Bureaucracy Killing Innovation - Assignment Example

Topic: Bureaucracy killing innovation Bureaucracy is killing innovation at NBD Bank. Innovation as a marketing strategy can save a sinking ship andthe NBD Bank seems to be that sinking ship because it is depending solely on traditional methods of doing business. The NBD Bank needs to shift away from the bureaucratic structure to one of matrix-oriented one. Planning without implementation is no solution to the issues. Customers should be willing to welcome the changes too. It is at the same time very important to talk to employees and get their feedback. Keeping these concerns in mind, a questionnaire has been prepared to talk to the middle-level managers and desk executives of the NBD Bank. The answers to the questions put to the bank employees are given below. Q 1. Are you willing to accept changes at organizational level? A. Banking industry being a regulated one, changes have been minimal. Initiatives from the management have been lacking to foster the changes. Q 2. Banking jobs are taken as secure jobs. Do you agree? A. It is no more the case in the current financial downturn environment; it is a thing of the past. Automation of processes has created fear of retrenchment; it is prevailing in all departments. Q. 3 Are you satisfied with the role of your human resource department? A. Changes at operational level demand relocation and training to new staff according to the new responsibilities as well as training to be imparted to the current middle managers like me but the HR department is not coming forward with full force to take the initiative of doing its job. A number of employees have been ordered to join in new and far away locations. There is resentment prevailing all over among such employees. I have also received orders to join a branch otherwise face retrenchment. Q 4. Did you observe resistance to change among those affected by the change management programme? A. Change is happening in haphazard way. It needs to tackle all changes simultaneously while what is happening is making adjustment by initiating one change to compensate another. There seems to be lack of coordination, robust leadership and straight communication. Gaps exist and seem to be widening, which is creating tensions among all workforce of the NBD Bank. Due to wrong implementation, a number of employees seem to be disinterested to innovation. Q 5. Why innovation in new products implementation not contributing to change management in business operation processes? A. It is because of lack of integration at various departments’ level. Functionality part of implementation lacks encouragement. Further, management is covering only horizontal changes, keeping vertical efforts neglected. Result is wastage of human resources in developing programs for organizational changes. Q 6. Did you find any other reason for the delay in introduction of new products and services? A. Yes, new products often get delayed due to system problems. Applications functionality is poor when it is tested. It is because of poor knowledge of FIS features and the related system errors. Q 7. What efforts are being made to generate & implement new ideas to project a spirit of innovation by launching new products and services? A. The NBD Bank is not lacking in idea creation regarding new products, for example in the loan portfolio, a team of 20 relationship managers was built to attend to more than two-thirds of the NBD Bank’s loan portfolio. Regular meetings are being conducted with the team members. Q. 8 What efforts are being made to weed out bureaucracy? A. Senior members of the management are holding training programs with the bank’s credit team to change the bureaucratic process of handling customer credit applications. Discussions are taking place on how to introduce and implement dynamic ideas, products, and processes. Management knows very well the reasons of employees’ down morale. Our newly appointed chairman has vast experience of heading financial organisations worldwide. Things will move positively for the better with his taking reins of the NBD Bank. He has long experience of handling agricultural financing – a portfolio that the NBD is committed to reorganise according to changing agricultural and economic environment. Q.9 What innovation in product category is being introduced by the NBD Bank? A. It is in the process of introducing new products in the retail sector by pursuing strong marketing and pricing policies. Q. 10 Does it hold truth that bureaucracy is affecting the psyche and personalities of the employees? A. Before the joining of our new CEO, the NBD Bank was a bleeding giant full of complex bureaucratic snarls but it has been taken as a challenge by our chairman. With a huge experience down the banking line, he is quite sure to boost the morale of the employees through regular meetings and listening to their points of view. Actually, the commitment shown by the employees is pleasantly surprising. So, saying that they are a harassed lot would be far from truth. There are more positive elements than negative ones in the operations. Employees want change and dynamic set up. Q. 11 Do you want to say that there are no bureaucracy-related issues at NBD? A. No, that would be wrong to say as there are issues of structure, bureaucracy, non-performing loans, excess branches and manpower, and the balance sheet not being utilised properly but these issues are old since the establishment of the bank. Q. 12 What about the bureaucratic set up affecting employees psyche and personalities? A. A lot of travelling and meeting is taking place to restructure the bureaucratic set up by replacing it with matrix-oriented. The employees are no more demoralized as they have become positive instruments in bringing the turnaround. We are changing the old and repressive systems. A campaign of trust building among employees has been initiated to create confidence that senior level management policies are work friendly and therefore for the overall benefit of the employees. Multiple layers of organization management have got replaced with just four regional heads, taking charge of business, customer service, portfolio management and compliance. Non-performing branches have been shut down, retrenching staff through beneficial schemes. Irregularities regarding bad loans are being inquired into aggressively to clear the dark clouds hovering over. Seniors’ communication level with the public has increased as management focus is more than before on filling the void by communication with the public, attending to their problems, remaining always accessible. Surprise visits to the branches have become random. Meetings are prioritised by giving attention first to customers, then to regulators, administrative matters come last. Most of the decisions are taken on the field. Head office is handling limited functions of making strategy, thinking creatively and innovation. The sense of disappointment among employees because of bad performance of the NBD Bank in the past will be checked by introducing new products and providing better customer service to bring change in work ethics. The time taken in clearing a credit application will be reduced by cutting extra flab on the decision making process. Reference Mangi, Naveen A. Feb, 21, 2003. Banking on innovation. Daily Times. Retrieved from http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_21-2-2003_pg5_15 [accessed 3 May 2010]. Chew, Yin Teng. & Choo, Siew Ming. December, 2008. A study of the change management and challenges in a bank: research and practice in human resource management. Bnet. 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