Barclay's India head Jaideep Khanna, a banker who cares for kids with cancer

Security guards at the South Mumbai residential enclave, Somerset House, are a puzzled lot these days. A man they see driving around in a Land Rover, or a Skoda Yeti during the day, is out at 5 in the morning these days in full cycling gear and returns after a full three hours. On most weekends, he sends his family in a car to the seashore home at Alibaug, and cycles the 110 kilometres to join them.
What on earth is he doing? If it is just to be fit, then it need not be this rigorous. So, what’s the objective? It is training to cycle between Mumbai and New Delhi. But there is no Tour de India, like the Tour de France, to pedal for a championship. But the practice is for a cycling relay to fund an organisation that provides clean and hygienic accommodation to kids undergoing cancer treatment — St Jude ChildCare Centres.

Jaideep Khanna, the 49-year-old country head of British bank Barclays, is on a mission to raise funds for the organisation, and at the same time quench his thirst for some adventure and stay fit.

There are many not-for-profit organisations that fund cancer treatment, but this one provides accommodation for the family of those kids being treated for cancer.

Khanna chosee St Jude because of the thought process behind it and its “professional approach to charity”.

“The treatment is funded, but many lose their lives because of lack of hygienic conditions to convalesce,” says Khanna. “You can see people who come from faroff places living on the pavements while getting treated. They (St Jude) make a difference.”

difference.” Khanna, who raised Rs 1 crore for the NGO with his non-stop ride from Mumbai to Pune and back in 2012, got into banking without knowing what he was getting into.

After his post-graduation in Applied Physics from the Columbia University, he applied to three multinational banks, including ANZ Grindlays and American Express, on friends’ advice.

When he landed three jobs simultaneously, he did not even know which one to choose. But he ended up at ANZ Grindlays in 1991 when the division was still known as 'merchant banking’.

Khanna’s attitude and approach to life, as well as work, probably gathered acceptance after the 2008 credit crisis when finance professionals turned out to be the villains. 'Eat what you kill' has not been part of Khanna’s lexicon, and what often tumbles out is “what does one do with so much money?” But that does not mean the man whose thoughts are conditioned by sportsmanship is any less competitive than a hardcore financier.

“Even when we were running, he’d always be just that one step ahead of me,” says Raja Parthasarathy, partner at IDFC Private Equity and a friend of Khanna's for two decades. “He's a very intense competitor, but fair.”

Khanna was not a born sportsman; he became one to prove his friends, who taunted him for being obese, wrong. When he inquired around for the best sport to reduce weight, he was recommended squash.

The game became such an obsession that he missed classes in his second-year graduation to spend most of the time in squash courts, winning tournaments.

For Barclays, it has been a rough road in India with its retail banking winding up due to bad market conditions.

To remain relevant, it cut businesses and staff like many competitors. What’s the principle behind his work style in an industry known for outsized egos?

“Sports has been having a big influence on me,” says Khanna. “You need strikers to score the goals, but if you don’t have an efficient full back, or a goal keeper, however good a striker you may have, it will be meaningless.”

For some, Khanna may be abrasive and arrogant. He has little tolerance for conversations and discussions that do not carry much meaning. “He's not someone who tries to humour or indulge others purely for the sake of it,” says Parthasarathy.

“Because he is generally reserved by nature, he can come across as aloof. And because he is direct, it's possible that he might also come across as abrasive.” There is another handicap, too, says Khanna.

“I am not afraid of taking decisions, but at times I do without reflecting adequately,” he says. But his justification is “the dangers of not deciding on something is more harmful than a wrong decision. Any wrong decision could be corrected”.

In these times, the difference between being decisive and indecisive is well known.