Discuss about the Case study analysis of Change management in Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) takes pride in being one of the five large successful companies in Australia. Along with this, ANZ has achieved accolades and glory as the leading banking company in the threshold of New Zealand. The etymological origin of the bank dates back over 170 years, when it opened the first office in Sydney in 1835 as a branch of Bank of Australia (Anz.com.au, 2018). 1838 was the era when the bank established one of its offices in Melbourne, where the world headquarters of the bank is currently located. As a matter of specification, the bank achieves satisfaction of more than 6 billion customers through the provision of quality banking and financial services to different types of organizations- retail, small business, corporate firms and institutions. Collaborative output of 35000 professionals and 376813 shareholders makes the banking group a public listed company with a widespread presence in more than 30 countries across Australia- Pacific, Europe, Dubai, US and Asia. In addition to this, the banking group also has a technology and Operations centre in Bangalore (Anz.com.au, 2018). Inspite of a tough global financial year in 2008, the banking group emerged successful in achieving a profit margin of 3.319 million A$. consistency was maintained in this performance till the end of September 2008.
Optimizing the vision, this assignment attempts to peek into the ways and means adopted by the managers of ANZ to regulate and control the proposed change for achieving organizational excellence.
Leadership style and elements of Change
In mid 1990s, ANZ encountered instances of poor organizational performance in the form of bad debts, low employee moral, dissatisfaction from the customers among others. Consistency in these issues compelled the personnel to appoint John McFarlane as the new CEO. McFarlane’s spontaneity in developing a new management team for creating a transformational program was estimated to be fruitful for ANZ in terms of achieving sustainable competitive advantage (Anz.com.au, 2018). Exposure of appropriate leadership skills by John bestowed financial flexibility on ANZ. McFarlane was determined to bring change as he stepped into the threshold of ANZ. Typical evidence of this determination lies in the following instances:
In this process, John maintained consistency in his vision towards employee and customer satisfaction. Delving deep into the aspect, this was the starting point of his plan in terms of experimenting with the retail customers. 2000 was the era when John give birth to the altered name of the banking group- “bank with a human face”. McFarlane along with his team developed a strategy known as Perform. This aim was this strategy was to develop higher customer values through the provision of quality financial performance (Anz.com.au, 2018). Along with this, one of the other strategies were Grow, which aimed to enhance the brand image of the banking through generating high revenue and exposing appropriate leadership skills. One of the other strategies was Breakout, the main purpose of which was to lay the foundations of sustainable leadership with long-term goals.
Appointment of McKinsey and co discovered number of discrepancies in the current business operations of the banking group. In order to make up these discrepancies, some goals were developed. Along with this, oriental approach was adopted for maintaining the traditional culture. In spite of this, some of the employees felt the presence of bureaucratic approach in case of the managers in terms of being over protective towards ensuring the safety and security of the financial information (Anz.com.au, 2018). This made McFarlane to put on his thinking cap regarding the development of values, which would be based on the efforts put in by the employees through the opposition of the values developed by the managers. Commonality was the basic element, which was to be sought for reaching to the benchmark level of success.
For upgrading the ethical performance, McKinsey assisted the banking group in conducting an ethics and value assessment survey. The result of this survey placed ANZ along with the other world class companies on the grounds of mission, targets, organizational approach, feedback on the performance of the units, coordination and control over the financial operations, rewards and recognition among others (Anz.com.au, 2018). This result indicated the gradual development of ANZ through a solid strategic leadership foundation.
Internal cultural change
Understanding and cooperative are some of the attributes, which can be found in the employees and managers of ANZ. The company is far away from compromising with the needs, demands and requirements of the stakeholders and shareholders. June 2008 was the time, when the company first initiated the process of developing cultural values. The senior management team was consulted for researching and analyzing the current cultural census of the company. According to the Engagement and Cultural Census is company’s cultural measurement tool, highlighting the connection between the employees and the company. This is based on the perception of the employees towards the organizational culture (Anz.com.au, 2018).
