Banks should get rejuvenated from within:
Political measures can only become blood banks for suffering patients. Banking can be rejuvenated. We are living at the best times in the history of the world. We need to redefine the Global Village. Every village has to grow to become a Global Village instead of the world shrinking into a smaller one! Banks should lead the world of innovations from within! WE CAN take growth into further levels.
We have learned everything about Money and its Dimensions and forgot everything else including the meaning of ‘Me’ and every other existence! We need to rediscover the purpose of life and our mission in the world! Money is not wealth as such!! It’s only a tool to measure! Wealth is scattered all around! Art of Banking is in picking the diamonds from the large glittering lot and to polish them before placing them on to the shelves!
Stop measuring your finance! Start measuring your wealth!! This is the way to discover yourself. This is the way to Rediscover India! Integrated Micro Finance is a way for Banks to come out of today’s vicious circle and the same is the way for India to rediscover herself.
We need to stop the habit of flight with closed wings. As we spread out our wings we will be able to fly high and to see the world from a higher point of view and a new perspective.
What is that new perspective? We see everything through the eyes of power, not from the point of view of our strength. Power has become our weakness and we have kept the real strength far away and fully tied and totally lost. We see through our eyes and we imagine as if everything is in our hand. This is not a working principle when we deal with people who are different and diversified in their thinking and working patterns.
Today’s imposing methodology should get converted with igniting methodology and we should leverage the principle of diversity with a lot of freedom to personalize every working pattern. Finance should play a role in lighting the lamp and the oil and thread have to be procured locally along with the lamps and lighting ceremony.
Banks has a lot to do and all that they should do should have a single aim to come out from their crisis by joining hands with the large masses who can afford to share their burden without a displeasure or disengagement. This is possible when we identify the problems and the solutions being two sides of a coin. Every time a problem has to coincide with a solution and an opportunity. Banks are facing the deepest crisis in their entire existence. This is one side of the coin. What is that on the other side of the coin?
The other side of the coin is the time itself. We are living at the best time in the history of mankind. We are amidst abundance. We only need to learn how to harvest the large crop or how to harness the hidden treasure to a maximum level. Suppose we see the sea being a wealth and wanted to distribute among the people. We have to channel the sea into places where there are people. We cannot ask every person to come to the sea and have it. Why not? This is your immediate question!
Purpose of water is to harvest and the land to harvest is spread over a large distance. What can we do then? We have to reach to the people where they are and we should serve them the way they want. Do not divert your attention by bringing an unwanted topic here saying sea water is salty. That is not the point.
We always get diverted from fundamental issues and concerns when people create these sorts of attention diversions. Finance being a resource has to reach the right points so that the process of wealth creation and value additions are happening in its best course of action. Cost of financing and finance when put together make it a large liability. The banking sector has become a white elephant with a large number of people who have taken shelters under its armpits.
A sincere NPA calculation may tell our beloved bankers to look at the people within who are a large NPA to every Bank in the country. And a sincere analysis will tell the Bankers that the people are not NPAs but the system has put them into so much inaction. This is like asking people to run faster after keeping their legs tied with the chairs and tables. Just by analysing the departments in every Bank we can easily understand about all the functions that are provided within a Banking system. So many types of deposits and as many types of loans are invented by our beloved bankers but all of them are the same wine in different bottles. Customer service, priority banking or whatever names you calls; today’s banking system is working within the margin between the interests on deposits and advances. We need to advance much further and should gain momentum from the technological advancements, digitisation and globalization.
Technology has made deposits and withdrawals without human intervention. Why then we keep all the people in the same process. Duplication of work? Why should we manually procure water from the well when there is a motor pump installed for the same purpose? We are like the boat running but anchored at the coast. At whose cost are we taking the risk of hiding cancer that our cells are not producing so much of blood within?
Let us explore the other side. Reduce the working hours of the banking staff from 8 hours to 4 hours and allow them to work from the comfort of their homes and around for the remaining 4 hours. Allow them to nurture talents and ideas that are coming on their way through educational institutions and social development establishments. Let them identify ideas that are worth funding and take up models that can be replicated at a large scale over various other places wherever possible.
This can transform our banking from today’s danger even by making the process a pleasant surprise for the staff and society. Technologies are changing but we are operating in the old fashion. Many companies allow their people to work from the comfort of their homes. Performance has multiplied in all such cases. What for we are with high-tech systems and the old mindset of untrustworthy people. Today’s attendance system is a disaster in that way. Where are we going without trusting our own people? All that glitter is not gold is applicable to technology too.
Integrated Micro Finance and Banking!
Integration is a large concept. It has multidimensional implications. Micro Finance and Banking should get integrated at the first point. We then need to integrate them with innovations. Micro Finance and Banking also need a National Integration and International Coordination. Altogether it is a complex theory that cannot be explained at so much ease. Like a flower in bloom, it has to emerge little by little.
There should not be an explosion like glasnost and perestroika. Things should move rhythmically and smooth. Banks should establish subsidiaries within the system under the leadership of dynamic and creative Managers. New departments should be evolved within the system with leadership connectivity from the top management including the top boss. The entire system should be linked with performance incentives and career growth opportunities including external revenue sharing options.
Banks should come up with the single agenda of success and should go with the guidelines of Gandhiji saying customers are the purpose of every establishment. People should feel comfortable to bank with the banks. Today the scenario is not that good. Hidden charges are so much that the customers are checking every transaction many times.
The volume of business should become the secret of profit. The margin of profit doesn’t matter then. The digital world has removed the difficulties of distance. Time and Space are no more remain constraints today. Bank Branches should become startup centres and revolution points. People with ideas should be free to walk in. There should be people to hear them. There are plenty of finance advisors across India and none of them are truly experts since it has become an avenue for people who are not got accommodated any other streams.
We should train people professionally and with ethical values and standards. Tourism has to grow into multi-dimensions. Career tourism has to emerge.
This is a new approach altogether. Today’s crisis is not in the war front. Crisis is in money management. We need to recall a large force of human resource into the foray of finance and Banking. People can make the difference that can make a true difference. A new approach with a refined mindset can make a large impact on the economy. In fact, things happen on its own. We just need to start thinking things are possible!
About the Author:
Santosh Kumar Pattanayak IRAS (Retd.) has made his name in every assignment that he had taken up. He is known for taking establishments to the heights. Innovative thinking and upright nature make him different when compared with the ordinary lots in public service. He is capable to show banks a way to come out from today’s crisis that requires patient attention and unusual remedial measures.
