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Received guidance

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by: Prof. Jalpa

GROUP MEMBERS.

SNEHA RANJAN

21

SNEHA DUTTA

3

NAZNEENSHAIKH

15

AZIM SAMNANI

37

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Royal College of Arts, Science and CommercePROJECT ON : ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE & CLIMATE

F.Y.BANKING & INSURANCE

SEMESTER - 3

(2009-10)

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We would like to extend our sincere thanks and gratitude to all those in the absence of whom this project would not have been possible.

We would like to thanks Prof. Jalpa who has given us excellent guidance in fulfillment of this project.

We would also like to thanks all the people who directly and indirectly helped us in completing the project.

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SR.NO PARTICULARS PAGE NO.

1 INTRODUCTION 5

2 ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE 8

3 ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE 9

4 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT 10

5 GOALS OR OBECTIVES OF ICICI 14

6 ICICI Bank - Training Resources 21

7 DRESS CODE ADOPTED BY ICICI BANK 40

8 Organizational Culture Aspects 44

9 The Role Of Employee Preferences And Organizational Culture In Explaining E-Commerce Orientations

46

10 FUTURE PROSPECTS OF ICICI BANK 50

11 CONCLUSION 51

12 BIBLIOGRAPHY 52

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IntroductionCulture is made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a group of people.

How important organizational Culture is??????

We spend 40 or more hours at work each week. Many of us spend more time with those we work with than we do our families. For us to be content and fulfilled people, that time must be valuable for more than a dollar. . . We want to be engaged in our work. We yearn for work that is enjoyable, meaningful and engaging. When we are engaged we are safer on the job, more productive and more willing and able to delight customers.

It is for these basic reasons that organizational culture matters. It is the right thing for an organization to do - to think about the work environment, working relationships and "how we do things here."

Focusing on building and sustaining an organizational culture is one way of showing that people are the organization's most

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ICICI organisation culture is a tech-savvy, non-hierarchical, work environment where early responsibility and independent decision-making enable each employee to reach his/her potential. Coupled with this is a strong performance management system that has built a meritocracy where high performing-high potential individuals are duly rewarded.

What is organizational culture??????????

Organizational culture refers to a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations. This system of shared meaning is, on closer examination, a set of key characteristics that the organization values. The most recent research suggests that there are seven primary characteristics that in aggregate capture the essence of an organization culture.

1. INNOVATION AND RISK TAKING : the degree to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and take risks.

2. ATTENTION TO DETAIL: the degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision, analysis, and attention to detail.

3. OUTCOME ORIENTATION: the degree to which management focuses on results or outcomes rather than on the techniques and processes used to achieve these outcomes.

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4. PEOPLE ORIENTATION: the degree to which management decisions take into consideration the effect of outcomes on people within the organization.

5. TEAM ORIENTATION: the degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather than individuals.

6. AGGRESSIVENESS : the degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than easy going.

7. STABILITY : The degree to which organizational. Activities emphasize maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth.

Each of these characteristics exists on a continuum from low to high. Appraising the organization on these seven characteristics, then, gives a composite picture of the organization culture. This picture becomes the basis feelings of shared understanding that members have about the organization, how things are done in it, and the way members are supposed to behave. Demonstrates how these characteristics can be mixed to create highly diverse organizations.

What is the work culture at ICICI Bank?It is a tech-savvy, non-hierarchical, work environment where early responsibility and independent decision-making enable each employee to reach his/her potential. Coupled with this is a strong performance management system that has built a meritocracy where high performing-high potential individuals are duly rewarded.

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ORGANIZATION STRUCTUREWe believe that the structure of an organization needs to be dynamic, constantly evolving and responsive to changes both in the external and internal environments. Our organizational structure is designed to support our business goals, and is flexible while at the same time ensuring effective control and supervision and consistency in standards across business groups. The organization structure is divided into five principal groups – Retail Banking Wholesale Banking, Project Finance & Special Assets Management, International Business and Corporate Centre.The Retail Banking Group comprises ICICI Bank’s retail assets business including various retail credit products, retail liabilities (including our own deposit accounts as well as distribution of third part liability products) and rural micro-banking. The Wholesale Banking Group comprises ICICI Bank’s corporate banking business including credit products and banking services, with separate dedicated groups for large corporate Government and public sector entities and emerging corporate. Treasury, structured finance and credit portfolio management also form part of this group.

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ICICI BANK • Retail Banking• Wholesale Banking• Project Finance & Special Assets Management• International Business• Corporate Centre

ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCEICICI Bank recognizes the importance of organizational excellence in its business. Developing and deploying world-class skills in a variety of areas such as technology, financial engineering, transaction processing and portfolio management, credit evaluation, customer segmentation and product design, and building and maintaining deep and enduring relationships of trust with our retail and wholesale customers are essential elements of our strategy Different businesses across the ICICI group have over the past few months used successfully the Six Sigma methodology to focus on customer satisfaction and enhanced efficiency in operations. Application of Six Sigma techniques in regional processing centres, branch layout and design, and the home finance and demat services businesses have reduced turnaround time and significantly improved operational efficiency. In recognition of the critical importance of excellence in internal processes and delivery to customers, we have set up an Organizational Excellence Group headed by a Senior General Manager reporting to the Managing Director &

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CEO. This group will be responsible for institutionalization of quality initiatives, including Six Sigma, and for building the skills necessary for implementing and accelerating quality initiatives, reporting to the management the progress and value generated from these initiatives and replicating the successes across ICICI Bank as well as group companies.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

ICICI Bank believes that, as one of India’s largest business enterprises and one of the largest participants in the financial system, it needs to make focused efforts towards contributing to economic and social development in India. This complements our business operations of providing financial services to government, industry and individual customers. ICICI Bank’s community development initiatives are channelized through a dedicated not-for-profit group,the Social Initiatives Group (SIG), which seeks to identify and support cost-effective, timebound, scalable and replicable initiatives designed to improve the capacity of the

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underpriviliged to participate in the larger economy. ICICI Bank supports initiatives that have both near and long-term impact. In this context, health, education and availability of financing have been identified as three key areas. Within these, infant health at birth, elementary education and micro-financial services have been identified for focused attention.

