Mrs. Chanda Kochhar

On 26th September 2017, Mrs. Chanda Kochhar addressed the students of DAIS, the first Leadership Series talk in the new academic year (2017-2018). Mrs. Kochhar is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Bank Limited. She began her career with ICICI in 1984, and was instrumental in establishing the ICICI Bank during the 1990s. She is widely recognised for her role in shaping the retail banking sector in India, for her leadership of the ICICI Group, and for her contributions to various forums, both nationally and globally. Mrs. Kochhar has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade & Industry, and was the co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in 2011 as well. Mrs. Kochhar received the Padma Vibhushan in 2011, and received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Global Corporate Citizenship in 2017. She has been featured in ‘The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women’ list by Forbes International for seven consecutive years and has been featured in Fortune’s List of ‘The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women’ for 5 consecutive years. She is a true pioneer in the field of banking who embodies a standard of excellence, and is a role model for us all, especially in a world striving for gender equality.

During her talk, Mrs. Kochhar spoke about her humble beginnings in Jaipur, Rajasthan, where her simple yet progressive parents didn’t differentiate between their son and their daughters. She highlighted the impact of this education on her confidence, because despite the fact that “In 1984 no one was used to seeing a 20-something year old girl deciding whether a factory would be granted or denied a loan,” she would assert her confidence and hold her ground. The powerful message that she has gathered from her experience is this: Forget whether you are a girl or a boy; let your work speak for you. If it does, and if you talk sense, people will be willing to listen.

Mrs. Kochhar also emphasised the contrast between the simplicity of the time in which she was brought up, characterised by the limitation of choices available to her, with the way in which we are being brought— with the world at our feet. She mentioned how this lack of choices led to the trajectory of her career being rather different from what ours will be. She has faced and overcome many types of adversity at ICICI in her long career at the firm, most notably the financial crisis of 2008. To resolve the crisis, Mrs, Kochhar was transparent with her investors, which reassured them, restoring their confidence in the firm. Her take-home from overcoming that obstacle was to present a solid, united front to the public, and to be brave during difficult times.