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HDFC Bank 2.0
FOREWORD BY NANDAN NILEKANI “Tamal combines his financial knowledge, eye for detail, and an excellent storytelling style to create a vivid portrait of India’s most valued bank and its path to the future.” NANDAN NILEKANI, Co-founder and Chairman of Infosys and Founding Chairman of UIDAI (Aadhaar) “Tamal has enthusiastically documented the epiphany that HDFC Bank’s leadership had in starting out on their digital journey. India is set for seismic changes to day-to-day banking over the next few years and banks who don’t commit to fully re-engineering their practice around becoming a technology company that delivers real-time, contextual banking experiences will wither on the vine. HDFC Bank has made a solid start on this journey, but the final chapter has not yet been written.” BRETT KING, Founder, Moven and bestselling author of Bank 4.0 The seeds of change were sown in September 2014, when HDFC Bank MD Aditya Puri went to Silicon Valley to meet the brightest tech minds in the world. By the time he got back, he knew exactly what needed to be done. It was time for a revolution. Instead of waiting to be disrupted by fintech companies, HDFC Bank went all out to disrupt itself, recasting its role and scope on a scale that has never been attempted before. In one of the biggest transformations ever undertaken in any business, HDFC Bank wants to become a platform facilitating a financial experience. Tamal Bandyopadhyay chronicles HDFC Bank’s own digital disruption exercise through the very people who drove it, narrating a story that’s as compelling as unique in India’s financial system. With his keen eye for detail, deep knowledge of banking and unparalleled storytelling ability, Bandyopadhyay recounts the journey of India’s most valued lender from a life cycle bank to a lifestyle bank.
452 pages, Paperback
Published July 18, 2019
140 people are currently reading
319 people want to read
About the author
Tamal Bandyopadhyay
18 books56 followersTamal Bandyopadhyay is an Indian business journalist, known for his weekly column on banking and finance Banker's Trust published in Mint, an Indian business daily brought out by HT Media Ltd. He has authored four books namely From Lehman to Demonetization: A Decade of Disruptions, Reforms and Misadventures Bandhan: The Making of a Bank, Sahara: The Untold Story and A Bank for the Buck.
He is popular for his weekly column on banking and finance called Banker's Trust which is published every Monday. His frequent blog Banker's Trust Real Time on livemint.com analyses major developments in the financial sector.
Between April and November 2011, he ran a 32 episode series on Bloomberg India TV, called Banker's Trust, where senior central bankers, commercial bankers, and economists were interviewed every week.
Releasing Tamal's first book, A Bank for the Buck, in November 2012, then finance minister P Chidambaram said, "In a period of great financial illiteracy, it's refreshing to have a book written by somebody very literate about matters relating to finance". In his foreword to the book, former governor of Reserve Bank of India, Y. Venugopal Reddy, wrote, "It's a sort of recent oral history of a financial institution. Tamal has set a new trend in the dissemination of knowledge."
Tamal's second book, Sahara: The Untold Story, details the beginnings and the current day working of the secretive Sahara India Parivar. Well researched, with umpteen interviews with people concerned including Subrata Roy, the book was also cause of a stay order later requested by the Sahara group. In December 2013, the Sahara India Pariwar, moved Calcutta High Court, got a stay on the publication of the book and filed a Rs 2 billion defamation suit against the author and its publisher, Jaico Publishing House.[8] In April 2014, both the parties reached an out of court settlement following which the book carries a disclaimer by Sahara which says, among other things, the book has "defamatory content" --something unprecedented in Indian publishing history, as narrated in Sue the Messenger by Subir Ghosh, with Paranjoy Guha Thakurta. [9]
He has also published a book of poems in Bengali Anupam Meenrashi in January 2014.
He is popular for his weekly column on banking and finance called Banker's Trust which is published every Monday. His frequent blog Banker's Trust Real Time on livemint.com analyses major developments in the financial sector.
Between April and November 2011, he ran a 32 episode series on Bloomberg India TV, called Banker's Trust, where senior central bankers, commercial bankers, and economists were interviewed every week.
