Uday Kotak Quotes

"I grew up in a joint family of 60 people with one kitchen. So I am a firm believer in the family concept."

"There's no harm being a copycat. If someone else is doing a good job, copy. It's free."

"If companies are able to raise equity from the market, then their problems for financing incomplete projects will come to end. Investment cycle in the capital market can kick-start with the money of savers and investors."

"A weaker currency is a national tariff. After we get a weaker currency, we have to take advantage of that. Or else, we will waste it once more in inflation and in the inability to raise competitiveness."

"We encounter very healthy boardroom debates and pretty diverse views, so we have always had the benefit of diversity of opinion and expression before we take some important calls."

"There is socialism in the family that conflicts with meritocracy. And that bothered me."

"I have got nothing against family companies, but there must be real equity, that is all I say. It cannot be based on influence or political friendships. It has to be based on real equity backing their dreams."

"The single biggest resource India has is people and skill."

"Technology is an enabler; you have to be at the cutting edge of technology - there is no choice."

"For me, the real thing is make, serve and list in India. Which means we need manufacturing, we need services, and we need financial markets."

"If you ask me, over time, I am a believer in the Indian financial saving story getting stronger; a lot more savers are moving money away from gold and real estate into banks, mutual funds, insurance and equities."

"In a marathon, if you run too fast, you get exhausted. If you run too slow, you never make it."

"Culture is about the mindset of people, and we are very happy to have a strong combined mindset of people."

"When a lion doesn't get its prey, it remains hungry. When the prey saves himself, he has not won, but has saved his life."

"The trouble with opportunity is, it never announces when it comes. It's only after it's gone, you'd realize that you missed it."

"It is possible that the digital world may change the need for physical branches. We will continue to add branches incrementally, but we will reach a point - whether it is 1,500, 1,800 or 2,000 branches - where we will say enough is enough."

"Our approach to banking is very different from the traditional banks or even some of the new banks. We do not necessarily go out and write single-cheque, large-ticket loans."

"If India grows steadily and does the structural things right and carefully unties knots, builds an institutional process which sort of cleans up the corruption and the baggage in the system, I see it as a wonderful marathon."

"As long as there is cash, and the economy is running, all is well. But as a bank, we'll have to test, experiment, try a hundred different things. A few may work, a few may fail, but we have to experiment and try."

"I keep wondering at night, 'Will I have a bank the next morning, or will some technology company be doing banking without needing a bank?'"

"If you look at 2009, why did the recovery happen? Recovery happened because somebody in the world's largest economy opened the tap: the U.S., followed by Europe and now Japan."

"My view is make Indian manufacturing competitive, and if it is competitive, it can serve customers or consumers anywhere."

"A lot of family members worked in the joint commodities family business. It was a classic case of capitalism at work and socialism at home."

"Our view is that younger customers love our digital offering, our mobile banking applications and so on. Older customers expect relationship managers and want much more personal attention in terms of their needs."

"My view is that the bitcoin is in its very early days, and it is an artificial currency. But whether it is creating new money, whether it is sustainable, whether it would survive - I have many questions about it."

"I was not very keen on joining the family business... there were 14 family members working together, and it worried me that I would not have enough individuality."

"Younger customers are the future, but older customers have the money. So you need both: one for the present, and the other for the future."

"As we were all growing up, there used to be a very big mantra in India which was called 'export or perish.' There was a long period when we used to focus on import substitution."

"The ability to scale up is hard. So the best model for us is concentrated India, diversified financial services, and through this, we can get significant scale on an Indian platform."

"What we have to be careful is that if we drop interest rates where the rate of interest is lower than inflation, then savers will not put money in financial savings and move it to gold and real estate, which is bad for India."