After joining Bank, I was given the responsibility of looking for possible merger and acquisition opportunities in North America, Europe and Asia. I spent the first 100 days travelling extensively and meeting the senior management of different companies all over the world, studying their pitches on why we should acquire them and pay them the amount they were asking for. I was also responsible for liaising with our consortium of banks to arrange cheaper financing for these acquisitions.
I learnt that it is crucial to believe in and give 100% to what you do because cynics don’t create, sceptics don’t contribute and doubters don’t achieve. This made me embrace a participative and permissive style of leadership where I learnt that it is important to give your team enough freedom to complete deliverables. It is equally important to be there for them if and when required for guidance or trouble-shooting.
I identified and implemented a profit maximisation opportunity for five different businesses of the company which had high operational costs. I set up the SSC (shared service centre) for all these five businesses at one location – Atlanta – and was able to consolidate these functions, and optimise the employees needed, thereby saving the company millions of dollars. This led to a reduction in costs and increase in profits and value of the parent company.