The process is oriented towards building new disciplines and capabilities among BOP members and allows the Bank to develop and enable the rural poor. It provides the underserved segments access to financial services in a well-defined credit analysis framework while creating opportunities and encouraging growth. This brings us to the management theory Y idea devised by Douglas McGregor in his 1960 book "The Human Side of Enterprise."5.
The foundation of the ICICI micro-lending model is the empowerment and growth of SHG groups. As semi-autonomous teams, the SHGs manage their own performance and team design, and receive their tasks and goals directly from ICICI. The end goal created by ICICI is to have the members of the SHGs "become active and informed participants in the socioeconomic processes as opposed to passive observers,"6 while returning a sustainable profit to its shareholders. ICICI has left the team formation and function to the individual SHG members, coordinators, and promoters, while only establishing the basic structure each SHG must fulfill. In structuring the SHGs in this way ICICI ensures that it sets up each SHG for success while placing the burden to succeed collectively on each individual within the SHG.
Three central ideas are apparent in the SHGs semi-autonomous team structure; shared purpose, individual and team discipline, and personal accountability to each other and to the team. Once formed, ICICI requires each SHG to establish a savings account, elect leaders, and to start saving. Each SHG is actively recruited from the local population and takes several months to vet those members who are willing and capable of joining the SHG. During this process, the idea that each member is contributing to the SHG and that the SHG as a whole can save more than any one individual possibly could, creates shared purpose. The shared purpose of the SHG is to save responsibly, lend responsibly, and borrow responsibly.
