Faced with falling maket share, SBI to become customer-friendly

New Delhi, Aug 8 (UNI) To transform the monolith now bogged down with a bureaucractic approach and falling market share, the State Bank of India (SBI) has launched 'Project Parviratan,' with the objective of making the largest Bank in the country more customer-friendly and service-oriented.

"Our model is Indian Railways which has become an icon of many," Chief General Manager (Delhi) Gautam Kanjilal told a news conference here.

The massive internal communication programme has an ambitious target of touching 1,30,000 employees within a short span of 100 days.

"The programme impresses upon employees the need to serve graciously, politely and diligenty. The goal is to lead the banking sector in providing best services gobally," Mr Kanjilal said.

Mr Kanjilal said the focus is on arresting and ultimately reversing the declining market share of SBI. "The issue has been tackled from various angles and several measures have been taken to arrest the decline. More such initiatives are in the offing," he said.

Way back the famous economist Joseph Schumpeter predicted the decay of capitalism as large organisations become more and more bureaucratised, killing the spirit of innovation necessary to keep capitalism thriving. As size expands, organisations become bureacratised and mechanical where an individual loses his identity and is just a cog in the wheel.

The top Banker said the resuts of these measures are already on the horizon. There are signs that the market share of SBI has started improving slightly since last one year, he said.

Mr Kanjilal said the share value of SBI has almost doubled during the last one year. The net profit of the Bank gained an impressive 78 per cent in the quarter ended June 2007 as compared to June 2006.

He said both officers and the lower staff are being sensitised at a two-day programme about the transformation taking place in the banking sector in general and SBI in particuar, hence the adoption of the word 'Parivartan' which means change. It entails energising staff to be agents of change, equipping staff to win customers and fosterng a sense of inclusiveness among them. "It will also enthuse and mobilise SBI's human resources to become pro-active harbingers of change by improving their behaviour and attitudes and making them fully customer-oritened," Mr Kajilal said.

"It is the sum total of all moments of truth, individual impressions regarding the kind and quality of service provided to each customer that defines SBI. Being big is about having the largest capacity to serve," he said.

Parivartan' is the brainchild of SBI Chairman O P Bhatt and Mr Kanjilal said several more initiatives relating to improving the performance of the Bank will be unfolded in the days to come.

In SBI's Delhi Circle , encompassig the States of Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, the National Capital Territory Region and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Harayana covering 1,000 branches, nearly 28 per cent of the targetted 14,000 employees have already been exposed to the programme till date. The rest will be given training under the project by the middle of October 2007.

UNI