Olden Times
The banking crisis may be several years old now but this year it seems that there is no end of bad news leaking from a once so highly regarded sector.
Having worked for a division of Barclays Bank for twenty five years until recently, I am not surprised in the least by recent events. Although I worked for a small, product led subsidiary we were encouraged to work closely with our corporate banking colleagues; and so, for the last ten years or so of my Barclays life, No 10 Market Street, Bradford, was like a second home every Wednesday morning.
There were some marvellous characters when I joined but around the beginning of the new millennium it seemed that those on high began a process of systematically getting rid of anybody who had a streak of individuality, fearlessness or an independence of mind; in the process the bank lost some highly experienced, very knowledgeable staff and the culture within the office changed beyond recognition. I may have only seen this at an admittedly very microscopic level but this was happening on a national scale and was not unique to Barclays.
Sell, Sell, Sell
The old style bank manager was now deemed out of favour as a new breed of supposedly super sales people were brought in, quite often with no banking experience; in truth many of them were not that good at selling either. Decades of experience and hard won respect from customers were deemed instantly replaceable as the bank aggressively chased market share which would have culminated on a macro level in the disastrous acquisition of Dutch basket case ABN Amro, were it not for being out bid at the eleventh hour by Fred Goodwin’s RBS.
On a local level most major corporate branches like Bradford had a senior director backed up by an experienced team of empowered managers with a clear progression route available as well for those support staff who wanted to develop their career. By the time I left there was little evidence of any internal career progression, most seemingly simply aspiring to get through the day. Little autonomy was held by any manager now having to defer to the the computer which, increasingly, said “no”!
Boring Banking
Although the business I worked for was essentially a sales driven culture, this was rare at the time within Barclays and the bank as a whole struggled with the concept of selling. Many employees had not joined Barclays Bank expecting to end up pushing products that were largely unwanted, understood nor actually needed by their customers. Banking is essentially a dull business as are its core products; by attempting to, in effect “sex up” the offering, banks were merely finding new ways to enhance their margins. Rest assured, in the coming months, there will be further unpleasant disclosures that may make the PPI saga look tame; brace yourselves for more tacky adverts.
Finding, developing and landing new business takes years in mainstream banking because the art of prising highly valued customers away from other banks takes a very long time as a bank has to do something seriously bad to persuade a customer – personal or corporate – to make a change; the process, no matter what the claims otherwise, can be tortuous. Arguably, many customers now simply believe that all the banks are as bad as one another anyway. It is hard to argue against that at present and, crucially, the banks know this too.
Play Comes to the School Office
The dawning of a new era in Bradford was brought on by the enforced early retirements off a raft of experienced managers – set free for the golf course – and the adoption of a model that was universally and instantly disliked by customers. With the removal of almost all individual autonomy and a heavy emphasis on sell, sell, sell when chasing the annual target it could be argued that there was little surprise that this removal of local, personal autonomy preceded the greed-driven crash of the last decade?
It was also down with the old office walls as well so no more mini-siestas behind the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the individual office doors and the local pub lunchtime trade took a hammering. The days of open plan, brightly, coloured offices were here with coloured charts covering the walls to show everybody just how badly you were doing at this new selling lark. To cap it all casual dress was introduced; as most bankers are not noted for their fashion sense the days at the office began to resemble Gardeners’ World rather than the catwalk.
The Beginning of the End
It is tempting to reflect on the beginning of the last decade and see the very early localised signs of madness, which would become a global contagion by the end of the decade; from small acorns grow great oak trees. The old ways were not perfect but there was an understanding of business life and what customers wanted from a bank manager.Banking is not about selling because if you have a brand behind you as strong as Barclays – past tense, perhaps – you should not have to sell. It was always about trust and building relationships, but the stresses driven by the higher echelons for instant results and personal reward eroded these values.
Much of what has been uncovered so far has been around the mis-selling of misunderstood, inappropriately complex and ultimately over-priced products. In our small business a succession of often small men came and went on a personal mission to change the world; ironically they all seemed to jump ship at around the three year mark and the chaos they left behind became clear for all. It was simply unchecked, unmanageable and unsustainable madness driven purely by greed that ultimately may have destroyed a great brand.
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