Infant Health at Birth

The objective of initiatives in this area is to maximize the proportion of infants born healthy. We seek to support research in nutritional deficiencies that cause infant mortality and strategies to improve nutrition, particularly female nutrition. Some of the key initiatives we supported in this area during fiscal 2002 were a “Maternal Nutrition Workshop” at Aurangabad organized by SNEHA–India, a three-year community-based action research project on preventing iron deficiency in mothers in conjunction with Topiwala Medical College and B.Y.L. Nair Charitable Hospital in Mumbai and “Mumbai Maternal Diet Study” undertaken by Medical Research Council, University of Southampton, UK in conjunction with SNEHA-India and the Centre for the Study of Social Change, Mumbai.

Elementary EducationThe objective of initiatives in this area is to maximize the number of 14-year-olds who have a basic level of elementary education. Pratham, a non-governmental organization in Mumbai, which we have partnered for seven years, has

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developed innovative strategies for motivating children to enrol in and complete primary school. We support Pratham’s pre-school, remedial education and bridge course programmes, as well as related research studies. Some of the other initiatives we supported in this area during fiscal 2002 were the Jana Sanskriti Centrefor Theatre of the Oppressed in rural West Bengal, which uses theatre to enable children to make an easy transition to formal school, and Digantar, a voluntary organization based in Jaipur that runs three village schools.

Micro-financial Services

Participation of the poor in the larger economy necessitates a transition from being passive observers to active participants in the growth process. Micro-financial services therefore include those financial services that enable the poor to reduce their economic vulnerability and participate in the growth process. The objective of our initiatives in micro-finance is to maximize access to basic financial services – basic banking (savings and cash management),finance (debt, equity and leasing) and insurance (life and health). ICICI’s Rural Micro-Banking Group is engaged in delivering micro-finance to self-help groups of rural women. It has also developed models for delivering micro-finance and other banking facilities to groups at centres without branches. An important strategy has been to understand the in providing cost-effective financial services to the poor, including the use of wireless technology to develop a low-cost banking model and the use of smart cards in rural banking.

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We seek to disseminate our research and experience in each of these three areas, and plan to create web-based resource centres on the portal www.icicisocialinitiatives.org. In addition to the above core focus areas, we also support capacity-building in non-governmental organizations through the GIVE (Giving Impetus to Voluntary Effort) Foundation and the portal ICICIcommunities.org, which provides a variety of services. We also encourage appropriate research and institution-building efforts for the development of the Indian financial system. The web site, www.ICICIresearchcentre.org, is a virtual non-profit research centre that acts as a platform to encourage debate, and develop a non-partisan opinion on various issues ofconcern and interest in financial economics relating to emerging markets.

PUBLIC RECOGNITION During fiscal 2002, icici received several prestigious awards in recognition of our business strategies, customer services, human resources practices and transparency in financial reporting, including• The title “Best Retail Bank in India” by Asian Banker for the second consecutive year;• Asian Business Leader Award (organized by CNBC Asia-Pacific and TNT) awarded toK. V. Kamath, Managing Director & CEO;• Asian Banker’s Product Innovation Award for “Kid-e-bank” account;• Among the top three in a “Best Employer” study amongst the students of the best

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business schools in India conducted by ORG-MARG;• Indian Express Marketing Excellence Award for the “Most Recalled Advertisement onTelevision”; and• “Best Presented Accounts Award” in the category of banks and financial institutionsfrom the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, for the third consecutive year.

GOALS OR OBECTIVES OF ICICI

One of India's biggest financial institution is always in the limelight. The growth of the ICICI over the years has proved repeatedly the ability of the institution in adopting new technologies and products. It is through its ability to nourish new products and services that the institution has become a household name in a very short span of time.

This time again the FI is in the news in a big way. Previously, the institution has been in the limelight for controlling the market turbulence or expansion into new markets. However, the reason this time is totally different from the earlier ones.

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After a constant expansion of the number of subsidiaries in the last five years, the leading financial institution has announced its plans of restructuring. Things are moving fast at the Bandra-Kurla complex of ICICI. Also, after substantially diluting its stake in the ICICI Bank, the group is also planning for a reverse merger.

Exponential growth

The Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India limited founded way back in 1955, has witnessed more than it could have dreamed of at the time of its inception. However, following the economic liberalization of Indian economy, it has renamed itself as ICICI. The principal objective behind setting up this organization at that time was to make available long-term capital for industrial development and investment in India. Gopalan Ramachandran, Chief executive, Business Economics and Risk Management says, "Considering the fact that it was established at a time when India had a stock market but not a reliable capital market to supply long-term debt and equity, the growth of ICICI is wonderful."

Not only did the institution withstand the test of time but also witnessed exponential growth that anybody can ever imagine. Under its group umbrella, ICICI has around 27 subsidiaries. Of course, the most prominent and most successful among them is the ICICI bank. One observer puts the constant increase in

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the number of subsidiaries as part of their decentralization strategy.