Releasing Tamal's first book, A Bank for the Buck, in November 2012, then finance minister P Chidambaram said, "In a period of great financial illiteracy, it's refreshing to have a book written by somebody very literate about matters relating to finance". In his foreword to the book, former governor of Reserve Bank of India, Y. Venugopal Reddy, wrote, "It's a sort of recent oral history of a financial institution. Tamal has set a new trend in the dissemination of knowledge."
Tamal's second book, Sahara: The Untold Story, details the beginnings and the current day working of the secretive Sahara India Parivar. Well researched, with umpteen interviews with people concerned including Subrata Roy, the book was also cause of a stay order later requested by the Sahara group. In December 2013, the Sahara India Pariwar, moved Calcutta High Court, got a stay on the publication of the book and filed a Rs 2 billion defamation suit against the author and its publisher, Jaico Publishing House.[8] In April 2014, both the parties reached an out of court settlement following which the book carries a disclaimer by Sahara which says, among other things, the book has "defamatory content" --something unprecedented in Indian publishing history, as narrated in Sue the Messenger by Subir Ghosh, with Paranjoy Guha Thakurta. [9]
He has also published a book of poems in Bengali Anupam Meenrashi in January 2014.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
October 17, 2019
During one of my electives (corporate strategy) in NITIE Mumbai, we were taught by visiting faculty how technology usage (mind its usage, not availability) had changed two banking entities in the private sector. Faculty told us that government banks had computers way before ICICI & HDFC banks had. But they used IT only for record-keeping. The utilization of computers in Indian banking was done by these two giants which had brought government banks in the current state from their earlier "Jamai babu" attitude. I was fascinated by that fact. And ever since I wanted to read a proper case or book on such transition. And this book gave me that opportunity. So here I am discussing the book on the success story of HDFC 2.0.
I thought the book/story narration might have started from the age-old method driven banks. But it started with Aditya Puri's visit to silicon valley and what he had gauged from the visit. From there book switches between different timelines of bank covering how in the last 25 years Aditya & his team have leveraged technology & innovation to achieve new heights of success. In the Indian market, where people don't trust private banks, it was an extraordinary journey for the bank to give tough competition to public sector banks. If you have an educational & business mind, you will find many important lessons to implement them for your business.
Now coming to the writing style of the book
1) Language is easy
2) Flow is haphazard. A proper flow could have made the book more interesting
3) Every case is supported with proper reasoning & practical implementation by Puri & team
4) As the book is nonfiction you will find a certain percentage of writing covering people who helped Aditya achieve the dream bank
5) Covers not just IT implementations but marketing, finance, human resource, etc.
The book has an attractive cover & prompt title. If you are a management guy and/or savvy, you should read it.
Detailed review link - https://chevusread.blogspot.com/2019/...
I thought the book/story narration might have started from the age-old method driven banks. But it started with Aditya Puri's visit to silicon valley and what he had gauged from the visit. From there book switches between different timelines of bank covering how in the last 25 years Aditya & his team have leveraged technology & innovation to achieve new heights of success. In the Indian market, where people don't trust private banks, it was an extraordinary journey for the bank to give tough competition to public sector banks. If you have an educational & business mind, you will find many important lessons to implement them for your business.
Now coming to the writing style of the book
1) Language is easy
2) Flow is haphazard. A proper flow could have made the book more interesting
3) Every case is supported with proper reasoning & practical implementation by Puri & team
4) As the book is nonfiction you will find a certain percentage of writing covering people who helped Aditya achieve the dream bank
5) Covers not just IT implementations but marketing, finance, human resource, etc.
The book has an attractive cover & prompt title. If you are a management guy and/or savvy, you should read it.
Detailed review link - https://chevusread.blogspot.com/2019/...
April 12, 2021
Is it a book? Is it an Annual Report? No, its not Superman.
Maybe the book is called HDFC Bank 2.0 because it tries to be both a book and an annual report, and to it's credit, does a fair job of straddling both. The real question though is, Why should one read an annual report for leisure? There were parts of the book that were so inundated with numbers that I felt like I was reading a Data Interpretation set from an aptitude test.
