The January-March 2016 Times AN IN-HOUSE MAGAZINE OF SHAREKHAN VOL. 7 No.01 | PUBLISHED FROM MUMBAI TigerTiger roarsroars atat thethe NSDLNSDL awardsawards ceremonyceremony Sharekhan turns Goregaon branch Heart-to-heart with 16 in style! bullish on 2016 Sheru Ajith Rao Dear Sherus, The March 2016 Times AN IN-HOUSE MAGAZINE OF SHAREKHAN VOL. 7 No.01 | PUBLISHED FROM MUMBAI Hi, hello and namaste! It is good to talk to you again. I am sure you used the long weekend to recharge your batteries and are now ready to take on the new financial year! Well, financial year 2017 is going to be crucial for us. Our company is poised at the threshold of a very defining moment and all set to embrace the promising future that is about to unfold. We are looking forward to scaling new heights of success and taking the opportunities presented to us in the coming days. We will, among other things, have more resources and a wider product range at our disposal to ensure the tiger roars and rises to the top. Tiger roars at the NSDL Meanwhile, what else is cooking? Well, Sharekhan is collecting awards for one. On awards ceremony pages 3-5 our cover story talks of Sharekhan’s superlative performance at the NSDL Sharekhan turns Goregaon branch Heart-to-heart with 16 in style! bullish on 2016 Sheru Ajith Rao Star Performer Awards 2015 in December last year. Then, in keeping with our focus on educating clients, our Goregaon branch organised a seminar on market outlook for its clients recently. We have a report on page 6. Their job is to protect us and our family and it leaves them little time to do financial planning for their family. Read how Hemendra and his team are trying to help army men out on page 7 and then on page 8 find Hemendra squeezed in a nutshell. Mutual funds are the smarter way to invest in equities was the message of the seminar conducted by our branches in Delhi in alliance with Reliance Asset Management Committee a few months back. Our report on page 9 has the details. All work and no play makes Sharekhan a dull tiger. That is why Sharekhan partied hard when it turned 16 in February this year. For all those who could not make it to the birthday party we captured the best moments of the party on pages 14-17 . Within a few weeks of Sharekhan turning 16, some branches in its Vadodara cluster Speak celebrated their 10th anniversary in a noble way. Read their story on pages 18-19. A thriving and growing business needs a larger place and so it came as no surprise when our Opera House branch shifted to a bigger and better place in Mumbai itself. Turn to pages 10-11 for the photographs of the house-warming party. Talking of photographs, enjoy on pages 12-13 a heart-to-heart with Ajith Rao, who is an amateur photographer and whose work you may have often seen in this periodical. On page 20 we remember young, warm-hearted and soft-spoken Sheru Ketan Lakhani, who was snatched away from us prematurely by a sudden illness recently. Turn to page 21 for a brief report on a health check camp organised by our Human resource department in Mumbai recently. We have an interesting quiz on page 22. A gift voucher of Rs1,000 could be your reward if you crack it. Meanwhile the three lucky winners of Business Quiz 46 are Mihir Koralwala, Leena Chawande and Dhiren Gala. Congratulations, dear winners! You will receive your prizes shortly. Before taking your leave, I would like to thank all those who helped us in bringing out this colourful edition. You may send me your contributions for the next edition of the Sharekhan Times at [email protected]. Happy reading and take care! Priya 2 The SHAREKHAN Times | Jan-Mar 2016 Strictly for internal circulation Cover Story ector, of NSDL , and Rajesh Doshi, sr. executive dir with GV Nageswara Rao, CMD , Jason Rodney and Joby John From L to R: Sharekhan's Pravin Darji On December 5, 2015, National Securities Depository Ltd Tiger roars (NSDL) announced the NSDL Star Performer Awards 2015 in Mumbai and being the leader in the industry (in the non- banking space) Sharekhan won big time at the award at the NSDL ceremony with two major honours. awards It was declared a winner in the "Top Performer in New Accounts" category for opening the second highest number of accounts. It won the second award in the Go Green Initiative ceremony category for making optimum use of Speed-e, a common Internet Infrastructure that enables Depository Participants (DPs) to provide depository services to their clients, and of SPICE, a facility for auto pay-in of securities using the infrastructure of SPEED-e and IDeAS. The achievement underlines