The major reason for the exponential growth of ICICI is due to its willingness to adapt itself to changes. It is the first one to start Internet banking. Also it has been the first ever institution to start a web based securities trading through its subsidiary ICICI Web Trade Ltd. Says Gopalan Ramachandran, "ICICI is a financial institution that has seldom resisted change. It has been an ardent promoter of internal and external change." Truly, it has been the best in the business to adopt to the changes in the environment. And what more can it ask for from its employees who were most willing to adopt new things. And all this is due to the comfort provided by the subsidiaries identifies an industry observer.

Not only it witnessed increase in the number of subsidiaries during the last few years, it has also witnessed one of the best years in existence in terms of rise in its total assets. At the end of the financial year 2000, its assets stood at Rs. 706 bn. In the process, it has become the second largest financial institution in India. Also, today the group manages around 7.4 mn customer accounts. It includes three mn customers' accounts of the ICICI bank. The well-diversified portfolio of the company will tell the story of its success. Out of the total portfolio, corporate finance accounts for 37 percent while the structured project finance accounts for 23 percent. Slowly it is also

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gaining momentum in the retail loans segment, though at present it represents only 2 percent of the total portfolio.

It is no doubt that ICICI has now become India's best-managed financial institution catering to the needs of different customers. The key to success has been the constant endeavor to implement new technologies and products. According to Anurag Khanna, Founder and CEO of BanknetIndia.com, "The company is making constant efforts to exploit first mover advantage in the technology-related businesses." The principal achievements of ICICI according to Gopalan Ramachandran, are, "It has been able to reduce drastically the percentage of problem loans and the surge in the size of its balance sheet. Also, it has rapidly assimilated the technology and had developed institutional and managerial process aimed at managing risk." The result is the rapid increase in the shareholder value compared to others in the industry.

What made this possible?

One man who can claim the phenomenal growth of ICICI is K V Kamath, the CEO of the company under whose stewardship the company had witnessed a spectacular growth. He is the person behind the transformation of ICICI from a financial institution whose main businesses was lending money for industrial projects to a broad based finance group that extends loans to individuals, finances car purchases and engages in mutual funds. The urge for growth seems to be never ending for him

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and the company. Now the company has focused on achieving the status of a one-stop shop, a universal bank and a financial supermarket catering to different needs of customers ranging from large multi-crore corporations to a common man on the street. In the words of Kamath, "We want to be a global organization in the domestic market."

The increase in the number of subsidiaries has helped the company. Anurag Khanna, says, "As ICICI has transformed its business from a development financial institution to a diversified financial service group offering a wide variety of products and services it required various subsidiaries to handle particular activities." Justifying the reason behind the floating of the subsidiaries and their contribution to the overall success he adds, "These subsidiaries helped in focusing on their specific areas of operation and facilitated attention to their specific customer segments and activities."

Gopalan Ramachandran adds to the views expressed by Anurag Khanna. While explaining the role of subsidiaries in the growth of ICICI, he says, "Subsidiaries enable special managerial talent to deploy cutting-edge technologies. The internalisation of risk and reward in subsidiaries is a potent impetus for the growth of the ICICI group." However, a question that arises in the floating of the subsidiaries is whether there are any private benefits arising for a select

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group of institutional investors. Since the principal voting rights in the company are owned by a set of well-informed institutional investors, it can be assumed that the floating of subsidiaries will not provide any private benefits.

The participation of the employees in the activities of the company is a key to the success for any organization. ICICI is no exception to this and rightfully the cooperation from the employees to the management has been outstanding. The company has been able to retain the best people through a combination of training and performance linked compensation. "ICICI has empowered managers to try new techniques, technologies and process and above all, to establish new beachheads for exploitation in the future," says Gopalan Ramachandran.

The other key factor that made the growth of the ICICI possible is the constant lookout for new opportunities and technology. Kamath has once quoted, "Technology at the ICICI will revolutionize the way we access the public for assets or liabilities." The establishment of ICICI Web Trade Limited is an example of the company's willingness to adopt technology. This has helped the company to better manage non-market and other risks, to better serve the customers and to deploy cutting-edge technologies according to an industry observer.

ICICI has always been in the forefront to identify and exploit opportunities. The company even cites this as one of the

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reason for floating subsidiaries. Through the various subsidiaries, it was able to address the various retail opportunities. Gopalan Ramachandran says, "The retail subsidiaries have hitherto focused on their specific areas of operation in order to facilitate rapid time to market and dedicate attention to their customer segments and channels." There is no area left unexplored by ICICI.

ICICI has always attempted to fulfill its vision of becoming a universal bank. Consider the case of Citicorp. After the banking recession in the US, Citicorp has been experiencing negative profits during the period 1987-89. But it had been able to turn the negative profits to positive with the credit card division. It had laid a target of $ 1 bn profits. Many felt that the target was never attainable. However, with aggressive marketing strategies and constant new product development and services it had attained it. Likewise, though the vision of becoming a universal bank by the ICICI may seem to be olympian, it is achievable. One fact that will be of concern for the company in achieving the universal bank status is the state of the non-performing assets. Anurag Khanna says, "It needs to look into NPA levels, which are more than the permissible level and also dilution of control due to floating of too many subsidiaries."

Many people may be aware of the fact that the massive brand building exercise that the company has undertaken in the recent years. It is not surprising to say that the ICICI's Safety

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Bonds have become the household name in India. Since the strong mass-market players are absent in India, the investor base has grown larger and stronger with every issue of safety bonds. This enabled the group to build a profitable retail franchise. Also the practices of the company like the adoption of US Generally Accepted Accounting Practices had acted as tremendous confidence booster in the market.

