Like any segment of the financial services Industry, Retail Financial Services have suffered through the current crisis. However, retail financial services have also proven to be more stable and, therefore, a critical revenue generator for many banking organizations. Overall, retail banking still represents the most significant source of income for the global financial services industry.
The retail banking landscape is undergoing rapid change, driven by national consolidation in many markets and cross-border M&A, in a context of shrinking margins. Although cost containment remains important, the generation of strong, sustainable growth represents the most critical success factor for many retail financial services institutions. As a consequence, the retail banks’ operating model is more than ever focused on the transformation towards increased revenue growth, improved customer service, and lower costs.
Other influencing trends, such as shifting demographics, the rise of emerging markets, higher customer expectations, the need for global operating platforms/models, the rise of new technologies like mobile payments, and the need for continuous product innovation, are subjecting executive management teams to ever-rising expectations.
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What skills are needed?
To stay ahead in the game, retail financial services institutions need to ensure that they have access to the most highly skilled staff available, both at the executive board level and in areas such as multi-channel distribution strategy, marketing, innovative product development, and IT organization. At the same time, the leadership skills required for managing large multi-regional entities across geographies and cultures will be increasingly important.
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How can Boyen Haddin support the retail financial services industry?
Boyen Haddin’s global Retail Financial Services Practice consists of a highly professional team around the world which partners with senior executives of organizations in all sectors of the retail financial services industry to address hiring needs and assist with the assessment of existing management competencies, and to support boards of directors. Over 40 consultants worldwide are dedicated to serving clients in the retail financial services industry.
The management of high-performance teams with the varied technical backgrounds needed to steer companies safely through the crisis also poses particular leadership challenges in strategic, talent, and human resources management. With our well established Leadership Strategy Services Practice including our unique Team Effectiveness Review service, we are particularly well placed to support retail financial services institutions boards and top-management teams in these challenging times.
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How we operate
Our unique one-firm approach, which facilitates collaboration across geographical and practice boundaries, enables us to bring highly skilled and experienced teams to the table, with proven expertise tailored to meet the needs of clients, and achieve credibility with candidates and opinion leaders around the world.
By focusing on people and skills management in the context of a specific strategy, we help retail financial institutions to rethink their organizations and their winning value propositions.
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