March 2-3, 1985, Vienna, Austria

For the second time the Imperial city of Vienna, the capital of Austria, hosted the BCC Group Annual Management Conference on March 2-3, 1985.

Vienna's imperial grandeur is the legacy of the powerful Habsburg monarchy, which was a multi-national empire in Central Europe under the rule of the Hapsburg dynasty centered in Vienna from 1217 until 1918. The Habsburgs were usually also head of the Holy Roman Empire.

The city of Vienna was always a fertile soil for art and culture. Baroque streetscapes and the imperial palaces set the stage for Vienna's artistic and musical masterpieces. An atmosphere for inspiration and creativity to which BCC family members from distant countries around the world were invited and took part with the BCC President and senior management in the conference discourses. In the atmosphere of creativity, they were inspired to be one with BCC's identity and with one another.

• Invitation letter from BCC President to the 1985 BCC Group Annual Management Conference

• AGENDA

Second Vienna Conference Report

MANAGEMENT

Management may be defined as giving or providing a direction to an energy system towards goals, objectives, and purposes; relating the energy of others; converting into productivity and results; making things happen.

Management (having a deep sense of meaning of the following makes the instinct of Management)

1.The Power and the Vital Principle = 2.Energy = 3. Change = 4.Process = 5.Evolution = 6.Possibility = 7.Purpose = 8. Existence = 9. MANAGEMENT

• 'The Power' is the source of all power and the totality of power. In its totality it is omnipotent and it is omnipresent. The power created all that is in existence - all that exists creates power. Power is created through the relationship and in the unity of the state of existence and the state of no-existence, unity through an immutable and inevitable relationship between the two. Power has an inherent quality of flow, movement and an ability to bring about a change. It is a quality which we call change - a quality that makes itself omnipresent and omnipotent. "The Vital Principle" is the quality of power to flow, move and change. The vital principle sustains existence. The vital principle is existence itself, the dynamic existence.
• 'Energy'. All creation is energy. It is the irreducible constant. Energy, being dynamic, remains in flux - a flux of total energy in the medium of change. This flux of total energy is called the cosmic energy. Energy exists in and within all visible and tangible and all intangible and invisible forms. The sum total of energy, which is the sum total of existence in its finality, is contained in the state of no-existence.
• 'Change' is the relationship between the state of no-existence and the state of existence. Change is interfusion of energy (from the smallest to the biggest streams) within the flux of cosmic energy.
• 'Process' is a constant and continuous chain of change that sucks into it all that is changing and, therefore, all that is happening and all that is in existence in its dynamic form.
• 'Evolution' is a continuous procession or a succession of configurations and patterns of tangible, visible, and intangible, invisible patterns of energy systems that result from change and all of which are instantly and constantly changing. Evolution makes life and existence what it becomes in every infinitesimal span of time in the process of change.
• 'Possibility' is equivalent to the total phenomenon of change - all that is contained in the process or the process of change and all that is produced by evolution. Possibility for an individual is the extent to which changes in him synchronise with the phenomena of change, process and evolution.
• 'Purpose' is all that existence is. There is no existence without purpose; there is no purpose without existence.
• 'Existence' is the vital principle, energy, change, process, evolution, possibility, purpose. It is nothing else. It is energy in its visible, tangible, and all other invisible and intangible forms. Existence is the cosmic energy system in its dynamic state.
• 'Management' is the vital principle. Management is that which sustains cosmic existence. Management is relating purpose to existence. Management is equivalent to vital principle, energy, change, process, evolution, possibility, existence, purpose all put together. Management is synchronisation of the manager with the truth that makes the sum total of all these or one of them (all of them are different faces of one and the same truth and each one is synonymous with the other).

MANAGER

The singular and the most important quality and requirement of a manager is to have a clear meaning, perception and vision of purpose and goals and a clean instinct for (a) Purpose (b) People (c) Planning (d) Priorities (e) Possibilities (f) Products (g) Profit-moral and material.

You have within you the personality of an able banker and a quality manager and you have a strong urge to express yourself as such.

This urge expresses itself in the. form of your ability and capacity to deal with and organise people, products and possibilities.