ICICI Bank - Training Resources PMSoft Consultancy Pvt. Ltd

PMSoft's faculties have extensive hands-on experience & have conducted over 7500 hours of Project Management training in IT, Engineering & Pharmaceutical industry for companies like Capgemini, Siemens (SISL), Infosys, Genpact, Magic Software, Satyam Computers, ICICI Bank, ICICI Prudential, Dr. Reddy s Laboratories, Cognizant Technologies, Suzlon Wind Energy, Semco Electric, Mahindra & Mahindra, etc.They use experiential methodology, simulations & other

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interactive tools, so that that the participants can understand, in an interesting way. The participants are also motivated to implement the concepts in day-to-day work to improve efficiencies.Our commitment in giving the best quality of training as well as the pre & post program support for every participant always remains.

PMSoft also has the capability to customize the programs as per the specific requirements from the organization in order to cater to your needs.

Trident Training Systems Private Limited

ABOUT TRIDENT TRAINING SYSTEMS

Established in 1993, TRIDENT TRAINING SYSTEMS PRIVATE LIMITED is an organization specializing in providing consultation and value added services in the areas of Training & Development, Retailing, Service Management, Human Resource Management, Personal & Organizational Transformation. In more than fifteen years of positive existence, we have trained and developed more than 20000 people and have been instrumental in successfully consulting and training organizations, ICICI BANK, 3 GLOBAL SERVICES (3G), DDAMAS, GINI & JONY, REID & TAYLOR, PROVOGUE, CP SHIPS (HAPAG LLOYD), HERBERTSONS, , RAHEJA HOTELS, THE ORCHID, BHARAT PETROLEUM, ESSEL GROUP, UB GROUP, GLOBAL TELESYSTEMS, TATA GROUP, UNIVERSAL CONSULTING, OCWEN FINANCIALS, HFCL, ITC, FORBES

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GROUP, KLM, BPL MOBILE, AIRTEL .The TEAM at TRIDENT TRAINING SYSTEMS PRIVATE LIMITED comprises of professionals specializing in the areas of Human Resource Development, Sales and Marketing, Retail Management, Service Management, with variety of industry experience and backed with years of experience in the respective fields.

The following are some of our areas of specialization:

SELLING SKILLS,SALES MANAGEMENT,CUSTOMER FOCUSED SALES MANAGEMENT,TELE-MARKETING SKILLS,SELLING TO MAJOR / KEY ACCOUNTS,RETAIL MANAGEMENT,RETAIL SELLING SKILLS,RETAIL CUSTOMER SERVICE,RETAIL STORE MANAGEMENT

TOTAL SERVICE EXCELLENCE

(Workshop for Top Management Team for Developing the organization s service strategy and attaining overall service leadership).

CUSTOMER SERVICE,SERVICE LEADER CERTIFICATION

COMMUNICATION & INTERPERSONAL SKILLS,TELEPHONE PERFECTION,PRESENTATION-SKILLS,INFLUENCING SKILLS, ANALYTICAL SKILLS,NEGOTIATION SKILLS,TIME MANAGEMENT.

Cognition Advisory Private Limited

Cognition Adviosry Private Limited ( CAPL) is a corporate training cum advisory company based out of Kolkata , India.

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The company is co founded by Praloy Majumder . Praloy Majumder is associated with the teaching and training for last 6 years. He is a visiting faculty of Finance in Indian Institute of Mangement Calcutta - One of the best business schools in the Asia Pacific region. CAPL mainly offers courses in the Finance Domnain. Some of our courses are given below:

Finance for Non Finance Personnel

EVA- Measuring Efficiency at all level

Corporate Financial Strategy

Project Finance

Risk Management

Bank Management

Though the company is hardly 5 months old, we have build up relationship with ICICI Bank Limited ( No 2 Bank in India) , Tata Tea Limited ( No 1 Tea Company in India), NDPL Limited ( USD 1 Billion Company ) and many other renowned groups.

KM tigers

ICICI Bank has grown six-fold since its KM strategy was established in 2000, making it the second biggest in India today. But that strategy has been robust enough to grow with it. Central to ICICI Bank’s success has been its flexible, innovative methods, and a plethora of KM tools that were cannily marketed to staff from the very start.

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ICICI was founded in the mid-1950s at the behest of the World Bank, the Indian government and various ‘captains of industry’ in India. Its purpose back then was to provide medium and long-term development finance for Indian business.

In the mid-1990s its business strategy shifted to take advantage of the opening up of the Indian economy. The idea? To create a diversified financial-services supplier offering a range of products, instead of concentrating purely on project finance. ICICI Bank was, therefore, established in 1994 to provide retail banking facilities across India.

The idea was well timed and proved wildly successful. Today, it is the second largest bank in India with assets of almost $40bn and can boast a network of more than 570 branches and a steadily growing international business, with branches in the UK, Russia and Canada.

First steps

ICICI Bank’s knowledge management (KM) strategy was established in 2000. Back then, the company was very much smaller than it is now – just 1,200 staff compared to the 30,000 that work for ICICI Bank today.

However, the programme was started at a time when the company’s growth was starting to go into overdrive. Initially,

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the organisation developed a broad technology-linked infrastructure, including a corporate intranet, ICICI Universe, intended to provide a platform where, for instance, employees could check the human resources (HR) system for vacation entitlements, book days off or view their personal pension details.

