FirstBank has defined four broad strategic themes, which we believe are overarching and pivotal to its success, and around which transformation initiatives are being implemented. The themes are discussed below, as well as priority initiatives (both ongoing and planned) that fall under each theme.
- Growth
- Service excellence
- Performance management
- Talent
1. Growth
FirstBank believes that scale and efficiency are fundamental to success in banking. While the former does not guarantee the latter, there are strong cost-savings and potential revenue benefits (e.g., improved customer acquisition as size/stability is a key buying factor for retail customers, greater and higherquality deal flow in corporate and investment banking etc.) directly attributable to scale. Outside of the South African banks and a few in North Africa (Morocco, Egypt etc.), we perceive that most African banks remain subscale relative to their economic environments and national development objectives. Tellingly, scale with efficiency can be achieved in a disciplined manner through a combination of organic and inorganic growth (with inorganic growth applied only where terms and conditions make sense for shareholders).
At FirstBank, we seek growth in assets that flows through to increased revenue and profit growth, and which ultimately grows shareholder value. Key present and future growth initiatives for FirstBank include, among others:
Institutional/Corporate banking:
- Redefine business unit commercial strategy (optimised product portfolio, channel strategy and marketing communications approach linked to deep customer insights)
- Drive deeper risk asset penetration in the middle market corporate segment, underpinned by enhanced credit analysis and processing capabilities
- Deepen share of wallet of large corporates to enhance fee/commission income
- Deepen capabilities in structured finance space to enhance participation in infrastructure financing.
Retail banking:
- Redefine business unit commercial strategy (optimised product portfolio, channel strategy and marketing communications approach linked to deep customer insights)
- Increase penetration and profits from consumer credit by redesigning credit processes and tools (e.g., statistical models and credit scoring algorithms)
- Develop a differentiated sales and service model for high net-worth and affluent customers, and aggressively pursue this segment.
Public sector banking:
- Redefine business unit commercial strategy (optimised product portfolio, channel strategy and marketing communications approach linked to deep customer insights)
- Aggressively pursue key accounts not presently within portfolio.
General growth initiatives:
- