Pete Backwell, Head—Nedcor Retail Bank
Sharon
Jansen, Programme Director—Nedcor
Fritha Davidson,
Director—Accenture   Nedcor has an
impressive track record of delivering value to its retail banking customers,
providing a tailored range of financial services and products in its target
markets. This success has not resulted in a complacent attitude to the future,
however.
"In late 2000, we realised that we were slipping and
starting to lose some of our valued customers," comments Pete Backwell, head of
Nedcor's Retail Banking Division. "We needed to reinvigorate the organisation
culture to ensure that every one of our 4500 employees in each of our 350
branches is focused on providing unquestionably superior service to our
customers and able to absorb the changes implied by our business strategy."
The emphasis on getting the organisational culture right is
a growing trend. In a recent study on the High-Performance Workforce, Accenture
asked 470 global executives to rank the greatest challenges their organisations
are facing in the digital economy. These executives mentioned two issues much
more frequently than others—information technology (48 percent) and keeping up
with industry change (47 percent). 75 percent of the organisations surveyed
stated that creating a culture in sync with the company's strategy is essential
to their success in implementing and sustaining change.
Hence the focus from Nedcor on reinforcing their business
strategy concepts of customer centricity and results orientation through
establishing a new culture. Nedcor approached management consultants,
Accenture, to assist in initiating the Culture and Values Programme, which
included an extensive employee involvement process through workshops and
surveys. As Pete Backwell says, "Culture is not something that you can dictate
from above—we needed the commitment from all our people to operate in a new
way, our culture comes to life in the way in which we behave in our
interactions with each other and our customers."
The change programme defined the key elements of a
customer-centric operating model and the transition plan for implementing the
new capabilities. Another key area addressed was the creation of tools and
techniques to manage the change journey, with a strong emphasis on
communication and feedback. Sharon Jansen, the Nedcor Programme Manager
responsible for this initiative, believes the key to success is to cascade the
business rationale for change through all levels. "Most people resist change
initially—it's uncomfortable, it creates uncertainty. To address this, we
identified champions within the organisation who helped their colleagues
understand the need to adapt, reinforcing the values of client dedication,
accountability and responsibility and building a sense of passion for success."
Accenture collaborated with Nedcor in the initial stages of
the culture change journey to understand the current culture and facilitate the
crafting of a new culture consistent with the strategic direction of the
business. Fritha Davidson, the Accenture Director responsible for this
initiative states, "We believe that the right cultural environment is essential
to maximize human performance. And the business case for investing in human performance is clear—it is highly correlated with business performance and recognised as a key source of competitive strength by 75 percent of the executives surveyed for Vision 2010, an Accenture/Economist Intelligence Unit study."
The new culture and values were launched countrywide in October 2001and are now being reinforced through a variety of initiatives, ensuring consistency in the way in which people are managed, rewarded and recognised. This is the beginning of a new way of operating in Nedcor Retail
Division, strongly focused on delivery of quality results. Pete Backwell is
clear on how the new culture and values will guide their approach in the
future, "The values dictate how it is that we do the things we do and guide us
as to how we handle business in good times and in bad. I see the values as
being similar to a compass, always there to tell you where true North is."
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