Every manager must have a clear perception, a clear vision and a clean instinct for a balanced relationship and interaction between the following:

• Purpose
• People (human resources - staff)
• Planning
• Priorities
• Possibilities (market-place and clients)
• Products
• Profit

For the facility of your perception and quick understanding, we are presenting the meaning of this truth in the form of a triangle, as below:

When you have a clear perception about what has been stated, you will begin to evaluate and determine the relationship between

• the capability and capacity of your people
• the nature, quality, size and cost of your products and
• the possibilities of your market-place.

You would then

• Determine and make the products based on their nature, size, quality and cost that would suit your purpose and equally suit the requirements and demand of the market-place. (For example, in the case of deposits as products, you will keep in view the cost and your requirement of having a broad base of deposits.)
• Realise that the products would differ at different places in the light of your own situation there and the different needs and demands of the market-place.
• Assess the size of your market-place in the context of your products and the demand for them.
• Adjust the capability and capacity of your staff, in terms of number and quality, by measuring them against the requirements as needed in the context of the supply and demand situation of the market-place.
• Make searching enquiries about the present number and capacity of your staff in the context of the products and the size of the market-place and adjust it accordingly.
• Find that your present number and capacity of staff, including the members of the marketing committee, have never been fully utilised, or you may feel the need to increase the staff in the light of your new perception of products and their demand in the market-place.

A UNIVERSE OF FAITH

I feel nervous and peaceful, and I feel a sense of joy.

I feel something that is in me and I live in it.

I feel the promise and the hope of an invitation to live in a new universe - a universe of faith from which I now speak.

It is a new ecology and a new environment.

BCC is in the process of confirming my faith, my hope and my -experiences. It has become part of my substance and an expression of my spirit.

Language is completely inadequate to express what I feel.

I am in the process of becoming.

We are all very much more than we appear to be.

What we really are extends far beyond our physical volume. Our energy pervades the ecosystem in which we live and we sense this in others. When we meet another person, it is possible to feel what he feels. It is possible to create, sustain and live within an effective and wholesome ecosystem.

In trying to understand ecology, I feel obliged to intellectualise it. But I would prefer simply to feel it. Because I live in my ecosystem, I cannot describe it, just as fish might not feel the need to explain water or birds the air.

The move into our own self-nature leads to new levels of experience - transcendence, and the spiritualisation of one's being. The spirit has the power to shape tangible reality when it is working in harmony with the energy psyche. We should be aware of our volume, sensitive and finely balanced as it is. Hope must be one with our deepest being.

'I know that the Major Purpose has energised BCC. It has sustained us through our history and will sustain us in the years to come.'

THE DESIRE OF BCC

The Ecology of BCC

The subject of this year's annual management conference was very simple, and at the same time exceedingly beautiful. It was desire - the desire of the BCC family to claim the territory of time and to reach the furthest possibility.

This is a simple desire to mobilise and to marshal the infinite quality and power that resides within us all. The BCC family desires this in all humility, and the priority is to locate this desire within us. For this there must be a coalescence of our life function, our psyche, our self-nature and our instinct. There must be a coalescence of our meaning and our feeling. Meaning has to become one with our feeling, and the quality and values of BCC must become our own instinct and our own feeling.

This is not an idea for the intellect to play with, nor is it something that is external to us. In BCC we have removed the duality of subject and object and we seek to live the oneness of life. This is an eternal subject which is of permanent value to us. We are very concerned with the quality of our lives and the quality of our souls. In our search for truth, we have come to the conclusion that we cannot live without God.

We have a desire to tame time and to reach the furthest frontiers of possibility, but how are we to do this? Human power is composed of physical power together with the qualities of our self-nature. Within our self-nature we attribute the highest value to humility, but it is important that we do not struggle with the meaning of humility. We can simply ask ourselves if humility has become our self-nature and our instinct. If it has, then we can feel possibility and live in it, and not just think about it.

