Scotiabank Technology Innovation: Achieving Results Through Leadership Competency Improvement

Results as LC

Discuss about the Leadership Competency Improvement Focus Paper.

Based on assessment results of Birkman, GMI and MLQ as well as Dr. Tina Wu’s advice, the author’s three leadership competencies (LC) to work on are confirmed as planning & organizing, results and team leadership.

In Deliverable 3, results would be the author’s chosen competency for case illustration. Basically, results demonstrates a leader’s ability to … (Leadership competency framework, p.23). 

The author select Scotiabank’s effort on technology innovation to give a vivid example of thorough results-based leadership activities. Scotiabank is one of the popular multinational bank in Canada (Strandberg, 2009). It is considered to be the third largest bank in Canada by market capitalization and deposits. Scotiabank was incorporated in the year 1832 by the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia in Halifax under the name of “The Bank of Nova Scotia”. This bank serves near about 25 million of the customers over fifty different countries all around the globe including Caribbean, North America, Asia, Australia, Central and South America, Europe and Middle East. It offers a wide range of services and products comprising of the commercial and personal banking, investment and corporate banking and wealth management (Green & Peloza, 2014). It trades on the New York Exchanges and Toronto. It is headquartered in Ontario, Toronto and Canada. This bank has been merged with many Canadian financial institutions all through these years and has purchased many other banks internationally. Some of the examples include- amalgamation with the Union Bank of PEI in the year 1883, the Summerside Bank in 1901, Bank of Ottawa in 1919, Bank of New Brunswick in 1913, National Bank of Greece in 2005, Banco Sudamericano in 1997, Banco Colpatria in 1955 and most recently, with the Canadian Tire Financial Services and the Discount Bank in 2015 (Weber, 2012). There are also many other banks with which Scotiabank has merged since its establishment. With the same, it is also to note that Scotiabank has a total of four business lines including International Banking, Canadian Banking, Global Wealth & Insurance (GWI) and Global Banking & Markets. Scotiabank also offers an alternative banking solution that is self-directed by means of Tangerine Bank. The Global Wealth & Insurance is the capital markets and wholesale banking of Scotiabank that offers a wide range of services and products to institutional, government and corporate investor clients internationally.

To mention about its branding and corporate sponsorship, it is to state that Scotiabank is regarded as the title sponsor of Scotiabank Aquatics Center of Guadalajara. It is also the title sponsor of the event “Pitch for Israel” of Jewish National Fund (Zaichkowsky, 2014). Furthermore, it is the title sponsor for many of the running events which are the parts of Canada Running Series- Half-Marathon & 5k (October), Scotiabank Bluenose Marathon, Banque Scotia 21k de Montreal + 10k & 5k (April), Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon & 5k Run/Walk (June). It is also considered to be the official bank of the NHLPA (National Hockey League Players’ Association), NHL (National Hockey League), the NHL Alumni and the CWHL (Canadian Women’s Hockey League) along with many other girls hockey festivals present all over Canada. With the same, it is also an official team sponsor of the CCT (Canadian Cricket Team), Canada’s National T20 Championship, the World Rally Championship’s Corona Rally Mexico etc.

Background Information of Scotiabank (2 pages)

Most recently, in 2011, Scotiabank has acquired about 51% of stakes in Colpatria, the second largest issuer of the credit cards and the fifth largest bank in Colombia for the tune of one billion Canadian dollars and stock. Also, in the year 2012, the bank had announced to acquire ING Direct Canada for 3.13 billion Canadian dollars. Furthermore, in the year 2015, it had announced that it would be buying the commercial and retail banking operations of the Citigroup in Costa Rica and Panama as it would increase the client base of Scotiabank in both the nations from 137,000 to about 387,000 and would also assist in adding up 27 more branches to the then prevailing 51 branches of it in both the Central American countries.

The Bank has got numerous awards and recognition since its emergence. Some of the most significant among all are the “Bank of the Year” award in the 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013. It has also acquired the recognition of the “Best Emerging Market Bank” in the year 2011 as per the Global Finance Magazine (Morrison, Misener & Mock, 2018). Also, in the year 2014 and 2012, Scotiabank has received the award of the “Best Emerging Market Bank in Latin America” and “Global Bank of the Year” respectively. 

As described in the vision statement of Scotiabank, its vision is to become the leading brand of marketing companies in the world by the year 2015. They would working with international clients in order to develop a strong branding strategies for the new and the prevailing products and services. It would also help in building better relationships through being best at helping the clients in achieving their financial aspirations and goals (Ladd, 2012). The mission of Scotiabank is to create and design the logos for the Jamaican companies which are very easily identifiable and are resonate with public. The goal of Scotiabank is to build a better Bank and to help all its clients to achieve financial independence and net worth by means of purposeful planning as well as committed savings by making use of financial plan which would able to turn all their investments into an actual wealth along with providing insurance coverage.

How did Scotiabank make decision in technology innovation to achieve above results?

