INDIA

ASIA

CEO Insight: Q

What are your most current company?

To be able to start-up and successfully launch Grameen Capital India itself was both humbling as well as a moment of great pride for me. As you know, Grameen Capital is a first-of-its-kind financial advisory firm with a mandate to catalyze inclusive growth and facilitate capital market access for impact-focused enterprises across sectors. Today we are looking at building upon our advisory work, wherein we have helped syndicate over $150million for enterprises serving the poor and excluded populations, to create a much broader platform, what we like to call the “capital-with- a-conscience” ecosystem, which will include in addition to the advisory business, a debt vehicle and subsequently a social venture capital fund.

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How did you do that?

By God’s grace. And a strong brand, great pedigree shareholders and a passionate and committed team.

What education or prior experience helped you succeed at your current

company?

In jest I have often said that while people’s career take them up the corporate ladder, mine took me down… to the bottom of the pyramid… from working in corporate and investment banking, consumer banking, mid- market banking (all these in Citi), to setting up SME banking to micro-finance (both these with HSBC) to now even smaller enterprises serving the base of the pyramid.

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What lessons did you learn on your way to becoming a CEO?

Engage everyone. Be yourself, be human. Do it with joy.

What lessons have you learned as a CEO?

Stay simple. Stay focussed. Collaborate. Communicate.

important professional achievements at your

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What are the key success factors for a CEO?

Ability to Read (the signs of the times), Ability to Seed (innovation, talent, passion, new lines of buiness), Ability to Lead

What are the key challenges for a CEO?

As with any human being, ego. Getting time to clear one’s mind, to recharge.

How did you overcome those challenges?

I spend a large part of my weekend with family (my lovely wife and 2 amazing kids) and in church/community service.

How do you manage organizational politics, and conflicting personalities,

interests, and views? Be open. Be honest. Be respectful.

How do you balance and manage various stakeholders’ interests?

This is an interesting question especially in the context of Grameen Capital. We have both Grameen (well known for it social approach) and Capital in our company name. So we constantly have to ensure the moral compass that we believe in for double-bottom line businesses. Tracking social and commercial measurements of performance with equal rigour. It is possible to do good and to do well at the same time.

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How do you describe your leadership style?

Visionary, energising, enthusiastic (which I love to point out comes from the Greek en+theos meaning to be inspired/possessed by God), passionate, compassionate, inclusive. The ability to be strategic as well as execution focussed.

How do you see the future of your industry?

There is tremendous need at the base of the

economic pyramid. But it is hard work. For those chasing the treasure there, expecting for a quick fortune, it is like killing the goose laying the golden egg. One needs to nurture and support the fragile economy at the base of the pyra- mid. What we at Grameen Capital are trying to build

through Q our

“capital-with-a-conscience” ecosystem is just that.

Can you share with us a CEO humour?

That’s a strange question. Someone sent me an email which comes to mind.

A young executive was leaving the office late one evening when he found the CEO standing in front of a shredder with a piece of paper in his hand.

"Listen," said the CEO, "this is a very sensitive and important document here, and my secretary has left for the day. Can you make this thing work?"

"Certainly," said the young executive. He turned the machine on, inserted the paper, and pressed the start button.

"Excellent, excellent!" said the CEO as his paper disappeared inside the machine. "I just need one copy."

Contact:

Royston Braganza CEO

Grameen Capital India Limited

#402, 36 Turner Road, Bandra (W), Mumbai 400 050

T: +91 22 66752993, 98210 69693 E: royston.braganza@grameencapital.in

Finance Monthly CeO AwArdS 2013 61