It is well known that the banking industry and how it runs business has changed a lot in the last years. New technologies due to several reasons such as regulatory and legal requirements but also market demand has changed how the banking industry runs business today.
When it comes to change management it is often referred to the management of IT changes only. Taking requirements and transforming them into digitalized or autoamted processes. The banking industry itself is an old and traditional business. When people think about banks they do not see an innovative and open-minded business. And- at the end, this is not how most banking employees see their company. IT itself is not the core business of banks- and therefore- even though the IT used in banks has grown tremendously- it is not surprising that all the effort put into “change the bank” is not sufficient.
A change starts with the employees- and this, as well as the effort needed to make a change, is often underestimated. An IT requirement can be put into place very quickly. But if business- the staff and representer of the bank to the customer, do not believe, know and live these changes- the customer will neither see the change nor consider that the banking industry today really has changed.
However compared to IT requirements it is impossible to change the culture within a short period of time- and it is a constant process if you don´t want to run into the same situation again. Banks have to think about new roles and especially leader skills within their industries. Team-leaders that believe in innovations and are abler to inspire their team. IT representatives that explain the change and all the innovations and who are able to make the customer facing employees believe in the positive aspects. It is a mammoth project- much larger than every IT transformation project. IT transformation projects can last up to 5-10 years- hundreds of consultants working in several phases with the objective to replace one core application. So how can it be expected to change thousands of people just by the deciding to do so and very often just some banners and mandatory e-learnings? People need inspiring people that make them believe.
