How long he stood there, lost in thought, he didn’t know. Only when the vicious heat from the sun became unbearable did he trace his steps back to the SUV and quietly drove back to the resort. What would happen if an earthquake were to jolt the valley? Close to a million people stayed within a radius of twenty kilometres from the plant. If he didn’t do anything for the people in the neighbourhood, who would? Something had to be done about it. But how? He hadn’t found the answer yet.
5
Bandra Branch, GB2
17th May 2011
The Bandra branch was in a landmark stand-alone building on the busy and crowded Turner Road. Spread over four floors, the ground and the first floor housed the branch. Nikhil’s office was on the second floor.
A busy Monday, thought Nikhil, going over his calendar for the day, as he sneaked in through a side door meant only for staff. To reach his cabin he had to walk across the banking hall, to the lift at the other end. Two floors were not too much to walk up, but Nikhil never took the stairs.
There was a fair bit of commotion in the banking hall. Nikhil was surprised, for there was half an hour to go for the bank to throw its doors open to the public. Present in the banking hall were a bunch of youngsters, numbering close to a dozen, who through their constant chatter had succeeded in raising the noise levels in the branch. Nikhil looked at the Branch Customer Service Manager who was also the floor manager on duty and raised his eyebrows.
‘Management trainees,’ yelled the floor manager. It was loud enough for everyone to hear. The entire bunch turned and looked first at the floor manager and then at Nikhil. Some had seen him before but most of them hadn’t.
‘Oh, right,’ said Nikhil and walked away from the crowd. He recalled the mail Tanuja had sent him a few days back, informing him that a batch of fourteen management trainees would be assigned to one of the branches in his cluster for three weeks. So this was the gang, he thought to himself as he turned the key and opened the door to his cabin. ‘How did I miss it?’ he wondered as he threw his bag on the sofa in the corner of his room.
He walked across to his table, tugged at the LAN cord sticking out from a socket and plugged it into his laptop. After a couple of minutes spent in logging-in and settling his table, he was about to download his mails when a knock on his door interrupted him. He looked up. It was his Branch Manager, Anand Shastri, along with his floor manager. Nikhil was a man of few words; he just raised his eyebrows.
‘Good morning sir.’
‘Morning Anand.’
‘Sir, these management trainees are going to be here for three weeks. What should we do?’
‘What do you mean?’ He added nonchalantly, ‘Manage them.’
‘Sir, for three weeks? It’s too long. The entire branch’s processes will go for a toss. Can’t we split them?’
‘Split them?’
‘As in, send two to the Juhu branch, two to Powai, some to Andheri and so on. It will make managing them easy without really disrupting my branch.’
‘Anand, don’t you think it’s too late in the day to think about that? You knew a month ago that they were going to be assigned to us,’ Nikhil chided, conveniently forgetting his own lapse of memory. It was a low priority task from his perspective, but a task that had to be completed nevertheless.
‘I know, sir. . .but when we were told about this, we thought we would be able to manage them. Then last week, Vikram suddenly announced this insurance contest. We are in the last phase of that contest now. If I drag my team into managing these MTs, I will just not be able to pull through the contest.’
‘In any case, you are lagging behind. Your branch sits at the bottom of the league tables, my friend. So how does it matter? Manage them. We need to keep our HR folks happy too. In any case, three weeks is not too much.’
‘Sir, the insurance contest will really suffer.’
‘Fuck off, man. Is this your new excuse for screwing up on the insurance contest? I know you too well.’ And he smiled at Anand. ‘Okay. . .wait!’ Nikhil stared into his computer. ‘Let me just look at the mail Tanuja sent me,’ and he went silent as he scrolled through his inbox. In a few seconds he found it. ‘Aah. . .here it is.’
‘Okay, listen to me Anand. This does not say what we are supposed to do with the MTs. It only says that they need exposure to the branch. Attach each one of them to one officer in the branch. Let them shadow that officer. Rotate them end of week one and week two. Your guys just have to let them hang around. Don’t waste too much time on them.’
‘Good idea sir.’
‘Your work will also not be hindered. Whatever they learn, they’ll learn on the job. Let them learn by observation.’
‘Yes sir. I will do that.’
Nikhil looked at Tanuja’s mail again. ‘And as per this mail, I am supposed to take them out for dinner after two weeks. Line up any day, the week after next. Let me know and I will pen it in my diary.’
Anand just nodded his head and turned to leave.
‘And listen. . .’ Nikhil said. Anand stopped.
‘I don’t care how you do it, but I need your team to start performing better in the insurance contest. You guys are really lagging. Is it that difficult to sell an insurance policy to customers these days?’
‘We have been trying sir, but it’s taking time.’
‘Chipkao, yaar. Customers ko insurance chipkao. I am yet to meet a customer who knows what he wants. It’s in your hands. You have to make them need what you want to sell. That’s when you become a good salesman. You don’t need me to tell you what to do during the contest. Only results matter, my friend. Do whatever you have to, but your branch has to be amongst the top ten branches on the league tables.’
