Shekhar Iyer, who has worked with Uday Kotak for nearly three decades, remembers his first day at Kotak & Co like it was yesterday.
It was June 1, 1988, and the then twenty-something-year-old had walked into a small, cluttered office located in a rundown building on DN Road in the Fort area of Mumbai or Bombay as it was then. There was a long table and files strewn about. The sight would have sunk his heart, except Iyer had been prepared for it by the late Sidney Pinto, a professional mentor for Kotak.
Iyer’s sister’s friend Cynthia worked as a secretary to Pinto, and he had sent in his resume through her. “It will look like a ramshackle place, but the place is headed by a genius who is sitting on piles of money,” Pinto had said, according to Iyer.
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After 30 years of working with Kotak, Iyer could not be more thankful for that piece of advice. The sixth employee of Kotak & Co, Iyer went on to become Senior Vice President-Branch Operations at Kotak Life, overseeing nine regional heads and over 400 executives.
Over the years, Iyer came to know Kotak as a boss to be feared, admired and, most of all, loved. “I was sad when I resigned but I am more pained to hear about his resignation,” said Iyer, in an interview to Moneycontrol.
Early days
It wasn’t always smooth sailing. The business was run frugally in the early days. When Iyer asked for a desk, because he had a lot of paperwork to handle, the long desk was sawed down to make another table. It was a process that was repeated whenever a new employee needed a table. Then, any request for additional facilities--including a tubelight or a shelf--was met with openness but was pondered over for a few days.
Iyer had even considered quitting twice during his time with Kotak, but only the two occasions. Once was when he was just 10 days into the job.
As a newbie, he had missed one crucial step in the process—of attaching a stamp to the hundi (a promissory note). The company was in the business of bill discounting, that is, extending loans to a business that needs to pay its suppliers, against unpaid bills of the business’ customers. The company usually had funds to finance these loans but, sometimes, it would need to borrow from banks—or refinance these loans. As said, Iyer missed stamping that hundi and that became a stumbling block when the loan had to be refinanced two months later. It was near-impossible to get the stamp of the date on which the loan was given.
“He (Kotak) told me, ‘I don’t care (about any excuses)… go and get me the refinance’,” recalled Iyer.
“I went back to the bank, did everything on earth to get it stamped, got the loan refinanced… and then announced my intention to resign,” said Iyer.
Kotak fought back: “He took me to the cabin and explained how small mistakes can cost the business lakhs… Believe me, from that day, till I resigned, I never made another mistake in my life,” recalled Iyer.
Another time was when Iyer was having trouble with a senior and went looking for a job with another financier. Kotak came to know of it and when Iyer went to collect the appointment letter, the financer’s management said that there were no vacant positions. “I was shocked,” said Iyer. Later, in the office, Kotak called him into his cabin and said that Iyer should have brought any concern to his or Pallavi’s (his wife’s) attention, and not look for another job. “He cared deeply about retaining his employees… My problem at work was resolved immediately,” said Iyer.
Friend and mentor
Former colleagues have also spoken of Kotak’s ability to make a deep personal connection with his employees, while maintaining a professional distance. Even as Kotak was an exacting boss, he spared no effort in helping a young Iyer in his matrimonial search, even carrying Iyer’s horoscopes to clients to recommend him as a “good boy” to any parents on the lookout.
Iyer recalled how he was worried that he would never get married working in that unimpressive office. Therefore, in 1991, when an article about Kotak came in a business magazine that foretold the rise of the next genius in banking, Iyer made an unusual request.
“I asked Uday bhai if I could send the article along with my horoscope to our clients, and he said if it changed my life for the better in any way, it would make him the happiest person,” said Iyer. Iyer sent 500 such copies before he met his wife, Gita. Kotak and his wife attended the engagement party and the wedding, even though the wedding function happened on the day there was a crucial Reserve Bank of India meeting.
“He came after that, all the way to Mulund (a northeastern suburb of the city),” recalled Iyer.
Also read: Uday Kotak: A journey to meteoric heights cut short by regulator
When the insurance business was going through a tough phase, Iyer wanted to shift a few employees to the banking vertical instead of letting them go and Kotak was enthusiastically supportive of that.
During that time, Iyer asked “if there was life after life”, punning on the life insurance business. “He said life has just begun; you will enjoy the ride.”
Just as he had said, Kotak’s insurance business took off.
“He is a genius… he thinks far ahead of others,” said Iyer of Kotak.
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