Strategy Deployment
Australian Bank
What was the problem?
Our client is a leading, regional full-service bank in Australia with the dominant market share in its home state and around 3000 employees. When we were first approached, a new CEO had been working with his top team to shape the bank’s vision and guiding principles. The central theme in the bank’s future plans was growth in the wider Australian market place and Quest was asked to help shape the goals and strategies that would make this vision a reality.
What did you do?
We used the Quest Strategy into Action (SIA) process to enable the top team to refine the core set of goals, measures and targets. This work helped to translate the aspirations into hard-nosed milestones to focus effort and ensure the bank stayed on track. During this process we uncovered the fact that the vision needed to be modified a little which highlighted the importance of thoroughly testing the strategy. A two-day workshop allowed the top 60 managers to explore and debate these goals and key targets and the need for further work in refining the growth strategy and overall structure was identified.
What happened?
This restructuring was undertaken and, once completed, we worked with the top team to refine and confirm the over-arching goals. The strategy then needed to be rolled-out and a series of divisional “Catchball” workshops were held to convert the “whats” into “hows”. During this process, over 200 managers developed their own sets of targets and initiatives which would contribute to the corporate strategic objectives.
Following these cascading workshops, we facilitated a final top team workshop to allow the leadership team to review each division’s plans and to confirm and prioritise the various initiatives. By this point the bank had a clear, communicable one-page plan which incorporated their new vision, mission, guiding principles, goals, targets, measures and key strategic initiatives.
What was the outcome?
The SIA process provided clarity and visibility of the actions that were required in order to turn a vision for the future into an achievable goal. It ensured that not only the top team, but also each division, had a set of initiatives and targets that would keep everyone working towards the same ambitious objective.