Conquering the self means living in the kingdom of infinite quality and hope. That kingdom is within us and we are making it our nature, our psyche and our instinct. The meaning of humility is becoming our feeling for humility. Any duality between the two is banished. The process of BCC, which is its dynamism and its evolution, emerges from the coalescence of this meaning and the 11,000 members of our family. Once humility has become you and you have become humility, the real meaning of humility comes to live within you permanently.

The process of BCC is the process of becoming of our souls. This is why the moral environment in which we live is so important to us. It has a direct influence on the health and well-being of our psyche. An invisible process of coalescence unites the qualities of the environment with the psyche. Thus the ecology of BCC is its moral environment in a dynamic and changing state. It is a pure and healthy ecology which puts BCC at the forefront of the development of management principles. We see that the world around us is moving towards the imperative of morality as an essential factor in management.

'What art can equal the art of management? It is a living art in its true sense, and managers are artists of the art of living.'

As the quality of our feeling coalesces, our desire grows to match the challenge of time and its infinity and to reach the furthest frontiers of possibility. The BCC family is harnessing cosmic power by its quality. We have within us power in its infinite value. We want to harness it for a purpose, because we need a purpose to make us reach for the frontiers of possibility.

The purpose for us is God, humility, giving, success and humanity. Humility is the container of majesty, and majesty is related to dimensions in its power, glory and sublimity.

Our purpose relates to totality and our ecology is God. We live in His divinity and His providence, but as bankers we also live in a hard, pragmatic world. It is just that we recognise an ecology beyond this: the ecology of God.

We find God in our own soul, so that the ecology of BCC is the ecology of its soul. The inner merges with the outer. The environment is within you. Let it come out of you and interfuse with the ecology outside you. The dimension of our soul is hope, love, compassion and humility. The sum total of these qualities makes up our ecology.

We usually have specific hopes, but we might ask ourselves if hope might become an unlimited state of feeling, rather than something specific. This would bring us to live within the power of totality and would bring fulfilment to our aspirations and our desire. BCC's management philosophy addresses the marvellous content of our energy - that is, our faith, our hope, our courage and our humility. When we feel that we are living in the flux of energy, that is our ecology. Management, in our terms, is contributing to the dynamics of our energy system. We take our best inspiration from nature and from inner silence. Silence contains all that is said. Nothing could be more powerful than silence to convey the meaning.

'Our soul is the quality of our lives. '

We should always bear in mind that we - the BCC family - are the subject of management and that we are constantly bringing together the meaning of Real Management with our instinct. Management means having an instinct for managing human energy systems, and our conferences help us to develop a realisation of this. They are an important part of the process of learning by which we attempt to make our perceptions as clear as possible.

If this year's annual management conference brings to our awareness that we all have the potential to be managers, then we shall count the conference a success. We find that management is a constant source of pleasure. This comes from the experience of managing people and at the same time being managed by them. In BCC, management is always a two-way process. This is its strength and its joy.

To be successful managers, we must remove the dust from the mirror that is our soul and our instinct. Our soul is as valuable to us as it is because it is the quality of our lives. The ecology of BCC is not physical - it is spiritual and moral. A conference of BCC managers is a gathering of men and women in their spiritual dimension. In our effort to understand the essence of management, we have embarked on a search for the identity of truth. In our search, we found no alternative but to reach for totality.

We have in humility discovered the laws of nature by which we seek to live. The confines of these laws are no less than infinity. We are as clear about them as water is clear on a summer's day. The truth of totality lives in us and we live in the truth of totality.

The first law of nature is related to the phenomenon of change. This is the flow principle. Parts and totality are in a state of constant flux and this makes up the dynamism of existence. Change flows on and on to no-existence and this is what makes infinity. We live in and through change. Change is the nature of all things.

'This galaxy of brilliant psyches living in the ecology of truth. '

Another law of nature is the relationship of the state of existence with the state of no-existence. This is the unity of opposites. The boundary line of all existence is the meeting point of existence and no-existence. This is also the boundary line of possibility. All the laws and principles of nature taken together are nature, and we live inescapably within the fold of nature. This is the nature of nature, the nature of all existence. To be able to manage, we must have a feeling and an instinct for all this.

