Patience vs Payoff: What HDFC Bank’s investors can learn from Sachin Tendulkar

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: 19 March 2006. Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

Sachin Tendulkar walks out to bat against England in a crucial test match. The whole stadium erupts in almost religious frenzy. “Saaaachinnnn, Sachin...".

The English players look around nervously as over 40,000 spectators chant their idol’s name in rhythmic unison. Sachin starts gingerly, taking 14 balls to score his first run. As the 19th over began, James Anderson bowled a straight delivery outside the off stump.

Sachin played his trademark drive but only managed to clip the ball with the toe end of the bat, offering a simple catch to the wicketkeeper. A hush descended on the stadium as he started to walk back to the pavilion. And then, the unthinkable happened.

A section of the crowd started booing. The ‘Little Master’ was being jeered at in his home stadium! In a cruel irony, even people seated in the Sachin Tendulkar Stand were booing him. To say that he was having a bad day at the office would be putting it mildly.

He was, in fact, in the middle of a horrendous dry spell stretching years. A string of flops, chronic health issues and a deluge of negative press had almost made him hang up his boots. And yet, his greatest glories lay ahead of him—goes to show how even legends are not immune to incredibly long stretches of doubt and underperformance.

Perhaps no group can appreciate this message more at the current juncture than the investors of HDFC Bank. India’s largest private sector bank had taken the market by surprise two years back when it announced a mega merger with its parent Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) in India’s biggest-ever M&A deal. The focus was on synergies and cross-selling opportunities.