Devil in Pinstripes (29 page)

‘What is your recommendation?’

‘I think you should sack the guys in Hyderabad. Raman Bhaskar needs to go. Even though they will put in their papers, we should terminate them and not give them an option for an honourable exit. Nirmal compromised the audits and he needs to go too. You will have to quietly review collections processes across the country . . . and . . . and . . . you will have to take a call on Gowri.’

‘Why Gowri?’

‘Aditya, he was the one who legalised this practice in the branches. If I were to believe Raman, funding is happening in almost all branches and has executive sanction from Gowri. There had been times in the past, when Gowri had tried to influence me to get into this practice. I resisted and hence became unpopular with him. I am sure he would have tried to influence Amit too and would have failed. However, this time around he went a step ahead. He successfully manipulated this through the branch managers. He placed his own guys strategically to conduct the crime and policed it through the branch managers, who were also his own guys. He has systematically corrupted the entire place. I wouldn’t have believed it till I saw it with my own eyes. As an evidence for his innocence, Raman Bhaskar showed me an SMS from Gowri, which said . . .’ and he paused.

‘Wait for a minute Aditya. I actually asked him to forward the same to me. Let me read it out to you. It says, “Raman go ahead and manage it as per our discussion. Do what you have to. Nirmal will help you clear the agency bills. Take his assistance if required to make the payout.” This was a message he had sent among many others asking him to manage the funding of the portfolio. He has legalised this menace within NFS. As I said, if we do not curtail it, we will be in trouble.’

‘Is it happening in other parts of the country?’

‘I am sure it would be. Despite us separating collections from sales, I am sure they are hand-in-glove across the country. The relationship between Gowri and Amit is not helping either. They just don’t speak to each other to resolve issues.’

The balance of the conversation was lost on Aditya. He was just stuck on three points. Gowri was involved in funding of accounts. He was the one who legalised the menace in the collections team of NFS. He still wielded significant authority over the branch credit and collections teams. With him around, things wouldn’t improve. He had to have a conversation with him. Things were not going as per his plan. Aditya had to act before things blew up in his face. The suicide issue was staring at him. It was sure to have its repercussions.

The plane was flying over Mumbai. The air traffic congestion over Mumbai made sure that the plane was in the air for much longer. It gave time for him to dwell over the issue at hand.

‘Amit too could have been at fault,’ muttered Aditya as the lights got dimmed for the plane to land.

‘Unlikely,’ said Manish. Aditya was startled. He was just speaking aloud and had not expected Manish to hear and respond.

‘I don’t think so,’ Manish continued. ‘Given that the audit reports were all fixed and clean, there was no way he could figure out that something was wrong in Hyderabad. Had he known it, he would have fixed it. You can’t blame him for something he didn’t do.’

As the plane dropped in altitude and the landing announcements happened, Aditya sat up straight. He had made up his mind. Some decisions had to be taken in the interest of the organisation. Some decisions had to be taken in his own interest . . . to protect his own job. As if stung by the troubled decisions that Aditya had made, the plane landed with a huge thud and swayed for a couple of seconds before it steadied itself and taxied to the parking bay.

‘In life, you are often confronted with situations when you become victims of incomplete information. You will, when put in such a position, have to back your gut and take decisions. Not taking a decision is the worst thing you can ever do,’ mused Aditya, and made up his mind. The conversation with Manish was a telling one.

From the airport, Aditya went to meet Amit at the Bandra police station. Manish was too tired to go anywhere. He hadn’t slept the previous night. Aditya’s secretary had booked him into Hotel Sahara Star, right next to the domestic airport. He went to the hotel and hit the bed.

Aditya met Amit and Chanda at the police station and assured them that the weight of the entire organisation was behind him and that they would do everything physically possible to get him out. Ravi Subramanian, the bank lawyer, joined in the discussion and helped Aditya give solace to the two of them. After the lawyers left, Aditya also shared with Amit the crux of his discussion with Manish. Amit seemed shocked and devastated at what Aditya told him. ‘Do not worry Aditya. Let me get out of here. I will fix everything. If the system needs a flush out, I will not hesitate,’ he had said. Aditya smiled and left with a promise to meet him the next day, in court.

As expected when Amit was presented in court the next day, the Mumbai high court granted a stay on the warrant issued by the Hyderabad court. At around noon, Amit walked out of the police station, a free man, albeit temporarily.

That very evening, a mail was sent out from Aditya’s office which had the following contents.

Dear colleagues,

As all of you are aware, we have over the past twenty-four months seen extraordinary progress and growth in NFS. From a little short of 150 branches in 2006, we have now grown our branch network to over 400 branches. We have achieved leadership status in personal loans and mortgages and we are also a large player in the durable finance business. All this has been accomplished under the able stewardship of Gowri Shankar. Gowri has been instrumental in taking NFS to higher than expected profit levels of USD 55 million in 2007 and this number is expected to be even higher in 2008.

After a successful stint as head of NFS, Gowri moves on to take over a more challenging assignment as head of a newly created asset management company for the group in India. He will be charged with building this company from scratch into a world class company, something which he successfully did at NFS. His distribution ability and skill at building scale in business will be leveraged by the asset management company.

Taking over from Gowri as managing director of NFS will be Amit Sharma, who has excelled in his role as head of credit and collections in India. He has been instrumental in developing a world class analytics and credit management platform and we look forward to his leadership and team building skills to grow the business in India and also lead our initiatives as we pass through a tough credit environment.

I have also requested the group to release the services of Manish Kakkar who will now be back in India to take over the credit and collections role for NFS that he had handed over to Amit. Manish is not a new face to NFS and I expect him to seamlessly take off from where he left and apply the skill sets that he learnt during his stint overseas. He will also be managing the overall credit strategy for NYB in India, in addition to his role at NFS.

