“India does not have a problem of people grabbing share from a fixed pie. India is one of the few nations where the pie is getting bigger.”
-Arundhati Bhattacharya
Chair of State Bank of India
- Every day is a new opportunity– Taking her school’s Father’s advice Arundhati followed her flair for English and pursued English literature at university level, where she happened to stumble upon the probationary officer examination and the rest “just happened” as she quotes herself. We learn that we should never say no to any new opportunity that presents itself.
- Challenges make life interesting– Bhattacharya recalls how every new job in the sector was a new challenge at a different location, “retails is different from corporate”, having served in all directions in India and a brief stint at the New York headquarters she just kept going on, not backing out, never losing faith and believing in what she was doing.
- Leader shows the way– Unlike a frustrated banker boss, Arundhati understands the psyche of her employees and believes in doing things mutually beneficial to the company and the employees, Arundhati has been prominent in empowering women in the banking sector, with a large pipeline of female employees working at her own bank, at respectable posts. Hence she provokes the thought of leadership through example and passion.
- Experience is our teacher– The biggest turning point in her career was her one year assignment with SBI capital, where Arundhati learned to look at things from an outside perspective, sort of like outside the box, and where she properly learnt managing. To manage profits and to pay salaries from that profit. We learn that it is never too late to learn new things and profit from it.
- Share your knowledge– Learning from and meeting new people at her job; she never gets bored of doing so, because an important method of increasing one’s knowledge is by sharing it.
