Arundhati Bhattacharya on Redefining Leadership in the Digital Age
In this first episode of Be All You Can, we sit down with Arundhati Bhattacharya, President and CEO of Salesforce South Asia, who went from breaking barriers in banking to driving transformation in tech.
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Feb 20, 20260:02: One thing that my mother has repeatedly told me that you need to have an identity of your
0:06: own. You cannot be known as somebody's daughter or wife or sister or mother. You need to have
0:14: an identity, I think, in a way that has shaped the fact that I've looked for a career rather
0:19: than a job.
0:21: Hello listeners, and welcome to Godrej's podcast, Be All You Can. I'm Vijay Balakrishnan, and
0:29: I'm very excited to introduce our speaker today. A trailblazer and a visionary leader
0:35: in the world of banking and finance with over 40 years of experience. She is the first woman
0:43: to chair the State Bank of India and is now driving innovation at Salesforce India. Recognized
0:51: globally in Forbes' The World's 100 Most Powerful Women and Fortune's World's 50 Greatest
1:00: Leaders' lists. Her journey exemplifies resilience, transformation and purpose-driven leadership.
1:09: We are thrilled to have with us Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya and hear her invaluable perspectives
1:17: on breaking barriers and shaping the future.
1:21: Hello ma'am. Hi
1:22: Ma'am, your career trajectory is an inspiration for many.With 1.5 billion plus Indians, one
1:31: needs to be truly differentiated to stand out and at your scale in the context of the Indian
1:37: workforce. So what has been your key differentiator that has helped you stand out and make a lasting
1:45: impact in the eyes of many, including me? Yeah, I think one or two things probably. It's
1:53: very difficult to sort of analyze and parse yourself, you know. It's best understood from
1:59: the eyes of others. But if I think about it myself, what could have differentiated me?
2:06: One thing, of course, is that I've always been open to new things, new challenges,
2:13: new ideas, new pursuits, new initiatives, which ensures that I can be relevant.
2:22: Because I'm looking at all of these things and trying to internalize them.
2:26: The second thing is I believe a lot in collaboration and teamwork.
2:31: And that enables me to achieve quite a bit. Because if you have a team of five people,
2:37: then you actually have five brains in the room. And if you preempt everything and do it yourself,
2:43: then you're only putting one brain to work, right? Then you can actually get much more done than if
2:49: it's only one brain and, you know, maybe five pairs of hands, but then only one brain does
2:54: achieve the same. And I think the third thing only is that I try to remain as grounded as possible
3:03: because that enables me to get a lot of ground up information, which would otherwise get lost
3:11: in the transmission. Okay. So I see a theme of being just inclusive and open, right? So I think
3:18: in today's Uka world, that becomes an imperative to be existing. Exactly. Continuing on that
3:26: context, right? So we are living in a time of rapid digital transformation. And in your view,
3:32: how crucial is digital transformation for organizations, and not just for growth,
3:40: but even relevance in an ever-changing world to sustain what they are today?
3:46: So basically, you know, we've been talking a lot about data being the new world. But,
3:52: you know, it's like having an oil mine right below your legs or feet. Okay. You have the oil mine
4:00: or the oil field, but you haven't mined it. Okay. So if you don't really
4:07: empower your organization with information, then you're missing out a lot.
4:13: And the reason why you won't survive if you don't do this is because your competitors are.
4:19: Everybody today realizes that information is power, could be various types of information.
4:24: For instance, if you're talking about equipments that you'll manufacture,
4:28: there could be certain parts that are wearing out faster.
4:33: Could you do something? Could you use some other material to ensure that doesn't happen?
4:37: So your equipment as compared to the same equipment by somebody else becomes more lasting,
4:43: more stable. Others are going to do it. If you are not going to do it, then you will slowly over a
4:49: period of time become irrelevant. Okay. So, so much information is coming into the consumer.
4:55: If you as the producer are not using the same volume of information or greater,
5:00: you will not be able to serve that consumer. Absolutely. Which is why it is very important,
5:04: you know. And that is the reason why you need to move into the information age.That is the reason
5:09: you need to digitize your processes. Because again, digesting all of that information and coming out
5:15: with insights that are useful is also a big job. Being a long term proponent of data governance,
5:22: strategy and quality. On a lighter note, whenever I have heard the term data is a new oil,
5:28: I always respond with but bad data will give you cholesterol.
