Technology & Organisational Change

Based on Harvard Business Article - How much change can a new CEO demand? "The young CEO of a Turkish bank wants to experiment with a new way of reaching customers and doing business, but she's meeting with resistance from employees and worries that they have had enough" (Healy, How Much Change Can A New Demand, 2017)

The introduction of technology into a financial system, is always fraught with fear of change, especially when the notion of profitability is a public indicator for successful brands. In an oligopoly market, when the underlying service is the same, differentiation is vital, among groups offering identical services. In regard to Sena Aslan’s case (CEO of FDM Turkey), is similar to how McDonald's have begun changing the customer ordering system from an over the counter method to introducing self-service kiosks in store. In FDM Turkey’s case, it was an attempt to simplify how money was being withdrawn and how a customer's submitted applications to borrow money for large purchases (houses, cars, etc….), in essence, expanding the bank’s use of technology.  FDM Turkey, is a financial services organisation, operating in an environment in which has “four dominant banks, each controlling more than 10% of the sector’s assets” (Healy, How Much Should a New CEO Shake Things Up?, 2017)

“…ramping up mobile-banking operations, which competitors were also doing and looking to experiment with something more innovative: partnerships with supermarkets and electronics stores that would allow FDM to set up kiosks within them… many banks have begun installing self-service kiosks in their branches and elsewhere. For example, Chase Bank offers them in the United States, and Shinhan Bank offers them in South Korea.” (Healy, How Much Should a New CEO Shake Things Up?, 2017)

Politics plays a central role in all organisational change initiatives, and identifying, planning and managing all key stakeholders is a tricky affair, along with notable stakeholder groups, and when challenging conformity, it's best to determine your allies early on.

“I started by making sure that the board support I had was visible. It’s good that Sena has such a strong relationship with Sophie, but she needs to ask for a more formal, explicit mandate from the entire group…”(Healy, How Much Should a New CEO Shake Things Up?, 2017)

When performing a shift to the new from the known, the source of interferences comes from human factors, the perception of how will individual stakeholders, or groups will be impacted by changes in the cultural system, both from a macro and micro perspective. As per being witnessed in the UK at present, Banks have begun the shift of reducing the number of physical branches and transitioning services towards a virtual machine.

“…We have to weigh those risks you just cited which are serious against the potentially bigger risk of not moving first on this idea. We’d all hate it if a competitor beat us to this. If we focus just on mobile, like everyone else, we won’t differentiate ourselves and differentiation is the only way to win in this market.”(Healy, How Much Should a New CEO Shake Things Up?, 2017)

These changes have impacted different age groups, as the young embrace the simplicity the old view changes as difficult. The key is finding a balance, using the rate of change, aligning to the existing base and what is happening from challengers entering the market.

“…people are wondering how they’ll fit into the business going forward. They want to know whether we’re going to start closing branches. Will we all be working out of call center's or supermarket kiosks next year? It’s stressful.”(Healy, How Much Should a New CEO Shake Things Up?, 2017)

As clearly identified in the case study through reactions from senior team members, who view impact from a macro ‘will our customer base use the technology service' and micro ‘does the company have sufficient human resources to drive through ‘innovation / the future of banking services'.

The general theme over the last few years seems to be turning into a contest between human vs. machine and the pace of change, which is causing undue anxiety across humanity. I encountered this is on my latest assignment, the CIO said that automation was brilliant, but the technology employees are completely afraid, on both a management and technology front. The pace of change, is the key, sometimes when you see resistance to change, the perception of individual self is threatened because of not understanding the benefits to livelihoods, and those in technology seemed to be threatened by technology, and in turn become resisters to change. To lead change successfully is to negotiate/remove the walls that block change, considering the velocity of change, while also factoring on the notion of how much authority does the instigator have? 

Experience has led me to conclude that one year is a long time in information technology. If an organisation wishes to achieve change, then it's human resources need to be receptive to change, as such, to reduce the negative perception. If you want success what are you willing to do to achieve it, hence how to get an organisation to buy-into the vision is by what you offer them 'Paint the Picture'. Offering education to employees provides them notion that if a role in the future organisation is no longer required, that they have new abilities keeping aligned to present day educational systems. 

When an organisation embraces technology, and it leads to changes in current working practices, also comes a cultural shift, the ability to see beyond the immediate self-need, is the ability to observe the future (how younger generations operate is the future). Sena Aslan’s push to challenge the status quo, while connecting with the mobile (younger) generation will play a large difference as time passes and generations become more unconsciously conscious. With regards to using technology in everyday life, will only continue evolving, especially when improvements in how personal information will be protected, which is now becoming more paramount globally.