Case Study on Icici Bank
KM tigers
ICICI Bank has grown six-fold since its KM strategy was established in 2000, making it the second biggest in India today. But that strategy has been robust enough to grow with it. Central to ICICI Bank’s success has been its flexible, innovative methods, and a plethora of KM tools that were cannily marketed to staff from the very start.
By Deepa Prabhu
ICICI was founded in the mid-1950s at the behest of the World Bank, the Indian government and various ‘captains of industry’ in India. Its purpose back then was to provide medium and long-term development finance for Indian business.
In the mid-1990s its business strategy shifted to take advantage of the opening up of the Indian economy. The idea? To create a diversified financial-services supplier offering a range of products, instead of concentrating purely on project finance. ICICI Bank was, therefore, established in 1994 to provide retail banking facilities across India.
The idea was well timed and proved wildly successful. Today, it is the second largest bank in India with assets of almost $40bn and can boast a network of more than 570 branches and a steadily growing international business, with branches in the UK, Russia and Canada.
First steps
ICICI Bank’s knowledge management (KM) strategy was established in 2000. Back then, the company was very much smaller than it is now – just 1,200 staff compared to the 30,000 that work for ICICI Bank today.
However, the programme was started at a time when the company’s growth was starting to go into overdrive. Initially, the organisation developed a broad technology-linked infrastructure, including a corporate intranet, ICICI Universe, intended to provide a platform where, for instance, employees could check the human resources (HR) system for vacation entitlements, book days off or view their personal pension details.
By putting these simple, but necessary activities on the intranet, it encouraged employees to get familiar with
ICICI Bank has grown six-fold since its KM strategy was established in 2000, making it the second biggest in India today. But that strategy has been robust enough to grow with it. Central to ICICI Bank’s success has been its flexible, innovative methods, and a plethora of KM tools that were cannily marketed to staff from the very start.
By Deepa Prabhu
ICICI was founded in the mid-1950s at the behest of the World Bank, the Indian government and various ‘captains of industry’ in India. Its purpose back then was to provide medium and long-term development finance for Indian business.
In the mid-1990s its business strategy shifted to take advantage of the opening up of the Indian economy. The idea? To create a diversified financial-services supplier offering a range of products, instead of concentrating purely on project finance. ICICI Bank was, therefore, established in 1994 to provide retail banking facilities across India.
The idea was well timed and proved wildly successful. Today, it is the second largest bank in India with assets of almost $40bn and can boast a network of more than 570 branches and a steadily growing international business, with branches in the UK, Russia and Canada.
First steps
ICICI Bank’s knowledge management (KM) strategy was established in 2000. Back then, the company was very much smaller than it is now – just 1,200 staff compared to the 30,000 that work for ICICI Bank today.
However, the programme was started at a time when the company’s growth was starting to go into overdrive. Initially, the organisation developed a broad technology-linked infrastructure, including a corporate intranet, ICICI Universe, intended to provide a platform where, for instance, employees could check the human resources (HR) system for vacation entitlements, book days off or view their personal pension details.
By putting these simple, but necessary activities on the intranet, it encouraged employees to get familiar with