profile and it’s important to have flexible pricing and not rigid pricing)

3. Comparison with other banks around (Every customer would want to know whether price is right or is he being charged fairly or not)

4. TAT (Turnaround time) Here every customer would like to fulfill his requirements within an acceptable time frame (Time frame depends on general practices in the banking business) hence here again a comparison with peers will benefit customer and thus his expectations.

Based on the experiences at Welcome & Advisory levels customer decides or rejects the Bank.

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• Why a customer appreciates or complaints on Banks Products and services?

Post deciding on Bank and its Products and services , it’s about actual experience and here basic expectations is to meet the promises to the “T “ by the bank and any deviations will attract complaints.

Hence its paramount to ensure delivery of products & services in accordance with, what is promised.

Every unresolved complaint of the customer leads to negative perception of the bank thus impacting the image of the bank.

• Why a customer recommends a Bank or why he is not recommending a bank?

There are 2 reasons on why a customer recommends a bank to his friends and relatives , which is most important marketing tool for any bank / business.

1. When customer is satisfied with Banks products & services

2. When there is an ongoing engagement from the bank with respect to the profile of the

customer (Relationship Management)

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Now point 1 and 2 dwells up on the needs to have a continuous engagement with customer with

respect to his profile(which is nothing but relationship building and management) as we know

the power of relationship will decide whether customer recommends bank or not.

And history is testimony to the fact that the best way of advertisement for any bank is

“customer’s testimony “ hence banks should not just leave customer experience at the

product or service level rather should delight customers forever by building a strong relationship.

Now before winding up let’s hear it from Mahatma Gandhi on the importance of Customer.

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us, we are

dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an

outsider of our business. He is part of it. We are not doing a favor by serving him. He is doing us a

favor by giving us the opportunity to do so”

Hence it’s most important for any business to understand Customers and their importance in

order to thrive in their business as B follows C.

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Concept of “2-P” in Business

• 2-P consists of Personnel & Process

Now every business will have Personnel and a Process to drive business, now it’s important to ensure the order of P’s in every business.

• Order of Ps

Means which P to follow which P or whether Process follows Personnel or vice a versa.

Here is where managements have to get their act right and ensure that Process is first and then personnel.

Process is the first step and when Process is defined then get the right personnel to implement the process.

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• Base of Business

This is another important aspect, by which one must ensure every business accrued is out of

implementation of laid down process and not because of individual or personnel.

Why this is important? Process is a system and not a human hence it will give results N number of times without wear & tear, without mood swings, without friendships and acquaintances.

Where as if we allow business to happen through personnel then that business will depend up on one individual and it will happen as and when that particular individual succeeds in his attempts.

Some time he or she may hit jack pot or sometimes it will be disasters.

Now it is commonsense to look forward to a business which is generated out of process as it will be consistent in nature and personnel should be pushed for implementation of process, thus no human wear and tear which at times are irreparable.

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• Collective responsibility

This is another important feature, absence of which affects the morale of personnel in

any team.

Now basic structure of a team involves Back end team (who defines Process) and Front line

team (who implements Process) , now Back end teams responsibility lies in defining a process and training front line to implement the process and Front line team’s job is to implement process.

Now success of process is the sole responsibility of backend team and success of the process

implementation is with the front line, of course monitored and guided by the Backend team. Now this will ensure backend team has always have more responsibilities in the system than Front line and it won’t be like Frontline delivering all the goods and Backend merely demanding business.

This ensures collective responsibility as both teams will be judged for the business which will

come expected only if “ Process defined is right” and “Process implemented is right”.

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Now against this we see very often Backend team deciding on targets and Frontline being pushed

to deliver the targets. This method is akin to Master – Slave relationship where master decides

the targets / work and Slave is pushed to get it done.

The above work culture creates tensions amongst employees and lacks equality in a work place

which is bound to affect the productivity and morale of teams resulting in lower results.

Hence every business must be derived out of 2-P concept so as to have “equal opportunity work

Culture” in a business and thus prosperity in business.

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Concept of “PQRS”

Concept is all about approach that every team member carries with them, whether they belong

to Manager Class or Worker class.

Now general approach is to find P wherever you are and P means problems.

Now identifying Problem is just the first step and not the last step, but many a times we identify

Problems , debate problems and identify who is responsible and fix the responsibility.

Now this approach can only lead to more Problems as responsibility is fixed on someone but that

doesn’t guarantee recurrence of Problems.

Hence it’s important to follow Concept of “PQRS” while dealing with word P (Problem).

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Now lets us understand how PQRS gets explained.

