HDFC Bank adopts single team approach to drive innovations

With an aim to speed up product innovation, the largest private sector lender HDFC Bank has started creating dedicated teams by taking executives from various business functions to execute different projects.

There are nearly a dozen such 'agile pod teams' having up to 40 members each drawn from across the hierarchy and various relevant business functions or departments to drive a project, sources said.

This approach has so far delivered three projects - instant account opening, biometric know your customer (KYC) and fixed deposit renewals over a call, the sources told PTI, adding over 10 other projects are already in the works.

Earlier, innovation proposals used to move from one department to another which was a time-consuming process, they said, adding under the new approach adopted as part of the 'One Bank' vision, the teams sit together.

Strategic areas where innovative interventions need to be adopted are already outlined in broader areas like digital banking, customer relationship management, instant loans etc, and these teams sit together to conceptualise and execute the specifics.

Decision making becomes quicker because the team sits together for a project and the ongoing pandemic has necessitated a need to look at more solutions.

"The pandemic and the lockdown has hastened the need to evaluate and execute with agility," said one of the sources, citing the experience with the insta-account opening feature, where it was able to add 3 lakh customers despite the lockdowns.

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The pod team consists of executives from branch banking, information technology and digital banking functions, and the bank was able to launch the feature within 12 days from concept to execution, they said.