Kotak Mahindra Bank's innovative 'two-in-a-box' approach to mirror 'Amazon-like' service excellence

Kotak Mahindra Bank has set in motion a strategy of ‘two-in-a-box’ to morph into a digital bank with the aim of delivering 'Amazon-like' customer service.

The ball got rolling on the grand plans about 18 months ago under the leadership of founder and director Uday Kotak. There are three pillars of the new strategy. The first is to offer an Amazon-like experience. The second focuses on enhancing the employee experience by providing them with the right tools and systems. The third pillar is the emphasis on increased productivity.

Uday Kotak exited four months from the Mumbai-based before his tenure as MD & CEO was supposed to end in December this year.

The bank realised that the banking sector has undergone fundamental shifts, with more millennials becoming its customers, there's increasing need more than ever before for constant availability like Amazon, flawless transactions, and robust cybersecurity.

Currently, banks are categorised by product verticals, such as consumer goods, credit cards, mortgages, savings, and investments. But the customer experiences the bank horizontally. So, it requires a fundamental transformation of the bank from a traditional bank that uses IT as a support function into one that operates more like a technology-centric and customer-first organisation. There is a partnership model in play. The bank is integrating tech-savvy professionals who collaborate with banking experts.

The domain expertise, or the products, are still with the existing banking teams. Take for instance, the IT and business teams now sit together, take part in strategy decisions, and develop a product together. These pairs, or 'lighthouses', are being established throughout the bank.

The centre of activity or innovation is now not housed in the Mumbai headquarters. Instead, the IT talent hubs—Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Gurgaon—are new centres. The entire mobile banking team with lead engineers sits out of Hyderabad. The analytics team, including risk analytics, is housed in Bangalore. The new strategy is to build everything in-house to be available all the time without any delay or transaction failure. What was done in three weeks by the vendor can now be done in two days.

The major investments are taking place in IT architecture, infrastructure, security, data analytics, and talent. The bank aspires for its banking app to emulate the user experience of popular consumer apps like Zepto, Amazon, or Swiggy. These apps are known for their swift transitions, reliability, and consistent performance. The bank's mobile app is now the largest branch. Currently, 98 per cent of our savings bank transactions occur through it.

The bank is also sharpening the digital skills of people at every level, including leadership levels. They are upgrading skills and rotating people. Culturally, the bank has turned over a new leaf.