5:31: Absolutely. Absolutely. You're quite right. Garbage in is garbage out. You have to ensure
5:36: that what you're getting in is right. Absolutely. And a little bit around your
5:41: transformation during your SBI tenure, we cannot avoid that perspective. So having led SBI,
55:48: a long standing institution in India, you have been instrumental in driving digital adoption
5:55: across that organization. How challenging was it? And in terms of all people, processes,
6:04: and also from a customer experience and customer perception standpoint,
6:08: how challenging was it for you to drive the transformation across?
6:12: I think it wasn't challenging after I got buy-in on the vision. But getting that buy-in was quite
6:21: challenging. Because when I said we need to digitize, there was a feeling in the bank that
6:26: we are digitized enough. They already had the internet banking. They had mobile banking and
6:6:31: they said we are digital. What do you need more? And yet the branches were on 128 kbps slides.
6:38: Okay. So what are we talking digitization? We aren't even there in the first step of it.
6:44: So the very first project I took was to improve the connectivity of the branches. And we
6:48: changed the entire networking system, you know, from the city point aggregation to the multiple
6:55: line switching protocol technology. So a lot of work done there. And then we went in for branch
7:00: virtualization. We came up with some branches called in-touch branches, which could allow
7:05: people to touch and feel what a branch of the future would look like. And we created them in
7:10: malls. We never have branches in malls, but we created them in malls because and we kept them
7:15: open on Saturdays and Sundays, because we wanted not only our customers, but also our staff to go
7:22: with their families and just, you know, fiddle around in the branches. And then, you know,
7:28: not only did we do this, we took our entire top management for an offsite, got a lot of people
7:35: to come in and talk about what others were doing, and what was the state of, you know,
7:41: digitization across the world. We took them to Bangalore, we curated a number of startups and
7:46: had them present to us, like what startups were doing in the FinTech area. And when all of this
7:51: had happened, people came back and said, oh, wow, yeah, we need to change. But I really wanted people
7:57: to sort of lean into the whole change to transform. And you saw we were not on social media
8:03: when I became the chairman. By the time I left, we were number one on every social media platform.
8:09: So we had created banking offerings that could be directly accessed from the social media networks,
8:14: which had never been the case earlier. We were not on social media at all, because I think
8:18: a few years back when we had gotten there, we'd got trolled. And as a result, the bank decided
8:23: not to go in there. My feedback was that if people are trolling you, at least they're taking the
8:28: time and effort to say something. That means they're invested in you.
8:34: I think the initial startup, like for everything that starts up, there is a inertia of rest. So
8:40: there is a little bit of friction there. But once you get people bought in, then it becomes so much
8:45: easier. Absolutely. And 95% of any transformation is about people. So and I can totally imagine that
8:54: seeing is believing. And once you get people hooked to the idea and the vision,
8:58: then the rest of it might definitely work. Ma'am, you have spoken a lot about the importance of
9:04: building financial literacy and at scale, utilizing digital. Now, how has this initiative,
9:13: in your perspective, helped bring about inclusivity, especially for those who are
9:19: in the undeserved and, you know, marginalized section and different perspective maybe for women
9:27: in general? So, you know, when we did the PNGDY, the PNGDY, we used to do it in camps.
9:36: And there were normally three parts in the camps. There was one part that would do the registration
9:40: in Aadhaar. If you didn't have an Aadhaar registration, banks were empowered to do it.
9:45: Okay. Then there is another part where your account would actually get opened. And then
9:50: there was another piece which was devoted to financial literacy. Because while we were opening
9:55: the accounts, a lot of people didn't understand what the accounts were going to be used for.
10:00: Also, we were asked to card every account. Okay. Now, people had never used cards. These were
10:06: ATM cards, debit cards. They'd never used them. They didn't know how to keep them. They didn't
10:11: understand that there was a pin to it. And they didn't understand that while we were promising
10:16: them that they would be insured, that insurance would not be valid if you didn't swipe the card
10:21: at least once in 45 days. Okay. So, all of this information had to be given to them.
