4

Received
guidance by:
Prof. Jalpa

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Royal College of Arts, Science and Commerce
PROJECT ON : ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE & CLIMATE
F.Y.BANKING & INSURANCE
SEMESTER - 3
(2009-10)

SNEHA
RANJAN
21

AZIM SNEHA
SAMNANI GROUP DUTTA
37
MEMBERS. 3

NAZNEEN
SHAIKH
15

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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 46
And Organizational Culture In
Explaining E-Commerce
Orientations
10 FUTURE PROSPECTS OF ICICI BANK 50
11 CONCLUSION 51
12 BIBLIOGRAPHY 52

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Introduction
Culture 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 STRUCTURE
We 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
EXCELLENCE
ICICI 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 Education
The 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 Centre
for 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 to
K. 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 on
Television”; and
• “Best Presented Accounts Award” in the category of banks
and financial institutions
from 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

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market turbulence or expansion into new markets. However,
the reason this time is totally different from the earlier ones.
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
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is the ICICI bank. One observer puts the constant increase in
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

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structured project finance accounts for 23 percent. Slowly it is
also 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
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engages in mutual funds. The urge for growth seems to be
never ending for him 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
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whether there are any private benefits arising for a select
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.

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

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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
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
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Laboratories, Cognizant Technologies, Suzlon Wind Energy,
Semco Electric, Mahindra & Mahindra, etc.
They use experiential methodology, simulations & other
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

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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
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.

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

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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.

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

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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,
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
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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
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.

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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
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.

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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
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
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time calculators; information on the various business groups
and group companies, complete employee information; and,
interactive sections such as discussion forums, query boards,
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,
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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
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.

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Compliance, quality and customer service

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

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and compliance matters. It is used by designated senior
managers who have a duty to inform employees on guidelines
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

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with such great difficulty. They concluded it was because
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,
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initiating a discussion and even just rating discussions. A
separate section on the intranet is dedicated to the
‘knowledge 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

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free of catchy, gimmicky names in favour ofsimple,
explanatory terms that explained their purpose. For instance,
we eschewed 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

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invented here’ attitudes remain a barrier. Knowledge sharing
is not tightly linked to staff appraisal and neither are
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

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second-generation KM, knowledge flows becomes more
important than the knowledge itself. The third generation of
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.

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

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;

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 Maintain the intrinsic organic nature and growth versus
design and diktat;
 Don’t kill any idea – however small;
 Tap the collective energy;
 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

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footwear details 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

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"cheap" perfumes and make sure that you do not offend
people 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

4
individuals of varying tenure and gender employed by a
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

4
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."

4
FUTURE
PROSPECTS OF
ICICI BANK
Future 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