Client - Several hundred billion dollar financial institution's new segment market that targets clients with investment assets of $500,000-$10,000,000.

Presenting Business Need - The first-year goals of the new segment included acquisition of significant numbers of customers and associated balances, and the integration of a highly skilled staff. To achieve the ambitious financial goals, two separate professional groups of bank employees, the Bankers and the Financial Advisors (FAs), had to make the transition from their previous stand-alone functions to active partnerships. They now had a mandate to partner with each other-a move which required significant philosophical as well as operational change. In short, they had to work closely together for the first time to develop financial plans based on client needs, and sell financial products that met those needs.

Solution - We approached leadership with the dual goal of strategizing for financial results and providing a personally satisfying working atmosphere for employees. Leadership recognized the strains in the relationship between the Bankers, who had been focused strictly on servicing client's banking needs, and FAs, who were accustomed to dealing almost exclusively in investment 'transactions.' These conflicting philosophies translated into differences since the goals and metrics prevalent in the FAs' transaction-based climate had not caught up with the 'relationship way' the Bankers thought about clients and client needs.

We mobilized a team of Bankers and FAs to work with internal training and leadership staff to develop a two-day off-site training program to address the pivotal issue of partnership. Entitled 'Partnerships,' the program's objectives were to:

• Establish, enhance and promote effective, productive partnerships.
• Share ideas for creating and maintaining good relationships within the teams.
• Understand and deal with breakdowns in relationships.
• Learn from examples of effective partnerships.
• Utilize newly learned relationship skills on an ongoing basis.

Impact - The leaders publicly demonstrated ways of collaborating and managing their conflicts in front of 100 members of their senior staffs, which led to an unprecedented level of commitment and focus from attendees. An action plan was outlined, a new vision for the business unit was created, and a clear strategy ("Drive Revenue Daily") was articulated.

The business challenges of collaboration and partnership were addressed and the two groups forged a bona fide alliance defined by similar values, goals, objectives and rewards.

For more information about this and related cases, please contact:

Jim Oher
joher@alexcelgroup.com  
914-238-0607

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