Tamal Bandyopadhyay: The man who would be chief

Of the five deputy managing directors interviewed for the managing director's post in the State Bank of India last September, State Bank of Travancore Managing Director Om Prakash Bhatt (in the SBI family, the MD of an associate bank enjoys the stature of DMD of the parent bank) was the junior-most "" even though all five joined the bank as probationary officer on the same day (July 1, 1972), Bhatt was the last to be promoted as chief general manager. Mentored by present SBI chairman AK Purwar, State Bank of Patiala MD Yogesh Agarwal, was the strongest contender for the post.

Almost seven months after the interview and four months after the MD's post fell vacant, Bhatt was selected for the job last week. Agarwal was one of the first few to congratulate Bhatt when we was rushing to the airport at Thiruvanthapuram to catch a flight to Mumbai last Tuesday. It is a crucial appointment as the chairman's post will fall vacant next month and the new MD will have a strong chance to make it to the top as the other MD, Tara Shankar Bhattacharya, does not have two years of residual service, a prerequisite for the chairman's post. Officially, however, the case is still wide open.

If Bhatt makes it to the top, he will occupy the corner room for five years. He is the quintessential long-distance runner who preserves his energy for the last lap. In November 2003, he was promoted as general manager for the Lucknow circle and it might take him just about a little over two-and-half years to reach the top. A graduate in physics and masters in English literature, Bhatt is known for his dynamism, articulation and ability to carry people with him. Very early in his career, he was sent to London for five years under the India-based trainee officer scheme and later he spent another five years as deputy general manger in Washington. But his most challenging assignment was possibly at the commercial and industrial (C&I) division of the bank, which introduced computerisation in SBI in the late 1980s.

PG Kakodar, who supervised the work, was so impressed with Bhatt that when he become the bank's chairman in 1996, Bhatt was made his private secretary.

"His concepts are clear and he is a thinking banker. The only fault I found in him was that he used to trust people too early," says Kakodkar. As for Bhatt, at a recent Business Standard banking round table in March, he took most by surprise when he said, "Blaming lack of autonomy for poor performance is not acceptable." Now, the industry would expect him to raise the benchmark for performance at the top.