• P = Problems

• Q= Questions on Problems

• R= Reasons for Problems

• S= Solutions for Problems

As the explanations points out every P (Problems) needs to be probed by Questions, Questions

will give Reasons which are roots of Problems, and Reasons will give ideas for Solutions and

Solutions will fix Problems.

Hence Concept “PQRS” highlights importance of a Solution oriented approach and advocates to

discuss P (Problem) along with QRS (Questions / Reasons & Solutions).

Hence “P” never should be looked up as an individual subject rather always looked up as “PQRS”.

41Vijay S Menon

The word “Harmony”

According to Vedas (Ancient Indian Science) if you live in Harmony with nature , nature will

prosper you , and similarly in business / office if you live in harmony within the society you are in

or business you are in , society /business will prosper you.

How you live in harmony , harmony is a status which comes in through acceptability of you at

wherever you are.

What decides acceptability is decided by your behavior and behavior needs to be according to

the expectations of the society / business wherever you are so as to get accepted, hence its

finally boils down to you to behave according to the expectations of the society / business you

are in and thus living in harmony and achieve prosperity.

Now discussing on business , its important to behave ( have products & services) as per the

expectations of society and thus being in harmony with society , which shall ensure business

being prosperous.

And similarly an individual needs to be behave ( deliver/work) as per expectations on him/her by

the business ,so as to be accepted by the business and thus be in harmony with the business and

prosper in his/her role In the business.

Vijay S Menon 42

Co operation Vs Competition

Difference between Co operation & Competition

• Competition kills compassion - Co operation develops compassion

• Competition creates Winners & Losers – Co operation creates contribution

• Winners & Losers reasons fight resulting in anarchy – Contribution reasons unity resulting in

Peace & Prosperity

• Competition is against each other – Co operation is togetherness and with each other

• Competition has different goals for different participants – Co operation has one goal for all

the participants

Hence every environment if turned in to Co operative than competitive will result in to

contribution, which will creates unity , thus peace & prosperity.

Always Co operate with each other for achieving the goals and never compete with each other.

Competition should be always with self , resulting in self- improvement all the time.

Vijay S Menon 43

Branch Manager Roles & 8 Must do‟s

Branch Manager is the most important resource in any branch and Lets understand various roles

and 8 Must do’s for a Branch Manager.

• Roles played by Branch Manager.

• Branch Manager is the Face of the Bank.

• Branch Manager is the Medium through which management’s vision & goals are communicated to branch staff.

• Branch Manager is the Coordinator of Operation /Service & Sales functions of the bank at branches.

• Branch Manager is the Leader who leads his team towards achievements of management vision & goals.

• Branch Manager is the Coach who identifies the strength and weakness of his team and strike out micro level strategy.

• Branch Manager is the King Maker for his staff , as its he who rates them and project them to management.

• Branch Manager is the Last Word in a branch and his decision is the final.

• Branch Manager is the Captain of the Ship and he owns 100% responsibility of the branch.

44Vijay S Menon

8 Must do‟s for a Branch Manager

1. Punctuality (Reach office first)

2. Ensure branch is spick and span

3. Huddles (Always meet team before branch opens and take a quick memory check on key deliverables for the day)

4. Lobby Management (Everyday peak hours Branch Manager must be available in the lobby visible to customers and team)

5. Check Reports ( Relevant reports like Exception /Cash /Income /Expenses /Clearing/Debit Balances /Vouchers(Random) /Deliverables /Courier & Post /Security items /Customer feed back & complaints etc needs to be checked daily and take corrective action wherever required)

6. Key Visits ( Branch Manager should make visits to key customers / key social figures / key regulatory representatives every month)

7. Day end review & Planning for the next day ( Every evening Branch Manager must review Operations / Service /Sales deliverables for the day and plan for the next day)

8. Ensure everybody leaves office before leaving ( Branch Manager should be the last one to call it a day)

45Vijay S Menon

Live –Case Studies

• Understanding of process helps in creation of profiles ( ICICI Bank Experience)

• Understanding a Team member helps in creating the Best Team member ( Axis Bank Experience)

• Target management lessons (Kotak Bank Experience)

• Relationship Management –Lessons (Hdfc Bank experience)

Vijay S Menon 46

Understanding of process helps in

creation of a profile

( ICICI Bank Experience)

• Welcoming to the Bank:-

Welcoming was confined to introduction by Branch Manager to a senior manger in the branch

and from senior manager to a quick round of introduction to other staff. After that it was up to

me to do whatever I wanted, as there was no process existed on welcoming.

