Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
Arundhati Bhattacharya the former CEO of SBI, the current chairperson of Salesforce, India, a banker turned author inspiring young people!
Arundhati Bhattacharya, the Mighty Thor, broke the glass ceiling when she became the first female chairperson of the State Bank of India (SBI) in 2013. She is the former CEO of SBI, the current CEO and chairperson of Salesforce, India, and the author of an insightful memoir, Indomitable.
With more than 40 years of experience in the financial sector, Bhattacharya strode and thrived in a male-dominated industry. With a degree in English Literature, Arundhati never in her wildest dreams thought of a career in the banking sector.
It isn’t surprising that Bhattacharya wanted to become a journalist, considering she graduated with a degree in English Literature.
Call it a stroke of luck, but Bhattacharya took up the entrance exam for SBI and cracked it. It was the universe’s way of indicating that Bhattacharya would bring changes and pave the way for women in the banking industry.
Bhattacharya joined the SBI in 1977 at the age of 22; she thought getting a job in SBI bank was a sheer chance.
Her SBI career was four decades long, and she worked in several departments, namely; retail, corporate, human resource, treasury, investment banking and new businesses.
Before retiring from SBI in 2017, Bhattacharya transformed SBI from a state-run bank to a customer-friendly bank. Her futuristic thinking led her to be one of the best employees and eventually a boss in the bank.
Indomitable: A Working Woman’s Notes On Life, Work and Leadership, is a memoir by Arundhati Bhattacharya released earlier this January.
Photo credits: Goodreads
Bhattacharya takes us through her journey from a newly independent India to New York and back home. She talks about her life in her hometown, Bhilai, on the outskirts of Kolkata, and how she dared to dream. She gives us a humane story of a working woman’s struggle to find a footing in a male-dominated society and industry while tightly clutching onto her daughter.
Arundhati’s book captures the life of a mother who had to balance her career in one arm and her daughter in another. Lastly, it is about a CEO who brought in a storm of changes to India’s oldest working bank, SBI.
In 2013, Bhattacharya finally became the first female chairperson of one of the oldest governmental bodies in India. Being the chairperson was just the start, as she had a vision of changing the face of the company.
An article by McKinsey and Company states how Arundhati introduced new appraisal systems. These involved budgets, targets, and digital initiatives like digital-only branches and mobile apps for customers.
Moreover, in 2016, Forbes ranked her 25th out of 100 most powerful women and 5th most powerful woman in finance.
In an interview with Business Today, Arundhati talks about what she did after she retired in 2017. She said:
‘Also, during that one year of gardening leave that we are required to take after you retire from the bank, I had been talking a lot to younger generations. And most of them asked me, “What’s our future going to be like?”
And I told them, “It’s not going to be the same as mine, you’ll have multiple careers, and you need to be able to unlearn, relearn, keep learning all the time.”’
Arundhati believes that one should never stop learning. Someone who continuously learns — even multiple things — is much wealthier because of their abundance of knowledge.
When Arundhati got the chance to join Salesforce as their chairperson and CEO, she thought — why not? It was Bhattacharya’s golden ticket to have multiple careers. In the interview with Business Today, she states:
“When I got the Salesforce opportunity, I told myself that I’ve been giving a lot of gyaan — a lot of advice. Here was a chance to do it myself, to have multiple careers.”
Moreover, Salesforce’s Chairman, Co-Founder and Co-CEO: Marc Benioff gave her a book, Trailblazer, which played a major role in her decision.
The book had two stories about Salesforce — one talked about paying municipal taxes to eradicate homelessness. The other talked about an audit Salesforce did to check that there was no gender pay gap in the company.
Arundhati Bhattacharya rode from the bottom to the top; she is one of the most influential people in India. Many young women in this country and other parts of the world want to establish a career in banking.
Her story is a lesson that someone with no prior knowledge can enter the banking industry, learn the trade and bring revolutionary changes. She is an example of what it takes to not give up and take the plunge.
You can read an excerpt.
If you’d like to pick up Indomitable by Arundhati Bhattacharya, use our affiliate links at Amazon India, and at Amazon US.
Women’s Web gets a small share of every purchase you make through these links, and every little helps us continue bringing you the reads you love!
Recommended read:
Image Source: Goodreads via Canva Pro
I am a journalism student with a penchant for writing about women and social issues. I am an intersectional feminist and an aspiring journalist. I identify as she/her. read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
Please enter your email address