The second thing that irkes me is the authors assumption that we know the Indian Banking industry and its stalwarts, the corresponding implications of fiscal policy and metrics and everything else that comes along.
There is too much data, too many stories and too much going on, for one to remember much from the book apart from knowing that HDFC Bank was a built by some very sharp Citibankers and Bank of America folks. And yes, the cult of Mr. Aditya Puri. The man clearly is something.
What I liked: As a history buff, I love genesis stories - this was no exception. Also liked the candid, laid-bare storytelling about the Top Team and their persona's clashing with each other.
What I didn't like: Assumptions made by the author (or maybe I was not the intended target audience for this book), slightly academic (read boring) style of writing that took me on a nostalgia trip to my Masters program (not the oooh yay but the oh yawn kinds)
Maybe the book is called HDFC Bank 2.0 because it tries to be both a book and an annual report, and to it's credit, does a fair job of straddling both. The real question though is, Why should one read an annual report for leisure? There were parts of the book that were so inundated with numbers that I felt like I was reading a Data Interpretation set from an aptitude test.
The second thing that irkes me is the authors assumption that we know the Indian Banking industry and its stalwarts, the corresponding implications of fiscal policy and metrics and everything else that comes along.
There is too much data, too many stories and too much going on, for one to remember much from the book apart from knowing that HDFC Bank was a built by some very sharp Citibankers and Bank of America folks. And yes, the cult of Mr. Aditya Puri. The man clearly is something.
What I liked: As a history buff, I love genesis stories - this was no exception. Also liked the candid, laid-bare storytelling about the Top Team and their persona's clashing with each other.
What I didn't like: Assumptions made by the author (or maybe I was not the intended target audience for this book), slightly academic (read boring) style of writing that took me on a nostalgia trip to my Masters program (not the oooh yay but the oh yawn kinds)
May 30, 2021
One of the best Business books I've read which takes the readers through painstaking detail about what it takes to set up and grow the largest private sector Bank in India! Key learnings from Aditya Puri's leadership style:
1. Empower your team and not micromanage
2. Work efficiently ( Aditya was renowned for working from 9 to 530)
3. Be decisive rather than constantly vacillating between multiple options; Inaction is the worst enemy
Tamal has done a fabulous job in explaining the finer nuances of the HDFC growth story without sounding too pedantic ! Lovely read !
1. Empower your team and not micromanage
2. Work efficiently ( Aditya was renowned for working from 9 to 530)
3. Be decisive rather than constantly vacillating between multiple options; Inaction is the worst enemy
Tamal has done a fabulous job in explaining the finer nuances of the HDFC growth story without sounding too pedantic ! Lovely read !
June 12, 2021
The book is no doubt good for someone who wants to know what was the evolution process behind the behemoth in banking that HDFC bank is. It goes into details about how it all started, how the culture was created, the team was set, the building blocks while talking about what got the bank from being a proposed entity to a path breaker. It talks about how to build a business right and the joy of living a dream. The writing is not very analytical which is fun and the writer (Respected) has done a good job explaining things about banking that might not really be generic. However, there are some flaws:
1) There are two many people stories. I love it but then somewhere you are so engrossed with the names that you want to really look up for them and that took the fun for a good amount of the book.
2) BUT the title didn’t really say that was the focus, the book doesn’t really talk about what next ?
3) Lastly, The book is HDFC 2.0 and frankly i thought it would talk a bit more about how the bank looks at the next avenues of delivering power packed punches on the digital tech front.
1) There are two many people stories. I love it but then somewhere you are so engrossed with the names that you want to really look up for them and that took the fun for a good amount of the book.
2) BUT the title didn’t really say that was the focus, the book doesn’t really talk about what next ?
3) Lastly, The book is HDFC 2.0 and frankly i thought it would talk a bit more about how the bank looks at the next avenues of delivering power packed punches on the digital tech front.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 15, 2021
perfectly defined book. Tamal sir, being a journalist has factually defined the success story of HDFC bank and the role of Aditya Puri in it. It also contains character sketch of Aditya puri. Anyone who want to become a banker should take inspiration from Aditya puri's mindset and smart work.
