From tandoori chicken to curd rice: The most pronounced change at the HDFC Bank corner room

Mumbai: Aditya Puri loves tandoori chicken and Scotch whiskey. Teetotaller Sashidhar Jagdishan is happy with thayir saadam (curd rice). That would be the most pronounced change at the HDFC Bank corner room since the gold standard in Indian lending began its journey more than a quarter century ago.Jagdishan, a trained chartered accountant and a connoisseur of Indian classical music, is a Mumbai middle-class boy who has reached the top of the country’s most valuable bank through hard work and an unwavering commitment to the organisation he joined in 1996.“We needed someone who is empathetic to people,” HDFC Bank chairperson Shyamala Gopinath told ET. “You need to know the country, market and the bank itself. Also, banking is a people business after all. You have to take care of all – staff, customers, regulator and not just shareholders.”Jagdishan, 55, would become the second chief executive of HDFC Bank, beginning his three-year term on October 27.The incoming candidate is the favourite of Puri and was groomed by him for the past three years directly, ensuring continuity as well.“The ethics, values and compliance are paramount,” Jagdishan told ET. “I have been taught never to disrespect competition.”But his is a personality that’s contrasting to the ways of his boss. While aggression and ruthlessness are associated with Puri, Jagdishan is an iceberg, but powerfully persuasive.“His strength as well as weakness has been that he has never been able to say no to his bosses,” says a friend. “Whenever some uncomfortable message had to be conveyed to the boss, it would be done through him.”He’s a workaholic. “When you come in early to the office and you spot Sashi’s car, you don’t know whether he has come in early or did not leave work at all the previous night,” says a former colleague. “He is a very reliable person – be it domain expertise or dependability.”As a chartered accountant, Jagdishan joined HDFC Bank as a finance manager from Deutsche Bank. Prior to that, he was with rating company Crisil and had a short stint at Glaxo Holdings in the UK. He moved on to become the chief financial officer and was the bank’s face with investors, selling the bank’s digital strategy that also earned him the title of ‘Change Agent’.As he worked with the rest of the team in building the bank, he remained a finance man without direct exposure to either running businesses or credit, which at one time became a major point of debate among board members during the CEO selection process.“You don’t need to be a pilot to run an airline company,” says a former banker. “If you are a CFO, you have a vantage view of many things. Just look at the HDFC way. Keki (Mistry) is a finance guy and Renu (Karnad) is the credit person.’’Jagdishan, who grew up in the Mumbai’s central suburb of Matunga, graduated in physics and completed his master’s in economics on money, banking and finance from the UK. The son of a Sanskrit scholar who still teaches the ancient language, Jagdishan is pious and conservative. His free time is spent listening to classical singers such as Maharajapuram Santhanam in Carnatic, and Bhimsen Joshi in Hindustani.Although a career banker, he has hardly imbibed the qualities usually associated with them such as golfing, socialising, or partying. He wears his middle-class upbringing on his sleeve. Instead of driving around the city looking for the best restaurants, Jagdishan cooks for the family during the weekends. 77362052

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