Hi Five !!

On the eve of my?5th?year of romance with my Bharat ka Karnataka Bank?and the completion of 30 years of my work life, my heart is filled with a multitude of emotions;?

Gratitude, Pride, Happiness & Optimism.

These have been outstanding and exhilarating professional years of my life that I have zero regrets about!! The last 5 years have been so?full of accelerated learning, contributions and?effort?that they feel equitable in comparison to my erstwhile 25 years.

25 + 5 = 30 or 25 + 5 = 50 !!? Ye Dil Maange More !!

Gratitude?for having lived two equally rewarding and fulfilling professional lives.?Gratitude for the life-changing opportunity?I grabbed,?with a clear purpose of ensuring my Bank transforms to stay a relevant, vibrant, nextgen family bank across India, for the next century.

Variety has been the spice of my life. Foundational years in the form of schooling from the Steel township of Bokaro, engineering from the exotic pink city of Jaipur and management from the business mecca of Mumbai. Work-life has been even more varied, from being an entrepreneur to varied roles in IT Distribution, IT products & services, Cloud & DC services, N/W services to leading Digital for a Bank. Working out of seven different cities and managing 3 different geographies - India, Srilanka & Middle East added to this varied and wholesome exposure!

25 years of the?SWAG-HI life?serving customers, building teams, managing channels, creating solutions, managing P&L’s across amazing institutions like Sify, Wipro , Acer, Godrej; HCL, Ingram. ?

5 years at Karnataka Bank, a?life dedicated to creating DAM?(Digital,?Analytics,?Marketing) to harness and monetize data, building rails for faster more efficient onboarding & underwriting, developing enhanced customer engagement, creating a vibrant digital presence, and?becoming future ready.

Gratitude?for the?passion and perseverance?god bestowed for successfully straddling two lives and the resultant?comprehensive hybrid skillset, persistent outcome-oriented mindset and waning of any doubts and insecurities as a professional.

Keep living, learning & contributing is my acquired way!

Pride?for the contributions made for my Bank, for significant learnings and for choosing to stay on course despite the heavy turbulence and temptation to abort mid-way !

Contributions?as an anchor in the creation of the?next generation?“Centres of Excellence”?right from scratch, both for Analytics and Digital, and building a special skill team for my Bank's self-reliance.

• Over 100+ people, 30+ digital journeys, 20+ scorecards, 100+ BRE’s, 60+ partnerships, 50+ analytical models/dashboards, 10+ platforms running to support. This along with varied digital enablers like CRM, EWS, CDP?laid the foundations for the bank’s future.
• ?A constant focus on outcomes ensured quick scaleup with > 85% retail lending done digitally; ?> 90% onboarding done digitally; > 4.7/5 CSAT, > 25 Cr / Qtr operating profit through Analytics, > 80% ADC penetration are a few?stats that speak for themselves.

Learning?the nuances of the banking domain daily kept the learner for life within me going and motivated. This cut?across credit risk, liabilities, assets, collections, operations, compliances, channels, customer loyalty, products, partnerships, SEO / SEM and social. Macros of the Insurance business came to me as a byproduct in terms of incremental learnings.

Happiness?to have toiled hard, and?found acceptance?into the KBL family, despite?being the first lateral hire. This was?probably the hardest, but staying?true to the purpose?and finding thrill in making things move without taking to heart expected resistance. However, the biggest treasures accumulated are the?relationships that have converted into everlasting friendships?over our time spent together.

Optimism?about leapfrogging ahead in the industry, riding on the successful transformation process,?decisive and visionary leadership, digital & analytics foundations but most importantly the?common desire of all KBLites to contribute to the glorious future of this family.

Appreciation of?BFSI beyond Technology?with a focus on driving business, customer, risk, and compliances?outcomes?and?appreciation of?Technology beyond BFSI?to harness the power of Cloud, Open API’s, Agile SDLC, AI/ML, CDP, CRM, Martech, NCLC, IoT, Biometrics, InfoSec, SDWAN, DC for innovating and creating new tech-enabled business models across industry, now comes naturally to me.

The last five years have been filled with many hits, few misses; Many exhilarating moments, a few frustrating ones; A mix of catch-up initiatives with industry firsts; Many milestones at speed and a few aborts too. Surprisingly hectic, and fast-paced, with tons of heavy lifting, accelerated learning, and steadfast contributions define?KBL@5?for me.

What the almighty has in store for the future no one can tell, however exciting times are ahead as my?Startup@100?is planning to embark on the creation of a DigiBank, within the bank, focused on end-to-end digital sourcing, servicing and relationship management.

I hold much gratitude and respect for the many leaders who significantly contributed to where I stand today. While I fondly?remember all of them, I am noting, with?reverence, a?few of my mentors, for their far-reaching influence on not only where I am today but also who I am today !

Shailendra Gupta Bimal Das Sunil Sharma Azim Premji Viswanathan K S Anand Sankaran Anand Padmanabhan Mythily Ramesh Ashok Tripathy Anurag Mehrotra Raju Vegesena Biswanath Bhattacharya Mahabaleshwar Bhat Gokuldas Pai Pradeep Kumar Panja Srikrishnan Keech Sekhar Rao

Looking forward to even more exciting and fulfilling life ahead and to keep counting my blessings !!