Chanda Kochhar Quotes

We have a vision of a strong and prosperous India and an equally strong belief that this vision is achievable.

Every entrepreneur, whether man or woman, should start with a robust business structure.

You can maintain work-life balance even while pursuing careers.

What we see is that we actually have digital channels through which the customers interact, but we also take the absolute brick channels, which is the branch, and convert that experience into a more digitised experience.

I believe that India’s long-term growth story is strong, and foreign investors are keen to be a part of it.

The consolidation that we started in 2009 was clearly the requirement of that time.

Clearly, for an organization to move on, it is the job of the leader to be that sponge that takes the stress from inside and the outside.

Over the years, we have gone beyond our businesses to take up philanthropic projects in diverse areas – from education to health care to skilling.

I was good with numbers.

The consolidation that we started in 2009 was clearly the requirement of that time.

Our institutional framework needs to be bolstered further. We have to implement laws like the proposed Bankruptcy Code and GST (Goods and Services Tax), which will create efficiencies and strongly support the business environment.

Don’t cut corners or compromise to achieve your dreams.

If you take existing ideas and make them affordable and scalable, you substantially change business models. India lacks an education system that is research- and creativity-oriented.

The restructuring theme can be of various kinds. Some amount of debt gets serviced out of cash flows, some gets back-ended and resolved with sale of non-core assets of the company, and some debt gets converted into equity which might today look like a haircut.

Two eyes are given for a reason. One eye to always look at the opportunity. The second eye to always keep looking at the challenges. Because if you don’t balance both, it’s very easy to get carried away one way or the other. And it’s when you balance the two that you find the most sustainable model.

If you look at the numbers from 2002 to 2016, we have consistently been market leaders. We have followed a well-articulated strategy, and our focus is to continue that strategy.

Mark-to-market losses are not real loss. It’s a notional loss. What we can monitor is the credit quality of the underlying papers. Are the companies paying interest on time? Is there any deterioration in the credit quality of these companies?

I had to create a team of people who had worked in this industry for other banks. What I brought to that team was ICICI’s strategic thinking, but when it came to domain knowledge or product nuances, I had to learn from the team.

I think competition is good. It finally delivers the best value to the customer, and I think it keeps all the players on their toes.

We are monitoring the global companies on a daily basis, and their rating continues to be investment grade. We will take immediate action if anything goes wrong.

There are lots of India-related business which is nourished overseas. I mean India-related business that is done off-shore. There are lot of funds that are invested in India and run by Indians but are being operated from outside, mainly because of the taxation laws.

What my parents believed was that, you know, the best wealth they could give to us children was to educate us and, you know – give us that foundation.

Normally, we define banks as being either retail or corporate, but ICICI transformed itself from a corporate bank into a retail bank and, now, a universal bank.

Moving from corporate banking to retail banking to international banking to supervisory roles has meant completely reinventing myself.

If we look at India and the Indian demographics and the Indian consumer, I think the Indian consumer is going digital, social, and mobile. They want everything in a digital format, everything available on the go, and we socially connected.

Even if it does not become cashless economy, it will become a less cash economy, and I think that itself is going to be a good and big achievement, and I think we are, as a country, gone through many of large changes, and ICICI has been a leader in many of them.

It’s about maintaining balance. Plan better, be organised. I chose to be a working wife and mother. Why should I compromise on either?

Innovation is a necessity.

I use my interaction with both my kids to know how the youth today relates to technology, their expectations in terms of mobility and social solutions by customer services-oriented businesses like banking.

The scope of activities for payments banks mainly includes acceptance of demand deposits, issuance of ATM/debit cards, payment and remittance services, and distribution of third-party products.

It’s not that the regulator doesn’t want the banking industry to grow. The growth of the industry has always been in relation to the GDP (gross domestic product) growth.

Rather than worrying about entities, we should worry about the trends in technology that may cause disruptions… if we get so paranoid that banking is no longer going to exist and banks are going to get disrupted, I think that is a different worry.

As far as investors and customers are concerned, I make it a point to answer each and every piece of mail that comes to me.

The whole thing of moving the currency through currency sorting and detection machines and so on that was the whole process actually encouraging electronic transactions.

She worked hard till she saw all of us through college and we became independent. I never knew that my mother had such a wealth of self-assurance and belief within her.

Nobody likes high interest rates.

A leader has to find opportunities in any environment.

I think India’s growth itself will give opportunities for Indian banks to become substantially bigger.

You have to handle the challenges and emerge stronger from them, rather than allow them to bog you down.

Punjab is central to our business strategy, and we are an active partner in the state’s growth.

The biggest challenge for me, for all of us, was that the consumer-credit market was very, very new for India and for ICICI. I was trying to create something that was not just new for me but absolutely unknown to the organization and the country as a whole.

An entrepreneur, whether man or woman, has to be willing to take help, whether financial or technical, to grow his or her business.

I think everybody wants GST.

I chose to be a working wife and mother. Why should I compromise on either?

When I moved from corporate to consumer banking, I brought a lot of synergy with me.

The growth that we are targeting for our bank is in line with the banking industry.

ICICI has been a meritocracy. So, a huge amount a lot of responsibilities, big roles, challenges, have been given to women, not because they are men or women or so on, but they were just given to people who have – who the organization believes has the capability to perform.

Only if you aspire for more will you achieve more.

My father, in a way, was a mentor in the way he instilled the basic values and ethics in me. My mother was a mentor by showing me an example to say that if women have tenacity, they can achieve whatever they have to.

I was only a young girl of 13 when my father passed away from a sudden heart attack, leaving us unprepared to take on life without him. We had been protected from life’s challenges so far. But without warning, all that changed overnight.

Payments banks can also act as business correspondents of other banks.

