EXCLUSIVE— Banking, like so many other industries in today’s world, is facing a diversity problem: and, just like the engineering or technological fields, the problem only gets worse the higher in the #company one goes. While companies are making concentrated efforts to hire more #women in entry or manager level positions, women in the C-suite …Read More
Bank Innovation
Last time we introduced some core ‘beliefs’ that are key to successful #culture #change. Now we’re going to look at these beliefs in a bit more detail: In particular, what’s the role of the individual in culture change?
To gauge how successfully their change programmes are progressing, #organisations need to understand what’s going on enterprise-wide. There are various ways they can do that, from tracking what people are actually doing—their day-to-day functions—through to in-depth behavioural analytics. All of that provides a good basis for benchmarking the maturity level of the organisation, deciding how to measure success and, of course, how to move the dial.
Those insights inform how organisations prioritise the design of change programmes around structure, people and behaviours. Crucially, it helps them think about designing the appropriate structure for driving the change the organisation needs.
It’s only with the right structure that people’s behaviours—including decision-making, empowerment and lowering the centre of gravity—will start to change. Once people have more empowerment through the new structure, they need to learn how to use this to behave more productively.
This is where small, incremental changes come into their own. As people begin to do things differently, this becomes a form of habit. And as that #happens, new behaviours start to permeate the enterprise and become embedded. Think about this as a cycle—from understanding to design to structures—all geared to enabling people to behave differently and make changes to how they operate.
To bring this to life, think about the incremental changes that an organisation might want to set in motion. A great example? The number of people that typically attend meetings. This can easily be changed so only people with the opportunity to make a decision actually go along.
If a staff member and their direct superior are both scheduled to attend, they need to make sure that only one of them goes. Otherwise, it sends out the signal that there’s a lack of delegation. It also shows that people are not sufficiently empowered.
The follow-on? Whoever does attend must make a decision. That’s more efficient for everyone. There’s no need for a follow-up meeting. Incremental changes like these help to encourage a culture where people have more confidence in their own judgement.
Other focuses for incremental change could be the time it takes to get new products or services to customers—or introducing greater customer-centricity. Whatever the objective, it’s all about being able to continuously rework an organisation’s structure in pursuit of a particular goal, rather than having to do a major restructuring once every five years.
One priority will be the creation of agile, multi-disciplinary teams formed to solve specific customer problems with a scrum-style approach. This too comes back to analytics, of course. For these teams to come together with the right capabilities, organisations need to know what’s going on enterprise-wide.
Using analytics, they can get those insights and use them to carry out the workforce planning that’ll ensure they get the right skills through the door for those teams and rapidly pivot the organisation to adapt to new situations.
Also, a connected point, individuals need to take more responsibility for their own skills so they can continue to be relevant. The emphasis is on people planning their own careers, rather than relying on management to do that for them. If employees have universal skills, then they’ve got applicability to a whole range of situations, not just a single role.
A good way forward is for the business to think about developing an internal consultancy function, which can be hired on a project-by-project basis. Designing in that kind of flexibility puts the emphasis on individuals to really understand their worth, short and long term. This new kind of enterprise is less paternalistic than what went before. And it’s much more dynamic.
Employees actively want a gig career, where they evolve a portfolio of skills and keep on learning new ones. And older people within the organisation are often, perhaps counterintuitively, more receptive to this new way of working. They acknowledge that they’re not digital natives, and as a result may feel disconnected, from their co-workers and quite possibly their children. The moral? Don’t make assumptions about the workforce.
Circling back to where we started, it’s all about setting the direction for change, making sure everyone in the organisation knows they have a role to play in that change, and crucially, continuously tracking progress towards clearly defined objectives.
Thanks for reading.
The post Culture change happens when organisations are transformed by people appeared first on Accenture Banking Blog.
Last time we introduced some core ‘beliefs’ that are key to successful #culture #change. Now we’re going to look at these beliefs in a bit more detail: In particular, what’s the role of the individual in culture change?
To gauge how successfully their change programmes are progressing, #organisations need to understand what’s going on enterprise-wide. There are various ways they can do that, from tracking what people are actually doing—their day-to-day functions—through to in-depth behavioural analytics. All of that provides a good basis for benchmarking the maturity level of the organisation, deciding how to measure success and, of course, how to move the dial.
Those insights inform how organisations prioritise the design of change programmes around structure, people and behaviours. Crucially, it helps them think about designing the appropriate structure for driving the change the organisation needs.
It’s only with the right structure that people’s behaviours—including decision-making, empowerment and lowering the centre of gravity—will start to change. Once people have more empowerment through the new structure, they need to learn how to use this to behave more productively.
This is where small, incremental changes come into their own. As people begin to do things differently, this becomes a form of habit. And as that #happens, new behaviours start to permeate the enterprise and become embedded. Think about this as a cycle—from understanding to design to structures—all geared to enabling people to behave differently and make changes to how they operate.