By putting these simple, but necessary activities on the intranet, it encouraged employees to get familiar with using web-based applications, to overcome any fear of technology as well as providing them with a good reason for using the portal on a regular basis.

What began more as an idea and less as a project, was simply the belief that staff should have a space on the intranet where they could participate in collaborative activities, such as contribute or find documents, engage in discussions and post or answer queries. That idea, in essence, first converted the bank to KM.

Initially, the organisation was motivated to act due to the upheaval caused by the tail-end of the dot-com boom, which was depriving the bank of many good staff as they left in significant numbers to join dot-com start-ups – taking their knowledge and know-how with them. We therefore developed Wise Guy, ICICI’s KM intranet portal – easily accessible from

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the main staff portal – to provide a way of capturing and disseminating the knowledge of departing staff.

To develop Wise Guy, a team was put together encompassing KM, HR, technology and research with a brief to ‘just do it’. Indeed they did and a beta version was ready within just three months.

Before the year was out, faced with the prospect of a reverse merger of ICICI Bank with its parent ICICI, which went through in 2002, the KM team had to restructure to meet the needs of the new corporate entity. Some issues articulated at the time included:

1. How to connect this vast new pool of employees with each other;

2. How to share business-related information about clients, deals and ideas;

3. How to manage staff through the change process via communication, messages, channels and so on;

4. How to overcome the problems caused by staff turnover; 5. How to ensure that every person in the company is

adequately equipped with the skills and training required for their jobs and for lifelong learning and development.

The deeper question was, quite simply, how do we create a hunger among staff to acquire and share knowledge? That is to say, how do we create the culture? The aim was to ensure that employees stayed permanently aware of the external

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competitive challenges of the business, and to persuade them to remain constantly open to new thoughts, ideas and ways of working.

Satisfied users

In our view, employee satisfaction drives usage and we wanted to use this as the delivery vehicle to support three major information-handling behaviours: sharing, collaboration and self-help. In essence, the workplace is no longer just a physical location. It has become a blend of physical and virtual spaces in which work is undertaken.

The KM programme is now deeply embedded in the bank, but not as a result of any directive from top management. Employees work with the KM programme because they see its benefits and realise the value it brings to them on a day-to-day basis. This is what makes it vibrant and engaging.

It is significant that a small project originally designed for about 1,200 employees in few locations has been flexible and scalable enough to cater for more than 30,000 employees in

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more than 600 locations, most of whom are customer-facing staff.

Everything they need should be at their fingertips, whether getting an answer to a problem, checking a policy or accessing standard templates and formats such as letters, agreements or guidelines.

The importance of scalability cannot be underestimated. In 2005, usage increased more than six times compared to the year before and the portal marked a record one-million logins in November 2004 after the site was redesigned. The number of staff using the KM portal doubled in the same period.

On average today, about 6,000 users visit the site daily, of which 95 per cent come from ICICI Bank’s retail branches. And more than 40 business divisions actively participate in the KM effort to contribute and publish content. Today, there are more than 14,000 individual items, about 1,000 daily searches for information and more than 16,000 interactive postings.

The WiseGuy KM portal also encompasses a variety of sections including: document management; news inside and outside the organisation; digital resources such as trade and news journals, research reports, maps, directories, currency and time calculators; information on the various business groups and group companies, complete employee information; and, interactive sections such as discussion forums, query boards,

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book reviews, online quizzes, the rewards and recognition scheme, and so on.

Corporate learning

The ability to learn across the group and from team mates is a very powerful tool. We aim to build a learning environment by encouraging collaboration and push mechanisms, including a webzine e-mail to every employee before 9.30am. The Daily Dose, as it is called, is a summary of what is new in the outside world and on the portal. It features headlines, opinions, polls, happenings, customer appreciations, newsletters and other regular updates.

Again, one of the main benefits of the Daily Dose is the high profile it lends to our various KM initiatives. When we polled staff, almost 97 per cent said that The Daily Dose represents an important part of their working day. By delivering it direct to their mailbox, it helps the KM team to capture the ‘mind space’ of employees as soon as they sit down to work in the morning.

Other tools we use include Newsroom, a space on the intranet where daily news headlines are published. Here, staff can look up all the newsletters published by internal business groups, media releases, as well as tracking what our competitors are up to. Then there are ‘K-mailers’, which are short, one-page reviews on any one of 33 topics in six categories; internal

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newsletters from various domain specialists; online quizzes; ‘word power’ articles or glossaries; training modules; and, a whole library of online research tools.

Query Board, a central, interactive frequently asked questions repository by and for staff, is where they can post any work-related queries, such as the number of cheques that can be deposited at any one time, customer credit questions, cheque returns and so on.

Indeed, anything work-related that demands authoritative responses from colleagues and in-house experts. It serves as the fastest and most reliable source for feedback on queries or doubts related to workplace rules, policies and procedures, technical know-how and much more. Remarkably, the average response time to a query ranges from five to 15 minutes, but never more than one day from the time the query was posted.

In addition to Query Board, we also offer a more general discussion forum on the intranet where staff can talk about finance, business and economy-related topics. Discussions on our forum revolve around topics highly relevant to the work in the bank, such as the automatic cheque book re-order system and solutions for detecting fake bank notes.

Compliance, quality and customer service

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In 2002, the bank launched its quality programme to achieve the relevant certification levels throughout the organisation. Naturally, KM’s role was to support the quality team and we did this by building a KM mini-portal on quality. This quality ‘portlet’ maintains the background material, documents on Six Sigma methodology, international quality standards, certifications and everything else that relates to the organisation’s endeavors in maintaining quality levels. Staff can also post and respond to queries and interact with the quality experts.