Let me talk about what the banks are doing, and I think the banks have been working to make sure that, as much as possible, we move the currency to the smaller areas and to as many set of customers as possible.

What’s important is that we see each year what the opportunities are, and make use of the opportunity.

Whenever there is a challenge, the key is not to get consumed by the challenge but actually to learn from it.

I have always been saying that while – the legislative reforms are good, but there are so many low-hanging fruits that we have look for by taking executive decisions. I think the government is actually moving in the right direction.

We have to understand that India is a complex country. Everything takes time for the real impact to get translated to the economy.

I thought work and family complete life. Aarti’s enthusiasm and energy levels made me realise that life can be even more wholesome and fuller.

In a larger sense, we all write our own destiny.

When we look at the credit growth, we should look at it in its totality. Let us not only look at the non-food bank credit growth but also look at the growth across all the instruments of financing.

As we were growing retail, and it was a huge growth phase, it was very important to keep our quality under control. Therefore, it was not just distribution, not just back-office operations, but also the risk-management practices. And these we learned together, supported by technology.

As far as investors and customers are concerned, I make it a point to answer each and every piece of mail that comes to me.

Getting small things like Visa or driving licence should be made easier as we, in financial service sectors, are dealing with financial regulations and tax constraints.

Rising incomes and positive demographics will provide opportunities for retail financial services in India.

When I moved from consumer banking to international banking, I thought I brought a lot of insights from India we could implement globally.

Thankfully I have an ecosystem of in-laws, parents and husband, who are my rocks.

India did not innovate with the ATMs. But when we brought ATMs into India and made the machines talk in 15 regional languages to the people in rural India, we got millions of transactions on the ATM.

If you take existing ideas and make them affordable and scalable, you substantially change business models.

It is crucial to bridge the critical gap between manpower availability and employability by providing sustainable livelihood opportunities for all to grow and prosper.

The increase in coal production and the efficiency in coal movement are all administrative things that can add a lot to the economic growth.

It’s not easy to have it all. Frankly, you know, you have to give as much to the career that the career requires and, at the same time, you have to give as much to the family as the attention that’s required.

In India, we have the opportunity to give innovation the kind of scale that no other country in the world can. Innovation is a necessity.

Resolution can be in any form – S4A, SDR or restructuring – but we need an enabling environment where bankers feel comfortable to take decisions and where they also feel obliged to implement decisions in a timely manner.

We have no exposure in Europe and not made any finances to the companies there. So the question of Greek debt crisis impacting the bank does not arise.

The MBA entrance exams are so quantitative-oriented that it keeps out more and more women from joining the MBA classes. If we were to make the entrance exams more all-rounded, you could see more participation.

While working hard for my career, I looked after my family and have been there for my mother and in-laws when they needed me around. They reciprocated in kind with their unconditional love and support for my career.

Remember that relationships are important and have to be nurtured and cherished. Also keep in mind that a relationship is a two way street, so be ready to give a relationship just as you would expect the other person to be giving to you.

Our large size, capital base, robust funding profile, extensive distribution network, diversified portfolio, presence across the financial services sector, and leadership in technology position us very well to leverage the growth opportunities across the economy.

Life comprises of both: opportunities as well as challenges.

I remember the reactions I got when we first visited factories to inspect the projects that we were funding. It was not easy for people to see a woman there. That was a time when most of these workplaces were not even equipped with a loo for women.

One thing I would say about the Indian consumer is that as much change and as much technology, innovation that you offer to the Indian consumer, the Indian consumer is very receptive and actually keep expecting more, and we have had that great experience.

Mark-to-market losses are not real loss. It’s a notional loss.

In India, we have the opportunity to give innovation the kind of scale that no other country in the world can.

I think it’s important to celebrate your successes. It’s important to feel happy about them, but it’s equally important to look forward to the next big move.

What women need are not benefits and advantages but a merit-based selection process that will allow them to automatically benefit from various opportunities.

The issue of access to growth capital is common to all entrepreneurs. Any entrepreneur who can demonstrate a credible business model and plan would be able to access to capital.

The real underlying value comes if you can put a company back into a running state and it becomes a successful viable entity if it continues to repay loans.

Adaptability is a great asset to have because life is so unpredictable, and things can change overnight for any of us.

Our parents treated all three of us – two sisters and a brother – equally. When it came to education, or our future plans, there was no discrimination between us based on our gender.

When commercial banking opened up for the private sector, I set up the retail-banking division for ICICI and grew it substantially. I then ran the international side of the ICICI Bank for a few years.

We believe that rural India is going to be the next driver of growth. You cannot make money overnight there, as you have to set up infrastructure there; the value of transactions is lower – you need a few years before you can really make all those businesses profitable.

There were so many occasions when I wasn’t around for my kids or my husband. But we learnt to work around it.

A demography that is digitising rapidly, and the potential to invest in infrastructure, are the key strengths of India.

I believe in fate, but I also believe that hard work and diligence plays a very important role in our lives.

We don’t understand the equity market well, and so we deploy funds in fixed-income securities, and like any other securities, investment in those securities also need to follow the mark-to-market accounting principle.

ICICI Group has always been a catalyst in India’s growth and continues to support the country in every sphere.

As far as employees are concerned, clearly I like to communicate with them, since we are more than 40,000 people. I like to communicate either through e-mail or through video conferencing, which we do very often, and stream out videos and interviews. But more than that, I believe in traveling to my branches.

My belief is India’s banking industry will continue to grow at two and a half times the GDP growth rate.

Aggression at a time when the economy was growing at substantial rates and the retail lending as an industry was growing at a substantial rate was an appropriate aggression. Caution at a time when the economic environment is so uncertain is an appropriate caution.

When people come and invest in India, they invest on a certain premise, and the fact that the very premise can change worries them a lot.