The ‘Rags to Riches’ story of the man from Konerirajapuram
Experiencing poverty in the 1960s and early 70s, he converted every challenging episode in his childhood to a life transforming lesson and went on to become the longest serving Indian CEO in the Banking Sector in the Gulf
This section had earlier featured a story on the impact the political regime of the time had on the agraharam at Therazhundur Aamaruviappan Divya Desam (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/10/therazhundur-divya-desam.html). The now renowned Vasan Bhattar was in the thick of action as a young child feeling the fullest impact of the mass exodus of original inhabitants from Therazhundur. He has gone on to transform the dilapidated temple into one of the most vibrant ones reviving all the utsavams and has come to be a father figure for several priests in the Chozha region (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/09/therazhundur-vasan-bhattar.html). This story is about another such personality who spent a lot of his childhood in those troubled times in Therazhundur sitting inside the sannidhi for hours together but overcame financial poverty to lead a global bank for two decades in the process becoming the highest paid banking CEO in the Gulf. He put every lesson learnt in that painful phase in the 1960s and 70s to great use in his career and is now a role model for CEO aspirants. Here is the story.
Early childhood - Anti Hindi Agitation
Hailing from Konerirajapuram, known for the biggest Nataraja idol at the Uma Maheswarar temple (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2019/03/konerirajapuram-thiru-nallam.html), R Seetharaman felt the full impact of the anti-Hindi agitation in the late 1960s (this section had also featured the negative impact of this agitation on N Kumar, a prospective tennis player from Madras who later went on to become part of a successful industrial group - https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/11/sanmar-mayura-kumar-swimming-tennis.html). He was just 10 when his appa Raghavan Sharma, a Sanskrit and Hindi teacher, had to face the repercussions of this big political decision in the state. He quit the teacher’s job in Tharangambadi and moved to Therazhundur where he ran a Sanskrit school for a brief period.
Amma - An inspirational role model
His amma Durgambal was his greatest strength in life and an inspirational role model. Seetharaman, who spent a lot of time sitting inside the Aamaruviappan temple, was not keen to go the Government school in Therazhundur and joined the Dewan Bahadur National High School in Mayiladuthurai, over 10kms from the Thirumangai Azhvaar praised Divya Desam but it soon turned out to be a financial nightmare for him. Seetharaman recalls that phase to this writer from his palatial house in Mylapore “Our financial scenario was so bad that I could not afford the bus ticket of 60paise (to and fro) every day. My amma, who was the biggest strength in my life, turned it around for me. She quietly pledged her jewelry to fund my school fees. When I came to know about this, I made up mind to come back to the Government School in Therazhundur. But she persuaded my appa and convinced him that the Mayiladuthurai School would do me good in the long run though it was financially unsustainable for them in that phase.”
Amma’s unconditional love and care was a standout feature for Seetharaman in his childhood. While his appa provided him with conceptual clarity, he looked up to his amma as his life's role model. “That day when she pitched for my education at Mayiladuthurai, I had decided that I would earn so much in this life to take her all around the world.”
Hard Work always pays
He recounts another incident that was indicative of the terrible challenges he faced during his school life and one that was to provide him great mental strength and a life lesson on the way to rise from the graveyard to succeed in life. On the final day of the examinations, Bus Number 10 that ran from Komal, home to an ancient Hastham star Parikara temple, to Mayiladuthurai did not arrive in Therazhundur that morning and this delayed his departure to the school. Hiring a cycle from a friend, he began pedaling his way to Mayiladuthurai but his luck seemed to go from bad to worse that morning. The tyre punctured before he had crossed the now defunct Therazhundur railway station.“For the next half hour, I ran as hard as I could to Mayiladuthurai to be just in time for the exam. The invigilator, S Mahadevan, was shocked to see me in drenched clothes on a hot summer’s day. He was in for more shock when the young boy handed the answer sheet within one hour of the three hour exam. After going through my paper, he had happy tears in his eyes and later took me to the headmaster, who took a proactive step to support me financially.”