KM tools and techniques are also deployed so that customer-service teams and those staff who deal directly with the public can share almost everything related to customer complaints and service quality issues, from branch and customer satisfaction with cash machines, to standard templates, letters, tools, to recognising and celebrating customer satisfaction benchmarks and people who have achieved it. The various activities, contributions and postings help spread the good practices throughout the bank.

Of course, banks today have to deal with growing regulatory demands, including circulars and notices from the regulatory authorities that must be followed to the letter. We therefore created E-Circulars to inform and educate staff on regulatory and compliance matters. It is used by designated senior managers who have a duty to inform employees on guidelines

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issued by various regulatory authorities as they affect the bank’s policies, products and processes. It is not all one-way. Recipients can also be tested with four or five key questions to ensure that they broadly understand the content.

Beyond the surface to the soul

This is a phrase from a very useful book on the topic. It states that KM is not just a set of techniques or practices. If that were so, it would not have been difficult for other manufacturers to copy the Toyota Production System, for example, even though the details have been relayed in books and Toyota even gives tours of its manufacturing facilities – it is no secret. The difference is in its philosophy and perspective about such things as people, processes, quality, continuous improvement and other factors that represents not just the surface – what you can see – but the inner soul.

This has become increasingly relevant with the realisation that few jobs are well structured or well defined. Instead, knowledge work is defined at the point of need by the issues, problems or opportunities that arise. Researchers and authors Pfeffer and Sutton asked why it was that with so much education and research, management consulting, books and articles, that the little change that does occur often happens with such great difficulty. They concluded it was because

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knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fails to result in action or behaviour consistent with that knowledge.

This is what they called the ‘knowing-doing gap’. Their study analysed how some organisations are consistently able to turn knowledge into action while others fail. Their findings suggest that it is management practices that either create or reduce the knowing-doing gap. In our work, the KM team used their insights as a guiding philosophy.

Rather than waiting for culture to change, we banked on change impacting the culture. We tried to make it fun and prestigious and persuaded leaders to champion our KM efforts. In experimenting with so many new things and new ways of doing old things, risk taking was encouraged and mistakes were not considered fatal.

Marketing, it is frequently said, is absolutely key to encouraging the use of KM systems. At ICICI Bank, employees are encouraged to participate and contribute by way of rewards and recognition. First, the very fact that contributions are published on the portal along with ownership details gives employees a sense of recognition for everything they do.

Every contributor earns ‘K-Points’ for contributing anything from an article to documents, queries, responses to queries, initiating a discussion and even just rating discussions. A separate section on the intranet is dedicated to the ‘knowledge

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champions’, displaying the top contributors based on their ‘knowledge quotient’. This KQ is also prominently displayed on their home page next to a personalised welcome message. ‘K-Cash’, an earlier version of the rewards scheme, enabled employees to redeem gift vouchers online for the points they earned. And knowledge leaders who spoke in the Knowledge Leader Series, as well as knowledge champions, were given certificates signed by the managing director and CEO of the bank.

Marketing KM, we found, is all about making connections, so we didn’t hold back. Early on, we moved to win over senior management to help us evangelise our work. Then there were mailers, posters, group presentations, off-site meetings, open house sessions on KM, regular publishing on the portal, surveys, a KM newsletter, even bare-faced gimmicks. When, for instance, WiseGuy completed its first year, employees who logged on to their machines in the morning were surprised by a short 40-second video embedded in an e-mail with bank director Chanda Kochar delivering

a message on the value of KM, congratulating them and urging them to use it more. It had the whole company talking about it for days and successfully generated further interest in KM at ICICI Bank. However, user tools were kept relatively free of catchy, gimmicky names in favour ofsimple, explanatory terms that explained their purpose. For instance, we eschewed

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names like Guru, Oracle, Solomon, Answer Point and any number of catchy acronyms in favour of the simpler Query Board, Discussion Forum and E-Circulars.

This helped us to stand out from the crowd. Users, we feel, appreciated having something plain vanilla whose purpose they could understand and relate to. The care we took in marketing was reflected in other ways. For instance, early on the KM team would use internal marketing campaigns inspired by topical themes, but this was stopped when we realised that it would not be relevant to everyone throughout India – let alone in London, Moscow and Toronto.

Challenges

The short history of KM in ICICI Bank has not been plain sailing. Having a director throw his weight behind the project certainly provided an initial thrust. It sent a positive signal across the organisation that the top brass were serious about KM, but it also ran the risk of being perceived as a pet project or flavour of the month.

While many employees actively use the portal, there are gaps in pockets among mid-level managers. ‘I know best’ and ‘not invented here’ attitudes remain a barrier. Knowledge sharing is not tightly linked to staff appraisal and neither are

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knowledge management activities mentioned in ICICI Bank’s balanced score card index – if it were, it may be a different matter.

Certain measures can be a double-edged sword. For instance, one team started an internal initiative in which they asked team members to submit suggestions, linking their participation to performance indicators and making it a part of an employee’s mandatory goals. However, it was soon observed and reported that some staff were taking ideas from WiseGuy and submitting them to their group system. Such instances undermine or detract from the overall process and can stoke internal conflict.

From a technical perspective, the KM initiatives have done a better job of capturing internal and external unstructured information, such as documents and ideas and in harnessing external structured data such as content and databases versus internal structured data, such as data warehouses, enterprise resource-planning applications and databases. Disparate systems can create fatigue and/or confusion among users about which one to use.

