Free Devil in Pinstripes by Ravi Subramanian Page A

loans department and had to report to Gowri. A forty percent hike in salary demonstrated how low her salary in the previous organisation was.
    That night, Amit called up Aditya to thank him for his help in getting Chanda a job with NYB Financial Services.
    ‘What’s your plan?’ Aditya asked him.
    ‘Plan?’
    ‘About GE . . . are you planning to join them? I believe they have made you an offer.’
    ‘Aditya . . . I . . .’
    ‘Listen buddy. Don’t bullshit me. I know you have got an offer from GE. If you are going I need to know.’
    And without waiting for him to respond, he added, ‘Give me three to six months. You are important to me. Let me manage your career. I will take care of you.’
    ‘Aditya, it’s a business manager’s role.’ Finally, Amit accepted that he was in discussions with GE.
    ‘I will give you a business manager’s job in six to twelve months. Trust me. In this growth phase we need good people like you. And what’s twelve months in a lifetime?’
    Natasha was in the room when Aditya was talking to Amit. She just shook her head and walked out of the room. She knew that Aditya was conning one more guy.
    That night, Aditya had sealed two deals. He had managed to keep Amit from leaving NYB, thereby protected his own business numbers, and he had also bought Amit’s loyalty for life. The exit barriers for Amit had been raised.

2001/2002
NYB Financial Services,
Mumbai
    G owri was the undisputed king of NFS. Going from strength to strength in the company, he had become a power centre which even NYB couldn’t ignore.
    In fact, he had played his cards brilliantly. In 1999-2000 when NYB acquired the NBFC, there was a general feeling of insecurity in the company. They had just been acquired and people feared for their jobs, and their careers. Like all takeovers, this one too was accompanied by the fear that the bank would come in and make their jobs redundant, by bringing in their own people, who in turn would bring in their own teams.
    In such a volatile situation, Gowri was the most outspoken. He was the politician who emerged as the rallying point for the NBFC team. The only one in the NFS senior management who was quite vociferous in his dislike for the bank and for the people from the bank. These emotions came naturally to him because he was a part of the NBFC from the day it had been formed. Though it was rumoured that his dislike for the bank also stemmed from the fact that at some point in time, he had been interviewed by NYB but his application had been turned down. This was more than enough for him to be caustic towards NYB and NYBankers. Though he would never accept it, he secretly harnessed dreams of working in a multinational bank like NYB.
    Gowri’s influence ran deep. There were around eight hundred people working in over hundred branches of the NBFC, many of them handpicked by Gowri. All of them who were involved in the business of giving out loans to the lower strata of society, loosely referred to as the subprime loans, and owed their allegiance to Gowri.
    The business model of the NBFC was simple and straightforward. They had set up branches in residential areas, dominated by the lower middle class segments. Customers would be encouraged to just walk into the branch to avail loans. From cash loans and loans for buying consumer durables or two wheelers to mortgage loans for buying houses and cash loans against the collateral of property, the company offered every variety.
    Loan approving officers (also known as credit officers) would be seated in these branches. They would meet the customer, understand his needs and based on his affordability, approve or decline a loan. The entire branch was managed by a branch manager.
    In a branch, the buck stopped at the branch manager, who was responsible for sales, i.e. responsible for meeting branch targets for loan disbursals. He was accountable for approving loans and in case of a customer default, reaching out to the customer and