Shikha Sharma, 

Sharma has spent most of the last one year making India’s third-largest private bank more visible. Known for her ability to think laterally, she hired a marketing head from Colgate-Palmolive as a first step and quickly followed it up with the acquisition of Enam Securities to fill in a product gap in investment banking. The Axis-Enam deal was valued at Rs 2,067 crore. “The issue with Axis was we didn’t stand for x, y, or z. So we outlined our strengths and what we stood for. We then started talking to our clients and released advertisements,” she says. Along with that, the bank upped its game on other flanks as well, such as adding 165 ATMs every month. Axis has grown by 35% in 2010-2011. Sharma is also particular about design concepts, a trait she attributes to her husband Sanjaya Sharma, CEO of Tata Interactive Systems. She has contributed significantly to the look and feel of the swanky Axis House, the bank’s new headquarters inaugurated in Mumbai this August. The cues she wants to send: a solid yet open bank.