SVP – Commercial Growth — Retail Bank

The mandate

An institutionally backed retail bank has seen growth slow in priority segments. Commercial teams disagree about whether weak volume reflects proposition, pricing or channel execution. The investment committee has withheld expansion until one executive demonstrates that new revenue is both incremental and responsible.

The SVP – Commercial Growth will influence approximately ₹79,550 crore in loans and deposits and lead around 675 employees and material partners. Scope includes segment strategy, distribution, partnerships, pricing execution, pipeline, commercial operations and frontline productivity. Credit and compliance retain independent authorities; the SVP owns the commercial system and first-line conduct.

Growth quality should connect source, eligibility, approval, funding, activation, repayment, complaints and retention. Channels that generate applications but weak customers cannot claim success. Pricing discounts and fee concessions need expected value, expiry and owner.

Supervisory remediation must change incentives and sales practice. Scripts, leads, partner sources and frontline management should prove suitability and fair treatment. The executive will restore capacity only when sustainable control evidence exists.

Segment strategy requires focus. The bank should invest in propositions where customer need, distribution advantage and economics align, while stopping broad campaigns that create activity without depth.

Commercial operations need a permanent analytical spine. Territory design, lead allocation and frontline capacity should follow observed opportunity rather than historic headcount. The SVP will compare branch, digital, call-centre and partner economics over the same outcome window, including service effort. Customer depth must not reward unsuitable cross-sell. Partner contracts need source transparency, data rights, complaint ownership and stop authority. Frontline managers should use coaching and file quality rather than end-period pressure. Marketing audiences must reconcile with approval appetite so customers are not repeatedly drawn to inaccessible propositions.

Customer propositions need renewal as well as better execution. Growth experiments will state cohort, observation window, expected asset quality and stop rule before launch. Branch and relationship capacity may move towards advice where digital channels handle routine activity, with explicit customer hand-offs. Commercial data must detect abandoned journeys, repeated applications and channel switching so volume is not counted twice. Quality reviews will combine sales, credit, complaints and service evidence, escalating any segment where conversion improves while understanding or repayment deteriorates.

Commercial operations need a permanent analytical spine. Territory design, lead allocation and frontline capacity should follow observed opportunity rather than historic headcount. The SVP will compare branch, digital, call-centre and partner economics over the same outcome window, including service effort. Customer depth must not reward unsuitable cross-sell. Partner contracts need source transparency, data rights, complaint ownership and stop authority. Frontline managers should use coaching and file quality rather than end-period pressure. Marketing audiences must reconcile with approval appetite so customers are not repeatedly drawn to inaccessible propositions.

Why this seat is open

This urgent new role replaces distributed ownership during remediation. The board expects a qualified shortlist to offer process within six to eight weeks.

What you will own

• Build cohort economics from source through retained, risk-adjusted revenue.
• Steward commercial choices across the ₹79,550 crore loan and deposit book.
• Reset segment, channel, partner, pricing and frontline execution.
• Embed supervisory remediation in ordinary sales management.
• Govern concessions, incentives and commercial exceptions.
• Lead 675 employees and partners with clear segment accountability.
• Restore expansion only after evidence-based control gates.
• Give the board reliable pipeline, downside and corrective choices.

The first 12 months

The first 90 days should reconcile funnel, pricing, customer and control evidence. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to growth, including customers represented through research, supervisors, frontline teams, credit and partners. Review priority segments and exceptions, assess leadership and agree board gates for renewed investment.

Months four to nine should relaunch selected segments, reshape incentives and exit weak sources. Fill leadership gaps and introduce common pipeline and cohort reviews. The first value should appear in funded quality, price realisation, retention or lower waste without control deterioration.

By year end, quality revenue, pricing discipline and a repeatable commercial engine should be sustained. Delivery must remain within 10% of baseline and forecasts should reconcile pipeline, cash, customer and people assumptions for three quarters. Priority remediation requires independent closure evidence; severe escalation cannot age beyond 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Retained, risk-adjusted revenue by segment, source and channel.
• Price realisation and reduction in unsupported concessions.
• Supervisory actions embedded in frontline practice and incentive.
• Pipeline conversion without complaint or asset-quality deterioration.
• Retention above 90% for critical commercial talent and ready-now cover for 70% of direct reports.
• Quantified improvement in priority-segment growth with clean data ownership.

The person

You are an SVP Commercial Growth, Distribution Head or Retail Business Executive with 22–28 years in regulated banking. You have rebuilt growth during conduct or supervisory constraint.

Your accountable P&L, book, budget or portfolio has been at least ₹46,150 crore, and you have led 475 or more people. You can evidence a segment growth reset whose revenue, customer and control outcomes held across two reporting periods.

You can challenge both control fatalism and sales optimism, remove volume that lacks value and retain frontline followership through changed incentives.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable. The permanent Gurugram role is onsite and permits notice up to six months.

Confidentiality

The bank and remediation will be disclosed only under confidentiality. Figures and events are blended.