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Banking is a natural progression for any diversified financial services non bank such as our platform, yes we would evaluate it appropriately and accordingly as and when the opportunity presents itself in the future.

How has your journey with Religare been so far? What have been your major highlights?

Religare has been a fascinating journey and in fact one can actually sit down and chronicle a book someday about the moments, experiences, challenges and triumphs. It has been wholesome and rich and every passing day keeps throwing up new opportunities and challenges. I have seen it grow over the last 15 years from a small office of 15 people to an approximately 7000 people strong group with multiple large businesses of scale straddling the entire globe. I can actually classify my own on-going journey across 4 broad phases early phase from 2000-2007 Pre IPO days basically focused on building scale and distribution across our broking business, the beginning of diversification across various asset classes beyond capital markets and also getting the organization ready for our IPO. The 2nd phase which was after our immensely successful public offer in October 2007 till around mid-2011 saw us grow rapidly across all our businesses and also expand beyond Indian shores. The 3rd phase was from then till about sometime earlier this year, wherein essentially we were looking to consolidate and stay focussed and build a clear path to profitability. In the current phase, I am happy to share that we are ready for our next trajectory of evolution as each of our businesses have come out of the venture stage and are robust enough and well poised to capitalize on the exciting opportunities that the vibrant eco system has to offer.

Having led an enterprise as large and diversified as Religare, what have been your major challenges?

While there have been several challenges; the biggest and most difficult battle to fight has been the challenge to balance growth and profitability at the same time. From 2008 till 2013 we were a company investing heavily into our various businesses and management team were very top line driven, to mould everyone to think of profitable growth have been a tough task. However this resulted into a complete transformation of Religare financial performance where I have been able to move the company from a net operating loss of approximately Rs. 600 Crores in 2013 to Net Operating Profit of Rs. 150 Crores in 2015 which would now sequentially grow year on year.

How has Religare evolved over the years? What are your major focus areas in the mid to long term?

Religare has evolved from a broking led retail oriented business to a large diversified financial services group. We basically work across 4 broad pillars of business -SME Finance/loans, Capital markets and wealth management, Health Insurance and Asset Management. Each of these pillars in turn have different operating parts and at a consolidated group level we currently touch more than 4 million lives, with a footprint across 10 countries, 2000 odd locations Pan India and total assets under management of over 20 Billion USD. Our focus obviously would be to grow each of our businesses to their next level of evolution and at the same time deliver superlative returns to all our stakeholders with a clear and visible path to consistent profitability. Our aspiration is to be the “go to” Institution for individuals and mid-market corporates for their entre gamut of financial, investment and protection needs.

Would you be venturing into Life Insurance again anytime soon with a different partner post your separation from AEGON?

As of now we don’t have any such plans; however we are open to looking at Life Insurance as a category. It is a very tough and patience capital led business and we have some very good learning’s after having governed that JV for around 7 years which are helping us shape our health insurance business well.

You had applied for a Banking license. Would you apply for the same again?

Banking is a natural progression for any diversified financial services non bank such as our platform, yes we would evaluate it appropriately and accordingly as and when the opportunity presents itself in the future.

What is your idea of CSR? Do you think India Inc.’s current focus on CSR is a marketing stunt triggered by the government’s directive or companies have genuinely realized the need for this?

CSR is all about being 100% genuine in intent and efforts to give back and make an impact. My guidance to all our colleagues and peers has been that if we don’t feel and believe in CSR we shouldn’t do it. It cannot be a mere “tick in the box” initiative; at least not for us.

The Indian economy is now looking positive after the slowdown. How has this impacted your business?

Financial services is one category which can never be de coupled from how the polity and economy behaves. Fortunately with the new government and positive macros, the investment climate is looking good and vibrant and indeed seemingly bodes well for our platform.

What is your idea of Leadership? What are some of the most important character traits of a good leader according to you?

My idea of leadership is the ability to attract talent which is better than yourself and facilitate and nurture that talent to perform well, with willingness to take their failures as yours and ascribe their success to them.

What are your views on Cross-hiring from other sectors? What are the things that you see in an individual when you hire for key senior positions?

Talent in my view is category agnostic. Adaptability, genuineness of purpose and an appetite to grow are the 3 key things in my view. If one has the above ingredients the rest automatically falls in place.

Finally on an informal note, what do you do when you are not at work?

I spend time with my family. I love coaching young talent and also read a lot during my spare time.