Case Study

Aligning Leadership at a Midwest Bank

Company

Midwest bank with $500 million to $1.5 billion in assets under management.

Challenge

The bank lacked a strategy that included the viewpoints of each regional president of the organization. Leaders at the bank desired to create a strategy that encompassed the full organization and identified measurable objectives that would lead to success for all regions of the bank.

Intervention

Bâton Global (B|G) supported the bank during the development and implementation of an enterprise strategy and balanced scorecard. This strategy was then developed down to regional components and to individual key objectives for more than 50 staff.

Results

The work cultivated trust and buy-in from the bank’s regional branches and cemented a shared common vision. The bank now has measurable objectives, aligned from top to bottom, to guide it to future success.

Learn More

The scope of this project includes four main areas of activity:

Insight

The Insight phase of the project was focused on identifying the current state of the business both at the organization level and in each of the bank branches:

  • Stakeholders at the home office along with regional bank presidents were interviewed to discuss their aspirations, challenges, and near-term opportunities.
  • Open space workshops were facilitated to identify the top 20 factors that were both positively and negatively impacting the bank.
  • B|G worked with leaders to develop a profound understanding of internal and external forces using PESTLE and SWOT analyses.

Innovation

B|G and the bank developed an organization strategy and unit level strategies that would provide the organization with clear strategic direction:

  • The executive team, board members, bank branch presidents, and managers participated in open space workshops to develop organization objectives and establish high-level initiatives for the enterprise.
  • Balanced scorecards and high-level initiatives were further refined through regular workshops with the executive team.
  • Understanding the autonomy and unique challenges facing the regional bank presidents, B|G facilitated unit level scorecard workshops with regional banks along with the enterprise business units.
  • Unit level scorecards were customized for each region.

Integration

B|G ensured all members of the organization, including members located in rural branches had an understanding of the strategy developed during Innovation:

  • B|G supported the roll-out of the enterprise scorecard to the full bank and its Board of Directors through multiple communication sessions.
  • B|G ensured the proper systems were in place to collect data to measure the objectives in the scorecard that were identified by the organization.
  • A comprehensive guide was developed to ensure a common understanding of the complete strategic planning process.

Impact

All areas of the bank had clearly articulated strategies that aligned to the vision of the organization:

  • Participation in the development of the bank’s strategy cultivated trust and buy-in from the bank’s regional branches.
  • The bank had a clearer understanding of the most pressing initiatives to pursue that would ensuring they would remain a financial backbone for the communities they serve.
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