This book will take you in the era, when digitalization started.
#wellexplained
This book will take you in the era, when digitalization started.
#wellexplained
November 18, 2019
The story behind rise of HDFC Bank and the man behind it. Many lessons on leadership.
June 2, 2020
This book encapsulates the birth and journey of HDFC since birth till 2018-2019. A good business book, it tells us the inside story of bank’s growth, workings and what makes it a great company. Though sometimes the bank related terminology tends to become difficult to understand, overall it gives a clear picture of the industry and the bank. It also gives us glimpses into the lives & management styles of the bank’s top management especially Aditya Puri. If one is looking for management & business lessons then the book helps somewhat, especially in the last chapters.
October 18, 2019
Largely the same as "A Bank for the Buck".
I expected better stuff on what the bank is doing on the digital front; but turns out its just a lot of fluff.
Avoid this if you have the above book; if you dont have the above book - get this.
I expected better stuff on what the bank is doing on the digital front; but turns out its just a lot of fluff.
Avoid this if you have the above book; if you dont have the above book - get this.
March 1, 2022
The books shares the complete journey of HDFC bank from being the benefitor of economic Liberalization in India at the start to going digital in the recent times. I felt the book could have been organised better, as during the initial chapters it shared more of its digital journey followed by the story of how it started, it could have been easier for readers to follow up if things were arranged chronologically. The book carries deep insights of HDFCs corporate structure and culture. Some of my key takeaways of what made HDFC bank successful were:
1) it's access to lowest cost of capital in the market.
2) offering a wide range of products to its customers
3) decentralised organization structure where different departments were made to run independently.
4) presence of a stable and reliable top management for a long period
5) Ability to transform itself in the face of change
6) Staying away from lending to risky customers
7) Having a huge retail clientele which helped in distributing it's risk
8) Backing of a strong promoter which helped in building trust
9) Recruiting the initial lucky 13 executives from different banks which brought in an amalgamation of cultures to form HDFC bank's own strong culture.
10) The hiring of the prodigy HDFC's CEO Aditya Puri who turned out be a no-nonsense banker.
1) it's access to lowest cost of capital in the market.
2) offering a wide range of products to its customers
3) decentralised organization structure where different departments were made to run independently.
4) presence of a stable and reliable top management for a long period
5) Ability to transform itself in the face of change
6) Staying away from lending to risky customers
7) Having a huge retail clientele which helped in distributing it's risk
8) Backing of a strong promoter which helped in building trust
9) Recruiting the initial lucky 13 executives from different banks which brought in an amalgamation of cultures to form HDFC bank's own strong culture.
10) The hiring of the prodigy HDFC's CEO Aditya Puri who turned out be a no-nonsense banker.
October 30, 2020
Well, for a long time i wanted to read something on corporate success story. So this book by one of the renowned finance journalist and writer caught my fancy.
It's a tell all of HDFC bank right from its inception to it's rise as an Indian banking behemoth. It's detailed, doesn't give much inside stories and suggests that almost all crucial decision are taken over a peg of whiskey 😂
I found bandyopadhyay to be a little overly romanticizing the success story of HDFC though he gave in efforts to cover some hiccups and setbacks suffered by it.
But all in all, i found it interesting.
It's a tell all of HDFC bank right from its inception to it's rise as an Indian banking behemoth. It's detailed, doesn't give much inside stories and suggests that almost all crucial decision are taken over a peg of whiskey 😂
I found bandyopadhyay to be a little overly romanticizing the success story of HDFC though he gave in efforts to cover some hiccups and setbacks suffered by it.
But all in all, i found it interesting.
March 7, 2020
Awesome book !
The book is divided into three parts. The first and last is a must read for any company or bank. The second part that is Flashback, is more of history and is more detailed in banking. So bankers would enjoy that.
We have seen HDFC's growth right from some of the first branches to the "Too Big to Fail" level. Want to Thank Tamal ji for capturing this captivating story.
Thanks a ton!
The book is divided into three parts. The first and last is a must read for any company or bank. The second part that is Flashback, is more of history and is more detailed in banking. So bankers would enjoy that.