The successful completion of these processes resulted in the development of the following values:
After the identification of these values, the company personnel indulged in the activity of planning the activities with conscious approach towards the developed values. Delving deep into the initials of the developed values, it can be correlated with the determination of John McFarlane in terms of caring for the alteration of ANZ’s fate (Anz.com.au, 2018). The company, in order to alter the culture, a program, Saver Plus was introduced in partnership with the Brotherhood of St. Lawrence. The main purpose of the program was to provide financial assistance to the families with low income to save and build assets for ensuring safe career establishment for their children. One of the other programs was Money Minded, introduced in the year 2008. This was an adult literacy program. The coverage of the program was more than 30000 people across Australia and New Zealand. The main purpose of the program was to upgrade the financial skills, knowledge, confidence and capability for controlling the financial operations of the bank (Anz.com.au, 2018).
Along with this, ANZ also planned to provide financial assistance to the Indigenous communities. For this, the personnel introduced Reconciliation Action Plan. Under this plan, the company proposed to fund for the literacy and inclusion of the indigenous communication. Along with this, ANZ also planned a program known as Money Business, introduced in collaboration with the Australian government. The aim of this program was to promote money management skills and confidence in the remote areas for convenience of the indigenous community people (Anz.com.au, 2018).
In the era of 2006, ANZ adopted Equator Principles for considering the environment and social issues while making financial transactions in the developing countries. This was entitled Project Financial transactions. Here, the company achieved the membership of United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative for the achievement of sustainable development. Abiding by the terms and conditions of this membership has included ANZ within the Climate Disclosure Leadership Index by the Carbon Disclosure Project. The company has bagged this achievement for consecutive three years till 2008 (Anz.com.au, 2018). Apart from this, the award of best company on a global basis has also been bestowed on the company for complying with all the environmental dimensions highlighted in Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) in 2008.
Apart from this, plans were developed to regulate the performance exposed by the employees. This was executed through the maintenance of balance scorecard with emphasis on the Key Result Areas (KRA). This included the employee’s approach towards finance, customers and community people. This performance management would go through three stages: performance planning; performance coaching and performance assessment. Along with this, planning was made in terms of training the staffs throughout the year in terms of their performance (Anz.com.au, 2018).
All these initiatives and programs enhanced the internal cultural environment of ANZ. As a matter of specifications, these programs upgraded the corporate social responsibility of the company. Delving deep into the aspect, consciousness towards alteration of the organizational culture reflects the attempt of the company personnel towards emerging as a dynamic personality. This is in terms of creating positive image in the minds of the customers for achieving loyalty, trust and dependence in large scale (Anz.com.au, 2018).
Attributes of John McFarlane
In ANZ, John McFarlane is the only leader with the vision to alter the fate of the company. He was a person, who maintained the balance between the personal and professional life. He can be considered as a fitness freak and a music lover. Apart from this, he is also fond of reading modern books and watching modern art films.
John’s career started as a singer in 1960 in the band, The Sekrets. After this, he moved into Ford as a manufacturer in Europe in the year 1969 (Anz.com.au, 2018). This was the starting point of his banking career. Hard work of 18 years made him the head of Citi bank in UK and Ireland. Persistent efforts in enriching his knowledge bestowed upon him the designation of Executive Director of Standard Chartered Plc based on Hong Kong and London. After this, he bagged the most important post, cEO of Australian and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ). For this, John migrated to Australia with his family and remained there till 2007.
Determination, commitment and perseverance towards the objectives and goals assisted John to think positive amidst all negativities. He possessed a sixth sense that there is an impending danger on the fate of ANZ. Without wasting a moment, he banned the closure of branches in the rural areas by criticizing the withdrawal of the alliance in these areas (Anz.com.au, 2018). He was the person with respect for women. This was reflected when he appointed women in senior ranks. Along with this, John needs to be credited for taking the plan of enhancing the corporate social responsibility seriously. Herein lays the appropriateness of the programs introduced for altering the cultural parameter of the company.