This was a great lesson early on in his life - that any hurdle could be overcome if you put in the hard effort to reach your destination. "When the bus did not arrive and the cycle tyre punctured, I did not give up. I ran to the school as if my life depended on that sprint and the result was that the HM, SV Kalyanasundaram supported me financially,” he says with great delight.
Swimming in the Cauvery
Much like another Kalyanasundaram from the Kumbakonam region (the Ranji cricketer from the 1960s and 70s), Seetharaman too learnt swimming as a teenager jumping into the Cauvery (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2011/08/kalli-b-kalyanasundaram.html). He says that swimming as an exercise continues to this day, five decades later.
After securing state sixth in the SSLC examination, Seetharaman moved to Vivekananda College in Madras for his Pre University. He wanted to become a doctor and his preferred choice was to do medicine but Prof Ganesan (this writer’s principal later) put some practical sense into the teenager “He told me that given the political scenario of the time, the prospects of me getting a medical seat was remote and that I should pursue a degree in Commerce.”
That year, he had been at the RKM hostel on Sivaswami Salai in Mylapore (where he came back decades later with his wife and daughters to give back to the hostel for the joyous one year he had had in the mid 1970s) but when he had to change his mind from medicine to commerce, he decided to go to Thanjavur to his patti’s place in Mela Veethi to pursue his graduation there. By this time, his appa, who passed away in 2006, had moved to Bombay for his livelihood.
Insights into the Lending Business
Right from his school days, Seetharaman had begun teaching fellow students including those senior to him. And this continued into his college years as well. He also played the role of a ‘newspaper boy’ in the morning in Thanjavur to earn some money to help run the family. During that phase, another incident gave him great insights on critical factors in lending that was to hold him in good stead once he entered the Banking sector “I had got a merit scholarship of Rs. 400 and my friend saw me with cash. He came up to me and claimed emergency financial requirement citing his amma’s ill health. When I did not see him for a few days and as I had to pay my college fees, I went to his house while I was distributing the newspapers. That morning his appa handed me another big lesson that has stayed with me all through my banking career. My friend had run away with the four hundred rupees I had given him and his appa questioned me the basis on which I lent him the money."
“The incident taught me a big lesson in lending. Character, Capacity and Capital had to be looked into before handing money to anyone” says Seetharaman narrating how that little event in his teenage years served as a great lesson later on.
Skill Development
The financial challenges in his childhood led him to honing his skills in multiple areas. Though he did his entire schooling in Tamizh medium, he managed to pick up fluency in English by the time he graduated in Commerce with a gold medal. He was also an ardent fan of Senkalipuram Anantharama Deekshithar and listened to his upanyasams during those collegiate years.He also developed great interest in dramas and Ilakiya Tamizh. As an example, he rolled out dialogues nonstop for a few minutes to this writer from Veerapandiya Kattabomman. He became an artiste with AIR Trichy. In every step of his success, he reminded himself of the great role his amma played through the tough times. With his first month’s honorarium, he bought his amma a mixie “She had been using the grinding stone all her life till then. Having seen her struggles in life, I had decided early on in my life that I would give her all the comforts once I started earning. The mixie was my first gift to her.”
To PWC - For the first time outside TN
He did his article-ship in Thanjavur and soon completed his CA. Immediately after, came one of the first big moments in his life. . In the first two decades of his life, he had never crossed the TN border!!! And as his first job, he picked up a prime role at Multinational firm Price Waterhouse Coopers and a posting as an audit manager in Bombay in 1982/83. He then moved into an overseas posting with them in the Gulf. He had arrived in life and his parents were happy for him that the financial uncertainty of his childhood was finally behind him.
Passionate about technology
The late 1980s and early 90s saw the emergence of technology into the corporate world. He was very passionate with technology and like many things in his teenage days, he honed his skills in technology too at a very early age. Into his early 30s, he had become the technology head in a bank. Soon after his entry into the banking sector, he began implementing technology that had been hitherto unknown to banks in the Gulf.
