Yesterday I had lunch with an old friend (and let me call him Mike for the purposes of this blog post). We had not had lunch together in over 15 years, and we both enjoyed catching up. My friend works at a large bank, and as I explained nGenera’s mission to him, his answer was “well that makes sense, but our firm can’t think in those ways” and “I wish the CIO, Jim, would take the time to consider these issues”.
As I reflect back on the lunch, it is those statements that keeps singing in my head… Why wouldn’t a large multi-national bank be interested in becoming an nGen? Wouldn’t they be better off if they do – and better off in the terms that Wall Street talks about – better off with increased shareholder value? Why wouldn’t a CIO, even in a challenging economic climate, want to strive to collaborate and innovate?
Let’s call Mike and Jim’s firm B.O.B. (Big Old Bank). B.O.B. is an amalgamation formed through purchasing and partially assimilating dozens of banks (some of which were quite sizable to begin with). They have many cultures. They operate in many countries. They popular press is questioning whether they are going to survive. They have a siloed and dysfunctional set of strategies that are not coherent and rational. They have an annual budget process that does not complete until well into Q2 and starts again in Q3. The budgets and strategies are top down and the people on the ground, the embedded leaders, are not consulted on preparing them, so they generally unrealistic, and the goals of the strategy and budgets are largely unmet in the end.
Our hero, CIO Jim, wants to be successful and has been at a firm that was successful. He knows how collaboration works. He knows how motivated empowered teams can do extraordinary things. However, he is fighting a mountain of resistance at B.O.B…. Jim has told Mike it will take 3 years and he’ll change the culture at B.O.B., and will make them a success.
I don’t see how Jim has 3 years to do this – if he does not solve this talent problem, and solve it quickly one of two things (or both) will happen:
(1) B.O.B. continues to have problems competing, and sells itself, shuts down, or other such remedy
(2) Jim loses his job
Jim needs to understand that he is facing a crisis, and in that crisis, he needs to act decisively and deeply. He needs new models of operating. He needs to be an nGen leader and he needs nGen talent.
Specifically, he needs to
(1) Harness the power of his embedded leaders by encouraging and rewarding open, honest, and collaborative communication. Put up a wiki! Look at what Best Buy did with theirs. Leverage this for innovative ideas. Projects that make sense. Solutions that add business value.
(2) Establish a process of continuous strategy, and a vehicle (the wiki again?) to collect and transparently vet all ideas publicly.
(3) Provide skills training for his key leaders on how to operate in a nGen
(4) Let teams self-select to solve issues. Another customer of ours had a consulting company pitch them 9 months and $1mm+ to put up a functioning wiki and get it adopted. The CIO there challenged his team and told them anyone who helped get a wiki up on the weekends would be paid $10,000 each for their troubles. It was done in one weekend for $50,000.
Jim, I know you are crushed right now, but I think it is time you acted decisively and deeply.
Posted by steinthal 