The process of change emanates from the relationship of existence with no-existence. Nature has the capacity to be in a state of existence and a state of no-existence at the same time. Human beings also have this capacity. When you can feel the unity of the state of existence with the state of no-existence at the same time within you, you are on the way to being a real manager.

BCC's management philosophy is founded on the unity of the moral and the material. Material is energy and moral is quality. In BCC we are going to show the world that our bank is the quality bank. The meaning of quality has to be energised within us. Managers have a responsibility to see that this happens throughout BCC. In the energising of the meaning of quality, truth becomes our self nature. Thus, Real Management deals with the nature of man and attempts to enhance the quality of his nature. The high point of Real Management is reached when our instinct is released for a purpose. We know the boundaries of possibility of human nature, and we know the power of human nature. Real Management seeks to release that potential.

The source of power in a human being is not physical. The source of power is its own quality, which becomes its nature through the process of change. Management then is the game of human nature. It is our life. What art can equal the art of management? It is a living art in its true sense, and managers are artists in the art of living.

The Meaning of Management

THE MANAGER

We relate ourselves to the totality of the flux that existence is. But we can only realise our true nature if we believe that we have a nature. Our nature is flowing all the time, and different qualities come to the surface at different times. The flux of qualities in our energy psyche forms our instinct. Intuition is the synthesis in a dynamic state of our nature with cosmic nature. The transition from instinct to intuition is creativity. We know and feel what creativity is. We become creative as soon as we start to interfuse. The philosophy and the style of our management are conducive to God's providence. We always come back to God's providence. It is our ecology.

For us, management is like swimming in the ocean of change towards our destination. It is swimming in the infinite ocean of hope and humility. The best way to do something is to make it part of our nature, and we are learning to make hope, possibility and courage our nature. We are discovering the ocean of possibility, hope and humility within us. They are leading us to the ocean of totality, which is both within us and outside us. We are learning to swim in the dynamic flux of this ocean.

Profit invades us. It even invades our ability to make profit. All the qualities of our self-nature are required to make profit. Real Management, therefore, addresses the manager, the executive, the entrepreneur and the owner in all of us. We should feel the responsibility of BCC as an owner would feel it.

For this we need a clear perception of our purpose and a clean instinct for the possibilities of the market-place, for products and profit, and for management. The largest possible number of people in BCC should develop this instinct and feeling. This growth in self-awareness leads to an explosion of human energy.

Management and marketing are the acts of expressing one's self-nature. During yesterday and today I have been able to remove from my mind the duality of meaning between the two. I have learnt that management and marketing are in fact two different names given to the same process, the same challenge, the same phenomenon - that is, the phenomenon of success.

The quality .and quantity of success are measured by the yardstick of profit, in both the moral and the material terms, and it is in the actualisation of profit that both management and marketing become one and the same thing. A marketing action which has been actualised becomes a realised profit, whereas management is the process of bringing the unrealised possibilities and potential into the fold of the realised success. Management makes marketing happen and marketing is the expression of the quality and flow of management capability. Marketing without management is just a mechanical act of selling and management without marketing always lacks a sense of fulfilment. A manager can be a real manager only when he is able to perceive, feel, initiate and lead the process of marketing with the art of management.

'We know the boundaries of possibility of human nature and we know the power of human nature. Real Management seeks to release that potential. '

We have also learnt during these two days that the energy system of an organisation is the sum total (configuration) of the energy systems of its human resources and its quality. Since profit is the symbol and the indicator of success, a successful organisation must have an energy psyche in which profit is the soul and spirit of the energy system of its human resources. A real manager must be able to infuse the vitality and vibration of marketing and profit in the cells of the energy system of his team. So far we have now been living in an ethos of profit; from now on, we have to live in the ecology of profit. We have to further understand the anatomy of profit; we have to discover new roots of profit, we have to anticipate the behaviour of profit in the environment of change. We have to energise the meaning of profit; we have to feel profit in the atoms of our psyche.

Success is a process and not a product. Like any other process of nature, success must also have its evolution; its excellence; its continuum. The succession of success is to have more success and the evolution of profit is to have more profit. Our task is to bring more and more people into the fold of marketing by creating what we call, in the UK region, the twins and the doubles of the marketing personalities. We shall be true managers only when we are able to help more and more family members to experience the love of success and the joy of creating profit, by interfusing with them.

