Q: Can you briefly share the most significant steps in your transformational journey?

A: PMF Finance sits upon a legacy of four decades of public and private sector collaboration. It was initially operated as People’s Merchant Finance and now the financial institution is known as Path-maker Frontier Finance (PMF Finance), and strengthened by its majority shareholder Japan-based Sterling Capital Investments.

Being a mid-size financial institution with 12 branches, we are focussed on transformative growth by looking at what’s possible, practical and affordable given our scope, size and strength.

While turning around the company over the past three years, we have brought in many operational, administrative and structural changes to the organisation including integrating customers and other stakeholders in the equation. This formula has proven to be successful and we recorded a profit of Rs. 100 million in the first year under new management, and in the second year we doubled it. Now in our third year, we continue to look forward to growth through transformation.

Q: How does your company instill organisational success in its culture?

A: When we began operations as PMF Finance, we realised the need to transform our team, which consisted of multiple generations of workers who have been a part of the business.

With the guidance of Sterling Capital Investments, we incorporated the Japanese concept of kaizen to bring about change for continuous improvement. After we instilled productivity and efficiency in our culture, the company has been able to reap benefits in terms of enhanced passion and creativity.

We also understood the needs of our team members to have improved work experiences, engagement and benefits. The management gave the most important aspect of ownership to the staff, and with it – responsibility and accountability. This triple formula of ownership, responsibility and accountability is what our culture consists of, and we recruit and retain staff who fit this ethos.

Q: What is your philosophy when it comes to customers?

A: PMF Finance believes in being relevant to the aspirations and expectations of various segments of customers ranging from youth, women and professionals to entrepreneurs and businesspeople.

As a reliable financial institution, we are empowered by agility rather than shackled by rigidity, and this helps us provide customers with financial solutions that are commercially viable and sustainable.

Q: How does the PMF brand add value to customers?

A: PMF stands for Path-maker Frontier, and we guide our customers along the right path that’s been created to take them on their journey to their desired destination. The asterisk in our brand logo represents our customers – they are our most important stakeholders, and we strive to live up to their expectations of us.

This thinking has led to the introduction of many innovations, including our recent launch of the Navodhaya entrepreneurship loan scheme, which will enable economic revival at the rural and regional level through sustainable entrepreneurship.

We invest heavily in making financial services available more often, affordable and easily accessible to more people throughout the country. Our commitment is not only to provide good quality products and services to our clients but also to ease their overall journey, which will take them to the frontiers that matter most to them.

– Compiled by Ruwandi Perera