To bring this to life, think about the incremental changes that an organisation might want to set in motion. A great example? The number of people that typically attend meetings. This can easily be changed so only people with the opportunity to make a decision actually go along.
If a staff member and their direct superior are both scheduled to attend, they need to make sure that only one of them goes. Otherwise, it sends out the signal that there’s a lack of delegation. It also shows that people are not sufficiently empowered.
The follow-on? Whoever does attend must make a decision. That’s more efficient for everyone. There’s no need for a follow-up meeting. Incremental changes like these help to encourage a culture where people have more confidence in their own judgement.
Other focuses for incremental change could be the time it takes to get new products or services to customers—or introducing greater customer-centricity. Whatever the objective, it’s all about being able to continuously rework an organisation’s structure in pursuit of a particular goal, rather than having to do a major restructuring once every five years.
One priority will be the creation of agile, multi-disciplinary teams formed to solve specific customer problems with a scrum-style approach. This too comes back to analytics, of course. For these teams to come together with the right capabilities, organisations need to know what’s going on enterprise-wide.
Using analytics, they can get those insights and use them to carry out the workforce planning that’ll ensure they get the right skills through the door for those teams and rapidly pivot the organisation to adapt to new situations.
Also, a connected point, individuals need to take more responsibility for their own skills so they can continue to be relevant. The emphasis is on people planning their own careers, rather than relying on management to do that for them. If employees have universal skills, then they’ve got applicability to a whole range of situations, not just a single role.
A good way forward is for the business to think about developing an internal consultancy function, which can be hired on a project-by-project basis. Designing in that kind of flexibility puts the emphasis on individuals to really understand their worth, short and long term. This new kind of enterprise is less paternalistic than what went before. And it’s much more dynamic.
Employees actively want a gig career, where they evolve a portfolio of skills and keep on learning new ones. And older people within the organisation are often, perhaps counterintuitively, more receptive to this new way of working. They acknowledge that they’re not digital natives, and as a result may feel disconnected, from their co-workers and quite possibly their children. The moral? Don’t make assumptions about the workforce.
Circling back to where we started, it’s all about setting the direction for change, making sure everyone in the organisation knows they have a role to play in that change, and crucially, continuously tracking progress towards clearly defined objectives.
Thanks for reading.
The post Culture change happens when organisations are transformed by people appeared first on Accenture Banking Blog.
Digital transformation and #open source amount to more than #technology — they require and inspire cultural change sin #banks.
Financial Technology
#Culture transformation programmes are ten-a-penny in businesses across all industries. That’s no surprise. The pace of #change—technological, economic and competitive—means all large organisations must now think very differently about how they operate and the way their people work.
For #banks, some extra pressures are pushing them in this direction. Tougher post-crisis regulation has introduced multiple layers of complexity and bureaucracy into their businesses. These can get in the way of agility and responsiveness. Personal accountability for decision-making can stifle spontaneity. And traditional hierarchical structures encourage rigidity (and discourage innovation).
All this at a time when disruptive competition from non-traditional sources poses a hugely potent threat. Bank leaders know they must adapt or lose relevance. They have to encourage their people to collaborate better, have greater trust in leadership, make decisions rapidly and, crucially, be more agile and innovative at every level of the enterprise.
Culture change is an agenda we hear all the time in our work with financial services businesses. And in this blog—the first in a short series—we’re introducing what we’ve learned from experience. The bottom line? Culture change is the outcome. Transforming how business is done is essential to make it happen.
Whatever the organisation, the primary objective for culture change is the same: getting back to your ‘prime’. Or put it another way: As businesses mature with age, looking ahead entails looking back. Improved agility and responsiveness hinge on rejuvenation and re-energisation.
We identify five core ‘beliefs’ that are key to making this happen. In this blog, we’ll introduce them. Next time, we’ll examine them—and what they look like in practice—in greater detail.
Firstly, culture change must be insight-driven. As a baseline, businesses need a laser-sharp focus on where they are today, how they’re behaving as an organisation, and how well they’re doing against key measures. That means a data-powered approach is essential. It’s not enough to base culture change programmes on a few engagement surveys or sentiment reviews on Glassdoor. Precision is critical. And that includes understanding how employee behaviours are being reinforced in their day-to-day jobs—and how to change them.
Secondly, successful culture change programmes put people (customers and employees) at the centre. Linked to this is the third key belief: They’re also co-created. That means leaders, colleagues and employees at every level need to be involved in shaping and enabling change. It’s the only way to build and sustain trust in the organisation.
The fourth belief: Recognise how tiny changes can make a massive difference to performance. It’s all about understanding the cumulative effect these changes will have. That means experimentation. Hypothesise, prototype, proof of concept, scale. Repeat.
Lastly, embed change everywhere. That means leaders must be demonstrably committed, living out the change and embodying it in everything they do. It’s through their example that others will be encouraged to shift their behaviour.
Next time, we’ll take a closer look at these beliefs. Meanwhile, thanks for reading.
