The Bandhan Pathshala

The key to Bandhan’s success as an MFI was its 2003 manual, which was the bedrock of its operations. The first edition of the manual, called ‘Programme Strategy and Operational Guidelines’, was published in April 2003, when Bandhan’s headquarters was a 550-square feet, one-bedroom flat, at Ba 74, Sector I, Salt Lake City, where the hall was the reception area, the kitchen housed the accounts department, and the bedroom was Ghosh’s office. The manual was in Bengali.

The manual laid down every rule of Bandhan, ranging from what kind of furniture a branch could have to the process of appointing employees and their promotion, and even how to form a team of borrowers and give loans.

Let’s take a close look at the manual. It says that a branch would have three to four community organizers, a peon-cumcook, and a branch manager for overall supervision. Every CO would handle 360–400 group members. This meant every branch would have 1200–1600 members.

In the early days, it was a three-tier structure. a CO was responsible for 360–400 members, a branch manager for 1440–1600 members, and a regional manager for five to eight branches.

The office time for branch employees was between 7.30 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. between Mondays and Fridays; for field visits, the same hours but with one-hour lunch breaks, between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. On Saturdays, the branch would remain open till 1.30 p.m., without a lunch break.

For the head office, there was no half day. The office functioned between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. every day, with halfan-hour lunch breaks. Every branch would have two registers: one for recording attendance, and another called ‘movement muster’, which keeps tabs on employee movement while he or she was not in office.

Attendance is something that has remained sacrosanct at Bandhan, even after it became a bank. In the first week of august 2015, barely three weeks before the bank’s launch, Ghosh made a surprise visit to a Bandhan branch at Survey Park, near his house, before coming to the office. He was there at 8.55 a.m. and watched the branch manager walk in at 9.15 a.m. Ghosh asked him where he lived. The branch manager came from Baghajatin, in the southern part of the city, about a half-an-hour commute from Survey Park.

Ghosh gave the branch manager two choices: one, he could quit his job and stay at home; two, he could be transferred to Krishna Nagar, in Nadia district of West Bengal. If he were not coming from home, surely he would be punctual in reaching the office. The manager begged him for a last chance.

Discipline is the key, and Ghosh does not compromise on this for anything. Rathore, now communications head of Bandhan, who joined the group in June 2004, vouches for it. After her final-year BCom examination from South City College, Rathore was looking for some sort of an engagement. She had also enrolled herself for a diploma in public relations at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, at Salt Lake City. She saw a classified advertisement from Bandhan in the Telegraph, seeking an office assistant.

About a dozen girls were interviewed. There were very few chairs and only one table; the candidates had to take turns to write an essay on ‘Your Life’. Ghosh and another gentleman interviewed Rathore. It went well, and Rathore, fairly sure that she would bag the job, mustered the courage to ask Ghosh whether she could come a little late to office. The office hours were from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan class would start at 7 a.m. and end at 9 a.m. She was seeking a ten-minute grace period. But Ghosh’s response was curt: ‘at Bandhan, nine means nine, but six can become seven.’

That’s how the interview ended, and Rathore thought she had messed up her chances. However, a few days later, Swapan Saha, who was looking after HR at that time, called at her house to tell her the job was hers. She was offered Rs 3500 per month. When she dropped in at the office to collect her appointment letter, Rathore haggled for another Rs 500, but Ghosh was firm—she could take it or leave it; a hike could come only after six months.

Even if someone reaches the office one minute past 9 a.m., it is counted as being late, and three such instances lead to losing a day’s salary. Initially, it was a ten-minute grace period but soon, 9.10 a.m. became the de facto official time as people started reaching after nine. So Ghosh removed the grace period. Then, employees started running, begging autorickshaw drivers to speed up, and tumbled upon each other to come in by 9 a.m.

Walking on the pavement near Bandhan’s office in Kolkata in the past fifteen years—it has changed four buildings before moving to the current headquarters at DN 32, Salt Lake City, Kolkata—around 9 a.m. was always a risk for the others, as Bandhan employees would do a sprint to be on time.

There were some smart people who would hoodwink the system—they would come late but sign the register and enter the right time; there would be overwriting also. But Ghosh was even smarter. At Bandhan’s third headquarters at AB 48, Salt Lake City, he introduced the card punching system for employees. And at DN 32, CCTVs were installed, apparently to detect theft, but that was an excuse. He wanted to keep a close watch on people.

Ghosh would have a monitor on his table showing who was doing what. Suddenly, one department head would get a call via the intercom from Ghosh: ‘doesn’t your team have any work? Get out of your work station and look at what’s happening around,’ he would say.

He also plays other tricks. For instance, he would come earlier than 9 a.m. and wish ‘good morning’ to a senior employee, a habitual latecomer. After this, the person would be so embarrassed that he would never come late again.

Tamal Bandyopadhyay is the author of two best-sellers --  "A Bank for the Buck" and "Sahara: The Untold Story". He writes a popular weekly column on finance, Banker's Trust, every Monday at Mint where he is a Consulting Editor. You can buy his new book "Bandhan: The Making of a Bank" here.

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