BCC is undoubtedly a very beautiful, very fertile and very promising land; that is why a power and a force like profit has chosen to conquer BCC. The citizens of this kingdom of love and humility welcome this invasion. Profit is not invading a foreign land; it is in fact coming home where it belongs. BCC will give glory and permanence to profit by making it a part of the Major Purpose, the totality, the eternity. The ecology of BCC will provide the space, the volume, the nourishment, and the environment for profit to grow and multiply forever.

'We have in humility discovered the laws of nature by which we seek to live. The confines of these laws are no less than infinity.'

Profit is the priority of our management. Profit is not only a bottom line; it will also remain a headline in the history of BCC. The unlimited quality of creating profit is there in our energy system. It has to be translated into the realised profit so that it cannot only flow into the balance sheet figures, but also contribute towards the health and purity of the ecosystem of the universe of BCC.

We cannot stop change either within us or outside us, but the key question is this: is change challenging us, or are we challenging change? The real challenge of change is that we contribute to change and that we knowingly live in change. Change is the greatest of all challenges, and the greatest challenge is to change ourselves so that we can relate to eternity and to infinity.

Once we initiate the process of change within us, it will take us on to the boundaries of infinity and to the boundaries of possibility. Possibilities and change are two words expressing the same truth. Change is not a conceptual or a philosophical exercise. It addresses our instinct and our nature. Can we change our hope, and the substance and feeling of our hope, so that we live in the infinite dimension of hope? This quality of hope is the divine promise.

Can we change our faith? Can we change the quality of our submission to God? Faith is a purified and advanced form of love. Submission is pure and total love of God. The request is that we make these meanings part of our feelings.

The challenge of '85 is the most important challenge. It is the greatest challenge. If every one of the 11,000 members of the BCC family takes it up, we would have the power that we have been seeking. How many of us would take up the challenge, and how many of us would succeed? Change is a gradual process, soft and sweet. It is a transformation of our self-nature in a climate of love.

THE CHALLENGE OF '85

Let us share a journey on this great and wonderful moving river that we know as BCC a river that is the manifestation of our energy, our interfusion, our interdependence and what we call our ecosystem. Undoubtedly BCC has been a success. We have a wide international presence, financial soundness and a high degree of profitability. Our growth has even been described as explosive.

Three short years ago we were US $7 billion in assets. Now we are US $14 billion in assets with capital funds of US $1 billion. These are the outward manifestations of our coming of age, by which the world judges us. How did this wonderful thing happen? What is this energy that has shaken the banking world?

Certainly the start was modest enough: US $2.5 million in capital and three branches in a fairly restricted area. Then the momentum developed and we spread through Europe, Africa, Asia and more recently the Americas. Our concentration on short-term trade transactions, liquidity and people-oriented street banking of a highly personalised nature are well known. They have been some of the ingredients of our success story.

But there had to be more - something to bring this all together. We, the newcomers to the BCC family, must look-up river, look back, if we are in this time of discovery and self assessment to observe fully and know what we are, get absorbed in the energy, renew it, and move with it. This understanding will make it possible to move beyond any realms we can at present imagine. There will be no end to this journey for us and for those who come after us. And the mystery and the beauty of this journey will be preserved and strengthened from generation to generation.

Let us examine some of the aspects of our collective desires and some of the perceptions of the founders and others who have caused this cascade of financial and moral success. The founders of this bank, those here, and those dotted all over the world, in the regions and branches in 70 countries, had a consciousness and a vision that was the fountain of the process of evolution. Their lives have touched ours, have been the source of inspiration by which we have felt the possibilities within ourselves, possibilities that we perhaps never knew were there.

'Can we change our hope, and the substance and feeling of our hope, so that we live in the infinite dimension of hope? That is the challenge of '85. '

In BCC there is tremendous energy arising from a deep commitment and a sensitised instinct which comes when you are deeply interested in this institution. The entire mind, the whole being is there! There is compulsion. We have the inspiration of people doing with their whole being (not just to "get ahead") but because they love the job. The race is not for first place but for excellence - to do something really worthwhile and of deep significance.

