Interesting stories….great insights:
To get the real feel of perfection, check out these actual stories.
Aadhar Housing Finance recently concluded its Annual Business Meet, which saw about 650 employees attending. There was a 14-member team with certain key responsibilities assigned to a few team members, while the others ably supported them. Imagine an event of this magnitude which had people from all over the country from different cities flying simultaneously, landing simultaneously, whilst being given a personalized experience, urges Noel Mascarenhas. Everything from the logistics to the event show flow, had to be perfectly aligned to ensure that the experience was without any hiccups. The team managed to pull this off without any incidence to the guests.
However, there were issues where the dry run before the main event was not done due to the set up not being complete on time. However, all members involved in the dry run sat together and ensured that the coordination was perfect on the event day, thanks to the role clarity that they received. The event was a huge success and by far the most entertaining and fun ABM.
One of the most transformative initiatives where perfectionism played a central role was the relaunch of DFCC’s Core Values – a project aimed at embedding purpose, accountability, and excellence into the fabric of our organizational culture. Recognizing that values are not just words but operating principles, we undertook this effort to ensure perfectionism became the cornerstone of everything we do, from talent development to customer engagement, says Paduma Subasinghe.
The project commenced with a comprehensive values diagnosis, including voice-of-employee surveys, leadership dialogues, and culture audits. These insights informed the crafting of five renewed values – Passion, Authenticity, Courage, Collaboration, and Excellence, each mapped to behavioral anchors and business outcomes. The goal was clear: values should not only inspire but also guide day-to-day decisions with precision and intent.
The team achieved 2 critical milestones: (i) Embedding values into performance management systems and (ii) Rolling out a visual storytelling campaign to socialize real-world examples of value-driven behavior.
A notable twist came not just from shifting strategies, but from the challenge of making the new Value framework resonate with our employees. To address this, the Service Excellence team moved beyond traditional communications and brought the framework to life by showcasing real stories of our colleagues going above and beyond.
We achieved a significant uplift in employee engagement scores, a stronger link between values and KPIs, and a more aligned, empowered workforce. This project exemplified that perfectionism, when embedded into purpose-led culture work, delivers both emotional resonance and business value.
A recent project where perfectionism played a vital role at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance was the launch of ‘Herizon’– a women-focused insurance product tailored to support women through various life stages. Nikhil Bharadwaj explains: “While traditional media and digital campaigns formed the backbone of our strategy, we saw the need to go deeper by building an emotional connection. To achieve this, we invited employees, agents, and customers to share personal health-related experiences or questions, especially on women’s health issues. And we addressed these through a video podcast involving women employees of all ages, to bring in the relatability of our product as well. Some of them are doctors working in our health administration team, so their responses were authentic and sincere.”
Working closely with the digital marketing team, Nikhil’s team executed a comprehensive social media campaign that generated over 90 million impressions for this video. Tight timelines, coordination challenges, and the need for authenticity across every touchpoint marked the campaign. However, the success lay in meticulous planning and close alignment between teams, ensuring every message was thoughtful, relevant, and on point. This project exemplified how perfectionism, in content, relatability to the end user, and flawless execution, resulted in high engagement, a stronger connection with audiences, and a meaningful advancement of the brand’s purpose.
Nikhil emphasizes that PR isn’t about just getting coverage but building meaningful and engaging connections with your target audience that resonate beyond the product.
At Centrum Housing Finance, a recent critical project involved the implementation of revised KYC guidelines for LMI customers across all 95+ branches following a directive from the NHB. Key milestones included translating guidelines into regional languages, training branch staff across 12 states, and updating our IT systems to capture the required data accurately. Mayank Jain experienced a twist when the team identified inconsistencies in data capture across different regions due to varying levels of digital literacy among customers. They responded by deploying mobile support teams for on-ground assistance and conducting additional training. The final outcome was the successful and uniform implementation of the revised KYC norms, ensuring regulatory compliance and facilitating smoother access to affordable housing for the LMI clientele.
Jatin Satpute relates about the project to Revamp and Live Deployment of Internal SOC Dashboard at Cosmos Bank. The project, aimed at enabling better real-time visibility into events, alerts, and threat analytics had 3 key milestones: (i) Designing KPIs and alerts tailored to our cooperative banking environment (ii) Integrating the dashboard with SIEM, core banking logs, and DLP alerts (iii) Stress-testing the system during phishing and endpoint compromise simulations.
Jatin observed a twist in the story when during testing, the team discovered inconsistent timestamps due to misaligned server clocks between systems, which could have led to flawed forensic trails. Thanks to the team’s attention to detail and zero-tolerance for approximation, the issue was caught and resolved before go-live.
Today, the SOC dashboard enables precise and near-instant alert correlation, improving our response time by over 30% and boosting board-level confidence in our cyber preparedness.
A recent project at Samunnati where perfection was key, was the launch of the new, improved LOS, which digitizes the customer journey end-to-end. Earlier, credit teams manually sourced data from multiple platforms – ScoreMe, WorldCheck, CIBIL, MCA – and compiled a 21-page CAM over 5-7 days. Kiran Vedula and his team have now automated this through deep system integrations. Dedupe checks, KYC validations (PAN, Aadhaar, COI), and financial analysis are built-in, reducing TAT to 1-2 days. CAMs are generated with a single click, and document discrepancies have dropped significantly.
“By shifting key validations to the start of the journey, we’ve improved data accuracy, reduced rework, and enhanced productivity – enabling faster, and more reliable credit decisions in line with our customer-first approach,” highlight Kiran.
Vipul Sharma joined Aye Finance in January 2024, with fundraising through an IPO already identified as a strategic goal for the year. Given the importance and scrutiny associated with this process, perfection was not just expected – it was essential. To assess the preparedness, the team initiated a voluntary IPO preparedness exercise for the compliance department and at the organizational level. This critical self/independent review provided a detailed snapshot of the current standing and highlighted the gaps that needed urgent attention. The team successfully addressed all the outstanding points within the stipulated time.
A key milestone in this journey was the conversion of all outstanding convertible securities into equity, in line with SEBI’s ICDR Regulations. This was strategically timed with the private funding round, which brought in a new investor, ABC Impact, a Singaporean impact investor backed by Temasek and Temasek Trust, as well as additional funding from an existing investor, British International Investment. This round came with its own pressure – completing all activities within 60 days of signing the term sheet – which required coordinated precision across all departments.
Vipul shares one more example of perfection: “Another major step was the conversion of our company from private to public – a mandatory prerequisite for DRHP filing. This process was delayed slightly due to technical complexities, which temporarily put our filing on hold. However, because we had maintained readiness on all other fronts, we were able to file the DRHP within just 6 days of the company’s status conversion. During those 6 days, we held 3 Board Meetings, 2 Audit Committee Meetings, and 2 General Meetings – executed flawlessly under tight timelines. The final outcome of filing the DRHP was successful and complete filing backed by solid groundwork. More importantly, the project was a significant learning experience. It gave me valuable exposure to working closely with our lead merchant bankers and both domestic and international legal counsel – insights that will stay with me throughout my career.”
Vipul expresses his gratitude to MD, Sanjay Sharma, CFO, Krishan Gopal, and his dedicated team who made this possible.