“We need to start work with the idea that we’re going to learn every day. I learn, even at my position, every single day.” ~ Chanda Kochhar, MD and CEO of ICICI Bank Limited
Summary: Chanda Kochhar is the MD and CEO of ICICI Bank Limited. Reported as the highest salaried banker of India, Chanda’s story will teach how to nurture your passion without giving up on family. She has been instrumental in establishing ICICI Bank and was been awarded for reshaping the retail banking scene of India. She was recently awarded the Woodrow Wilson Award for Global Corporate Citizenship from the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington DC for exhibiting a commitment to betterment of society. She is the first India woman to have won the top US Global Corporate Citizenship Award.
Nationality: Indian
Industry: Retail Banking
Q: Are there particular challenges that you face as a woman leader in India? on mckinsey.com
A: No, frankly, when it comes to women in leadership roles, I think India is more evolved than is generally recognized. Things have changed substantially here over the last 30 years. When I started my career, I think the whole perspective toward women leaders was definitely different from what it is today. Many Indian corporations, in fact, are going out of their way to attract more and more women in the workforce. And women are becoming much more open and conscious about the fact that they need to have a career of their own. The jury is still out on whether so many women will be able to balance their personal and professional lives through the middle-management stages of their careers and on how many will emerge from that as senior leaders. But I would say that as a whole, the outlook of the Indian corporate sector has improved substantially. ICICI has always been gender neutral and I see that across many more companies today.