• Reality bites:-

After few months suddenly I realized that there wont be any formal training rather I was

supposed to learn all the branch operations work by then , as one day just out of the blue moon I

was handed over an account opening form and was asked to open an account and I had no clue

and projected a sorry figure. My operations manager called me to have a pep talk and guided me

to one of those work desks , where I was all at sea and was sweating out to complete my work.

Guidance at the desk was a 2 minute explanation on the task by a senior staff and I had to run

after him all the time to get my questions answered every time I got stuck.

• Self realization:-

After few months of fun ,suddenly I was at the receiving end as my seniors were getting irritated

with my questions every day and I knew this mental torture must stop somewhere or I will be

waking up everyday with a fear of going to the Bank and do a job ,of which I had no clue.

Vijay S Menon 47

Continued..

• Thinking by taking time out :-

Since I wanted to bring a solution to the problem , I took a day off to think and analyze the

Problem at hand and I knew my expectations on welcoming /training etc were just mine and

realities were different. Hence first and foremost thing was learning the work at desk step by

step.

• Define the work and split in to process, helps in mastering the work:-

I took a note book and started writing about my task and listed out step by step actions , once I

could do this I just realized why my seniors were getting irritated at me for asking so many

questions every day and for me I realized the importance of writing down the step by step

actionable on the task , before actually doing it and thus defining a process , which keeps on

get improvised by every completed task.

• Confusion to compliments:-

Suddenly from the slowest/confused resource, I turned myself to the quickest resource in the

branch and earned the tag of “ Smart Guy” , which ultimately did wonders to my confidence and

also helped me bag the job of Relationship Officer for Nri & Forex business at a new branch at a

NRI belt ,Where irrespective of being a junior employee I was the head-department.

Vijay S Menon 48

Understanding a Team member helps in

creating the Best Team member

( Axis Bank Experience)

• Knowing the team ( Know the strength and weakness):-

Talking to the team member in a manner where he/she is comfortable is the first step in team

management. At Axis Bank , I was lucky to start my Management role with just a team member.

He was raw and he had no idea on his job , was probably recruited on recommendation from

the land lord of the branch and my branch manager wanted me to throw him out of the branch at

the earliest than mentoring him.

I thought otherwise , I empathized with him as he wanted to work for making out a career but he

knew nothing on Banking , he was low on confidence and he was too shy to sales job.

I preferred to focus on his desire to make a career for himself than on his weakness to start with.

• Coaching ( Class room) :-

Training on Banking , products & services , working out prospects , generating appointments ,

meeting /talking & asking , importance of process , profiling of customer , diary management,

discipline expected , work expectations , targets expectations , career progress , incentive

structure etc needs to be taught well in a class room environment , which acts as the base for

employee’s future.

Vijay S Menon 49

Continued..

• Exhibition of leadership:-

Leadership is not just talking but about exhibiting your theories in actions for your team members

to see and emulate. Hence post class room coaching I have taken my team member along with

me to various sales calls /visits , where he got introduced to presentations and discussions

towards realizing the goals of business.

• Habit of review and discussion (Inspect what you expect):-

Everyday discussion and review of work was another tool which kept both of us improving our

business day by day with a sense of ownership and achievement.

• Peer pressure or Peer motivation:-

After a successful welcoming to the team ,I sent him to a national sales executive conference of

the Bank , where he could mingle with other sales resources in the bank and come out of the

meet as the best performer of the meet and since then he changed himself to the best Sales

Executive pan india at Axis Bank as he had been clocking more than 200 accounts every month

with big values and earned highest incentives amongst sales executives pan india.

What worked for him at the meet was , understanding himself compared to others and the

opportunity he had compared to others , which he utilized later to become the best and for me a

great lesson on successful man management.Vijay S Menon 50

Target management lessons

(Kotak Bank Experience)

• Shades of past roles in your management:-

As a Branch Manager I had to achieve business targets and same time I was very much conscious

about hand holding my team members , hence I was too concerned on demanding too much

from any of the new recruits as I wanted them to be totally comfortable and I was at the

forefront on acquiring business.

Above management style resulted in two major issues, firstly the team being under utilized and

secondly team’s lack of ability to look forward to big business, as big business was happening

through my contacts and base (Which had to dry out some day).

• Initial success is never forever, unless process is implemented:-

Post successful launch and few months business, it was time for the year end and management

wanted to know how much revenue branch can generate in the month of march by doing

Insurance sales and I did the calculations keep in mind my trusted client base and committed 5

lacs revenue and Business Head did appreciate my commitment (Considering mine was a new

branch).

