Creating a culture of efficiency that saved a global universal bank more than £100m

How do you encourage a mindset of efficiency, collaboration and continuous improvement in everybody across a global organisation?

Today, many businesses are looking to cut costs and work more efficiently. Our client, a global universal bank, wanted more than a one-off impact. They wanted a global approach to controlling their cost base, with a central team that created a culture of continuous improvement. They’d already tried to bring about change in the past, but the impact they were seeing was incremental - not the large-scale results and shift in mindset they were looking for. Their Group Head of Operational Excellence brought in Baringa for help.

We broke down silos and created a movement

We knew that co-creating the solution with the client was the answer - while we could bring experience from change programmes, they knew the day-to-day reality of their organisation. And it wasn’t something that could be done team-by-team, in silos. This was about creating a movement, where people worked across functions to make change happen together.

A big part of the success came from bringing in experts from our capital markets, asset management, compliance, finance and HR teams to join the project. So our client got the best of Baringa, whenever they needed specialist skills.

We assembled a core team of 40 people to spark the change and identified 30 key initiatives across the organisation. Working around the world, we brought people together from many functions and business units to develop the plan. We got them talking and understanding how they could work collectively and help each other, with an accountable sponsor to own and drive each initiative.

And we co-created a Centre of Excellence to lead the change from within. We based this around a standard operating model, backed by tools, training and step-by-step approaches. This became an intranet-based ‘digital roadmap’ for change - a repeatable way of working that they’re still using today.

A movement that’s still going strong

The client saved more than £100m over three years. A great start - but just the beginning. Having built a team of 150 internal change agents, the organisation was set up to foster a culture of efficiency that’s still alive today.

Find out how we help our clients in the Banking Industry