Human Networks

"The European Banking System has reached a crossroads in its strategic management of the multi-channel delivery systems" - Robert Giffords is saying, and - "the models have failed to manage the promised “cost reduction” because banks need to support more fixed costs for each channel and self-service interactions have shot-up. Moreover Clients like the flexibility of the “anytime, anywhere, anyhow” model, but are unwilling to pay for it."

In Robert Giffords' quote there is a recurring fact that “Clients do not want anymore pay for the transport”. Clients are ready to pay 7GBPounds to get into London city, but do not want to pay to travel in the M4 expressway.

On the other end I see new Banking models having success, like Bankinter www.ebankinter.com and Mediolanum www.bancamediolanum.it. They are penetrating the market, therefore getting new Clients, through a new model of doing Banking. “The Bank designed around the Client”. Clients can appreciate not only the flexibility of getting the money in the ATM or at the nearby Post Office, but even the seamless procedures and the fact that there are Consultants ready to talk with them about their business needs.

So this new way of doing Bank has put together, at the Client's service, both the “human touch” and the “technology touch”. They have put the Human Network at work around the Client.

My great friend Jim Masciarelli www.powerskills.com is saying

"At the end of the day, a company's only sustainable competitive advantage is its relationships with customers, business partners and employees. After all, we provide products and services to people, not to companies. A commitment to developing effective relationships strengthens the fabric of the organization in the long run."

Jim concludes

"More than any trendy management technique, human networks have always been the prime movers of business information. Ignore these networks or trivialize them on your priority chart, and you'll invite missed opportunities communication breakdowns and even business failure. The real waste products on the scrap heap of today's business world are broken promises and burned-out and failed relationships. While we often look back on such failures, as inevitable, it is more likely that proper relationship management was lacking."

One leading Italian Banker Carlo Salvatori was once saying to me "To be a successful banker it is easy if the Bank's shops are working". So he meant if the Branch Offices and their Human Network work.

Investing in the Bank distribution network's Human Resources is key for the Retail Bank's success.

Lucio Vollaro

Any comments are welcomed

Comments

[pb]

It is an important turning point: the human beeing is the center and everything is going around, thanks also to technologies.
For business development, each item of the following list must exist but their order of effectiveness and efficiency is decreasing. The key points for the suppliers of products (i.e. goods and/or services) are:
1) the intention (to listen and to understand the needs);
2) the power (to adapt ourselves and our business organisation to the changing times);
3) the technique (availability of suitable products and the availability to develop new suitable ones, always in the boundary conditions of our own business).

In the new context, customer driven, the relationships and the capability to manage them, following the above rules, could be the new attitude of business developers.