ET BureauIn an interview with Sreeradha D Basu, TR Ramachandran, MD & CEO, Aviva Life Insurance, shares his views on his first year at work.
The brief I was given and what I did in the first 100 days at work
SOON AFTER I joined Citi, my immediate supervisor got transferred abroad — which meant that I had his role — so it was a case of being thrown into the deep end of the pool for your first swimming lesson! As I look back, while I was at the time nervous, those formative learnings have stood me in good stead on aspects such as taking ownership, being proactive and not waiting for instructions, and taking decisions independently for what was then a first to the market start-up in retail banking.
The best leadership lesson I learnt
"IF YOU WANT leadership, look in the mirror". All my early bosses at Citi emphasised the importance of being a selfstarter, taking the initiative. I also learnt the importance of stepping outside your comfort zone, experimenting with ideas, and that often, speed-tomarket and executional excellence trump having a great strategy and mediocre execution. The leadership team then was obsessive about the importance of customer service, putting the customer at the heart of decision-making, and ensuring we as managers spoke to at least 10 customers a month — a habit I continue to this day.
How I managed my work-life balance
RATHER POORLY. We were at the time, living and breathing Citi 24x7, and pre-marriage, all the socialising and partying, too, was within work circles or on the rare weekends that we took off.
My biggest innovation
YOU HAD TO, those days, make an advance payment to book your Maruti car. I suggested a programme which was then rolled out nationally for financing this deposit amount, too, with the manufacturer giving us refunds for non-allotments. This was then copied by many of our competitors.
The worst mistake I made
NOT SPEAKING up enough and not raising a (constructive) challenge. The bank had launched some retail financial services products, imported from other countries. Even though research with our partners, distributors and customers suggested it may be ahead of its time, I did not raise my hand and convey this to senior management at the time.
The best friend I made on the job
ASIDE FROM MY childhood friends, my best friends have been the ones I made at Citi & some of these friendships are going strong now! The energy and achievement orientation was infectious, and the feeling that we were all co-creating something special was a fertile ground to engender friendships.
How I had fun at work
IN THE EARLY DAYS of corporate email, we created a group to take an informal look, and be a bulletin board for informal feedback. We also started the tradition of ‘skits’ where we would satirise & poke fun at bureaucracy & office politics
The brief I was given and what I did in the first 100 days at work
SOON AFTER I joined Citi, my immediate supervisor got transferred abroad — which meant that I had his role — so it was a case of being thrown into the deep end of the pool for your first swimming lesson! As I look back, while I was at the time nervous, those formative learnings have stood me in good stead on aspects such as taking ownership, being proactive and not waiting for instructions, and taking decisions independently for what was then a first to the market start-up in retail banking.
The best leadership lesson I learnt
"IF YOU WANT leadership, look in the mirror". All my early bosses at Citi emphasised the importance of being a selfstarter, taking the initiative. I also learnt the importance of stepping outside your comfort zone, experimenting with ideas, and that often, speed-tomarket and executional excellence trump having a great strategy and mediocre execution. The leadership team then was obsessive about the importance of customer service, putting the customer at the heart of decision-making, and ensuring we as managers spoke to at least 10 customers a month — a habit I continue to this day.
How I managed my work-life balance
RATHER POORLY. We were at the time, living and breathing Citi 24x7, and pre-marriage, all the socialising and partying, too, was within work circles or on the rare weekends that we took off.
My biggest innovation
YOU HAD TO, those days, make an advance payment to book your Maruti car. I suggested a programme which was then rolled out nationally for financing this deposit amount, too, with the manufacturer giving us refunds for non-allotments. This was then copied by many of our competitors.
The worst mistake I made
NOT SPEAKING up enough and not raising a (constructive) challenge. The bank had launched some retail financial services products, imported from other countries. Even though research with our partners, distributors and customers suggested it may be ahead of its time, I did not raise my hand and convey this to senior management at the time.
The best friend I made on the job
ASIDE FROM MY childhood friends, my best friends have been the ones I made at Citi & some of these friendships are going strong now! The energy and achievement orientation was infectious, and the feeling that we were all co-creating something special was a fertile ground to engender friendships.
How I had fun at work
IN THE EARLY DAYS of corporate email, we created a group to take an informal look, and be a bulletin board for informal feedback. We also started the tradition of ‘skits’ where we would satirise & poke fun at bureaucracy & office politics
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