The attribute of sixth sense proved beneficial for him in terms of seeking innovative trends before the competitors. The result of this was the rewards and recognitions from the stakeholders and shareholders. When the contemporary brands reached to the estimated plan, John had already implemented the strategies and executed major portion of the work (Doppelt, 2017). Remaining advanced from the others proved fruitful for ANZ in terms of sustaining their market position amidst the competitive advantage. Instead of altering the management from both the top and bottom level, John highlighted the need for implementing noticeable changes in the grass roots of management.
His wish to indulge in alliance with the Finance sector can be considered as his concern towards the fulfillment of the needs, demands and requirements of the staffs. This understanding attributes makes him a people’s leader. Herein lays the cooperation and coordination exposed by John’s team in all of the projects undertaken by him (Cameron and Green, 2015). This consciousness made John’s vision clear in terms of the improvements, which the company was exposing in the recent years.
Evaluation of the exposed performance is one of the other attributes, which enhances the personality of John. Confession of not being decisive in terms of handling the wrong people in the roles, relates with the features of Trait Theory. Implementation of Breakout strategy in the last stages of his tenure altered the fate of ANZ. While leaving the workplace, he shook hands with the staffs, which was valuable and priceless in terms of the remarkable efforts. The critics argued regarding his resignation in a controversial ambience (Hayes, 2014). On the other hand, the investors were of the opinion that John McFarlane left the bank on a critical stage in its development. In response to all these criticizing, John was obliged on his popularity among the shareholders. However, he was against the offer of becoming the CEO of a company, who preferred past events as a stepping stones to success.
ANZ improved a lot under the leadership of John McFarlane. There were many areas, which he emphasized for the achievement of excellence-finance, performance of the employees and culture. However, there lies a lot more path to travel for ANZ to reach to the benchmark level of performance.
Indulging in meetings with the stakeholders and shareholders would prove beneficial for the managers in terms of assessing the effectiveness, appropriateness and feasibility of the developed strategies. Organizing interactive sessions would act as a platform for the staffs to voice out their opinions regarding the issues, which they are facing in the execution of the allocated duties and responsibilities. Providing the employees with the opportunity to give presentations on various topics would enhance the communication skills of the employees. Refinement of the current communication skills would, in turn, create a positive image in the minds of the investors, paving the way of foreign market penetration for the company.
Along with this, indulging in alliance with the trade union members would act assistance for ANZ in terms of stabilizing the financial parameters. This alliance would enable the personnel to handle the issues of inflation, fluctuation in the prices of the raw materials among others.
Training programs have already been introduced in the company under the leadership of John McFarlane. However, if the basic managerial aspects are divided into various segments, the staffs would be able to achieve a better grasp over these aspects. Along with this, if the senior and the experienced managers provide the training, it would result in the transfer of skills. Here, encouragement and motivation needs to be the crucial elements. These managers need to follow transformational leadership styles in terms of creating corporate professionals out of the employees.
Evaluation would be one of the crucial aspects in terms of upgrading the standards and quality of business in ANZ. This is applicable for both the managers as well as the staffs. This would enhance their personality in terms of enhancing the organizational excellence.
Conclusion
This assignment emerges successful in highlighting the true essence of the aspect of change management. The case study of ANZ acts as a lesson for the companies and organizations to take appropriateness measures in terms of implementing the proposed changes efficiently and effectively. John McFarlane can be considered as a role model for the managers, who aspire for success in the competitive ambience by compromising with the needs, demands and requirements of the stakeholders and shareholders. The managers need to learn the skills of how to help the company in achieving sustainable development. Through his performance, he highlighted that confessing the weakness, one has in life, makes a man great and dynamic personality
References
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