The joy of cooperation or interfusing, working together not to any predetermined plan for quarterly review but the joy and enthusiasm of working together without thought of reward or punishment for non¬compliance. Who can replace the friendship of those you worked with in the trenches and with whom you have shared the joy of marketing?

There is in BCC a vision and a release of creativity combined with pragmatism. We have needed it to have these fantastic achievements in this world of cutthroat competition. We have been innovative. Few ideas like inventions or marketing packages work in the real world precisely as envisaged. We have had the sense to modify the ideas, ourselves and the situations to make things happen.

All this has happened in a spirit of contagious optimism which has drawn others who feel that they simply have to be part of the action. We have colleagues dotted about the world with that indescribable quality that I can only call a "willingness to go all the way" - to take every personal risk and go to the brink. So enraptured are they with the job in hand that the job, the bank and themselves become one and indistinguishable from each other.

Staying in there and pitching and keeping with it when weaker hearts would have long found excuses and given up - this has helped to create the human dignity that is BCC and it is the real story behind the numbers. This is our coming of age and our strength.

THE CONQUEST OF BCC BY PROFIT

BCC has come of age, Maturity and Strength

BCC has come of age. It is now a major, mature, international financial institution. It has come of age through the clear perception and the clean instinct of our feelings. This is what gives us access to the psyche and the souls of other members of our family and allows us to interfuse. We know that, if ever our feelings stop flowing, the best source of inspiration is in submission to God. BCC is helping us to know our meaning, both individually and collectively. What other organisation provides such an opportunity? Are we always conscious of the value of this opportunity?

BCC is a mission and the ecology of our annual management conferences reflects this. The ecology of this conference hall should be taken into our feelings and preserved there. The members of the BCC family have become what has been discussed for two days at the conference. We have become a human energy system filled with meaning and purpose. We have a pure and simple desire that overcomes the constraints of time. We knew before the conference that human potential was unlimited, but during the conference our nature has unfolded before us.

Now we know the nature of our self-nature, with its myriad qualities in a dynamic state. It is up to each of us to see how much of our self¬nature we can bring to our consciousness. This is the process of evolution that each of us is realising. Jointly it means that we are living in God's style of management and under God's providence. The hard pragmatism that is called for in our profession as bankers is not a contradiction of this. Rather, it is the outcome. Because we know our meaning and our feeling, we will be the bank of the 21st century.

In moral terms we have to be ready for this responsibility. In material terms a great amount of profit is required. In each office in each branch, in each region, and in each subsidiary and affiliate the profit for 1984 could have been greater. A truly great amount of profit is required for 1985 and beyond. It will come from the meaning of a new vision and a new instinct. It will come from the clear vision, the clear perception and the clean instinct that has emerged from this year's annual management conference.

'We have to live in the ecology of profit and to understand the behaviour of profit in the ecology of change.'

Mr Agha Hasan Abedi had sent the following message to the participants of a conference held in Karachi a little before the annual management conference. It contains so much of the spirit and meaning of '85 that it should be repeated here:

'While you would be in the midst of the discussion on the subject of the conference - that subject that is so central to our efforts during 1985 and the subject that is the heart of our success - the subject of creating a large base of core deposits, building of low cost deposits and actualising the immense possibilities of expatriate deposits, may I request you to pause for a moment and let me reach you. Let me reach out to you on the waves of my feelings and love and bring to you the meaning of a few words I have for you this moment. May I request you earnestly that while exploring the possibilities related to the subject and the discussion through your minds, we should do so also through your feelings. For only when you see the possibilities within you, can you see them around and outside you. I would earnestly request you to feel and experience the meaning of core deposits, the meaning of low-cost deposits, the meaning of dollar deposits and the meaning and importance of expatriate deposits. The very meaning of BCC.'

The new approach of balancing the management and marketing capability and the identification of products and possibilities in each market with a clear perception and clean instinct represent a turning point in BCC's business strategy. The role of the newly-formed joint committee for deposits and profit would be to bring this new approach to everyone's consciousness by focusing on its application in the most vital areas of our operations, namely deposits and profits.

