The falling dominoes or round robin resignations of several senior women managers of companies affiliated with ICICI Bank — the country’s largest private sector and most profitable banking and finance institution — following the appointment of Chandana Kochhar as the managing director and chief executive of ICICI Bank, has given new currency to the old saw that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Soon after incumbent chairman and chief executive K.V. Kamath, who during his long tenure at the helm of ICICI Bank, won great acclamation for unhesitatingly promoting women to top positions in the bank and its subsidiaries, anointed Kochhar as his successor on December 19 last year, Shikha Sharma, chief executive of ICICI Prudential and Renuka Ramnath, CEO of ICICI Venture Capital, put in their papers. Sharma has since been appointed chief executive of Axis Bank (provoking the resignation of chairman J.P Nayak), while Ramnath is set to take charge of a yet unidentified private equity fund.
The exclusionary high opinion that successful women chief executives entertain of themselves and their abilities, doesn’t come as a surprise to your columnist. In another avatar as the first editor of India’s pioneer business magazines, this writer was also a former champion of women professionals. But since then, in a new role as editor of this publication, one has discovered that after rising to apex positions, the so-called gentler sex tends to lose all social graces and refinements, morphing into ruder than male.
Cases in point are three highly acclaimed women CEOs — Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (Biocon), Naina Kidwai (HSBC) and Vinita Bali (Britannia), one-time acquaintances, who were given glowing write-ups in my previous publications. With all the pretty noises they made affirming their dedication to education causes, your columnist put them on his complimentary list, often writing them humble Uriah Heep letters requesting help and support for EducationWorld. But despite dogged efforts, your correspondent didn’t receive even one reply between all three of them. Nor was a telephone call ever accepted. Ruder than male indeed. And as the falling dominoes of ICICI Bank demonstrate, inter se as well.