After that conversation, Anand did not need any further license. Nikhil had said a lot that day without actually saying anything. Now it was up to him to interpret it the way Nikhil wanted him to. On his return to his branch a couple of floors below, Anand called for a meeting of all his branch sales and service officers. By the time they left his room, they were a bunch of transformed people.
As per Nikhil’s suggestion, all the MTs were allocated to individual officers and started shadowing them to learn how the bank operated on a day-to-day basis. What they learnt, whether it was appropriate or not, no one cared.
That day Mrs Bhatnagar, a 50-year-old widow living on her husband’s pension and a loyal GB2 customer for over two decades, was the first customer to enter the branch. Her loyalty could be gauged from the fact that, despite living off her husband’s meagre pension, she did not move her money out of GB2 even when the rates of interest GB2 offered were the lowest in the market. Being someone who valued safety over returns, all her money was in fixed deposits. GB2 was the only bank she banked with.
Jasmeet met her at the door and walked her to the cabin. A customary cup of coffee—Mrs Bhatnagar loved the coffee served in GB2—and thirty minutes of conversation later, she walked out of the branch with a wide smile on her face. It was a normal reaction; she always felt good after talking to her own RMs in the bank. They took good care of her.
After Mrs Bhatnagar left, the traffic in the branch picked up considerably. The steady customer inflow made it a busy day for the Bandra branch, keeping all the RMs and the service executives on their toes.
By evening, everyone was tired, but Anand was a happy man. It was amazing how a five minute talk with the cluster manager could change the approach of the entire branch. The mood had changed. The branch was suddenly seized with enthusiasm. He could sense it when he met the team in the huddle that evening.
‘If every day hereon, till the end of the contest which is three weeks from now, turns out to be like today, we will not only be in the top ten but we might end up being one of the top three branches in the country.’ The entire branch went up in applause.
‘Today’s spot winner, the best performer of the day is. . .’ and he paused for effect. The audience waited, holding their breath. ‘. . .Jasmeet Pahuja,’ announ
ced Anand. ‘She has managed to close an insurance deal with a premium of rupees four lakh, one of the largest in the branch thus far. What makes it special is also the fact that this insurance has come to us from a customer who has never ever invested in anything but a fixed deposit.’
Everyone cheered and Jasmeet couldn’t control her emotions. Her face went red and she couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear.
6
Mainland China Restaurant, Bandra
Early June 2011
Mainland China, the premium Chinese cuisine destination in Bandra, was buzzing with activity at 8.30 that evening. Almost all the tables were taken. On one long table, in a private corner, Nikhil and Anand sat with the management trainees. Twelve of the fourteen MTs were in attendance—five men and seven women, all impeccably dressed, out to impress the branch management team that included Nikhil and Anand, who had come straight from work. Nikhil had invited Vikram too, but despite confirming his attendance he had ditched them at the last moment. Typical of Vikram, Nikhil thought when Vikram called him to say he couldn’t make it.
At the head of the table was Nikhil, Anand to his right, and then the MTs. ‘Third person to my right,’ Anand nudged Nikhil and whispered into his ear. ‘The girl in white.’ Nikhil turned to look. That was the first time he saw Zinaida at close quarters. Anand had mentioned her on their way to the restaurant. Nikhil was curious to meet her. When he saw her, he just couldn’t turn his gaze away. But he gathered himself quickly and looked towards the other side, hoping Zinaida hadn’t caught him staring at her.
The dinner itself was quite a formal affair. The MTs were on their best behaviour. Nikhil interacted with everyone, even though he kept intermittently stealing a glance at Zinaida. Her fair skin complimented her lush brown hair streaked with coppery red. Her greenish brown eyes were so intensely deep, that she stood out in that entire batch of management trainees.
Post dinner, all of them walked out together towards the parking lot. As per protocol, Nikhil had to be seen off, being the senior most in the group.
It was windy that night. The road outside Mainland China was damp, the result of pre-monsoon showers. The monsoon had hit the coast of Kerala and was less than a week away from Mumbai. Strong winds were blowing, fuelled by the tunnelling effect of the portico of the restaurant. Zinaida was struggling to keep her hair in place and also manage her short skirt, which was flying because of the wind, exposing her silky thighs. Nikhil saw her struggle and stepped in front of her, which cut off the wind for a moment and helped Zinaida rearrange herself.
‘Thanks,’ she smiled at Nikhil.
‘Not a problem. The wind here can be notorious.’ He smiled back at her. ‘So I hope you had a good time at the branch.’
‘Yes sir. Learnt a lot.’
‘Any feedback?’
‘Only one, sir. In fact it’s more of a compliment. We have a fabulous sales team in the branch.’
‘Thank you. That’s nice to hear.’
‘Yes sir. Who else would be able to sell an insurance scheme to a 50-year-old lady, passing it off as a fixed deposit product?’
‘Sorry?’ Nikhil was horrified. ‘Say that again?’
‘Nikhil, your car has come,’ Anand interrupted.
‘It’s okay. Ask them to park it on the side. I’ll come in a moment.’ He looked at Zinaida and asked her, ‘What did you say young lady?’
‘Did I say anything wrong sir?’
‘No, no you didn’t. I just want to hear that again.’
