When Piyush Gupta announced his retirement from Singapore’s DBS Bank, I immediately told our research team and they submitted his name for this year’s William “Bill” Seidman Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Financial Services Industry. This was put through our council of advisors who approved it unanimously. His achievements were nothing short of amazing.
There were some people who though that when I commented about Piyush in past posts (which are still on this website), that I was being critical of him or that I didn’t like him. I was in fact being entirely professional, while I held him accountable for some areas that I did not agree with him entirely, at no point did I lose sight of the amazing work he was doing at DBS. I could see both the positive and negative sides of his leadership.
I had only two gripes. Firstly, the idea that DBS was the “best bank in the world” was total nonsense, because there is no such thing and even if there was, there were many banks that were much more qualified than DBS and DBS has many internal issues that other banks did not have – which showed up eventually in the IT disruptions that it was blamed for. Secondly, I held that DBS was a beneficiary of the Singapore government’s approach of steering the economy primarily on exchange rates, so that the domestic banks were left to write their own net interest margin cheques as global rates changed.
So it was that when Piyush agreed to accept the Lifetime Achievement Award and do the on-stage fireside chat, some people were really surprised. I think it is a further accolade to Piyush’s humility and strength of character that he was able to put up with someone as opinionated as I am.
What followed was an intimate, unscripted conversation—about leadership, values, and the inner journey of building one of Asia’s most admired banks.
We were joined in this conversation by Tan Su Shan, CEO of DBS Chng Sok Hui, CFO, and Ti Eng Hui, an ex-Citibanker and StanChart career banker who had known Piyush in the course of his career.
We explored:
- Piyush’s life journey from college.
- Influences in his life.
- Good and bad times in his life.
- Advise to his successsor.
- The alchemy of managing shareholder interest in such a way as to see the bank rise from S$9 a share to $42 at its height.
- There were also the comments from Su Shan, Sok Hui and Eng Hui.
This was a conversation about more than banking. It was about what endures in a lifetime.
Watch the full video and revisit a defining moment with a leader who has inspired many bank CEOs around the world.
Click here for the full dialogue with Emmanuel Daniel: https://lnkd.in/gW9Y8n7G
Click below to experience the full event: https://lnkd.in/gyvnU27R
Click here for the full citation: https://lnkd.in/gW9Y8n7G
Click for more pictures: https://bit.ly/3HaURmS
