As I think about writing this piece, my mind immediately began to race among everything I could share from what I have learnt in past 2 months. I interned with ICICI bank in RSPPG group which is the Retail strategy group. As the peak summer of 2018 started, I landed in a place that has hypnotised every soul that has had a taste of it, Mumbai!! Upon arriving at magnificent ICICI's headquarter in BKC (Bandra-Kurla Complex), I was filled with mixed emotions, both of anxiety and excitement. The one-day induction showed us how ICICI bank began its journey, its DYNAMIC values and how they are putting efforts to revolutionise banking for people. There were multiple sessions taken by the industry heads and at the end, we had a grand dinner party along a poolside in the headquarter itself. This was a networking session, a great opportunity to meet many industry stalwarts and get to know their expectations of how we can contribute to an institution like ICICI.
Not only this, but this was the time we got to meet many of our alumni and got to know more about ICICI. As there were interns from various premiere b-schools, we started knowing each other and some became very good friends in the end.
Next day was the first day of work. I met my project guide. I came to know about the group I am assigned that is DSMG (Debt Service Management Group). This objective of this group is to ensure minimum delinquency and to make effective strategies for collections from delinquent customers. The Project I worked upon is about improving the efficiency and effectiveness of channels which are presently used to recover the loans. In b-schools, we get enough exposure to sales dynamics and strategies. This was the first time, I got an exposure to collection industry and how collections happen in a bank. The project involved a market research on the various channels like call centres, Agencies, Outsourced partners, In-house employees to find out the operational issues and the bottlenecks. My initial weeks were spent in understanding how these channels operate, the dynamics of secured loans vs unsecured loans for collections. I took inputs from debt managers from different product groups, the service department, audit and compliance department to have a holistic approach and with these inputs, I prepared my questionnaire for each channel. The following weeks were spent in the scorching heat of Mumbai, travelling in the local trains to various collection agencies of ICICI bank and the call centre to take in-depth personal interviews of the agencies owners, field agents, tele callers and call centre team leaders. It was a challenging task to extract the right information from them. After all the data was collected, I analysed the challenges and opportunities present in each channel.
At the end of April, we had a mid-review meeting with my guide and DSMG head. Though there were regular reviews happening from my guide, one good thing about the mid-review meeting was that I got to know the perspective of the Head of DSMG itself regarding my approach and the challenges and opportunities I had found out in the operations. I also got the chance to see some of the other intern's presentations who worked with the DSMG group.
I realised any good idea is valued here. In mid-review meeting itself, they took one of my recommendations seriously and implemented the idea.
We also got the chance to meet the business head of RSPPG, Mr Ravi Narayanan to know his perspective on our projects.
The work environment and culture is very open and friendly one. I could easily reach out to anyone for my queries and doubts. The culture is free yet with a lot of professionalism.
The kind of supervision I got was very much helpful. My guide sometimes took my queries on priority amongst his busy schedule and try to revert on my queries as soon as possible.
I personally think you need to be open-minded and learn whatever comes your way. I think if there are any pre-conceived notions regarding the type of work and work culture and if there is any deviation, people usually get demotivated to work. One thing I experienced that some of the values ICICI gives importance to during this internship are Punctuality, Pro-activeness, Passion and Persistence. There is an enormous amount of learning which I have got in these 2 months. It ended with a programme Ellipsis (. . .) where three dots represent this is not the end but a continuation.It comprised of a design thinking workshop and then a fun dinner party.
Internship at ICICI was very enjoyable yet with a great learning experience.
Pooja Dandapat
Class of 2019