the importance of team work as the dedication and hard work of several teams, including Marketing, Operations, Compliance, Customer service , IT and Sales teams, made it possible. There is another angle to this feat. Sharekhan has won the “Leader in Go Green Initiative” award for the second time in a row. What's more, NSDL started the Go Green Initiative award in 2014 and we have won the award in 2014 as well as 2015. So next year we hope to score a hat trick! S 3 The SHAREKHAN Times | Jan-Mar 2016 Strictly for internal circulation Cover Story ya ra and Shankar Vai la swara Rao, Jai d p ee A or Fro m L t Go R: V Nage NSDL honours Sharekhan for achieving 10 lakh demat accounts Close on the heels of the NSDL awards came another feather in Sharekhan's cap. On Tuesday, February 2, 2016, the chief executive officer and managing director of National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL), GV Nageswara Rao, came to Sharekhan’s Ruby office in Mumbai to honour Sharekhan for achieving the target of 10 lakh demat accounts with the depository. At the end of a brief meeting with Shankar Vailaya and Jaideep Arora, Mr Rao handed a memento to the two directors of Sharekhan, expressing his appreciation of the achievement. Mr Rao was accompanied by Rajesh Doshi, senior executive director of the depository, and Prashant Vagal, senior vice president of the depository, and the gentlemen were visibly impressed with Sharekhan’s performance. In the non-banking financial services category, a tally of 10 lakh active accounts is an achievement by any standard. It shows that in a country where equities are still not the asset class of choice of most, Sharekhan has succeeded in introducing a good many of the retail population to the benefits of equity investing. More importantly, it reflects Sharekhan’s expanding presence through 2,300 share shops in over 575 cities of the country that reach out to over 1.3 million customers. S 4 The SHAREKHAN Times | Jan-Mar 2016 Strictly for internal circulation Cover Story Shortly after the awards ceremony, the Sharekhan Times team quizzed a group of Sherus, including those who represented Sharekhan at the awards ceremony, on the achievement. Excerpts from the interviews are presented below. Sharekhan Times (ST): NSDL honoured Sharekhan for opening the second highest number of accounts at the NSDL Star Performer Awards 2015. Tell us what made this feat possible. Kalyanaraman: I attribute the success to five fingers which make a hand or a fist: Marketing, Operations (including Compliance), Customer service, IT support and Sales. Kalyanar nama ST: How do you feel about Sharekhan bagging two awards at the NSDL Star Performer Awards 2015? Pravin Darji (PD): It’s a proud moment that we have repeatedly delivered. I feel good that our efforts are appreciated. ST: This is the second consecutive win for Sharekhan in the “Go Green” category. How do you feel about it and will we get a hat-trick next year? PD: We are committed to the idea of “Go Green” and it will definitely be our endeavour to n Darji Pravi take our Go Green initiative to the next level. ST: Were you confident of winning at the awards show? If yes, how many awards you had in mind? Joby John (JJ): We were confident of winning at least one award. The extra effort and hard work put in by all employees of Sharekhan enabled us to win multiple laurels for the company. This was fantastic team work. ST: What initiatives did you take to ensure that Sharekhan won the “Go Green” award again? byJo John JJ: We have been working continuously to bring down the paper usage at work making use of the latest products and technology. NSDL has recognised our initiative the second time in a row and such recognitions encourage the team to become more efficient and save cost. ST: To what or whom do you attribute this success? Jason Rodney (JR): Sharekhan is one of the few organisations that provides an environment where team leaders can feel free to utilise in the best possible way the knowledge of its team members. My experienced and knowledgeable seniors guided, motivated, and provided confidence and endless support to me and my team. The credit also goes to my entire team who undoubtedly gave their 100% to make this achievement possible. Jason Rodney ST: What was your reaction when Sharekhan was declared a winner in the "Highest account opening" category? Also, what are your expectations for the next year? JR: The team was ecstatic! No doubt we were the winners but there’s more to be done. Last year we were on top and we need to get back to the number one position.