Bank Strategic Planning: The Map to Growth

Bank strategic planning should be the cornerstone of its master strategy, but few utilize it in that manner. Ultimately, a bank strategic plan creates a tactical roadmap that maximizes the organization’s unique strengths in strategy, leadership and corporate culture to build toward:

  • Aggressive growth
  • Maximized profits
  • Sustained profitability

Your Bank’s Strategic Plan

For every bank, strategic planning is impacted by a diverse and unique set of external and internal dynamics. Whether employment rates are growing, bankruptcies are increasing, or a mixture of the two, it is vital to remember to return to the roots of success that maximize internal strengths and minimize external weaknesses by developing and maintaining a bank strategic plan.

Succession Planning

Bank Management Succession Planning for the Uncertain Future

In an ideal world, your bank’s CEO will be a long-term leader who announces retirement years in advance allowing for the careful search and training of his successor. In reality, that situation isn’t that likely, which is why bank succession planning is vital for future success. Bank succession planning leads to

  • Developed and trained managers
  • An ongoing pool of qualified management candidates
  • Manager loyalty

What to expect from Bank Succession Planning

When you work with SC+S consultants to develop a succession plan, you can expect to receive

  • Best practice succession plans for all key members of the organization’s management team
  • An employee “gap” analysis, including fully evaluated potential for each manager
  • Strategies for filling in gaps with training and leadership development
  • A succession plan tied into the strategic plan, focusing on the long-term direction of the organization.

Director Education & Assessment

At SC+S, our Board of Directors assessments can be transforming exercises that will both motivate and energize bank directors. The surveys measure the qualities present amongst the best boards in the country.

Identify Strengths and Weaknesses with a Board of Directors Assessment

To help clients develop high performance boards, SC+S utilizes a methodology in the Board of Directors assessment that will identify

  • Strengths of individual directors
  • Areas of strength to develop on the Board
  • Information / communication flow
  • Level or desired involvement in the business critical decisions

Corporate Culture Survey

Understanding Your Real Corporate Culture

SC+S’ corporate culture surveys create a real-time snapshot of the organization’s cultural mindset for the executive management team and the Board. Often used in conjunction with strategic planning, they are simple for staff to complete and are completely anonymous to ensure an objective and accurate result.

Benefits of a Corporate Culture Survey

With a corporate culture survey, a bank will be able to measure the corporate understanding of

  • Bank goals and objectives
  • Policies and procedures and the reasoning behind them
  • What the organization values and rewards, which is often contrary to managers’ perceptions
  • Intradepartmental and vertical communications processes within the organization
  • The inevitable “political” environment within the organization
  • Attitudes toward management support and the types of issues the organization feels management has prioritized.

SC+S’ corporate culture surveys help banks identify areas of internal culture that, if changed, would better represent the core values and the strategic direction of the organization.