Navigating Change at a Global Financial Institute

Simulation details

Company overview
Sterling Trust, a global financial services giant, operates over 500 branches across 50 countries, serving 10 million customers. In the US, it holds a significant 15% market share in the retail banking sector. However, Sterling Trust is facing operational challenges impacting its profitability and competitive standing, including a high staff turnover rate, outdated technology systems, and rising operational costs. Despite a revenue of $10 billion, its profit margins have dwindled due to these challenges.

Challenge

Sterling Trust’s operational costs have surged by 30% over the past two years, primarily due to the costs of maintaining outdated technology systems and a high turnover rate in the Retail Banking division. The company’s productivity levels have plummeted, largely due to the time and resources spent on recruiting and training new staff. The cost-to-income ratio stands at an unfavorable 60%, significantly higher than the industry average, and the company’s return on investment has declined.

Learn more abour your role

As a Change Management Specialist, you will be tasked with navigating Sterling Trust’s operational challenges. Reporting to the Head of Change Management, you will interact with the CEO and the Department Manager of Retail Banking. Your mission is to assess the need for change, develop a comprehensive change strategy, and ensure its successful implementation. You will identify the areas contributing to high operational costs and low productivity, decide on the key objectives and performance indicators for the change strategy, and determine the communication strategies to ensure stakeholder buy-in.

This simulation will provide you with a practical application of skills crucial for a Change Management Specialist. You will validate skills in stakeholder assessment, change strategy development, operational efficiency improvement, and change management. You will also learn and test how to plan and execute communication strategies, suggest training and development paths, and monitor the progress and impact of change initiatives.

Expected outcomes

Your success will be determined by your ability to effectively improve operational efficiency within Sterling Trust. You will need to produce a comprehensive change strategy document that outlines the objectives, key performance indicators, and timeline for the change.

This document should detail:
1. The identified operational challenges, proposed solutions
2. The expected impact on efficiency and productivity.
3. A communication plan that outlines how you will ensure stakeholder buy-in and manage resistance to change.

Your decisions and actions should result in a decrease in operational costs and an increase in productivity. Finally, you will need to compile these final assets into a single document and submit it to the Head of Change Management.

Team

Who you will work with in this Simulation
Your team is 100% generated by AI – you will not interact with real people and no human will read your conversation.

John Davis
CEO, Sterling Trust

Lisa Thompson
Department Manager, Retail Banking

Mark Johnson
Customer Service Representative, Retail Banking

Dr. Susan Clark
External Change Management Consultant

Sarah Williams
Head of Change Management

Organization

Sterling Trust is a global financial services giant with over 500 branches in 50 countries, serving 10 million customers. In the US, it holds a 15% market share in retail banking. Despite $10 billion in revenue, the company faces significant operational challenges, including high staff turnover, outdated technology systems, and rising operational costs, which have led to dwindling profit margins and a cost-to-income ratio of 60%. These issues have significantly impacted its productivity and competitive standing in the market.