We learned about HUVABUVA and how they provide services in multiple domains in the Middle East and globally. Soon after, we got this opportunity to interview Sai Narain CDK. He is the Founder & CEO of HUVABUVA and a strategist, retail banking expert, speaker, and social entrepreneur. It was great to talk with such an energetic and influential leader with high integrity and deep thinking.
Sai Narain is a creative person, passionate about fine arts, who always looks for possibilities hidden within impossibilities. With a refined mind and continuous future focus, Sai Narain has over 30 years of experience in consumer banking. He worked across 3 international banks, managing markets in Asia, Africa, Middle East and Europe. Sai Narain has unparalleled resilience and emphasizes taking action and surmounting challenges as key to success.
He is on the cusp of launching his first Startup, STARTLINGS this summer in UAE under the HUVABUVA group to help students gain expertise and knowledge about embarking on their journey in Startups.
Learn more about Sai Narain CDK and his business transformation & growth approaches at HUVABUVA.
Explain the background of you and the company in detail.
I am a FOUNDER & CEO, STARTUP CO-FOUNDER, RETAIL BANKING LEADER, STRATEGIST, SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR, and SPEAKER. I am a Mechanical Engineer with an MBA in Marketing. In addition, I have been in Banking for 30 years and recently started my own Management and Business Consultancy firm HUVABUVA which stands for Human Values to Business Value.
There is a reason why I gave my venture this name. My strong personal belief and experience over the last 3 decades has been that there is ONE fundamental challenge in how the global economy has been shaping up. “Organisation/Profit-Centricity” vs. “Client-Centricity.”
There are enough CEOs who stand on a pedestal and shout about how “Client-centric” they are but not one I have seen publish their mobile number or even email ID openly telling their clients, “Hey you can call me if you aren’t getting value from my company.” They won’t because they know that they have other priorities.
Why does this happen? It’s because “value” always takes priority over “Values.” Notice the upper and lower case in the first alphabet. I cannot do much alone, but I would like to do my bit through my business and talk about this widely.
HUVABUVA offers a range of services, including Retail Banking and Retail Business Advisory and Business Services, Employee Experience Programs, Customer Experience Programs, Startup support and Incubation, Marketing Services, and Corporate and Client Events design and delivery.
What are your goals?
My goal is to enrich people’s lives. In that process, I have multiple objectives. These include aiding businesses and their employees, supporting social causes effectively, i.e., not just posting “likes” on social media, delivering personal development interventions for professionals, supporting startups through their lifecycle, and most importantly, aiding Brands deliver goosebump moments to their clients.
What do you feel is the biggest strength of yourself/company right now?
My biggest strength is my experience coupled with an equal mix of Futuristic thinking. I never would sit on my history for a moment as I am acutely aware that the world has moved on. I would like to learn from today and future “What” needs to be done – Market need, but I would like to leverage from past/experience “How” it needs to be done, i.e., Deliver “value” without compromising on “Values.”
What was the path you/your company took to get to where you are today?
We are a young company, and therefore I prefer to answer this question in 2025.
Why did you start (or want to be the head of) this company?
Therefore, the motivation to craft my own space and destiny has been pushing me for the last 10 years. However, the inertia to leave a paycheck job is always high. A paycheck job makes you mediocre by and large as your thinking and perspective are myopic and enslaved in Corporate legacies and hypocrisy. If you are a person with a vision, you need to take control of your destiny. As hard as it may seem, the earlier in life you embark on this, the more the chances of success.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I am still in the middle of challenges, and many of them I haven’t yet overcome, but I have belief. After 3 decades of holding senior positions and managing teams of up to 3000 people across multiple countries, today, I wait to meet a junior employee in a Bank to win some business.
It is a humbling experience, but that’s the reality of what I have taken on. The biggest challenge is that I am starting from scratch. I realize that my 30 years of experience is not worth much. People respect you and give you time when you are in a position of power or authority, but you do come to know your true worth when that’s gone.
This is what a paycheck job does to you. Give you an artificial sense of superiority. You may be the CEO of a $100bn global corporation, but you are another salaried employee of that company.
On the other hand, a small entrepreneur who makes a $100K annual revenue and employs 3 staff is respected more as he is an employer. Big difference but little realized. My challenge is for this reality to sink in fast.
Give us one word that describes you the best.
Re-invent myself everyday
What makes you excited about Mondays?
Meeting new prospects, giving shape to new ideas, and finding talented people to Business-ify my ideas. I am an idea machine and have a library of ideas at any point in time.
What do you value most about your culture and vision?
Our culture and vision are deep-rooted in “Human Values.” It revolves around a core Human principle of “Unity in Thought-Word-Deed.”
Tell us about a project that forced you to be innovative and creative.
Worldwide and surely, in the UAE, I have seen parents being stressed out about their children in high school not being able to find appropriate exposure to real-world entrepreneurship/internships. It’s necessary since they can exhibit it in their University applications and, in the process, gain expertise.
I struggled with this when my daughter and son were in High school. To address this, I have founded a startup that brings the students to a Digital App and provides them access to Startups. In the process, it also helps them access a structured program to help them gain expertise on how to embark on a Startup and give shape to their idea and enter the entrepreneurial world with a head start.
This is called STARTLINGS (part of the HUVABUVA group) and will launch in UAE this summer. And parents and high school pre-Univ students or even Univ students can visit us at www.startlings.com and signup.
What are the strategies of your company, and how do they stand unique from your competitors?
HUVABUVA’s strategy is to deliver client value through a careful need gap analysis followed by a thoroughly thought through and relevant product/service design by bringing subject matter experts from across the globe. What is unique about HUVABUVA is that we bill clients only if our clients realize the intended value and the value is mutually pre-defined.
What are the key values that helped you overcome the roadblocks/challenges in your career? Tell us something about your memorable incident in your leadership?
Respect for people, Respect for learning, and Respect for shareholders’ money – have been values that have stood me in good stead throughout my career. In addition, all of this manifests itself when you have “Unity in Thought-Word-Deed.”
More recently, when I was choosing between the next stage in my corporate career and becoming an entrepreneur, a deluge of people from across countries sent me a request that I stay on as their leader. While that wasn’t my choice alone, it still was a fulfilling moment, and I was nothing but humbled by the human relationships I had built over time. This, for me, defines leadership and is priceless. Leadership is not about what you think you are, it is about what your people think you are.
How do you see the company changing in two years, and how do you see yourself creating that change?
While it is always easy to predict what will happen in 2 years, it’s never easy to predict the next month. In two years, I see HUVABUVA establishing itself as a niche Brand amongst a select client group and will be known for delivering paramount client value, something that clients have never experienced before, even from the biggest of big names globally.
Having sown the seeds of this change through HUVABUVA, I will continue to be at the forefront of leading and driving this change. If that requires knocking on a 1000 doors, I won’t hesitate to do that myself, which I am already doing.
Where is your leadership going? What benefits do your clients get from your company in this competitive world?
I prefer that my clients say this themselves after 2 years.
What are the services/solutions or products offered by your company on par with the current industry standards? Tell us something about your upcoming products or services?
We provide client-centric services in multiple domains, which include:
- Financial Services – Consulting & Delivery, which includes Banking services and Retail & WM sales.
- Business Process – Optimization & Delivery, including organizational efficiency and operations
- Marketing Services – Strategy & Delivery incorporating marketing management and events consulting.
- Innovation – Startups Incubation, Startup Support & Delivery
- Employee and Customer Experience – Design & Delivery for better customer and employee experiences.
Connect with Sai Narain CDK on LinkedIn!