The seniormost member of the Kotak Mahindra bank’s management team, next to MD & CEO Uday Kotak is Dipak Gupta, who is currently the Joint Managing Director. 60-year-old Gupta, who comes with over three decades of experience, played a key role in the group’s foray into banking.
There are two whole-time directors –Shanti Ekambaram and K.V.S. Manian.
Manian is a frontrunner to replace Kotak as MD & CEO. He is currently focused on building the corporate franchise. He was previously President – Consumer Banking, where he played a key role in branch and ATM expansion. Manian was a key professional when Kotak’s NBFC transitioned into a bank.
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The bank has taken the first step of appointing a new MD & CEO, as Kotak will transition into the position of a non-executive, non-independent director of the bank after the end of his tenure this year. In an interview after the bank’s June quarter earnings, joint managing director Gupta said that family members are not natural successors at banks, and Uday’s son Jay will follow the normal career path.
“Replacing the leader due to legal compulsions also has a risk element for the business. The newly appointed leader may take longer to sync with the pulse of the business. Such risks can be mitigated if the former leader stays around for guidance,” said Sumit Sabharwal, CEO of TeamLease HRtech.
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The bank is already engaging with Egon Zehnder, a global search firm, to help it search the most suitable candidate. It is not known whether the firm would also suggest outsiders for the top job.
The biggest challenge for Kotak Bank will be to keep its flock together.
When Chanda Kocchar emerged as the successful candidate for the top job to replace K V Kamath at ICICI Bank, the country’s second largest private sector bank saw senior executives leave the bank and its subsidiaries. Shikha Sharma, who was in contention, left to join Axis Bank. Sonjoy Chatterjee left to join Goldman Sachs. ICICI Ventures Renuka Ramnath left to start her own venture in the private equity space. She has actually built a new business from scratch. V Vaidyanathan, though he continued for some time after Kochhar’s elevation, left to become an entrepreneur. He is now scaling up IDFC First Bank as its MD & CEO.
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At HDFC Bank, Paresh Sukthankar, the man who was seen as a natural successor to Aditya Puri abruptly resigned in August 2018. Sukthankar was already the Deputy MD of the bank when the succession process was started. Sashidhar Jagdishan, an insider, finally emerged as the most suitable candidate for the top job.
At IndusInd Bank, Suman Kathpalia, who was heading consumer banking, was the consensus candidate to take over from Romesh Sobti, who turned around the bank’s fortunes.