The post Really want to change your bank’s culture? Change with the business. appeared first on Accenture Banking Blog.
For the third consecutive year, Bank Innovation has teamed up with Open Bank Project and (this year) the University of Warwick, to conduct a research survey on how financial institutions worldwide are prioritizing API initiatives in 2017. The report, which surveyed more than 200 high-ranking executives from financial services and banking industry, indicated a growing […]
Bank Innovation
Fintechs are becoming more entrenched into the financial ecosystem, with the majority of #banks now firmly on the side of collaboration, rather than conflict. More than 80% of financial incumbents anticipate developing more #partnerships with fintechs in the next five years, according to PwC’s 2017 Global #Fintech Report. However, working with fintechs is nothing like […]
Bank Innovation
I was invited by the New York Federal Reserve #Bank to moderate a panel at its annual #Culture Conference on the challenges and opportunities that #FinTech is raising for the culture of financial institutions. &160;As this is a topic that has long interested me I was happy to accept. &160;At tomorrow’s session (October 20, 2016) the […]
Bank Innovation
Can you imagine the reaction of a bank employee if one morning he reads this headline?
In the spring of 2010 I polled the students of the Master of Finance about how many of them would rather work for Google instead of a bank. Survey results: 5%. Last Friday I have made the same question for the current group. Survey results: 96%.
Despite the efforts to adapt traditional business to the rapidly changing world, the truth of the matter is that dominant players today are mostly new ones: Apple and Spotify control the music distribution versus Sony and Virgin; Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks control book distribution; Uber controls taxi industry; Skype and WeChat control phone calls market; Amazon and Alibaba control retail vs Walmart or Best Buy; WhatsApp controls messaging space vs AT&T or Telefonica.
Not so well-known as the above, Yu´e Bao, the money market fund of Alipay (Alibaba) is the largest fund (USD 100 billion approx) in its category in China vs Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Construction Bank or Bank of China. In fact, Yu´e Bao can be considered as the most successful mobile #banking product in the world. There is no minimum amount, and customers can withdraw their cash anytime. Yu’e Bao now has more investors than China’s equity markets.
This is only the tip of the iceberg regarding changes in the financial services industry.
The hardest thing to change in a corporation is not the tech system but its #culture. The technical side is relative easy to solve: hire a full Silicon Valley team and make it from scratch. But how easy it is to change the culture of +100k employees?
Executives underestimate how hard it can be to drive people out of their comfort zones.
The real issue is the status quo of the current employees. What does a successful digital banking #transformation mean? It means that in two years you will not need 50-70% of the employees, nor todays countless committees. And what is the conclusion if you have an unsatisfactory digital banking transformation? Probably the bank will be closed in five-ten years and you will have to fire 90% of the employees. So, for the 50-70% of the current employees, the best option is the status quo, as probably they will maintain their comfort zone for their next working years.
• Risk Building/ Failure tolerance.
• Pilot projects rather than large initiatives.
• Hire for culture fit ahead of tech fit.
• Drive scalable learning.
Citigroup has invested in Betterment, Santander in Ripple, BBVA in Simple, etc. In an acquisition the buyer transmits the culture to the acquired company. Even more when the buyer has +100k employees and the acquired has less than 300. If you want to take advantage of the #fintech culture, you need a process to quickly infuse the cultureof the acquired company into the main operation. If not, at the end of the day what will probably happen is that 300 employees adopt the bank culture, or end up leaving the company.
Basically there are three tools for the digital transformation: the People, the Strategy and the Execution.
It´s rare that originality comes from insiders, especially when they are as entrenched and comfortable as the financial services industry.
Just a reflection about how to attract talent at scale: Would you go to Silicon Valley? What is the replacement cost there competing with Google, Apple, etc.? What would be that cost in places like Mexico or Colombia? I can ensure that Mexican and Colombian engineers have the same or even better knowledge than their neighbors. Some tech funds are moving from India to Bogota! Yes you read correctly, Bogota!
Any of the employees should know to answer two simple questions:
First of all, you need to make everybody feel uncomfortable with the status quo. That does not mean a general employment reduction, nor to maintain every employee.
Success in your digital transformation requires addressing three areas:
Then bring passion for execution for all the crew; this is a heroic trip, you will invent the future of banking. You and your team will not want to work in Google but become the “Google Bank”.
#Banks can play a defensive or an attack digital transformation strategy. The ones that play a defensive game will be probably bid by Google´s Larry Page…at distressed levels…
@Quesada_Vicente
*Headline names have been chosen randomly, with no other intention than drawing the attention.
Note: This is a third article about Digital Banking Transformation. For further details:
“Digital Banking Transformation: BBVA vs. Banco Santander”
“Disruptive Mentality in Banking”
[linkedinbadge URL=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/vicentequesada” connections=”off” mode=”icon” liname=”Vicente Quesada”] is Entrepreneur. Investor. Professor. Transformation Catalyst
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