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NetScribes/Sourav Mukherjee

Look at ICICI's chief executive officer K V Kamath and you'll find a rather soft-spoken man in his fifties, shy at times, and distinctly uncomfortable with praise.

Track his five-year record as the chief of the country's fastest-growing financial institution and you'll get a totally different picture of the man.

For, in the five years that he has headed it, there has been a marked change in the way ICICI does business.

Thanks to an energetic and workaholic CEO, ICICI is now an aggressive entity eager to become a leader in every area it steps into.

Ambitious? Maybe. But if one knows Kamath, one will see it's more to do with his personal quest for global branding than the almost legendary hubris associated with most other management professionals who walk the corridors of ICICI Towers, the grand, Rs 2.80-billion headquarters of the financial conglomerate.

Redefining leadership standards

His greatest achievement in the last five years is this -- he has changed the definition of leadership. Once written off as just another fuddy-duddy term-lending institution with bureaucratic functioning and bad human resources management, ICICI today boasts of a younger image with high visibility.

It is now an organisation eager to embrace change and exploit the dynamics of the markets to its advantage.

Kamath's obsession with branding matches his personality as a man with strict new-world values. In the last five years, he has sought to reposition the ICICI group in every which way possible.

He has pushed for a unified and new group identity (through logos and promotions), he has turned the financial institution into one surrounded by strong subsidiaries, he has struck panic among competitors by going on a takeover spree and backing it with quality products at competitive pricing, he has led everyone in the technology game and ventured ambitiously into Internet space.

And if he had his way with regulators, he would have turned the entity he rejoined after eight years into a universal bank through a reverse merger with ICICI Bank.

Quite an achievement for a financial institution that still gets pulled up by the regulator or the markets for its excessively high non-performing assets.

"The subsidiaries are the group's future. That is the reality and the focus of attention has correctly shifted from ICICI," says Kamath.

A force to reckon with

Yes, Kamath's obsession with the ICICI brand has made it what it is today: a force to reckon with.

Market share and positing, not quick bucks, are topmost in his mind. An MBA from IIM-A, the only time he left ICICI was 17 years after he joined - to work for Asian Development Bank.

That's not really chasing money the investment banker style. And, if he did come back to lead the organisation eight years later, it was because chairman N Vaghul called him.

Did anybody ever ask why Vaghul never found someone inside ICICI to take up the helm?

That's why ICICI's biggest strength is still its biggest weakness. Ask the market and it will tell you that if the ICICI group gets a good valuation today, it is only because it believes in Kamath's vision: the little pearls of wisdom that he so often shares in his conversation.

What it isn't certain about is whether the rest of ICICI is in sync with his confidence and can carry the vision forward.

For one, Kamath's crack team comprises mainly of stalwart ICICI professionals -- Lalita Gupte, S H Bhojani, S Mukherji, Kalpana Morparia, Shikha Sharma -- who will either retire before him or with him. They have all contributed towards building on Kamath's vision - ICICI's thrust into infrastructure, its retail game plan, its overseas fund raising, its marketing strategy.

But over the last two years, the New Economy has been catching up and crying for younger talent.

The challenges that lie ahead are daunting

Yes, there are signs of some middle managers moving up to take up the reins, but they are perceived as a far cry from the mettle that makes KVK. That's one big challenge he will have to tackle in the next five years as the entire market watches him.

Another issue that gets talked about in hushed corners is HR. A strong proponent of the New Economy, Kamath has always been against bureaucracy and a strong believer in the open-door policy.

He is also a believer in youth - and a staunch proponent of what he calls the 'parking lot' theory, whereby seniors need to be moved to a side after some years so that younger talent can move up.

All this makes Kamath at 53 much younger than the average ICICI employee, at least in terms of attitude. But that's not the perception in the market.

Talk to a cross-section of industry and they will tell you that ICICI is still pretty bureaucratic with a lot to ego and attitude thrown in.

That makes it a very professional but 'unfriendly' organisation. That the image of an international player still hides stories of awful HR management, strong divides in the senior management, polarisation for KVK's attention and an almost disdainful body language towards outsiders.

"The biggest problem is that ICICI is full of middle and junior management professionals who are aloof from reality but bask in the glory of its leader. It's almost a sense that others do not know anything and that just by being in ICICI, you're the most knowledgeable," says an HR consultant.

He points out that this is one of the reasons why people without attitude do not last long in ICICI. This also gives rise to the 'coterie' that everyone talks about.

"I firmly believe that if Kamath had a total say, he would have worked greater wonders," says an investment banker. "That it does not trickle down beyond the senior management levels is evident."

He points out that there was a clear vision in KVK's online plans and initiative to promote a technology company, a venture fund and a string of Internet companies.

"Kamath believes in the richness of community building and cross-selling through the Net. However, the market and many senior managers either don't share his excitement or are not as knowledgeable as him about the new age. That's the difference," says a top official at a leading ISP.

Minor niggles too

These are not good signals from the country's star-studded financial entity. Yes, Kamath has a talented team, he has the leadership qualities and the professional zeal, but if ICICI has still not achieved something outside of lowering its non-performing assets, it is a soft human face.

In a New Economy environment where HR management and employee morale are the highest priority, that's some place ICICI cannot afford to lose out.

That's why it's crucial that Kamath lets the world see more of him in action. If he left ICICI to widen his vision and experience, it's also an acknowledgement that there are some narrow lanes within ICICI.

If Kamath wants to walk out as a hero, he'll have to get an insider as his successor. But before that can happen, that insider will have to demonstrate the magic that makes Kamath a market favourite.

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