{"id":9024,"date":"2014-05-23T16:55:13","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T20:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/en\/?p=9024"},"modified":"2022-12-07T15:00:06","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T20:00:06","slug":"prioritizing-value-national-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/en\/2014\/05\/23\/prioritizing-value-national-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"Prioritizing for value at National Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Bernard-Truong_opt2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8176 alignright\" alt=\"Bernard Truong_opt(2)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Bernard-Truong_opt2.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Project Monarch, aimed at transforming the Strategic Business Relationships group at National Bank, has already generated $2.65 million of value for the bank, and there\u2019s another $1.3 million in the works. It was all a matter of changing perspectives and priorities in order to maximize value.\u00a0 Bernard Truong (EMBA 2013) spearheaded the project, and explains its roots:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<i>The change management initiative started in 2011 (at the beginning of the EMBA Program), when I had to identify a change project with real business impact that I would work on during the program. I started to brainstorm with my team at work, knowing that the success of the project would depend heavily on the buy-in from my team, my colleagues and my manager.\u00a0 We all knew we had challenges with our capacity to deliver what was expected of us (contract management, change requests, support for RFPs, etc.).\u00a0 We came out of the brainstorming sessions knowing this was where we could have the biggest impact.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>We redefined our work structure, and built tools that would allow us to understand what our partners expect, and how to prioritize initiatives according to our capacity.\u00a0 We chose the Monarch as a symbol of our transformation, and developed three key axes for evaluating our priorities: alignment with BNC strategy, probability of success, and value creation<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The results speak for themselves \u2013 the new approach, with value creation for the bank at its heart, has generated such good results that the group has been asked to initiate Phase II &#8211; to transfer the knowledge and approach to the rest of National Bank\u2019s operations group, which should result in even greater value creation.\u00a0 Bernard notes, <i>\u201cIt\u2019s a great feeling to have turned an idea into reality, but the work\u2019s not over yet.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>As part of his report to the EMBA McGill-HEC program on the project, Bernard identified a number of key success factors in implementing this major change:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Involvement of the whole team in developing the framework<\/li>\n<li>Continuous improvement of the frameworks and approach as they gained knowledge through its implementation. This is key: they didn\u2019t assume they got it right first time. They started with a \u2018good enough\u2019 model and perfected it over time.<\/li>\n<li>Keep the customer promise\/expectations at the heart of their work<\/li>\n<li>Influencing top management towards action, all the while promoting visibility for the project only when necessary, in order to manage the pressure on employees<\/li>\n<li>Prioritizing information sharing across the team as the program evolved<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Change Project is one of a series of company-related assignments that participants complete throughout the McGill-HEC Montreal EMBA program.\u00a0 The emphasis on reflection after action is also a key element of the program.\u00a0 Not only has Bernard implemented this change, he\u2019s thought through how and why it worked and what conditions are needed to foster change.\u00a0 He\u2019s armed for the next big initiative, having taken the time to learn from this experience.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Alain Pinsonneault, Co-Director of the program, comments: <i>\u201cBernard\u2019s story is by no means unusual.\u00a0 Our program aims to make the learning relevant for both participants and their organizations, and we encourage people to involve their organizations and test their ability to put ideas into concrete action.\u201d\u00a0 <\/i>Professor Louis H\u00e9bert of HEC Montr\u00e9al, Co-director of the program, agrees: \u201c<i>The classroom is important, but we want to get past the classroom to the business reality. When it\u2019s applicable in real life, the learning sticks.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Bernard couldn\u2019t agree more. Throughout the program, when he returned to work after a module, he shared his learnings with his team.\u00a0 He also made a point of actively asking for input from the bank for all of his assignments.\u00a0 His goal: to ensure the topics he chose were interesting to him as well as relevant and beneficial to the organization. \u201c<i>I really appreciated that the McGill-HEC Montr\u00e9al program gave me such latitude in choosing to work on issues that were valuable to me and my organization. I grew, and the organization evolved. It really was a win-win.\u201d \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Project Monarch, aimed at transforming the Strategic Business Relationships group at National Bank, has already generated $2.65 million of value for the bank, and there\u2019s another $1.3 million in the works. It was all a matter of changing perspectives and priorities in order to maximize value.\u00a0 Bernard Truong (EMBA 2013) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,5],"tags":[79,3702856,3702858,102,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9024"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9024"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9048,"href":"https:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9024\/revisions\/9048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embamcgillhec.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}