We have seen HDFC's growth right from some of the first branches to the "Too Big to Fail" level. Want to Thank Tamal ji for capturing this captivating story.
Thanks a ton!
June 15, 2021
It's a nice book. Covers all about creation to current state(2018) of HDFC Bank in the sector, about the people, challanges and the events.
It's not too technical, which is a good thing as anyone with no banking or tech experience can understand mostly everything.
Author did a great job, however felt little oversell to me.
It's not too technical, which is a good thing as anyone with no banking or tech experience can understand mostly everything.
Author did a great job, however felt little oversell to me.
December 30, 2019
Well written book takes you back more on cordination of team n kick off of an enterprising bank.Ten second loan was an interesting bench mark for the bank.Wish more was written on different implementations done .Overall a fast read holds your attention n signs off well
April 3, 2020
Gives the entire insider top view story of the HDFC bank leadership and how the Bank was set up.
The book is more descriptive and informative but i do not think its learnings can be easily translated to other situations.
The book is more descriptive and informative but i do not think its learnings can be easily translated to other situations.
September 23, 2022
A story of a consistent compounder. This book explains the strategy and core values behind HDFC Bank, it's long standing ex-CEO and it's DNA. The book is a must read for HDFC Bank share holders, students of business and strategy.
September 6, 2023
A insight of bank upcoming
Every chapter has their own meaning and combinations of leadership and well talented person willing to give their best. To make a Indian Bank world-class.
Every chapter has their own meaning and combinations of leadership and well talented person willing to give their best. To make a Indian Bank world-class.
December 5, 2020
Must read for anyone interested in knowing how a successful organisation should be run!
January 19, 2021
This book tells the story of the HDFC bank starting from its origin to the present state, culture of the bank, and its appetite for using technology.
February 14, 2021
Very fluffy with anecdotes that end abruptly. Hardly tells the story about what the bank really does in it's pursuit of it's next phase (2.0).
September 19, 2021
Provides a very good understanding of how to run a good bank in India and the challenges of setting one up. Thoroughly enjoyed it but sometimes I found that there were too many details involved here.
December 26, 2022
Journey in 2.0
This book author narrets the what part of HDFC journey. If you are looking for "How and Why", you will be disappointed.
This book author narrets the what part of HDFC journey. If you are looking for "How and Why", you will be disappointed.
October 17, 2023
If you have read Bank for a Buck, skip this one
November 10, 2019
I've a lot of respect for Tamal's insights on Indian banking. This book doesn't do any justice to it.
December 5, 2020
Good read. It was awesome to know Aditya Puri's way of working. Some of chapters are unnecessarily stretched.
October 11, 2019
A book that provides context to look at the bank within
As someone who has had no direct experience with HDFC Bank and only some indirect experience while visiting the branches with friends or family, I wasn't sure as to why this bank is named India's most valuable brand and why it commands the respect that it does.
This book has helped me understand the bank and its journey and has also given me insight into the future roadmap to help understand if the bank should be able to maintain that position, albeit with an evident nudge in the favourable direction.
As someone who has had no direct experience with HDFC Bank and only some indirect experience while visiting the branches with friends or family, I wasn't sure as to why this bank is named India's most valuable brand and why it commands the respect that it does.
This book has helped me understand the bank and its journey and has also given me insight into the future roadmap to help understand if the bank should be able to maintain that position, albeit with an evident nudge in the favourable direction.
August 16, 2019
If read first version this is absolute waste of money
Book is clean copy of first version with just 1 additional chapter
If didn't read 1st one this one is worth it, or else I thought its waste of money
Could have came up with short read and kept it much cheaper
Book is clean copy of first version with just 1 additional chapter
If didn't read 1st one this one is worth it, or else I thought its waste of money
Could have came up with short read and kept it much cheaper
October 29, 2019
A mash up of Tamal's old novels on HDFC Bank.... easy and quick read. gives insights into Puri much more than earlier books....
March 6, 2021
Garbage. Can be used for playing book cricket at best. The book is horribly written, like some kid making projects by copying excerpts from the internet.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews