“I am a believer that loyalty does not give you the royalty. I may be loyal to the firm, but I have to do my hard work and contribute to the success of the responsibility we have,” says Bala, as he is fondly addressed, in a conversation with ETMarkets.
Bala has been spearheading Aditya Birla Asset Management, India’s 6th largest AMC by assets, for 14 years.
Bala began his career in the firm as a bond trader. By coincidence, he was the 7th employee of the AMC, and so, he was often called “James Bond” by his then boss.
He may have aced it when it comes to money management, but one thing that Bala hasn’t been able to pursue and would love to even today, is learn music.
Here’s the edited excerpts of the conversation with one of the most sought after money manager in India:
You’ve spent more than 3 decades with the Aditya Birla group. Can you take us through this journey and share some moments?
I joined Aditya Birla in 1994 when it started an AMC. I joined as the 7th employee in the company. It was such a coincidence that I was also deeply involved in the bond market.
So my boss started linking me to James Bond kind of things (7th employee and bond market trader).
But yeah, then it was a small team and so, you had to do multiple things. You may be specialized only in one area, but that specialization needs you only for 2-3 hours during trading time.
The rest of the time you do research, you do operation related things, you work on NAVs, and so on and so forth. So. what I got was a holistic experience.
People were doing multiple things at the same time, and therefore, the bonding among colleagues was high then, the affinity generally was high.
So, you naturally become proud of being part of the Aditya Birla group. However, I am a believer that “loyalty does not give you the royalty.”
I may be loyal to the firm, but I have to do my hard work and contribute to the success of the responsibility we have.
So, you have to continue to strive towards excellence. Therefore, constant efforts, constant learnings, constant hard work was one of my concepts.
I think being part of the group, they provided a continuous learning journey on one side, and continuous talent improvement on the other.
So that kept changing my roles here. From a trader to a portfolio manager, then hybrid manager, then head of fixed income, then head of equity, quasi deputy CIO, and then CEO for about 14 years now.
Being a CEO and managing about Rs 3 lakh crore assets isn’t a cakewalk. What were the big challenges according to you, and how did you deal with it?
The period during the Lehman crisis was challenging, and then I was the CIO. There used to be defaults, there were liquidity issues. And the question was how do we manage it? Fortunately, the team rhythm then was very good and co-ordination was quite high.
I still remember one full Diwali day, we sat in the office without celebrating to address the market, understand the market and to address the issues.
At that time, investor confidence was getting shaken. So, from a fund’s viewpoint, I had to manage the brand, customer expectation, regulation, liquidity, and so on.
The second challenge was when I was given the responsibility of the CEO. Unfortunately from that day, the upfront commission, the entry load charged by MFs, got removed in 2009.
For almost 1 and half years, it was tough to grow the size of the business.
So, I went back to the basics. I tried to figure out what are the basic things that we should do? Leave aside growth, leave aside the other things.
So that's something we did during the period of 2011-12. We started focusing on improving the processes. My challenge was to tell people not to keep discovering new things, and rather focussing on the basics because that will take us to the next level. Unfortunately that picked up quite nicely and we could build the scale.
The other major challenge that came up was during the credit market crisis in 2019. I think these were the 2 issues when we had to batten the front foot.
One of the major challenges is people-related things. Sometimes, people become too emotional. Focussing on employee productivity constantly remains a challenge.
At Aditya Birla AMC, you are managing money. Who is the money manager at home?
Well, I only manage the money. My wife doesn’t bother too much as far as money is concerned. My kids hate this field though they don’t mind learning. They don’t want to pursue finance since they never saw me at home till they grew up. When I go home, they are sleeping, and when I leave in the morning, they are sleeping. There have been many Saturdays and Sundays that I have spent in the office. So if by chance, there is a holiday and kids see me at home, they ask “why you don’t have an office today?” (laughs)
Therefore, they felt this field is not something they should pursue.
You are a mentor and even a father figure for many emerging fund managers in the country today. Who are the people in your lives, the learnings from whom have helped you come this far in your career?
I would say two of my senior colleagues. One is Mr S.K. Mitra for whom I have a high level of respect and I admired his style of operating and the discipline he follows.
From the investment point of view, it was Bharat Shah. We both used to work like a very close knit family. We used to have discussions late at night about markets. That gave me a lot of learnings on the approach to investment.
Shah was a true research-oriented money manager, whereas I had more of a trading mindset. The way he used to ask questions, analyse, and articulate, it was very interesting to learn. Sometimes, we may know things but we don’t know how to articulate.
I think the confidence that these people showed in me helped improve my self-confidence.
The reposing faith that came from both Bharat Shah and Mitra was very high. I, therefore, had to do the continuous hard work so that their faith is not broken.
Besides money management, what other things are you passionate about?
Personally, I am a spiritual-oriented person. I believe a lot in rituals and praying. The other thing I like is music. Even today, I would like to learn music if I get a chance. The third thing is agriculture. It has two major purposes. One is providing employment, and the other thing is being connected to nature through agriculture.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)
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