cfo Profile from XLRI, Jamshedpur. His first learning gave him an insight into the ways of people, blue collared versus white collared, and the ability to deliver as a team. His next job at the Bank of America made him, by now married, very happy, as it brought him back to his family in Kolkata. The year was 1983, when foreign banks brought with them an ethos of excellent work culture. Here, Mr Kakar got the opportunity to work abroad for two years and understand worldwide banking processes. “There were no computers then, and we had to do trial balance on a daily basis. This helped build a strong foundation and strengthened my basic skills in finance and accounting,” he recalls. He spent the next 18 years in this job, facing several challenges on the way. What kept his interest going was the chance to do something different every few years. In 1994, at the time of the Harshad Mehta scam, there was a major overhaul and he was parachuted treasury management under the scope of risk management. Cleaning up the mess the scam had generated, he learnt how to walk the tightrope. “This stint made me realise that short-term gains only lead to long-term pains. I also learnt not to take good times for granted; because when you run too fast, you will fall. Slow and steady is the way to sustainable performance,” he says. The next phase of his career had him shift base from Kolkata to Delhi. And this is where he discovered a new love — golf. Every morning, except for Tuesdays, he would leave home at 5.30 am to ‘play the field’. Later, at work, he had to again learn a new game — wholesale life insurance at Max New York Life. “Here I worked as if I owned the company. If you want to enjoy work, you need to be passionate about what you’re doing. But if you want to succeed, you have to take ownership. So I worked myself up from scratch, building a sincere team in place. I was like a money manager, ensuring that all our decisions stay responsible to the money of the investors. The policy holders had placed their life’s earnings and trust in us, and that is a huge responsibility,” he says. The gestation period in the insurance business is longer, but he and his team helped the company turn the corner sooner, so that when he left the company 10 years later as its CFO, it continued to do well as planned. “I believe one must work to leave behind a legacy, which 34
CFO india
December 2011
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IN HIS 25 YEAR CAREER SUNIL KAKAR HAS WORKED ACROSS SECTORS AND BUILT TEAMS FROM SCRATCH, PICKING UP VALUABLE LEARNINGS ALONG THE WAY
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can carry on much after the person has moved on. An institution or process is more important than an individual,” he adds. At Max, Mr Kakar learnt that being a coach of the game is more important than being a player. And that success of an organisation lies in its people. Therefore, he has always desired to build systems in which the people aim for a common goal. His mantra being that people plus processes always lead to profit in the financial services industry. Mr Kakar moved to IDFC as Group CFO in February 2011. “At 50, one is resistant to too many changes. So what I don’t understand, I don’t take a risk with. Because when