Scotiabank has created a new unit known as the Digital Factory in the year 2016 in order to pursue latest innovation in technology as well as mobile banking (Doherty, 2016). This unit employ about 350 individuals. It has been created with an intention to bring together a network of leaders and teams all together in transforming the manner in which the bank delivers the services to its consumers internationally. More than half of the monthly interactions of the Canadian with the banks are by means of digital channels- using tablets, phones and through online banking systems (Osborne, 2012). It is also to note that Scotiabank has recently doubled its investment in the field of technology to more than 2.1 billion dollars as it responds to nimble the financial technology companies or fintech and a decreasing demand for all the traditional branch transactions as the customers are increasingly doing their banking businesses on smartphones and computers. It is also to mention that Scotiabank hold the place of one among the Big Six in publicizing the size of its investments (Poon, 2012). Along with developing technology within the bank, Scotiabank has also been collaborating with the other outside fintech companies like Sensibill Incorporations, which is a Toronto based startup business and it offers its customers with online receipt managing tool.

Goals and Vision

As per Sun (2012), leadership is all about achieving the results. A good leader is always focused on changing the things for the betterment and he or she is always concerned with the future instead of the past. Osland (2013) in this context have stated that the attributed that are necessary to possess by the leaders are the qualities like the competencies, traits, behaviors, habits, values, skills, styles, and finally, character. However, it is also to note that while these attributes are necessary to be possessed by a leader, still they are not the only requirements. Leaders must also attain the measurable results and this too is important equally. As stated by Chang and Lee (2013). Leaders illustrate their proposition through assigning a core to both the attributes as well as the results. For example,

There are a total of four criteria upon which the managers are judged whether or not he is focused on achieving the intended results and they are- selfless, lasting, strategic and balanced. Also, Epitropaki et  al. (2013) have stated that leaders or the managers should deliver the results in four different areas and they are- for their investor, for their employees, for their customers and finally, for their organizations. Each of the mentioned areas requires their own metrics. For the customers, it is providing the exact value that they want. For the employees, developing their commitment as well as human capital. For the organization, it is to create an innovative and learning instinct and for the investors, reducing the costs as well as to let the businesses grow and develop. Scotiabank has enhanced the diversity, deployment and the depth of the leadership teams. The leaders of the bank are more reflective to the employee and customer populations and they are greatly motivated by the customer-based objectives (Naidoo et al., 2014). Scotiabank has already succeeded in attracting the leading talents- especially the digital talents. It is to note that about 30% of the senior leaders of Scotiabank are at present women. It also has a very strong culture of operating its business ethically while acting with the integrity as well as efficiently managing their risks. In order to achieve the long term goal of it, which is of establishing a better bank, the bank is taking significant steps in shifting the elements of its banking culture. It is now more focused towards its customers and is more performance oriented than ever before. The evolving team of the bank has been embraced by its efficient leadership teams and is also resonating powerfully across the Bank. The bank is also providing all its employees with more efficient technological tools and training opportunities so that they could reach the full potential. The leaders of the bank assess the results of their changes and implementation and then decide whether or not they have actually achieved the desired result or not (Fixsen et al., 2013). They are also supporting and providing necessary tools and implementation for the purpose of individualized development of all its employees through coaching and on-job training along with development and career planning with career aspirations and business needs.

How did Scotiabank make decision in technology innovation to achieve above results?

Furthermore, the critical goal of the Strategic Agenda of the bank is to become more effective and efficient doing continuous improvements in its customers’ experiences (Henderson et al., 2016). In order to do so, the leaders of the bank have adopted within them a continuous improvement mindset. In the present competitive environment, the bank has made significant progress in regard to continuously embrace the change. For example, the bank has announced about restricting the charge in order to invest in the process of strengthening its businesses by means of a series of crucial initiative which would enhance the operating model as well as respond to the continuously consumer preferences (Bugailiskis & Rozental, 2012). As because of the fact that the customer preferences and the digital trends are changing and they are reshaping the utility and role of the branch network of Scotiabank, therefore, the leaders of the bank are introducing more digital options in order to ensure that the customers are banking how, when and where they want. They have also improved the automation and have embraced the disruptive technologies in order to improve the experiences of the customers and to reduce the cost invests in the advanced analytics in order to drive the revenues and to optimize the use of funding and capital. 

In the case study, the author uses secondary sources for analysis. Qualitative method has played a significant role while statistics of demography, revenue and costs in tables are provided to give a better understanding of Scotiabank’s efforts in enhancing technology.