First-generation KM revolved around creating processes to capture, codify and organise knowledge for retrieval. In second-generation KM, knowledge flows becomes more important than the knowledge itself. The third generation of

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KM involves easing the creation of new knowledge, innovation and improving organisational performance. Maturity levels vary according to the applications within each teams.

At ICICI Bank, the business leadership team, by sponsorship and example, has outlined principles of action that stipulate that employees must actively share knowledge and seek out colleagues’ expertise to solve problems and/or improve processes. KM at ICICI Bank was started in a non-dictatorial manner and its use is voluntary, but a programme of this nature cannot be expected to continue on momentum. But to the average employee in the bank, KM now is no longer strange or a novelty, but has become the ‘way we work’.

So while we build for scale, we design for the soul. The KM team is encouraged to be open-minded, to bring in outside resources and to avoid being ego-driven – to find solutions within only. When this is done, it is a value arbitrage and a not cost arbitrage.

On many occasions it is not about KM strategy, but survival strategy. Simply ensuring that the proposals and projects see the light of the day, ensuring they are nurtured and survive initial skepticism and hiccups.

Finally, it is about speed, about the youth and their energy, about collaboration and co-operation.

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WiseGuy contributions

WiseGuy has assisted the organisation in a number of ways. It has helped:

In the creation of a common storehouse of knowledge; Staff identify sources of in-house expertise; In the development of a sense of ‘belonging’ among staff; Save the bank money; Improve our employee’s decision-making ability; Empower staff; Provide a means for staff to upgrade their skills; Staff to plan their career movements; Provide a platform for recognition of contributions made

to the bank.

What works

What really continues to work in favour of WiseGuy is the way that it helps to engage employees. This is the result of the philosophy and management practices and small decisions taken on a day-to-day, case-by-case basis. Some insights may be capsulated as follows:

Listen, listen, listen. Then listen some more; Speed is of the essence – lead, don’t follow; Maintain the intrinsic organic nature and growth versus

design and diktat; Don’t kill any idea – however small; Tap the collective energy;

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Compassion and caring – most employees are struggling with personal issues of work-life balance and stress. If KM helps decrease this, you have a convert;

Sensing underlying concerns; Team work, every time.

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DRESS CODE ADOPTED BY ICICI BANK…………………First impressions count.  A professional consultant who doesn’t take the time to maintain a professional appearance presents the image of not being able to perform adequately on the job. Our professional dress code is codified because many professionals have never been taught appropriate professional appearance and demeanor. 

Professional dress code standards are alive and well in major financial and executive management.  Anyone who aspires to top management knows that personal appearance counts. 

If you look and behave like a highly trained and well-groomed professional, you will win the respect and honor of our valued clients.

A fresh haircut, spit-shined shoes and a crisp suit go a long way in establishing a professional demeanor.

It's also about quality; most professionals can spot a cheap suit at twenty paces and high quality dress shoes are de-rigueur.

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Dress Code for Male Consultants:

Body Art - Of course our dress code prohibits tattoos.  They can be seen as unprofessional, low-class and ignorant , and at no time may a consultant have a visible tattoo.  Read details about why most corporations prohibit tattoos. 

Suit – A suit means a SUIT; sport coats and slacks are not allowed. The suit must be dark blue, gray or charcoal, (except for tropical engagements) be “well tailored”, and have no loose threads,

"pills" or "nurdles".  

Shirt - A crisp white shirt is always required.  French cuffs are optional.  I have seen consultants turned away at the door of banks because of their hot pink dress shirt. 

Tie - Must be conservative, something a bank VP might wear. 

Shoes - High quality black lace-up shoes are required, polished to a mirror quality spit-shine.  You would be surprised at how many people judge you by your shoes.  See footwear details

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below.Accessories - No phony Rolexes, body piercing or earrings. 

Grooming - All hair, moustaches and beards must be neatly groomed and cologne must be used sparingly. Protruding nasal hair is prohibited, and all tattoos must be fully hidden.  If you have been working all night and have an early morning meeting, you can use an anti-inflammatory hemorrhoid cream (e.g. Preparation H) to quickly shrink those unsightly puffy bags under your eyes.  Just carefully dab the roid cream on your lower eyelids (being careful not to get any in your eyes) and you will look fresh,and well-rested. 

Cologne - Cologne and after-shave are optional, but if used, it must not be so strong as to call attention to yourself in a closed elevator. 

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Dress Code for Female Consultants:

Skirt Suit - No pants allowed, ever.  The suit must be dark blue, gray

or charcoal.   

Salwar suit - for women who are uncomfortable in skirts n formal pants.

Blouse - A crisp white blouse is great, and you may have ruffles and other

decorations. 

Tie - Optional, but it must be conservative. 

Shoes - High quality black or brown shoes are required, polished to a high shine. (see details below)  

Jewelry - Ostentatious jewelry, multiple ear rings on each ear, and multiple chain necklaces are prohibited.  Leave the Zircons at home; most people can recognize them instantly. 

Cosmetics - Do not use the ski-slope approach to cosmetics (that's 3-inches of powder on top of a 6-inch base).  Use no "cheap" perfumes and make sure that you do not offend people

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with allergies with too much perfume odor.  Co-workers can sue your employer and you if yourperfume is too strong. 

Grooming - All hair must be neatly groomed.  Females with facial hair are required to shave before any on-site engagements.  You should always shave legs and exposed armpits. 

Perfume - Too much perfume is considered especially heinous when the stench is so strong as to cause allergic reactions or when the odor can be detected from more than 3 feet away. Remember, the quality of perfume is directly proportional to the price, and many female executives can quickly tell if you are wearing a cheap, "stink pretty" perfume.

