She is one of those rare women executives, who have thrived in a man’s world. And she has helped HDFC perform better.
Last week, as Renu Sud Karnad, Executive Director, HDFC,
winged her way to yet another visit to the US, she had already taken a decision that thrilled the hearts of individuals who had taken retail loans from the corporation. Despite the fact that the Reserve Bank of India refused to lower the prime lending interest rates, Karnad had announced that HDFC would lower its home loan rates. Her’s was one of the first financial institutions to do so in recent times, when home loan rates had zoomed and lenders had been saddled with huge EMIs or increasing repayment periods.
In fact, Karnad, in her personal capacity, feels that interest rates have already peaked, and there are no macro reasons for another hike. But she was unwilling to say it on record. Instead, she said that RBI’s Governor has the unenviable task of balancing growth and inflationary pressures. “RBI Governor Y. V. Reddy is doing a great job, and has managed to achieve the objectives that any central bank would wish to. India is on a sustained growth path, and inflation seems to be under control,” she explains.
In the past year or so, Reddy has been worried about the unusual rise in asset prices across categories, he has felt that there is a bubble building up in sectors like real estate, and has tried his best to control the increase in prices without sacrificing on the growth front. For example, he has tightened the norms for real estate and home loans, thereby creating a sort of a slowdown at least in the small towns. But, at the same time, he doesn’t want investments to slow down considerably in the housing or real estate sector.
It is in this regard that Karnad’s move should be appreciated. If banks and institutions like HDFC can still lower interest rates, it will still spur demand despite the tight monetary policies of the RBI. It will create a win-win situation that will help the retail consumers as well as the policy makers. It will also turn out to be a relief for individuals, who have been saddled with huge outgo as home loans rates have steadily climbed from less than 8% to over 11% in the past couple of years.
Last week, as Renu Sud Karnad, Executive Director, HDFC,
winged her way to yet another visit to the US, she had already taken a decision that thrilled the hearts of individuals who had taken retail loans from the corporation. Despite the fact that the Reserve Bank of India refused to lower the prime lending interest rates, Karnad had announced that HDFC would lower its home loan rates. Her’s was one of the first financial institutions to do so in recent times, when home loan rates had zoomed and lenders had been saddled with huge EMIs or increasing repayment periods.In fact, Karnad, in her personal capacity, feels that interest rates have already peaked, and there are no macro reasons for another hike. But she was unwilling to say it on record. Instead, she said that RBI’s Governor has the unenviable task of balancing growth and inflationary pressures. “RBI Governor Y. V. Reddy is doing a great job, and has managed to achieve the objectives that any central bank would wish to. India is on a sustained growth path, and inflation seems to be under control,” she explains.
In the past year or so, Reddy has been worried about the unusual rise in asset prices across categories, he has felt that there is a bubble building up in sectors like real estate, and has tried his best to control the increase in prices without sacrificing on the growth front. For example, he has tightened the norms for real estate and home loans, thereby creating a sort of a slowdown at least in the small towns. But, at the same time, he doesn’t want investments to slow down considerably in the housing or real estate sector.
It is in this regard that Karnad’s move should be appreciated. If banks and institutions like HDFC can still lower interest rates, it will still spur demand despite the tight monetary policies of the RBI. It will create a win-win situation that will help the retail consumers as well as the policy makers. It will also turn out to be a relief for individuals, who have been saddled with huge outgo as home loans rates have steadily climbed from less than 8% to over 11% in the past couple of years.
Over the past many years, such decisions have defined the achievements of Karnad, who has maintained HDFC’s Numero Uno position in the housing sector. But it has not been an easy climb to the top of the corporate ladder. Especially for a woman, who has fought it out in a hitherto man’s world of Indian financial and banking services. “I was just lucky. I joined HDFC at the right time. So, it was slightly easy for me to reach the top. May be, the women who have joined in recent times, or my daughter if she joins the corporate world in the near future, won’t find it so easy,” explains Karnad.
What she means is that when she joined HDFC nearly three decades ago, the state-owned entity was on a growth path. So, anyone who joined at that time inevitably grew with the company. It was like joining a startup. Since you were one of the first to join, you participated in the successes – right from getting employee stock options, whose value jumped after the initial public offering, to grabbing a designation as you were one of the few who understood the philosophy and the strategy of the company.
eling in the corporate circles that women are better workers than their male counterparts. A senior woman executive contends that women tend to work harder as they have to prove that they can be as good, if not better, than men. So, HDFC sources explain how Karnad spent more hours in the office. In her early days, there were no fax machines, laptops and Blackberry mobiles, so one had no option but to be in office to receive communication on the telex machine.
In the same vein, women are known to be great multi-taskers. Unlike most men, who think and act sequentially, who complete one task at a time, women can tackle 4-5 issues at the same time. One of the reasons may be that women do it all the time at home – look after kids, listen to their in-laws, interact with their husbands – all at the same time. Therefore, they are adept at solving 4-5 problems at the same time. In financial services, where everything has become globalised, and where problems crop up at regular intervals, the art of multi-tasking turns out to be an advantage for women executives.
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
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