Indian Bank Gears Up To Be Among Top Ten

Buoyed by the turnaround performance in 2001-02, Chennai-headquartered Indian Bank has set its sights on becoming one of the top ten banks in the country in the next few years. The bank's chief has written a letter addressed to each of the 1,386 branch heads asking them to pull up their socks and go the whole hog in achieving the organisational goals.

The letter exhorts employees to 'dare to dream', 'strive for excellence', 'build self-confidence', 'learn to work in teams', 'learn to plan and share', 'persevere' and 'never accommodate indiscipline'.

"As of March 31, 2001, and March 31, 2002, we, as a team achieved the targets under the restructuring plan.......We should now have a dream of becoming one of the top 10 banks in the country," wrote Ranjana Kumar, chairperson and managing director of Indian Bank.

 

The bank, in fiscal 2001-02, logged a net profit of Rs 33.20 crore as against a net loss of Rs 274 crore in the previous year.

"Just being good is not good enough....Excellence is a moving target. One has to constantly raise the bar. While our bank enjoys a good brand image even today we know that we are dissatisfied with several things, which we are not doing right in the area of customer satisfaction. Let us think and set these things right," Kumar said.

"The most fundamental aspect of any business is proper planning........If you 'fail to plan today', you are 'planning to fail'. Planning therefore, is not a casual exercise but a meticulous effort with a set goal in mind, which must be achieved," she said.

"The challenges ahead are so complex that no individual will be able to face them alone. Unless you build a strong network of people with complementary skills, you will be restricted by your own limitations."

She observed that as all available knowledge in the world is accelerating at a phenomenal rate, 'remaining on top of what you need to know' will become one of the greatest challenges....If you do not do that, you will find yourself quickly outdated.