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George's Point Of View…"It's The People"
Banking is a fascinating field. In many ways it has changed dramatically, while in others it hasn't changed at all.
If you work for a large financial institution, you more than likely have been through at least one merger. Some of you may even have been through several mergers.
On the other hand, those working for very small banks may have hardly changed at all over the past twenty years-and see no need to now!
Some banks seem to be always going through change. They constantly appear to be reorganizing or trying something different. And it seems to be contagious! A sharp, big, consulting firm sells an institution on a new program, and then VOILA!…almost magically, many other institutions, one by one, try some form of the change.
At the same time, CEOs at smaller and rural institutions watch what is going on, shake their heads in disbelief, and just keep on doing things like they always did.
If you work for a very large financial institution, don't look for the return of the "good old days." They're not coming back.
And those of you at the very small, local and rural banks waiting for all the change? Don't hold your breath!
What can really get confusing is when the big banks try to act like the small banks, and the small banks try to be worldly and large. It can actually be a good strategy for the big guy, but is almost always disastrous for the little guy. We're starting to see some of the results of this in the handling of mutual funds in banking offices.
There are times when a financial institution will make a dramatic change in strategy-adjust…innovate…change again…re-evaluate…adjust…and then discover it wasn't "broke" to begin with. They realize they probably shouldn't have "fixed" it, and so go back to doing the job much as they were five years ago. But just enough different, it seems, so that the old timers can't say, "I told you so!"
And the real irony of it is that many times organizations don't learn from these bad experiences, so as not to make the same mistakes again. Five years from now they'll try the same things again.
Maybe-just maybe-one day the reality will set in that the people are the answer. Not systems or strategies or change. People. If the organization would just learn to make the customer and the employees happy, everything will fall into place. This is an oversimplification, of course, but find a way that the customer and the employee can win, and the organization will win too.
If we lived in a perfect banking world, the rate of change at the larger banks would slow, and the smaller institutions would accelerate. During the last 20 years, some of the real small banks haven't changed at all. During the last 20 years, some of the very large banks have changed names six times, presidents eight times and the colors on the signs three times!
There must be a happy medium!
Point Of View is a regular feature by George Downs, a Banking Consultant who is a 27 year veteran of the banking industry and one of our more opinionated writers. You can reach George with your opinions, views, comments and requests for help on Prodigy (JTJF23A), on America onLine (GeoDow) or through BANKERS' HOTLINE.
Copyright © 1994 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 5, No. 2, 9/94
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