A bricks-clicks mix
January 29 to February 4, 2000
ICICI is using its three-pronged Internet foray to emerge as a dominant financial services provider, writes Vivek Law
Thirty days is all that ICICI CEO K V Kamath is giving his crack team to launch a product from the time the idea was conceived. The global thought-to-launch period is 90 days. Clearly, ICICI is an institution in a hurry.
In the past two months alone, various pieces of ICICI?s Internet-based strategy have been falling into place. As of now, each development ? whether it is the tie-up with Satyam Infoway for banking products, the web-based stock trading product or the payment gateway product ? is in isolation. But the next paradigm will be when all the forays converge.
And when that happens, ICICI may not be the same organisation it has been so far.
Thirty-five-year-old, Wharton-educated treasury whiz, Nachiket Mor, who was recently handed the mandate of spearheading ICICI?s e-commerce foray, proclaims, ?Think rupee, think India, think ICICI. This is where we want to be as a universal banking major. We want to be the dominant financial services provider in every sector and the leader in each sector. We see the Internet as nothing short of a revolution and we will use it as a definitive part of our overall strategy.?
Mor explains that the model ICICI is adopting will not solely depend on the net. ?We want to be available to the customer on every channel that he prefers to choose. Hence, we will provide seamless access. Just like a commuter does not even realise when he crosses over at Dadar from the central to the western track, our customer could pick up a transaction in one medium, modify it in another and conclude it in some other medium. This is why we say that our strategy is a combination of clicks and bricks,? explains Mor.................
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