Who we are and what we aspire to be
These values are the fundamental belief system of the company that help a group of people function together as a team and work towards a common goal.
Know your customers! - They are your North Star!
Why is it important?
Customer Focus is the essence of our existence -- “to be the most customer-centric bank”. This is at the heart of strategic success
At every meeting and in the midst of every decision we make, one important person is not present: our Customer. We have to vigorously advocate for them and earn their trust.Focusing only on competitors is limiting, and many companies do that. We can learn from our competition, but we live for our customers.
We can develop the most amazing technology, solve the most intractable problems, create the most cost-effective solutions, but if we aren’t meeting the needs of our customers, we might as well cease to exist. Many businesses lose sight of their customers as they mature. At every step, in every process and every decision we must continually ask ourselves, “How will this affect the consumers?” or “How will this better the life of our users?” or “What problem of the customers are we solving?”
You represent this value when:
- Empathise - You empathize with our customers and work hard to continually delight and empower them. You concentrate on creating the right experiences
- Don’t fall in love with your idea - Don’t create biases based on your assumptions instead “Test and Learn”. You listen to and believe that all customer feedback is important and is an opportunity to build a stronger company. No feedback should be discounted and should be communicated as fast as it can be to the right teams to action them out
- Building efficiency - Build for the love of customers and not build every requested feature. Prioritization and efficiency is important. We keep in mind the long term viability of the product
Reimagine - Be the Game changers!
Why is it important?
The future of financial services demands a new future for banking experience. We need to think long term; short term results may not get us customers for the long haul. Imagine how things would be in future and not be afraid to re-conceptualize to get a newer perspective.
We do not hold to things because “that’s how we’ve always done it” and we stop to ask “why”. We need to question the status quo if it is beneficial for the overall company’s long term vision and is in-line to ever changing customer expectations. If required, we need to unlearn a few things from the past and reimagine the future.
You represent this value when:
- Observe, Ask and Analyze - Your goal is to understand the operational blueprint and analyze how you can make it better. If there is anything you can do to improve things, have the courage to suggest. You respect different perspectives and work cooperatively
- Imagine, Innovate, Simplify - You embrace constant change and challenge the status quo if it is making business sense - being proactive and visionary for our customers. Your aim is to reduce unnecessary steps and make it easier to get things done
- Flexibility to adapt - Be ready to try one thing, and if it doesn’t work, quickly adapt. It may not eliminate risk completely but minimizes it. We are not afraid of experiments but we need to bounce back quickly if it is not working out
Disagree but commit - We sail together!
Why is it important?
We are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when we disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. We all find ourselves in situations where we don’t fully agree with a proposed plan. In these cases, we should think like an owner (of the company/ product) and argue (ideally with data and strong anecdotes) - no matter how big or small is the decision. If we are unable to affect the decision, the next step is to meet with other stakeholders. We need to ask questions so we truly understand the problem and be open to the possibility that we may not have all of the information that went into the decision (e.g. highly confidential info). We must listen to the other stakeholders’ points of view and share ours openly and respectfully.
After considering the data and other points of view, if we still have concerns, we can escalate. Deciding whether to escalate or not should be what I call a ' highly considered decision’. Over escalating is a sure way to demonstrate we have poor judgement. We escalate only if we truly feel the decision is not in the best interests of the company. We use data, facts, and strong anecdotes to support our opinions before we escalate. Escalations are not effective unless they include alternate proposals; we must be solution-oriented.Once a decision is determined, you commit wholly. We use the right judgement and avoid statements like “I’m only doing this because I was told to”, “I did not agree with this and tried my best to convince folks otherwise”, or “management said” later.
You represent this value when:
- Respectfully Disagree with the idea and not get personal - You are committed to debate and talk about ideas freely. Conflict, tension and debate are healthy as long as people focus on attacking the ideas and issues, and not one another. You need to be respectful and open to accept.
- Authority Bias - You don’t give in to authority bias when you are debating - ranks off and humility on. Have the courage to speak your mind.
- Support with data - When you back your ideas with sufficient findings and data and not randomly propose them. Always think of alternatives/ solutions.
- Commit to the decision - When you accept things when you could not change them and support the decisions and leadership agenda we put forward. Dissension, secret agendas, politicking and complaining behind closed doors would only serve to undermine our ability to come together as a team and get things done.
Hustle - Make it happen!
Why is it important?
Hustling is an art and it is important to us. It doesn’t mean you have to be busy and hustle with some activity all day. It is really a sense of relentless focus to attain the agreed goal. Success is not measured by the no. of meetings you do in a day but by doing the right activities. We are relentless in understanding what it takes to achieve our goals. It is like sharpening the saw - you are continuously observing, improving and tuning in to make the magic happen. We recognize that we won’t always succeed but we learn from our mistakes. We continuously strive and have the drive to raise the bar.
You represent this value when:
- Relentless pursuit - You have to be curious and not wait for the apples to fall. There will always be roadblocks - which you can control or cannot control and half of the times you will have to change your path - focus on the process and not the outcome always. You talk to people- ask for help, if required and learn from your experiences.
- Be resilient - Ownership is important and so is resilience. Experiments may fail, approach may change. When things go wrong, you need to have the courage and determination to keep going. Try and try again till you succeed!
- Good Judgement while moving fast- You are expected to consistently move faster, try harder while exercising good judgement
- Over communicate - Working in isolation is the worst thing you can do. Talk internally, external community, keep your stakeholders informed so that there is no gap. These will help you become better over a period of time and build the right relationships.
Tools to use
How do we deliver and protect our values?
- Lead by Example - It is important that all of us use the same language when
we are making decisions. Keep in mind the following matrix when you are finalising any decision: - Customers > Company > Team > You - The loudest voice has to be of the end user. We are working to make things better for them Ego? Me first? - No! Stay humble!
- Induct new joiners - Get the new team members inducted faster in the ways of working. Leaders/ Buddies provide direction and then monitor and facilitate the growth of the team. New team members need to know what we value as a team quickly
- Deliver Results - Trusted stuff delivered (don’t break it with bugs in production)
- Being proactive - setting clear expectations and over communicate. We have several means of communication - whatsapp/ slack/ confluence. Don’t be hesitant to use one or multiple sources of communication to keep your stakeholders on the same page
- Be curious - Keep hunting for out of the box ideas - more optimized solutions
- Celebrate small wins - being passionate and having the fire to achieve stuff is important but appreciation is equally important. Reward value oriented behaviours
- Hiring the right talent is important - Keep these values at the heart of hiring. Incorporate these as part of the HR/ regular interviews.
- Letting go is equally crucial - You may be great but if our ideologies don’t match, we don’t fret over it!
- Incorporate the values into your performance review process. Once you've hired employees that align with your core values, and you've trained them on how they can live the values, you are ready to integrate the core values into the performance review process. The performance review process is where you inspect what you expect.