From Private to Public….
Wondering what the title means… No I am not referring to dirty linen being washed in public by our various Page 3 personalities and other celebrities… Neither am I referring to the License Raj and pre-1991 days when certain priority sectors were taken over by the government from Private business houses (case in point Air India being taken over from Tata by the Government)…..
What I am referring to is a very simple observation which I made recently on my visit to Jamshedpur, which in turn prompted me to write this post. Before I come to what I saw, let’s go back 4 years. 2005 – Gurgaon… I was working at IBM Daksh and was a frequent visitor of the Sector 14 Market. You could also call this market an ATM Plaza because it has ATMs of HDFC, HSBC, Citibank, ICICI, SBI, SB of Hyderabad, IDBI, IndusInd, PNB, Axis Bank (Then UTI) and probably some others which I am unable to recall at this juncture. And the amazing thing was that they were all located next to each other and within an area of 1500 Sqm which also had a flurry of retail shops and of course, Parking…
I had a Citibank Card so I would use the Citi ATM, however, whenever I would be there, I would notice that there was always a long queue in front of the ICICI Bank which was understandable; aggressive bank, lots of clients, large presence etc etc. At times, if the Citi ATM wasn’t working due to any reason, I would also go to the ICICI ATM even though it was the farthest from the Citi ATM. Why?? Because of one simple reason – Herd Mentality. And moreover the ATM next to Citi was HSBC… (My God… MNC Bank… 1 ATM in every 100 Sq Km…. If something goes wrong whom will I speak to….) These were the thoughts that would cross my mind… little knowing that I would be a loyal and satisfied HSBC customer 4 years down the line.
So coming back to the crowd at ICICI… I once went upto a few people and asked them if they were all ICICI account holders and to my consternation, I discovered that around 25% weren’t. However, due to some reason since they were unable to use their bank’s ATm, they were there. So people were ready to wait in the line here rather than visit any other ATM. One reason could have been the confidence that if anything went wrong in the ATM, the branch was just next door and the problem could be resolved immediately. However, SB of Hyderabad also had a branch along with their ATM. Anyway all said and done, people were flocking to withdraw money to ICICI.
Now coming to my observation in Jamshedpur recently. Near my place there are two ATMs located next to each other. An SBI ATM and an ICICI ATM. Guess where the line is?? Yes, not ICICI but SBI. And not once, but at least 10 – 12 times in the past 6 days. Amazing but true… In just 4 years there seems to have been a sea change in the mindset of most people…. And come to think of it… we are witnessing this change in many places. MBAs who were more than eager to grab that 8 figure salary or high 7 figure salary from an MNC I-bank are today settling for a 6 figure salary with SBI. Personally, in the past 7 years of flying to various places, I took an Air India flight for the simple reason that it was the cheapest and I knew that I would definitely reach in time. And I was right, I reached before time in fact… Sounds amazing isn’t it?? But its true. And there are many more such examples….
My previous post was unique as it was my first one which was typed on the Blackberry and this one is unique in itself as it has been typed at a height of 28,000 feet…. However… am flying Indigo this time around.
Till then.
What I am referring to is a very simple observation which I made recently on my visit to Jamshedpur, which in turn prompted me to write this post. Before I come to what I saw, let’s go back 4 years. 2005 – Gurgaon… I was working at IBM Daksh and was a frequent visitor of the Sector 14 Market. You could also call this market an ATM Plaza because it has ATMs of HDFC, HSBC, Citibank, ICICI, SBI, SB of Hyderabad, IDBI, IndusInd, PNB, Axis Bank (Then UTI) and probably some others which I am unable to recall at this juncture. And the amazing thing was that they were all located next to each other and within an area of 1500 Sqm which also had a flurry of retail shops and of course, Parking…
I had a Citibank Card so I would use the Citi ATM, however, whenever I would be there, I would notice that there was always a long queue in front of the ICICI Bank which was understandable; aggressive bank, lots of clients, large presence etc etc. At times, if the Citi ATM wasn’t working due to any reason, I would also go to the ICICI ATM even though it was the farthest from the Citi ATM. Why?? Because of one simple reason – Herd Mentality. And moreover the ATM next to Citi was HSBC… (My God… MNC Bank… 1 ATM in every 100 Sq Km…. If something goes wrong whom will I speak to….) These were the thoughts that would cross my mind… little knowing that I would be a loyal and satisfied HSBC customer 4 years down the line.
So coming back to the crowd at ICICI… I once went upto a few people and asked them if they were all ICICI account holders and to my consternation, I discovered that around 25% weren’t. However, due to some reason since they were unable to use their bank’s ATm, they were there. So people were ready to wait in the line here rather than visit any other ATM. One reason could have been the confidence that if anything went wrong in the ATM, the branch was just next door and the problem could be resolved immediately. However, SB of Hyderabad also had a branch along with their ATM. Anyway all said and done, people were flocking to withdraw money to ICICI.
Now coming to my observation in Jamshedpur recently. Near my place there are two ATMs located next to each other. An SBI ATM and an ICICI ATM. Guess where the line is?? Yes, not ICICI but SBI. And not once, but at least 10 – 12 times in the past 6 days. Amazing but true… In just 4 years there seems to have been a sea change in the mindset of most people…. And come to think of it… we are witnessing this change in many places. MBAs who were more than eager to grab that 8 figure salary or high 7 figure salary from an MNC I-bank are today settling for a 6 figure salary with SBI. Personally, in the past 7 years of flying to various places, I took an Air India flight for the simple reason that it was the cheapest and I knew that I would definitely reach in time. And I was right, I reached before time in fact… Sounds amazing isn’t it?? But its true. And there are many more such examples….
My previous post was unique as it was my first one which was typed on the Blackberry and this one is unique in itself as it has been typed at a height of 28,000 feet…. However… am flying Indigo this time around.
Till then.
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