If we are able to develop the quality of clean instincts and clear perception we would not only be able to achieve so much more from what is known and visible, but our instinct and intuition will lead us to the limitless possibilities yet unknown and invisible to us. Besides, it will transform each one of us into a clear, clean, creative and highly organised personality, which would give us such happiness that cannot be measured in the often vague and unclear pursuit of life.

The challenge of '85 is now ingrained in the BCC human energy psyche. We have to keep pace with change, contribute to the process of change, change ourselves and change others.

'BCC is a mission, and the ecology of our annual management conferences reflects this. The ecology of this conference hall should be taken into our feelings and preserved there. '

We require just a simple change. That change is that we should have clear perception, clear meaning, clear vision and a clean instinct for our goals, objectives and purpose and for knowing how to achieve them. Let us now develop a clean instinct for profit, deposits and other products and a clear perception as to their composition, how to sell them, relating to each market place and its requirements.

Let us also decide to change in so far as it becomes our clear perception and clean instinct to make the largest number of staff also have a clear perception and a clean instinct for profit, deposits and other products that they can sell in their market places - and how to sell these products.

We would therefore redesign and reshape the deposit structure with a view to:

• reduce the cost of deposits
• rationalise the categories of current, savings and time deposits
• perceive clearly what should be our share of the market.

These aspects have now come into the instincts of BCC management because the major source of profit is now the low cost deposit.

Although deposit is an old product, as a result of our clear perception, it would become a 'new product' for us. Deposits have been identified as the product that would receive the highest priority in having a clear perception in the following respects:

• What is our present share of deposits in the market place?
• What are the possibilities of deposits in the market place?
• What is the present profile and mix of deposits?
• Non-interest-bearing accounts, checking accounts, interest-free balances in margin accounts, compensating balances etc.
• Savings accounts
• Term deposits
• What should be the new mix of deposits?
• What quantity and quality of the 'New Deposit Product' do we want to market for, in what time-frame and from what sources?
• What is the quantity and quality of human resources (energy) available for marketing this 'New Product' and how to build these resources equal to the opportunities available in the market place?

‘Because we know our meaning and our feeling, we will be the bank of the 21st century. We have to be ready for that responsibility.’

Profit is the end-product of all products and thus has an all-pervading importance in material terms. This year it is being particularly related to the product of deposits because of the realisation that the surest and most reliable way of increasing profit is to change significantly the composition of deposits and shift the emphasis to current and savings accounts and other low-cost deposits.

To help achieve all this, we should assemble within BCC the largest number of people who realise and accept the meaning and the purpose. We want people of purpose and meaning. If we do not succeed in doing this, we would be contained by the visible and the known. But when people see the possibility within themselves, they can also see the possibility that exists outside of them. In BCC we combine hard pragmatism with love and compassion. We match our professionalism with our instinct.

We should be mindful of the joy that we are and the joy of what we are going to achieve. God in His infinite mercy gives us each day to live. Let us live it in humility, so that we may receive the divinity of God. We should give love, hope and courage. We should relieve pain wherever we see it - whether it is moral, psychic or physical. We should be careful not to degrade Giving. Each day is another day for Giving and for living in humility.

GOD, PROVIDENCE, DIVINITY, FAITH, BCC

We live each day in divinity, in the power and quality of divinity. It rains on us. We are enveloped by it. Divinity is the totality of the flux of energy. We are living all the time in the flux of energy which is loaded with God's qualities. We enhance the quality of our own existence by way of humility. When we live in humility, God's providence pours into us. It is the quality of our meaning that we receive God's divinity and providence.

The ecology of BCC is God's ecology. God showers His infinite benevolence on us because we have the humility to receive it. The light of providence is our guiding light and the power of providence goes deep into our souls. Know the meaning of the power and the light that providence is when it gets into our soul and starts illuminating it. Divinity is stronger in silence than when we speak. Words cannot do justice to what we are trying to express. We are left in silence and in humility.

Acknowledgement: 

In-house Magazines

Also read:

• Human Resources
• Around the BCC World