SHAINA MALHOTRA
Shaina Malhotra from Delhi had a flourishing career of over 20 years in sales and training. For the most part of her career, she had been with Citibank N.A. in credit cards, branch banking, sales, service and operations. She managed Pan-India teams that engaged affluent customers to acquire new loans, accounts, credit cards and investments.
She was the sales head and assistant VP for the Bank’s Pan-India phone-based sales business and the service manager for assets and insurance business. It was under her guidance that her teams won over 27 sales awards in 8 years for outstanding performance.
But all this success came at a high cost – hectic schedules, burnout, stress, anxiety, pressure, and mounting workload which took a toll on her health and well-being. So, she made up her mind to start a new career and take a life path that is more fulfilling, productive, and satisfying. In 2012, she took a leap of faith. That is when ICBI changed her life, for better!
DIANA SWING
“Taking this step has opened up so many avenues that I couldn’t even consider before.”
Diana was a Banking Professional for the past 15 years but always felt like a fish out of water. She longed to be in a profession where she could study, gain knowledge and information every day, and share and disseminate this information to others. She especially wanted to study and teach topics that would empower people to optimize their innate potential, equip them with skills that were considered invaluable at the workplace and helped them to live a meaningful life.
She often used to see advertisements by ICBI and was tempted on many an occasion to call or visit them and find out more. However, something always held her back. Finally, she reached a point in life where she had to face up to the truth that she was in the wrong profession and had to be true to herself. It was now or never!
Unable to achieve her true potential in the BFSI sector and in search of a career that was financially more fulfilling and mentally satisfying, she joined ICBI in November 2017. And in April 2018, she had her first assignment! It was a project for a prestigious multinational bank, where she was required to coach their Relationship Managers on various soft skills that were required by them, as they were all dealing with high net worth individuals as their clients.
Diana worked for a total of only 24 days over a 5-month period, and was paid Rs. 2,00,000 for this assignment, which was almost entirely the amount that she had paid for the Soft Skills Certification course!
In only a year’s time, Diana’s mind has expanded and opened up to endless possibilities that stretched out in front of her. She continued to be delighted by the support and encouragement provided by the staff of ICBI, Pune. Today she is a proud member of the ICBI family with a flourishing career.
SUPRIYA ROY
Supriya was delighted to have bagged a job as an L&D officer at a leading life insurance company – HDFC Life. She was hired to impart product and process knowledge to the sales team. She served the company for over 5 years and learnt a lot. She trained professionals whose experience was more than her own age. She not only trained the employees of HDFC Life but those of all other channel partners and associated BFSI concerns which included banks like Bank of Baroda, Saraswat Bank, HDFC Bank and NBFCs like NABARD. Supriya became a pro at insurance and lead the sales team to manage their clients. She spent a huge chunk of her time on the field providing on-the-job training to the salespeople. Everything seemed good, but there was something that was always missing.
Working with a brand on a competitive package wasn’t enough for Supriya. Finance training was not her true calling. Over a period of time she realised that she was interested in real development of people. She did not want to restrict herself to an industry or a product. She wanted to empower people and make them confident individuals. She was feeling chained in the BFSI sector where she was bound and could only do so little to help people realise their true potential.
Supriya knew that she now wanted to move on, leave behind the security and the luxury of a solid, fixed income. Her intentions were clear but she was looking for someone to give her a strategic push. That is when ICBI happened to her. She enrolled for the course but could not get over the investment that she had made. On one hand, she had lost a fixed income and on the other end, she was taking a risk of the investment she had made in the course. All throughout the course, there was just one thing that was there in her mind. She wanted to earn her income back within the first few months of course completion.
POONAM SOOD
“I am glad I did not settle for something ordinary.”
Being an accounting and finance graduate, Poonam’s career took a natural course and kick-started with her CA articleship at a Delhi based CA Firm. But soon, on completion of her articleship, she realized that taxation matters and compliance assignments were not a natural extension of her interest and abilities. She became a part of the corporate world, associated with a leading global Bank. After years of experience and exposure, unwilling to commit herself to a career in the BFSI sector, she turned to a profession where she could leverage her expertise.
This is when she chose a field where she could pursue her passion for training individuals so they could enhance their personality and performance. This change enabled her to make a big difference to people’s lives. After having gained years of experience in training, personality development, sales, customer service and call centre management, Poonam decided to start her own image consulting business.
But just like every aspiring entrepreneur, she thought she was probably taking a risk. The war between emotion and logic started inside her and she went through it for longer than anyone can imagine. But today, years later, she is glad that she did not settle for something ordinary. ICBI’s ongoing hand-holding empowered her to establish her own consulting & coaching practice.