10:27: Now, as we give all of this information, and then as all these DBT funds, you know, the direct
10:33: benefit funds started getting in, people then started understanding the power of the account.
10:39: Because yesterday, the guy who is to do his entire business in cash,
10:46: would never get a loan from the bank, because they could not establish any cash flows.
10:51: And it slowly enables you to improve your standard of living, the standard of your business,
10:55: the size and depth of your business, all of that gets empowered. Because you are doing
11:01: inclusion, financial inclusion, you're not no longer having to work in an informal system,
11:07: where the interest rates, etc, can be really usurious. Okay. So, I think over a period of
11:15: time, this really made a difference. Also, regarding women, you know, when we did PMJDY
11:20: informally, sort of, we tried to make sure that as many as possible, the accounts were
11:26: open for the matriarchs of the family. And later on, SBI actually did a survey
11:32: of two districts, one in Uttar Pradesh and one in Bihar, in order to determine that
11:39: those districts had more women's PMJDY account than men's. Okay, so there we went and made a
11:47: estimation as to how the expenditure patterns have changed. And we found in those places where
11:55: women's accounts were more, the spend had gone up enormously for medication, and then for coaching
12:01: intuition. Okay, those two areas were the areas where the spends had gone up. And the spends had
12:08: come down maximum in the area of intoxicants. Okay, so you can understand that how empowering
12:15: it is, if the woman of the house gets the money. With women empowerment, therefore, is very central
12:21: to everything we do. Because you change a woman or empower a woman, you actually empower the whole
12:26: household. Absolutely. There is a material difference that happens in the next generation
12:30: that is coming up. Ma'am, a little personal question, right? So what do you think has
12:36: shaped your approach to life, and life as a professional and also personal?
12:42: Means we get shaped by our circumstances, right? And one thing that I've been shaped by is that
12:48: my family is very strong women and my mother, my aunt, they lost their parents at a very early age.
12:55: They're all self taught, self made people. And one thing that my mother has repeatedly told me
13:02: that you need to have an identity of your own. You cannot be known as somebody's daughter or
13:08: wife or sister or mother, you need to have an identity, I think, in a way that has shaped the
13:15: fact that I've looked for a career rather than a job. I've tried to maintain my career in spite of
13:20: huge, you know, difficulties that have come my way. There have been times when I've thought that I
13:26: should give up. But thankfully, you know, I've been guided in the right way. I got the right
13:30: people to tell me the right things at the right time so that I didn't give up. And I'm grateful
13:36: for that. When your mother said an identity of your own, I don't think she expected you
13:42: to become an identity for the country and for all the professional folks out here.
13:47: Thank you very much. I don't think that is strictly true. But yeah,
13:50: I'm so glad that she did sort of get me to imbibe these values.
13:56: So are we, ma'am. Very connected to that little bit of overlapping in what you answered before,
14:04: as a woman who has shattered the glass ceiling and all stereotypes in the society that we have
14:10: seen over past decades. Many of us look to you definitely for inspiration. And if you could share
14:19: one or two pivotal moments that in your career has helped break barriers and achieve your goals.
14:27: So, you know, one of the pivotal moments I think was when I determined
14:31: quite early on that by 21, I needed to be independent. My father was in the
14:38: PSB, he was in SAIL. And he was retiring, retirement age then was 58. And there was no
14:45: pension. So that was one thing that used to sort of, you know, I made up my mind that I needed to
14:54: be independent. And I joined SBI at 21 and a half. And the six months before that, I supported
15:01: myself by doing tuitions.Though my father insisted on still sending me a little money,
15:06: because he said that was his responsibility. Just as I had taken this as my responsibility,
15:11: he said, I've got to do mine. Anyway, he stopped that after I got into the bank.
15:16: But till then he did. Yeah. But I think that was one piece that really sort of,
15:22: that was one of those pivotal things. And I went for the bank because at that point of time, you
15:27: know, the private sector opportunities were not that many. And going for the open All India exam
15:35: seemed to be the best way. And somehow or the other, this one clicked.Okay.
