The book records the fascinating growth of India?s oldest and largest state-owned banking monolith and how it has carved out a space for itself in a competitive industry
The story of SBI would hardly have figured in India?s contemporary management and industrial organisation literature had Rajesh Chakrabarti not decided to unravel and document the subtle yet phenomenal changes that have taken place in the bank?s vision and operations over the past few years. In keeping with the subject, Grit, Guts and Gumption deals with SBI?whose mention hardly inspires glamorous, jazzy or funky images?with a sober, down-to-earth and no-frills approach. But in keeping with the ?new? SBI that the author aims to discover and depict, the book is written in a strikingly simple and businesslike manner. The two hundred and quarter pages provide a fascinating account of how India?s oldest and largest state-owned banking monolith attempts to shed off trappings of a different past to carve out space for itself in a modern, expanding and competitive industry.
Turnarounds are often simple; and simple tasks are usually the most difficult to perform. Grit, Guts and Gumption documents how simple measures can produce remarkable results. A typical example is the decision to hold annual employee award functions at the Chairman?s residence instead of the corporate headquarters that encouraged employees to work harder to enter the ?Chairman?s club?, which meant not only receiving an award, but also being photographed with the Chairman of India?s oldest and largest bank in his sprawling premises?photographs that would be seen by envious colleagues and would urge them to perform the impossible as well. Similarly, reviving the staff suggestion scheme by announcing a paltry award of Rs 500 per suggestion helped in drawing out tips from different employees on improvements and created not only a deeper sense of ownership among employees, but also empowered them substantively.
For an organisation such as the SBI, growing modern and remaining relevant have probably been the biggest challenges at a time when India?s banking industry has been put through fast changing paces with private banks such as the ICICI Bank becoming increasingly bigger players in banking business. Being used to a different style and mode of functioning hardly suited for success in a competitive milieu, SBI?s imperatives were to unlearn and learn again. The biggest handicaps for SBI in this regard were its size and outreach. Organisational dimensions ensured that all efforts aimed at radical revitalisation would have to be exhaustive, broad-based as well as inclusive. As the book describes, there were two key initiatives that were instrumental in expediting the sequence of organisational unlearning and re-learning. The first was digitalisation of operations by upgrading the information technology infrastructure to institutionalise the Centralised Online Real-Time Environment (CORE) banking system. The second was identifying rural banking as the activity where SBI has an undeniable advantage over its counterparts and which can provide its access to large sources of untapped finance. Armed with a sophisticated technology infrastructure that enables SBI to reach out to rural customers in an efficient and user-friendly manner, rural banking, pushed and promoted by the rural banking group (RBG) can indeed be the decisive edge that separates SBI from its counterparts, as Indian banks gradually begin discovering the villages.
The book is a robust assessment of what the SBI has been trying to do over the last few years for getting its act together. Two questions, however, remain. The first is regarding the continuity of change. As the book points out, the far-reaching organisational changes would probably not have occured without the leadership of the incumbent SBI chairman, O P Bhatt. Too often, change becomes synonymous with individuals and stagnates after the individual moves on. SBI probably faces one of its toughest challenges in this respect.
This gets us to the second critical question: how much has SBI really changed? Given that customer care was never one of the bank?s virtues, any improvement from a low base would come as a pleasant surprise for most existing customers. But, are marginal improvements good enough to see the bank through in an era where consumers are spoilt for choice? Non-functioning branch servers and ATMs with services ?temporarily unavailable? are still active parts of the banking experience at SBI. True that no bank can beat the SBI in size. Also true that size makes change that much difficult. But that may not be the best defence for protecting turf on a slippery territory.
?The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore