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Organizational Culture Aspects

The impact of culture is very important when it comes to attempting and achieving personal goals and business goals. Organizational cultures are the characteristics that are based on morals, values, traditions and personnel behavior. Values are very important because people act out upon his or her values, and values channel behavior. Saying and doing the right thing are two different things and if managers are trying to set the culture they have to set the example. Physical manifestations such as ethical codes or written rules are some ways the organization reflects its values

An Analysis of Organizational Culture

 The following is an observation and analysis of the role an organization’s values play on the development and state of its culture.   This analysis is based on five interviews of both male and female workers from a privately owned manufacturing company with annual revenues exceeding a billion dollars.   In forming my conclusions, I will analyze the synthesis of data and draw from the classification and examples set forth in   the “Workplace Culture and Socialization section of Volti’s “An Introduction to the Sociology of Work and Occupations” Volti (2008) as well as the National Defense University’s publication “Organization Culture” (National Defense University,Undated).

The following analysis focuses on data collected from five individuals of varying tenure and gender employed by a

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privately owned manufacturing company with annual revenues exceeding a billion dollars.   A family of German immigrants in Cleveland, Ohio founded the company seventy-five years ago.   The company has since grown from an Ohio based tool and die provider to a global manufacturer of outdoor power equipment with offices in North America, Europe, Australia, and China.   In the last twelve months, the executive leadership of this company has undergone a significant succession period.   The office of the CEO has been handed down from the family patriarch, who had held the position for more than twenty-five years and had reached the company’s mandatory retirement age, to his eldest son who was a division president and is currently in his mid-forties.   In addition to the office of the CEO, seven out of the nine current executives are set to retire in the next twelve months.   The company is undergoing a major leadership transition in a time of great economic uncertainty, particularly for an American based...

 

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The Role Of Employee Preferences And Organizational Culture In Explaining

E-Commerce Orientations

The article aims to address the disparity in attitude to e-commerce orientation among individuals, and how the implementation and use of communication technologies are closely related and interlinked with internal socio – cultural elements of an organization, including their way of thinking, their philosophy and the culture of their organization.

More and more businesses today use various forms of e-communication as well as e-commerce to facilitate growth and expansion of their business. New technology facilitates newer (sometimes easier) communication methods for both, communication within the organization as well as for communication with other businesses.

Organizational Culture Inventory

The behaviors associated with the primary style are employees following policy to the letter. As an employee, “I am T-Mobile” and I live the values of the company. It has a system of supervision and subordination and they have training for new policies and procedures. The weakest style is the self-actualization style. The company doesn’t allow for individual creativity. The main function of employees is to follow company policies. Goals are not discussed after created and there is not much encouragement to complete personal goals. Quality is a part of the process to make the company a top

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performer. Top of Form Quantity is a major part of the process overriding quality.

  Creating And Maintaining A Healthy Organizational Culture

There are many different definitions of Organizational culture. Most of them suggest basically the same principle, that the oganization's culture is the shared values, beliefs and assumptions of how the members should behave. The purpose and function of the culture is to understand how organizations function and gives meaning to the organizations way of doing things. It helps to foster internal integration, bring staff members from all levels of the organization much closer together, and enhances their performance. Much as personality shapes an individual, organizational culture shapes its members responses and defines what the organization can and is willing to do. The goal of the organization should not only emphasize on being profitable but also to ensure that its members are working in a healthy organizational culture.

Roles and responsibilities Management is responsible for setting the expectations of how members should behave in a given situation. They should be followers as well as leaders.  "Effective followers are distinguished from ineffective ones by their enthusiasm and commitment to the organization and to a person or purpose an idea, a product other than themselves or their own interests. They master skills that are useful to their organizations, and they hold to performance standards that are higher than required. Effective followers may not get the glory, but they know their contributions to the organization are valuable. And as they make those contributions, they study leaders in preparation for their own leadership roles."

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FUTURE PROSPECTS OF

ICICI BANKFuture holds many

opportunities for ICICI Banks as it continues

its ceaseless efforts for innovation, not merely leveraging on

opportunity but creating them &being a driver of change & development, ICICI

Bank will be guided by the principles of customer & shareholder’s value. I believe

that clear focus on customer’s satisfaction and stakeholder’s priorities backed by

sound corporate governance will enable ICICI Bank to achieve ethical and

sustainable value creation.

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Organizational development is essential for every organization. Organizational change is a ongoing process and must be embedded in the organization and its interactive sub-system. The challenge today is to create a friendly organizational responsive to discontinuous and unpredictable changes in the environment. Organization Development is a planned change strategy that aims at improving the internal capability of an organization to continuously seek to align the individual organization and environment. Organization research has strong roots in action research in which organization members identify, diagnose, choose appropriate intervention and evaluate the outcomes and consequence. The target of change is the total system or identifiable sub-system. Involvement and support of top management is considered critical to effective implementation of the organizational interventions. Organizational development has a strong value orientation with belief in humanism, democratization, employee participation and multi dimension approach to individual and organizational effectiveness

ICICI Bank under the leadership of Mr. K.V. Kamath brought some dynamic changes in their organization from man management to bringing new innovation to  their organization, which helps ICICI Bank to serve its customer in a better way and thus helps in expanding its business. Organizational development has taken place in ICICI Bank in a rapid pace which gave the bank an extra edge over any other private bank and soon it becomes the India’s largest private banks

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BOOKS REFFERED: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR (STEPHEN P.ROBBINS)

WEBSITES: www.icici .com

www.organisation behaviour.com

Thank you …………the end