15:40: The second thing, of course, I think, a very pivotal thing was, you know, when I got married,
15:47: and I moved to Kharagpur, and my husband was in IIT Kharagpur. And the question was,
15:54: how would I manage because I was in a job that used to move me every three years.
15:58: My husband, by the way, he married me with the idea that I would stay in Kharagpur forever.
16:03: The institution was very supportive. So for nine years, they kept me in and around Kharagpur,
16:09: okay, transferring me from one branch to the other so that I could still continue. And then,
16:14: of course, there wasn't enough space in the sense that there weren't enough senior positions,
16:18: and I'd got promoted. So they shifted me to Calcutta. And from then it was he that, you know,
16:25: had to sort of come where I was, in order to be together at weekends or whatever. But there,
16:33: I would give a lot of credit to him in the sense that he was flexible in that the fact that he
16:39: supported me in this journey. I think the last one that I'll talk about is when when I was thinking
16:48: of leaving, as I told you, this was when I was getting transferred to Lucknow. And my daughter
16:54: is a special needs child. Okay, I needed an integrated school for her because she's borderline.
17:00: But she still needs an integrated environment. And she had one in Calcutta, very good school
17:06: called Akshar. And then when I was going to Lucknow, I was 100% certain I won't find a
17:12: similar school. And so I decided that I'd resign. Okay. And luckily, I remembered one of my
17:21: earlier mentors, he also retired as chairman of the bank. He was CGM Calcutta before that,
17:26: that's how I knew him. And I called him and I told him, Sir, what should I do? So he said,
17:31: you've just become GM, you know, you're beginning to just get the rewards of all the hard work you
17:35: put in. Why should you leave without first going there and determining really that there is nothing
17:40: over there that will help your child. So I said, but you know, moving my family there and then if I
17:46: resign, so he said, don't move your family. Instead of giving up the job that you have
17:51: labored on for 20 years, give up one month with your family. Let them be for one month,
17:58: get some relatives to come and look after your child and go there and see whether you can find
18:02: a school. And then giving up is so easy. It's a three liner on an email, you can give up.
18:08: That's always there that, you know, that option is there for you. So I decided to do that went to
18:15: Lucknow, found an excellent school for her. And my journey continued. So I think these have been
18:22: pivotal moments. Of course, you know, a very pivotal moment also has been my move from the
18:27: public sector to the private sector. I've learned so much, you know. So there are a lot of things
18:32: that I have seen and learned now because of the multiple exposure. But it was a pivotal moment
18:37: when I did decide to join Salesforce. Absolutely. And a pivotal moment for all of us
18:44: eventually. Last question. You're so deeply impacted the digital landscape and have inspired
18:54: so many of us. Now, if you have to share one message to convey to the next generation of
19:02: professionals, I'm talking, I'm thinking about even my son, my daughter. But what would be
19:07: your one advice to them and also to let's say new age parents like us on what should we think for
19:14: So, you know, something your children will have multiple careers. Even me from my generation,
19:21: I have basically multiple careers. Right. I was first in the financial sector. Then I became a
19:30: non-executive member for, say, one and a half years. And then I got into the area of IT.
19:36: So it's literally multiple sectors. Right.And nothing could have prepared me for this because
19:42: my background in academics is English literature. It was neither finance nor IT. And yet I'm working
19:49: in all of these areas. So what you need to teach your children is how do they learn and adapt?
19:56: You know, how to be creative. What is going to be really essential as you go forward is creativity,
20:02: not rote learning. So wherever people are able to creatively do things, that's where they'll win
20:10: out. Ok, if there is one thing you need to teach them is how to be creative, how to be original,
20:16: how to be empathetic, how to adapt, how to learn and unlearn. So that's where, you know, you need
20:23: to ensure that you're getting giving that right kind of mindset to people to go beyond the
20:30: facts as they lie on the table and to get the insights from there, to be creative about those
20:35: insights. Sure. Absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much for patiently answering our questions.
20:40: Thanks for listening to Be All You Can, a podcast by Godrej Enterprises Group.
20:46: Exploring the passion, purpose and dreams of pioneers.
20:52: Stay tuned for more stories that inspire action and impact.