BUILDING THE DREAM TEAM

ICICI Bank's 'One Bank, One Team' is proving to be highly effective, even seeing interest from outside the country 

- ANAND ADHIKARI

IT’S A TALE AS OLD AS SPORTS. A highly skilled sportsperson, whose ability is frequently doubted and who is overlooked repeatedly, storms onto the global stage and proves the doubters horribly wrong. Perhaps no career better captures this arc than that of cricketing legend Mohinder Amarnath. He was doubted constantly and dropped from the team, only to defy all the odds at the 1983 World Cup that India won—the quintessential ‘comeback man’ of Indian sports.

It’s no surprise then that Mumbai-headquartered ICICI Bank chose to tap into this powerful story and invited Amarnath recently to have a chat with employees. In the fast-changing banking world, there are times when an employee feels overlooked, and wishes to reskill and upgrade. Amarnath’s journey serves as a compelling narrative of the triumph of will, grit, and determination.

In fact, this isn’t the first time that the bank has tapped into the sporting world. To emphasise the importance of teamwork, it invited former Indian hockey team captain Viren Rasquinha about two years ago to discuss how hockey—as it is played now—requires continuous adaptation, adjustment, and onthe-fly strategising. The bottom line of these HR exercises is to help employees excel as a team.

It’s central to MD and CEO Sandeep Bakhshi’s strategy of ‘One Bank, One Team’. Since Bakhshi joined the bank in October 2018, the bank’s HR policies have undergone a significant overhaul. In the process, it has moved away from an individual key performance indicators-driven model to a teambased approach.