Financial Engineering to Financial Inclusion
Ramesh Ramanathan Chairman, Janalakshmi Financial Services
So, that was a major motivation for us
and we decided to come back.
Fortunately for us, we had
achieved our financial and professional
goals, so this was in many ways the
right time for us to come back. That
translated into Janalakshmi, because
given my background in financial
services, it was the most logical place
to act as an enabler for people to
fulfill their destinies.
Q. Janalakshmi Financial Services
(JFS) offers a very unique employee
value proposition in comparison
to other financial services firms.
Being a part of the same financial
ecosystem, how have you been able
to create something so distinctive?
A. A part of it is driven by the kind
of institution that we are. The fact
is, there is something unique about
financial services, when it comes to
addressing the challenges of poverty
and inclusion. Financial services sector
is the most intimately connected
with the issue of poverty when
compared to any other sector. Also,
it is most uniquely suited to being
market-oriented. In interventions
like education or healthcare which
also play a huge role, it is hard to
create market-oriented institutions. In
financial services, and the credit for this
goes to Muhammad Yunus of Grameen
Bank and many other stalwarts in
India itself, who have shown that
one can create capable organizations
in this sector. When we set out to
build Janalakshmi, this concept of
micro finance already existed. We just
adapted it to suit the organization that
we wanted to build. While we wanted
to be a market-oriented organization,
we didn't want any personal money out
of this. So, there is a two-tier structure.
One is a for-profit operating entity and
the other is a not-for-profit Section 25
holding company which has the
promoter share.
It is an attempt to create an
organization which has a commercial
purpose and is driven by the power
of the market and all the positives of
it, which is scalability and innovation
and customer centricity, but at the
same time, has an inherent safeguard
against the danger of the market
which is greed.
This structure also allows us to
answer that question about greed.
For all the good we want to capture
from the market, we have protected
ourselves from this greed. Especially
as the founders, we need to lead from
the front on this. Authenticity is the
most important currency that we have
when we want to get people onboard
and align them. There is nothing more
authentic than to be open about your
own motivation. This practice has
allowed us to demonstrate, in a very
credible and transparent way, that our
only aspiration for the organization is
to be able to help millions of people
and there is no personal gain in it for
us. The fact that we don't have any
stake in the game in terms of personal
money has not diluted our passion.
This system and spirit helps us get the
right kind of people onboard and
helps us to stay motivated.
Q. In such a unique business model,
what is the value proposition that
you offer to your employees?
A. Over the years we have observed, that the typology of talent that comes
into our organization is a vast range.
At the senior level, we have people
like me, who have 20-30 years of
experience in the formal banking
system, and are motivated by the same
larger purposes and a sense of legacy,
wanting to be a part of something
larger than themselves. On the other end of the spectrum, there are people
who join JFS to be feet-on-street
executives. So over the years, we have
created different EVPs for different
employee segments. They resonate
differently for different employee levels.
For example, somebody who is joining
us as feet-on-street, is looking for
security and identity. The larger noble
mission is a nice-to-have, but not the
driving purpose. Then in the middle
tiers, are people who are looking for
growth, recognition and to make
organizational impact. So we have
unbundled the EVP into five different
buckets from security and identity at
one end to learning, personal growth
and recognition, organizational impact
and finally accomplishment and
legacy at the senior most level. You
can almost think of this like a radar,
where some of these things are more
important for people at some levels
and others are at the other end of
the organization.
Q. How do you use rewards/pay
effectively to drive the right
behaviors in the financial services
industry?
A. We believe talent is everywhere.
Just because one doesn't have a
degree doesn't mean he/she doesn't
have the talent. Our main focus is to
primarily test skills, so we don't look at
only certificates. We offer employees
tools to bootstrap themselves up
the organization. Two years ago, a
new initiative called 'Naukri, Degree,
Makaan' was introduced. Our offer to
employees was people join as 19-yearold
diploma holders. If they want to
develop themselves further, they are
offered a loan to get a college degree
in English. If the employees stay with
us for two years, the interest on the
loan is waived. If they stay for more
than two years, then the loan is waived
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