But very first week saw major sales tax raids at my clients business’s and all my revenue

calculations went in for a toss. Those days branch had to sell about 12 lacs of regular premium to

generate 5 lacs revenue and which looked too big a business now.

Vijay S Menon 51

Continued..

• When pressure bites:-

Every time you struggle to achieve commitments , you are bound to be hit by pressure which

normally harms you and never helps.

• Give up , an excuse out of ignorance:-

Since 5 lacs revenue commitment now looked out of reach as my planning was all about doing

the business from my contacts and now it was too short a time for building further base to get 5

lacs revenue from insurance sales and I did what most of us do “ Give up” thinking no solution to

my problem.

• Leadership provides solution:-

On 10th day , I received a call from the “Business Head” checking about my progress and I had all

the excuses lined up suggesting “Give up”.

But that day taught me all about target-management in 5 minutes by few questions of Business

head :-

1. How many team member you have ? (Split target amongst them , looks achievable)

2. How much Insurance sales you needs to do in the next 20 days to generate 5 lacs revenue ?

( Business required / Number of days , tells you run-rate required daily)

1. What is the ticket size which are easy to be sold in your market ? ( Tells you how much policies to be sold by each resource in a day)

Vijay S Menon 52

Continued..

4. How many customers you have and how many prospects you have ? ( Tells you the total base

you have for generating appointments)

5. How will you ensure focus of entire team in revenue generation ? ( How everybody can be

aligned to same goals)

And Business Head further explained the meaning of focus , as if “ focus is on the business,

business will increase and if focus is on excuses , it will increase and not business”.

And best way to focus is to discuss the subject day in and out amongst your self and team.

• Implementation of project “ Do or Die”:-

Since it was a direct mandate from the Business Head , it was a do or die task and I discussed all

the 5 questions with answers with the team and we decided to meet 3 times a day and review

Insurance business sales in order to get focus right across.

Vijay S Menon 53

Continued..

• Good process will lead to good results:-

Result was 16 lacs of insurance business in 20 days , from a state of “give up “ as targets looked

Undoable at one stage.

But with implementation of a right process , helped not only to achieve the targets , but surpass

It well within lesser period of time line. Thus highlighting the importance of following a process

and Target-management.

Listed below are the actionable towards successful target management:-

• Break- Up of targets amongst resources will reduce the weight and size of target

• Tools (Resources ) to achieve targets will make any targets achievable

• Run rate required daily to achieve targets within timelines are important to know the trend

• Working out the prospects for generating appointments

• Focus on results , by talking about it as much as possible

Vijay S Menon 54

Relationship Management –Lessons

(Hdfc Bank experience)

• Relationship management is the most important tool in building customer loyalty at a time

Where number of banks and branches are growing day by day and everybody wants to have the

best customers in the town to do business.

• Relationship management programs offers dedicated resources to customers , various

privileges and discounts on various charges.

• Key tool is profiling of the customer , which throws light in to customers financial world

helping to understand his needs and once needs are understood its about pitching in with

various options by way of products & services and do maximum cross sell.

Higher the number of products held by the customer lower the chance of customer being

moved out.

Now keeping the above principles , my team at one of my branches decided to implement

Relationship Management tools and targeted to add 250 Personal Banking customers with Rs.1

Lac average balances & 3 product holding and 100 Preferred customers with Rs.2 lac average

balances and 5 product holding.

And total value targeted was Rs.4.5 crores of demand deposits and 1250 products.

Vijay S Menon 55

Action Plans

• Identify 500 customers with potential to maintain Rs.1 lac or above balances and who can be

cross sold minimum 3 products.

And similarly 200 customers with potential to maintain Rs.2 lac or above balances and who can

be cross sold minimum 5 products.

• Post identification , appointment generation process was started by tele calling and every

appointment considered complete only post filling up profiling sheet capturing full details of the

customers .

• Eligible customers were then called to a customer engagement program and where they

were introduced to the privileges of relationship management products and many sign ups were

done then and there along with few appointments for the future.

• In a span of 6 months , total customers enrolled under PB-Program was 320 and under

Preferred Program was 155 , resulting in branch adding 5 crore from PB customers and 8

crores from Preferred customers and selling total 2200 products.

Vijay S Menon 56

Continued..

• Project highlighted the importance of offering something better to customers , which is

probably what customer looks forward to in bringing more business and profiling helps in

knowing the various needs of customers and thus enabling the process of cross selling easier.

And every cross sell ensures more stickiness along with profitability and actually forces

customers to turn the bank in to their primary bank (Where most of the business is routed).

