Mr. Vibhash N Desai, Mumbai
The story of Monday Meeting started when I joined this amazing business of mutual fund distribution in 2007/8 and met my mentor, Prakash Rane. Initially, we were a group of a few ambitious persons who had joined NJ as partners under Prakash Rane, agency Manager. In the beginning, we were struggling to learn the nitty-gritty of this business and wealth management. We realised quite early that this is a business of building wealth by building relationships - friendship, excitement, and team spirit.
The initial 2 years went by contacting our natural connections and making them understand the benefits of mutual funds and SIP. However, the struggle started when our contacts got exhausted, and business became difficult because of a lack of prospects as well as facing rejections from clients since mutual funds were not that popular and the public in general did not have confidence in equity products.
Initially, we were a group of a few ambitious persons who had joined NJ as partners under Prakash Rane, agency Manager. In the beginning, we were struggling to learn the nitty-gritty of this business and wealth management. We realised quite early that this is a business of building wealth by building relationships - friendship, excitement, and team spirit.
The initial 2 years went by contacting our natural connections and making them understand the benefits of mutual funds and SIP. However, the struggle started when our contacts got exhausted, and business became difficult because of a lack of prospects as well as facing rejections from clients since mutual funds were not that popular and the public in general did not have confidence in equity products.
NJ used to organise monthly meetings of all partners once a month, and Bharat Kachhadia, our then branch manager, used to conduct the monthly meetings. This meeting was attended by a few passionate partners, including a few from our team. Bharat bhai encouraged us to show the 2 presentations to all prospects – Magic of Equity and GAP. We, as a team, followed this instruction and became experts in showing this presentation to all. As mutual funds and SIP were new at that time, we had few successes as well as many rejections on a daily basis.
In February 2010, an idea came to our mind: We should conduct a professional weekly meeting of our partners who want to grow in the business, and we decided to conduct such a meeting every Monday. Our first MONDAY MEETING was held on 22nd February 2010 at the NJ Andheri branch office. We framed the rules of the meeting and decided that we would conduct regular Monday meetings and share our experiences of building this business among ourselves to motivate each other in a positive way. We framed certain rules based on our experience and with the intention of learning from each other.
Some of the rules are as follows -
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Only positive experience sharing was allowed. All negative experiences must be discussed one-on-one with Prakash Rane/Vibhash N Desai.
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The timing of the meeting is to be strictly followed, and everyone must arrive at the specified time. The meeting was for 2 hours.
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Absenteeism is allowed only for family emergencies or if the partner is out of town.
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Every partner must record his daily activities and share his experiences, such as the number of calls/meetings and business done.
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Specific sharing of how you got business and what positive learning you had during the client meeting was shared by respective partners.
Vibhash N Desai, the pioneer of the concept of Monday Meeting, shared the success stories after showing Magic of Equity and GAP presentations. This inspired the other team members to give presentations, and slowly and steadily, the success stories were shared more frequently by all members of the team.
The Monday Meetings have been held continuously since 2010, and every meeting has been conducted without fail to date. We share the best practices and learnings; and encourage our team to read good books. We also believe in the power of group momentum.
The sharing was initially by 1 or 2 experienced partners in 2010, but now around 8/10 partners share their experiences and success stories each week. We also have knowledge sharing from Prakash bhai and other senior partners, as well as invitees from AMCs and sometimes the NJ Surat senior management team. We, as a team, share the excitement, success, and creative solutions that we give to our clients during the week. This positive energy works like a live current for our entire team for the next 7 days, and we again meet the following Monday with new ideas and success stories. We celebrate the success of partners by cutting cakes when they reach a landmark and appreciate innovative ideas they use to bring business. The entire time, I am happy when someone from the team is successful.
Over the years, Monday Meetings have created big, successful leaders like Vishwas Patil, Nehal Parekh, V Srinivas, Venkatasubramanian, Aashish Trivedi and many more. This has been possible due to the able leadership of Prakash Rane and support from respective Branch Managers of NJ Andheri branch, such as Bharat Kachhadia,, Shailesh Mathukia, and now the present BM Sarfaraj Yafai.
The success of this experiment of Monday Meeting is unprecedented. A voluntary meeting by a group of independent partners within the branch to help each other in this amazing business of MF distribution was a venture that has built a team, a PALTAN which has grown from 4-5 dedicated partners 14 years ago to a solid like-minded united team of 50 partners who meet every Monday for learning and mutual gain. The sole aim of this selfless team is to excel, help, encourage, and give positive vibrations to its team members week after week for the last 14 years.
Among these 50 partners, there are 19 partners who have an AUM of more than Rs 100 crore, 6 partners have an AUM of more than Rs 250 crore, and 2 among the group have an AUM of more than Rs 500 crore. From a group AUM of about Rs 10 crore in 2010, the AUM now has reached an AUM of about Rs 6800 crore.
Now, the next generation of partners have also joined the business, participated in the meetings and shared their experiences with energy and enthusiasm. We are very optimistic that with the participation of the next generation, we shall build a multi-generational business and, at the same time, help our clients to build multi-generational wealth in a right, systematic, and ethical way.
Here, It is very important to mention the support from the NJ team, the wonderful platform of NJ, the software support, training, and fantastic hand-holding by the entire team of NJ both in Mumbai and at Surat.
The conference room at Andheri, which we use each Monday, has become a landmark for all of us. The victory cheers at the end of each meeting have become very famous and can be heard in the entire commercial building. Due to the cheers, the next-door offices also know that the Monday meeting at NJ has concluded. We, as a team, look forward to attending the MONDAY MEETING every week with full excitement and enthusiasm.
I recommend that each NJ branch office start such a meeting at their branches. As a TEAM, we would be happy to help any group of partners who want to start such meetings at their branches.