Amit and Gowri’s move is effective immediately. I will shortly announce Manish’s date of release in consultation with the Singapore regional office.

Please join me in wishing Gowri, Amit and Manish, all the very best in their new role.

Regards,

Aditya

As a consequence of this, later in the day, the movement of Chanda to NYB as their customer service head was also announced. She couldn’t have continued in any role in a company where her husband was the managing director. NYB internal regulations did not allow such an arrangement. She was not happy about it, but she didn’t have any choice.

Amit moved in and took over the role from Gowri almost immediately. For Gowri, the clock stopped ticking at NFS, the moment he got a call from Aditya asking him to meet him. Aditya had called him and spoken to him on his way back from the police station, on that fateful night, when he had gone to see Amit. It was at Aditya’s request that he met him at 8 a.m. the next morning.

When Gowri arrived at the Grand Hyatt at eight in the morning, Aditya was waiting for him at the reception. Over breakfast, Aditya presented the head of asset management company opportunity to him. He projected it as if it was the next biggest thing for NYB and that this initiative required the skills of a dynamic individual like Gowri.

Deep within, Aditya didn’t want to lose Gowri. He knew that Gowri had great business building skills, business acumen and overall he was a great leader who had high levels of emotional quotient. His connect with his people was brilliant . . . though he had to temper down his aggression and desire to get to the end at any cost. Gowri was a potential retail bank head, and Aditya knew that.

‘Can I think about it and get back? Say by tomorrow?’ Gowri tried to buy some time. He did not want to react immediately.

Aditya initially told him that he was in a bit of a hurry to close this and make the change, but when Gowri did not agree and kept pushing him for time to think it over, Aditya dropped the bombshell. ‘Look Gowri. I believe that this is a great opportunity for you. Unfortunately this is also the only opportunity that you can get within the group. You either take this and move to the asset management company or else you will have to move to some project role within the group. You cannot continue as managing director of the NBFC.’

Gowri was stunned. Was he being served the notice? Was the AMC only a honourable exit route that was being provided to him? Gowri, being Gowri was not the one to be easily cowed down.

‘But why? What have I done?’

‘Gowri, a number of issues at the branches have been traced back to your support. You have been running this place now as MD and even in the past as the network head on your whims and fancies – as your personal fiefdom. There have been several acts of indiscretion at your end.’

‘Is it something to do with your and Manish’s visit to Hyderabad yesterday?’

‘So you have already heard about it. Well, partly Amit. Even in Hyderabad, many malpractices in collections have been linked to Raman Bhaskar. You knew that the guy’s integrity was suspect. Yet you got him placed there whereas you should ideally have sacked him. Manish even cautioned you against him. Various practices in the branches are being followed at your behest. I don’t think you want me to get into this.’ Aditya cautiously stayed away from mentioning the collections funding issue.

Gowri didn’t respond. He could not recollect which instruction he had given and when. What was Aditya referring to? Could be anything? He was scared to ask. It was true that he had been running the company as his own. A number of his decisions had been ad hoc and may not have complied with the group rules and regulations. He had given out of turn promotions, increments, doled out club memberships, expensive gifts to staff, etc. He had rewarded people aligned to him and the rewards were often not in line with NYB policy. He did not know what was being referred to here by Aditya. He had lived life on the edge. It was clear that his mom-and-pop style of running a large company had created monsters difficult to manage and control.

‘If you do not want to take the AMC role, it’s fine. The call is yours. However, I will be forced to approve a full-fledged investigation on you and if you are found guilty, you will have to go. If you are not, then you get to stay on in your current role. The choice is yours Gowri. I can only assure you that we will be discrete and not publicise this investigation. But you know our organisation. It is a very porous one. Word gets around. Also, you cannot remain as managing director till the investigation is complete. We will move you on to some project role. I will try and position it appropriately so that your social standing does not get impacted . . .’ and with a pause added, ‘on a best effort basis.’

Gowri was stunned into silence. His mind kick-started into thinking about all the repercussions. An investigation against him in NFS? What will people think of him? He had carefully built up a reputation over a period of time. What happens to that? It would lie on the floor of NFS, torn to tatters. And what if these guys are genuinely able to find something to nail him with? In a decade long career with NFS there could have been a few small mistakes that he had committed. Even if he comes out clean, an investigation against him would be enough for tongues to wag.

Aditya went on, ‘The media, and the global head quarters too, will be looking at me for making management changes to take care of the negative publicity arising out of the Hyderabad issue. I want to take care of your interest too. I wish to protect your self-respect. But you will have to allow me to. I like you. At times I see myself in you. But you will have to give me the opportunity to help you. Please let me know by noon today if you are game for this or not.’ He then got up and left Gowri alone on the breakfast table.

Gowri, one who was never known to cow down, signed on the dotted line. Aditya was a dark horse and Gowri hardly had any idea about how much Aditya knew and how much he didn’t. The Pandora’s Box was something he didn’t want to open. Much before noon, he sent an SMS to Aditya which said, ‘I am fine with what was being discussed. Look forward to my new role.’ The same evening Aditya had announced the management structure change.

It was celebration time a few weeks later at the Sharma household when a special bench of the Hyderabad High Court acquitted Amit of any wrongdoing in the Tulsiram case and the warrant was revoked. In any case the court had earlier granted him permission to stay away from the proceedings and be represented by a lawyer.

Amit celebrated that night at home with a select set of friends. Manish too was invited. After a few drinks, they stepped out onto the balcony. It was just the two of them. There was a chill in the air. And their conversation was accompanied by the pleasant background score of sea waves lashing against the rocky Carter Road coastline.