N Sundaresha Subramanian

Mumbai: In the fledgling MF industry, where five years’ experience makes you a ‘senior’ and two or three more a veteran, Syed Shahabuddin stands tall with a career spanning 36 years in the world of money.

Unlike people of his ilk who begin and end their careers at Nariman Point, the SBI MF chief ’s work life began in a remote corner of the country. That’s perhaps a reason Syed is at ease with everybody meets, from Uttarakhand’s first generation Punjabi immigrants to Vijayawada’s betel leaf farmers, to twenty-something PYTs that address him by first name in his seapeeping Cuffe Parade office.

Indeed, Syed is refreshingly different from the CEOs who are full of targets and margins.

“At this level, we have freedom to fix our goals,” is all he would say.

“Nobody has sent me here with a mandate,” says the deputy managing director of State Bank of India (SBI), who is on deputation as MD & CEO of SBI MF.

Mandates are something he did not take even from his dad. He was preparing to become an Indian Forest Service officer when he got a call to join as a probationary officer in SBI and joined, much against his father’s wishes. His first posting was in the Kanpur circle.

A journey from Bangalore to Kanpur took 3 days and 3 trains back in 1971.

“First few days were difficult. We south Indians, if we don’t get idli-sambar for three days in a row, we go bonkers. Guess what happens when you are posted in a place where you have to do with rotis and chapattis year on year,” he recalls.

But, there was at least one important take away — the confidence.

“You have survived in rural UP, you can go anywhere. You get that kind of confidence,” he says.

In those days, an SBI officer formed the crème-de la crème of the work force. “We used to draw a princely sum of Rs 975 per month, when an IAS officer would get Rs 950. When we go to other banks on deputation, we used to go a level higher,” he smiles.

A lot of that charm waned after the Pillai Committee report in the 80s. “One learned to expect the unexpected and live with it. Take technology for example, SBI is the last people you would identify it with. But today, the bank employs the best technology. And cost of application of this technology is the lowest.”

For a man who says “science is not in my genes,” referring to all his three sons who are into finance, Syed is surprisingly tech-savvy. Technology and people are my two passions, Syed says.

As CGM-IT at SBI, he was instrumental in devising a long-term IT policy for the bank. He was the brain behind the implementation of a centralised architecture for the bank’s core banking solutions platform.

But it’s the people who make technology work, he adds.

“We want to make SBI MF the best fund house to work with. People would presume it’s a public sector MF and stuff.We are trying to change that perception. We are benchmarking our salary with the industry,” he says.

Syed is building adequate bench strength, too. Recently, SBI MF recruited 24 graduates from various Bschools across the country. “We are not going to the IIMs. They are not affordable.We go to the smaller ones.

We try to give these people the exposure and an opportunity to learn.”

“There is a shortage of people everywhere. In Pillibhit, in Uttarakhand, where I was posted 30 years ago, the old Punjabi farmer today complains it is difficult to find labour for harvest. But, somehow they find and work gets done. It’s the same here.We will eventually find people.”

“From the investor’s point of view, we would like to be known for the best customer service, and carry the wealth of financial markets to the remotest corner of the country. That’s our mission,” he says.

A little muscle-flexing, leveraging of your parent’s branch network, should do the trick, we suggest. “No need for any muscle-flexing.

We already are the most retail-retail fund house. My transaction costs are the highest. If the leading fund houses get their million from 5 accounts, mine comes from a thousand different accounts,” he says, adding, “Over Rs 20,000 crore of my total assets (over Rs 27,000 crore) comes from equity funds. If you look at the industry profile, only 20% is from equity. Equity is where MFs are needed. That is where we are, that’s where we will remain.”

“The Sensex will touch 40,000 in 5 years,” he forecasts, “A 20% growth is par for the course.”

But, isn’t the market running too fast? “Looking at the fundamentals, it may seem so,” but the fundamentals do not show a parallel economy in the works here, he argues.

“Take the golden quadrilateral project. In Vijayawada, the betel leaves used to rot for want of proper transport. But now, with the highway in place, the farmers are making decent profits. The highways have brought other benefits. Some shops, eateries and clinics have mushroomed all along the highway to cater to the labourers. The highway work is over. But these entities will remain and grow. This is real growth and is happening across the country.”

“And look at the way people are spending. Take a stroll down the Marine drive and you will find some shaadi happening every other day. I’m told some spend up to Rs 75 lakh a night. And then there is real estate… I recently read an article about what Rs 1 crore can buy you in Mumbai. They said, between Churchgate and Andheri, nothing. It’s this story, which no number can tell you, that people are buying into.”

Source : DNA