“Hence objective of each & every customer engagement should be aimed at making the Bank,

Primary Bank for the customer , which will take care of all the targets assigned and designed.

Vijay S Menon 57

Management -Games

Management Games are aimed at a quick practical learning of all the topics discussed so far in

the presentation and will help you to experience the importance of planning /training /job

allocation /commitment /communication /leadership / goal clarity /process clarity & role

clarity.

Lets play “Build a House” game

Vijay S Menon 58

Puzzle Games – Level 1

(For the trainer’s understanding)

Level -1 is aimed at highlighting the importance of Leadership in a career.

Activity – Step 1

Split the group in to teams of 8-10 maximum

Give ten minutes for selection of Team Leader for each team

Post five minutes following results can emerge :-

• No agreement of Team Leader / Unanimous selection / Selection over a vote due to differences

Now what is an ideal situation:-

“Ideal situation is where every member wants to be a leader and then selection happens over a

vote , as Team Leader tag doesn’t come free , it comes for a premium”

Vijay S Menon 59

Continued..

Activity –Step2

Discussion with the team on Ideal situation and why leadership is important

Points of discussion:-

“Leadership is the biggest opportunity in a career , hence anybody foregoing an opportunity to

lead a team is being stupid and projecting an image of coward and shows willingness to be ruled

by others”

Level -1 is repeated in the ideal way and Team leaders are selected in the next 10 minutes.

All the Team Leaders are felicitated with token of appreciation for their ability to become Team

Leaders , thus reiterating the importance of Leadership in career.

Vijay S Menon 60

Level 2

Level -2 is aimed at learning the importance of Levels of Communication between Leader and

Team Members and How lack of clarity on Goal / Process / Role affects the achievement of any

goals.

Activity –step 1

Pieces of puzzle without any clue or picture of the object to be made is distributed to the

respective Team Leaders and time assigned is 15 minutes to make an objective and in our case a

“House” but picture of the house is not shown to the team leader.

Results expected post 15 minutes is full of chaos and no team being able to make the right

object (This is important and Training manager should ensure ).

Now every Team Leader should be asked to give 5 reasons on why they couldn’t make the object

and similarly every Team Member should also together mention 5 reasons on why team

couldn’t make the object.

Vijay S Menon 61

Continued..

Activity –Step 2

Now reasons given by Team Leader & His Team Members needs to be compared and higher the

agreement on reasons between Team leader and Team Members , better the Communication

levels between Team Leader and Team Members.

Now reasons should highlight lack of clarity on what to make “ Goal clarity “ / How to make

“process clarity” & How to allocate “ Role clarity”

Teams needs to be assigned points on each point of agreement and Team with highest

points wins Token of appreciation ,thus reiterating the importance of communication amongst

Team Leader and Team.

Vijay S Menon 62

Level 3

Level -3 is aimed at highlighting the importance of Goal Clarity / Quality of Process / Role

Clarification and Job Allocation / planning / Training /Leadership / Commitment.

Activity –Step 3

Every team leader is distributed Puzzle packet with picture of object to be made and each team

is allotted 30 minutes to plan their strategy including deciding the process/ training / roles

assignment or Job distribution and Commitment on final timings ,which should be within 15

minutes( Which is the final task completion time).

Winner team will be the one , who will complete the task in accordance with its commitment on

time . If more than one team does the task within the committed time , the team with fastest

completion time will be the winners.

Vijay S Menon 63

Continued..

Activity – Step 4

Post practice , every team is asked resubmit the puzzle packet back at the trainer.

Final Act – Start

All the Team Leaders are called to collect the respective puzzle packets and time clock is started

for the final act.

Time for final act is 15 minutes as discussed earlier.

Post 15 minutes , every team is checked for completion of the task as wells as completion in the

committed time frame.

And the team with best timings as well as achieving the committed time frame is selected as the

winner.

Vijay S Menon 64

Continued…

Activity –Step 5

Feed back on Planning / Leadership / Training / Job allocation /Commitment & Accomplishment is

taken from the winning team ,which is discussed with the entire team.

And discussions should highlight the importance Planning & Training and to allocate the jobs

amongst various team members and finally give a commitment and accomplishing it.

Similarly loosing teams feed back on all the above parameters and which again needs to be

discussed with the entire team.

Activity –Step 6

Token of appreciation is given to all the members of winning team & Game is called end.

Vijay S Menon 65

THANK YOU

Prepared & Presented by

Mr. Vijay S Menon

66Vijay S Menon