Making Doha Bank a Global Major
At the turn of the century, Seetharaman joined the Doha Bank in Qatar at a time when it was very small in size with only four branches in Qatar. Soon after he took over, it had become the best bank in Qatar, then the Middle East and awards for best performances rolled in one after another. By the time he submitted his resignation in March last year after two decades as the CEO, he had turned around the fortunes of the bank and made it into a global major scaling it to great heights with a presence in 20 countries including Australia, Canada and India. The Net Profit had zoomed past QAR 750million. He counts among his achievements the huge dividends that had been consistently handed out to the shareholders during his two decades at the helm.
During his schooling years, Seetharaman did not have the money to even pay for his 30 Paise bus ticket but a combination of the tough lessons learned early in life and his amma’s inspirational model to find peace even under the most challenging situations helped him overcome every hurdle to scale to the top of the Banking ladder. Before his arrival, the leadership roles in banks in the Gulf had often vested with the Britishers. Seetharaman broke that trend and ran a bank for two decades in the process becoming the longest serving Indian CEO in the Gulf. He has made Doha Bank a name to reckon with not just within the Gulf region but globally expanding aggressively across continents. Dividends zoomed during his reign delighting the shareholders in a way that they had not experienced previously.
He saw Goddess in his amma
In recognition of his amma’s role in making a successful man out of him, Seetharaman took her around the world. In the numerous awards he won across continents she was always next to him and he showcased to the world as the one responsible for his success. She remained unchanged in character throughout her life “She managed to find peace even in poverty. And when I became the CEO, she was delighted but reminded me to remain grounded always taking me back to those days in the 1960s and 70s. Till the very end, she was steeped in tradition."
In February last year, he came to Mylapore after two Pandemic years to inform his amma, who had become unwell, that he was coming back permanently to be with her. Unfortunately, within a couple of months she passed away. He recounts her role in taking him to the top of the banking world "An amma’s love is unmatched. She was everything to me. Just looking at her face gave me a lot of positive energy in my childhood, even though we were in financial difficulty. She showed what one could achieve with steely determination. In the midst of all the financial challenges, she was single minded in her endeavor to get the best out of me and make me successful in life.”
“She had studied only till class VIII but that did not come in the way of her being a great counsellor to me. She was always calm and composed. Not even in the worst of times did she allow the anger and the state of life to get the better of her. It was a great lesson that I used each day of my career once I became a CEO. For someone with so little academic education, she was able to ‘sell a goal’ to me. Throughout my childhood, she instilled the importance of having a vision.”
"Amidst all the challenges, I did not see her worried - not once. 'She would often ask me what I achieved by worrying’. It was yet another great life lesson that I learned from her."
Someday in his life, he is keen to build a temple for his amma!!!
Chairman of City Union Bank N Kamakodi (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/04/n-kamakodi-city-union-bank.html) has known him well over the last few decades. He rates Seetharaman as one of the most accomplished Indian CEOs in the global banking scenario.
His has been a mindboggling ‘rags to riches’ turnaround from financial poverty in the 1960s to a top global banking CEO in the 2000s ending last year with a monthly salary of over QAR 1crore. Having been in the Gulf for over almost four decades, half of which as the CEO of Doha Bank, Seetharaman, now 63, is looking forward to a new phase in his life. Learning and deep research have been an integral part of his life and a big contributory factor in his success. He is hoping to complete his fourth P hD in the near future and has also set his sights on research into spirituality. He has had a long association with the top Universities globally and expects to continue his guest lecturer role in those. Having been in the financial services space for decades, it is likely he will get into the Wealth Advisory segment.
Known for his strong views on every aspect of economics, he will also have on offer for the Economic Pundits 'Seetharamanomics'on the digital platform.
Before all that, he may have one final score to settle with his banking firm!!!