Book Review     

Published: March 15, 2025
Updated: March 15, 2025

Bank veteran’s ode to customers

Seldom does one come across a publication having as many as three forewords and that too from great luminaries in the field, in this case banking – a former RBI Deputy Governor, V Leeladhar, and two leading PSU banks’ former CMDs, MV Nair and KR Kamath. What’s more, the author, Mohan Tanksale, has had the good fortune of working closely/shouldering responsibilities with them. With a high score in mathematics and a science degree as an educational background, he began his long banking innings with Union Bank of India as an officer in Gwalior in 1974, after a short clerical stint with Central Bank, gradually rising to become its General Manager, and later moving to Punjab National Bank as its Executive Director, and topping his career as CMD of Central Bank of India in 2011. This, incidentally, speaks volumes of his vast expertise in the field. After retiring in 2013, he also had a spell with IBA as its CEO and presently serves as Strategic Advisor to SWIFT India and is on the boards of a few fintech enterprises.

Before getting on to the review, a few words about the author and publication are worth mentioning. First, it is indeed a rare privilege and honour for one to start one’s working career in an institution and then return to the same body some decades later, this time as its CMD. This is precisely what happened to the author – he joined as a clerk in Central Bank of India in 1973 and came to head the same institution as its Chairman and Managing Director many years later. Sec ondly, the dozen chapters of the concise publication, save for a few, are very short, making easy reading even for the lay reader. Lastly, by adopting a conversational style in his narration and without using much of the usual banking technical jargon and figures/statistics, he has enabled readers to easily grasp his ideas.

The book, a record of his memoirs, is interspersed with several anecdotes and experiences, and has vividly captured the importance of customer satisfaction. Terming it ‘customer centricity’, the author has summed up banking as ‘being committed to solving customers’ problems’. With rapid strides made on the technology front in regard to all banking transactions, especially the introduction of core banking, he urges bank staff to first understand that the bank’s customer is not merely the customer of a particular branch alone but of all its branches in the country! This is because the latest banking technology enables him to carry out his entire banking requirements from any of its branches in the country and not from a particular branch only, as was the case hitherto with traditional banking.

‘THINK LIKE C.E.O.’

Again, the author is at his very best when he exhorts the branch manager to ‘think like a CEO’ and shed his narrow outlook of managing one section or department alone. He has to have a wider perspective of the branch and bank on the whole. According to him, the branch manager should know the town or place very well — like the palm of his hand. For instance, he should have at his fingertips the map of the place where the branch is situated, with its schools, colleges, industrial units, social and religious places, festivals, amusement parks, tourist points, etc. This would enable him to ensure that he does not miss out on any opportunity of expanding his business and thereby maximizing customer satisfaction by joining in their festivities.

Recalling his early days in Union Bank’s branches at Morva and Rewa (in Madhya Pradesh), the author points out how he tried to focus on ensuring customer satisfaction. He says, “I identified top customers from each category of business and industry in the area to understand what their business needs were”, and he made it a priority item to attend to. Having micro-level information of the place at the branch and regional level will surely result in exemplary customer service. And such pro-active efforts, he adds, usually do not go unnoticed by the seniors. Mr Tanksale was soon promoted as General Manager of Rewa Sidhi Grameen Bank, a Regional Rural Bank (RRB) spon sored by Union Bank of In dia. Some bankers, he points, are “scared to go that extra mile for a client, fear ing that their paperwork will increase.” He strongly feels that “paperwork exists for the customer; it can’t exist at the cost of the customer.” Hence, bankers have to al ways keep an open, solu tion-oriented mindset to seize such opportunities to enhance customer satisfac tion.

TECH IMPACT

In his memoirs, the au thor not merely chronicles his personal journey but also vividly captures the transformation of the bank ing industry from ‘class bank ing’ to ‘mass banking’, In this process, he delves deeply into the impact of technol ogy on the industry and its pivotal role in enabling in dividuals, who were previ ously out of the banking net, to avail of all banking ser vices. However, while bank ing technology has ad vanced very much, he is of the firm view that ‘technology cannot replace the personal visit of the customer to the branch’ and stresses this point. The chapter, ‘Hand of Tech nology’, addresses subjects like customer engagement in the digital age, and the strategic use of CSR events to en hance customer interaction. This, in turn, also underscores the importance of the customer within the banking ecosys tem, without whose support banking itself cannot exist.

In each chapter, the author has taken care to share with readers very pertinent and useful anecdotes from his career. Some of the valuable nuggets of learnings he has shared are: the importance of being humble, utmost commitment to one’s dreams/aspirations, building up strong teams, train ing co-workers to lead, turning challenges into opportuni ties, and a thorough understanding of self, business, cus tomers, and competitors. While in all these learnings the author has cited his experiences to reinforce his views, the last item, ‘knowing competitors’, is somewhat unique. As branch manager, he would ‘walk around the streets of the locality where the branch is situated to gain insights into the competition in the area’. To quote him, ‘I would check on the banners of banks or which bank was sponsoring the events and what schemes competitors were offering to their customers in a particu lar area.’ Without a doubt, such exercises would have helped him steal a march over his rivals in the field and en hance his bank’s business prospects. With such pro-ac tive steps, the author ensured that every customer had a good reason to continue with the bank and consider it his ‘preferred bank’ — which is what the banking business is all about.

A ‘MUST READ’

Before concluding, one cannot but quote from the fore word of K R Kamath, former CMD of Punjab National Bank: “This book is a testimony to the fact that ‘you dream, you believe, you act and you achieve’…As a totally positive person, he tells you how to look at challenges and convert them into opportunities.”

The author has truly lived up to this ideal. The small publication is, without a doubt, a compelling must-read for every banking student or aspirant as it contains a wealth of valuable information. Bankers aspiring to attain profession alism in the banking sector will also find this publication exceedingly helpful. Even business leaders can immensely benefit from the valuable insights about bankers’ thoughts. In sum, the book is a valuable addition to the bookshelf of every banker and businessman.