Scotiabank, by means of its Rapid Innovation Labs, is playing one of the most significant roles in redefining the banking sectors for the digital age. It aims at providing a personalized and seamless experience to all its retail customers. It has used the agile methodology in order to deploy the Pega Customer Decision Hub for increasing the speed of the markets for delivering a contextual Next Based Actions for the Scotia Mobile and Online channels. It is to note that Pega is one of the most significant part of the Digital Transformation initiative taken by Scotiabank that aims at upgrading the technology as well as providing multiple number of channels for the banking services in the format of rapid delivery. It is also to note that Scotiabank mines the data in order to generate leads. It has about twenty million customer accounts all over its various different business lines. In order to achieve more wallet share by means of effective marketing to the prevailing client base, the challenge of Scotiabank is ensuring that the customers are getting right product and services at the right time and that too, over the right channel. The bank is also providing all its employees with more efficient technological tools and training opportunities so that they could reach the full potential. Earlier, it ran one-off customer campaigns for five to six campaigns in a year. However, along with the SAS Marketing Optimization, Scotiabank has increased exponentially the total number of campaigns that it runs every year and this is helping it in generating more sales. It is also to state their department of customer service has also been improved to a great extend in these years. They provide an average number of 33 hours of training to each employee. It has been recognized for its significant excellence in the categories of the complete management and the leadership and customer service strategy by the Jamaica Customer Service and the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica while being awarded as the first place holder of larger business-to-consumer category. In the year 2013, Scotiabank was awarded with the best customer service provider (Global, 2016). Also, in the year 2013, it had received the Service Excellence Award, which judges different companies on the basis of international benchmarks like tracking mechanism, complaints logging, training and capacity building, auditing and monitoring measurement, recognition, rewards as well as service excellence ambassadors (Brown, 2017). Also, Scotiabank is regarded as one of the top 5 big banks as per the overall satisfaction Index score ranking of 2015.

Literature Review

As per the management, one of the strategic pillars of this company is customer focus. Its main objective is to provide the prevailing customers better services and products. The customer focus includes different strategic initiatives at every levels all through the organization and that comprise of continuous measurement of service delivery and the positioning of the service champions in every branches who help the entire team in keeping their focus on the customers, and keeping them well-trained and on the message of high quality customer experience always (Lemire, 2015). With the same, they also assist them in the continuous sharing of different tips and strategies by means of various internal communication channels. Along with this, a healthy recognition and reward system that is focused on delivering superior customer experience to all the existing as well as the future customers who are yet to come. At the level of leadership, there are also meetings held on a regular basis and these meetings assess and measure the customer experiences and finally, they determines the areas that are needed for further improvements. It is also been highlighted in their Annual Report of 2015, that the service of Scotiabank promises all its customers, which is an internal promise that is recited every day and it includes a total of five commitments they made to their customers, employees, Environment and the employees (Trudeau & McLarney, 2017). These commitments are:

• Building up of a better future hinges on every success of their customers. By means of their services and products, they aim at increasing access to the education and financial services to their customers all around the globe.
• They would build an inclusive environment along with diverse expertise and skills that are necessary for the success of the bank.
• They would strategically invest their efforts and money in the communities in which they operate and conduct their business in order to build some opportunities of more number of people in order to grow and prosper more.
• They would acting and conducting their business with utmost integrity in order to uphold and maintain a powerful reputation that would be made through strong and strategic practices of corporate governance.
• They believe the fact that a prosperous future is always linked with the well-being of the environment. Hence, they aim at reducing their own environmental footprint as well as they aim at using their expertise in order to achieve finance solutions for more sustainable near future.

Over the last 6 years, Scotiabank has been regarded as one of the recipients of a large range of awards that include the “Highest Customer Service” by the SQM (Service Quality Management Group) and “World Class Certification by the Industry, won by their Contact Centre for a total of four respective years (Avtushenko, 2016). Along with this, as a part of environmental commitment, in February 2018, Scotiabank has pledged its support for the TCFD (Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure). With the same, the 20 years of partnership of Scotiabank with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) also provide the bank with more options and opportunities for giving back to its communities and help the young people in reaching their full potential (Forbes, 2018) Furthermore, at the Bank, the management teams are committed at becoming one of the digital leaders in the field of financial services industry. Being consistent with their aspirations, the annual technology spend of  Scotiabank – that comprise of digital – has grew 14% in the last 2 years, and at present, it sits at more than 3 billion dollars (Gupta et al., 2016). 

There is no doubt that the Scotiabank has done an exceptional job in … Hereby the author has utilized some key criteria from LDRS 503 to evaluate the best practices which Scotiabank can achieve, with an in-depth analysis of her uniqueness in results-based leadership.  

      The author is …

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An effective and practical action plan will utilize resources including the author’s course materials as well as experience coming from extracurricular activities. Course materials include but not limited to textbooks of leadership programs as they address the concept of TSL and ethical leadership, Leadership integration project manual 2017-2018 and Leadership competency framework. Extracurricular activities of the author will consist of part-time job on campus, volunteer experience, business conference and symposium, etc.

The author plans to follow the preset schedule to complete Deliverables 2 to 5 and will adapt to adjusting deadlines if there is any. She will connect closely with her group members and advisor for regular communications.   

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Conclusion

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References

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