‘I was with Jasmeet in my first week at your branch. And I saw her sell an insurance policy to a 50-year-old widow. She never told her that it was a Unit Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP) policy. The only thing she said was that she would get good returns and her investment was safe.’
‘What did she tell her?’
‘She just told her that it’s like a deposit and that she would get a minimum return of twelve per cent, much higher than the eight per cent a fixed deposit gave her. Her control on the customer was amazing. The old lady didn’t ask too many questions and just agreed to whatever Jasmeet told her. It was an amazing experience for me.’
Nikhil couldn’t quite figure out if Zinaida was serious or sarcastic. Whatever the case, he was worried about the repercussions. He could have been in serious trouble if such a discussion had taken place in someone else’s presence.
‘Thanks for telling me, Zinaida. I will take care of this,’ and he walked towards his car. Having barely taken a few steps he stopped, turned back and called out to Anand. ‘Anand, come. I will drop you home.’ Anand didn’t have much of a choice.
Nikhil was livid and gave Anand an earful on the way back. The latter was left wondering what had happened till Nikhil replayed his conversation with Zinaida.
‘But sir, this is normal stuff. Happens all the time. How else will numbers happen? There is no way we would have reached where we have in the insurance sales contest had this not happened. Jasmeet has over-achieved her target by 380 per cent and is in the running for the best sales RM.’
‘I know Anand, all this is fine. My question is simple: Why can’t we be careful in front of outsiders? These MT idiots have no understanding of what we need to do to achieve our revenue targets. The problem is, if they say something stupid like what Zinaida said, in front of Vikram or someone else, we’ll be in serious trouble. We need to be careful so that people don’t talk about such things. I know you will manage the one-in-hundred customer who comes back and complains. For them we will reverse the transaction and pay them back, but it’s the others who will give us our profits. But that’s not the point. These things are necessary to do. . .but never to be spoken about.’
‘Yes sir.’
‘Tell your team to be careful if any non-branch person is with them. Word must not get out.’
‘Sir, can I say something?’
Nikhil nodded.
‘Every branch in this country does this, sir, to meet their insurance targets. And that day you only said na. . .customers ko chipkao? Sir, humne chipka diya. . .And from being second last branch on the league table, we catapulted to the second position.’
Nikhil smiled. ‘You haven’t had this conversation with me, Anand. You haven’t told me this and I haven’t stopped you.’ And he raised his hand, bringing the thumb and the index finger together and slid it across his face from one corner of the lips to the other. ‘My lips are sealed.’
Anand smiled as he looked at Nikhil. The car crossed the toll plaza and on to the Bandra Worli Sea Link. For a moment there was silence in the car as it whizzed past the cables holding up the five-kilometre-long bridge. Anand didn’t want to disturb Nikhil and was wondering what it was that Nikhil was thinking. Finally, as they reached the other end of the sea link and crossed over into Worli, Nikhil spoke, ‘What do you think of Zinaida? Hot chick, na?’ He was still looking outside the window.
Anand smiled. ‘Heard she is close to Vikram.’ Nikhil suddenly turned towards him. There was surprise in his voice when he asked curiously, ‘Who told you?’
‘Just heard some guys talking. I don’t even know if it’s true sir.’
‘Hmm. . .she is cute.’
‘She is apparently not a fresher. So I was pretty surprised as to how she made it to the MT programme. Guess they made an exception for her.’
‘Helps if you know the big boss, doesn’t it?’ said Nikhil, still looking out as they drove onto the Worli sea face enroute to Parel.
Nikhil reached office early the next day. Vikram had asked for a conference call with the cluster managers and branch managers to announce the results of the insurance contest. Though most of the branches knew their standings in the league tables through informal channels, Vikram wanted to formally announce the winners himself. The call was at nine and Nikhil was already in his cabin at 8.30 a.m., looking at the previous month’s Management Information System report and trying to pre-empt any question Vikram might ask. He liked to be prepared, especially at a time when his cluster ha
d done well and when every single graph, on every parameter, was showing a positive trajectory from the time he had taken over. He felt proud of himself.
The call began at sharp nine. Vikram started with a lecture on sales effectiveness. He spoke about the contest, the need to drive results, about what the organization had achieved and went on and on for ten minutes. He loved to talk; it gave him a feeling of control. Not only did he love to speak, but he also got quite irritated if someone contradicted or interrupted him.
Finally he came to the contest results. Vikram had just started giving the preamble when Nikhil’s phone rang. It was Anand. Putting the conference call on mute, Nikhil picked up the phone.
‘Your call couldn’t have come at a worse time. . .Vikram is about to announce the results of the contest on the call. . .someone had better died for you to be calling just now.’
‘Sir. . .I was also on the call too. Had to log off because it was urgent. . .’ Anand told him what had happened.
‘What the fuck? Are you serious?’
‘Yes boss.’
‘When did this happen?’
‘I don’t have the details. I was only informed a minute ago.’
‘Any idea how this happened?’
‘No one saw it happen. There weren’t any witnesses.’
‘Alright, give me a minute, I will be down there. Let me inform Vikram first.’
‘Okay boss.’
The Bankster (Ravi Subramanian) Page 5
