Sitaram Rao, ex-CEO of SKS

Mr. Sitaram Rao was the founder & ex-CEO of SKS, currently the largest microfinance institution in India. He has held chief executive and senior advisory positions with various finance and international marketing companies around the world. Mr. Rao has been an outstanding leader of the microfinance industry in India and has assisted in its development in many areas.

Mr. Sitaram Rao opened his presentation with a quote from Albert Einstein: “A hundred times a day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.” Pulling mainly from his illustrious career, he educated us about the practicalities of leadership.

He emphasized the importance of having a long term vision for the organization and creating a plan on how to reach those goals, citing examples of SKS and Equitas. SKS how in its early years decided to get ISO 2000 certification for Audit to set themselves apart from competition. Equitas has decided to aggregate demand for food grains and sell it to their customers at a discount. He gave the example of SKS which is aiming to be the largest MFI in the world and encouraged Ujjivan to set goals for itself that would differentiate the organization and make it a pioneer in that particular area in the industry.

As a young organization, he encouraged Ujjivan employees to think outside the box and innovate; he gave the suggestion to think of every slum or community we enter as an economy in itself and design products accordingly. Mr. Sitaram Rao cited SKS as being one of the fastest growing MFI’s in the world, and said that newer MFI’s (like Ujjivan) will have the ability to grow faster and more rapidly because of the corporate structures they have already put in place.

Looking to the future, he spoke in detail about areas Ujjivan can concentrate to stay ahead of the curve. Some of the projects he suggested were adopting the global reporting system before others, evaluating current accounting policies and guidelines with the goal of being the first IFRS compliant MIFF, performing a valuation of HR, and developing a team to concentrate on evaluating/analyzing sourcing of funds. Mr. Sitaram Rao closed his speech on a motivational and challenging note by saying that the MFI that innovates and figures out technology and connectivity with respect to reaching out to customers will emerge as the frontrunner and leader in the industry..

In summary, Mr. Rao challenged the audience to set goals for themselves to be outstanding in whatever area they worked and build a truly great institution.