I am the least-paid Fortune 500 CEO: Om Prakash Bhatt

By Partha Sinha and Shubham Mukherjee

The State Bank of India broke into the Fortune 500 club during Om Prakash Bhatt's current five-year tenure as chairman — surely something to celebrate. And he is proud of the fact that not only did he get SBI there, but the bank has also been inching up a few notches with every passing year. However, there is something about that list which bothers him. He points out that he is the lowest-paid CEO on the Fortune 500 list. (The SBI chairman's compensation in the last financial year was Rs 27 lakh, while on an average a Fortune 500 CEO earns more than $10 million or Rs 47 crore a year). 

Maybe Bhatt has something to look forward to when he hangs up his boots as the top boss of the bank in March 2011. Being the head of the country's largest commercial bank, he would get a red carpet welcome from any financial services company in the private sector, which wants to fortify its position in the country and there would be a willing candidate in Bhatt. By his own admission, he cannot afford to retire on the pension of SBI. "I need to work to support my family," he says rather humbly over coffee in his rather spacious 18th floor office in Mumbai's central business district — Nariman Point. The building is like a fortress with two sets of checks and a barricade, designed to keep out a moving vehicle without credentials. And why not? It's the headquarters of the country's largest bank with a deposit base of over Rs 8 lakh crore and a turnover of Rs 86,000 crore. 

His room has a lovely view of the Arabian Sea and parts of Marine Drive and there are at least three sets of room ACs to keep the temperature, of a place where some of the hottest decisions of the banking sector are taken, a little low. A replica of Krishna and Arjun at the battlefield of Kurukshetra rests on a table, perhaps reminding him of the continuous battle to keep his place under the sun. There are innumerable trophies which line a cabinet on one side of the room from the various battles won. Besides, there is a hockey stick, which adorns one wall —signed by the Indian hockey team which won the Asia Cup a few years ago. 

Dressed in a black suit, looking every inch the proverbial banker, the 59-year-old from Dehradun, answers all the questions in a similar soft tone throughout the course of the two-hour-long chat. For a man, who brought in several changes to the public sector bank known to be slow but steady monolith, he was successful in hiding his tough and aggressive side. In fact, the tough banker appeared to be in a good mood as he is usually not known to be pinned down for such long chats. 

Bhatt is not averse to taking tough decisions if it's for the long-term benefit of the bank's customers. Soon after he took over as SBI chief, for 90 days, he had put the implementation of the core banking solutions being implemented by TCS on hold. Only after the solutions were rejigged to make them more user-friendly for the bank's employees and customers, did he put the process back on track. The depth and reach of the bank that Bhatt runs can be gauged by the fact that while on one hand, SBI has an average car loan size of around Rs 3 lakh, recently it financed — in one day — over 100 Mercs for a group of businessmen in Aurangabad. "We also a financed a Rolls Royce last month," he quipped. 

Similarly, while its average home loan is Rs 11 lakh, SBI has also financed homes which cost 10 times that amount. And due to its legacy, SBI treats all its customers equally. "It's in our DNA," Bhatt says in a matter of fact manner and for him, "the small customers are the Daridra Narayan and we are the most happy to serve them". His bosses in the Union finance ministry should be happy with the description as it fits in wonderfully with the government's larger goal of financial inclusion.

It's difficult not to notice the assortment of rings that adorn his fingers, perhaps keeping in balance all the planetary configurations of the time. And it sure appears to have paid off for Bhatt. Apart from transforming the largest bank in the country in less than five years, under him SBI won almost all the banking award in India. Clearly, Bhatt takes pride in his work. He showed us a video of a recent advertisement for the bank — twice — and took pains to explain its concept, at a time which was perhaps overlapping with his lunch break. 

Courtesy: The Times of India

It would have been difficult for him to achieve what he has, if it was not for his leadership skills. One has to understand that since SBI is a government company, he did not have the luxury of paying anyone anything extra, give a bonus or offer an out-of-turn promotion. So, he had the unenviable job of keeping the employees motivated and grow the bank without offering anything tangible, except the passion of it all. "I spend about 40% of my time on staff. I listen to them, I spend time with them, at times for days. I brought in a specially designed module called 'Parivartan' which has increased employee efficiency."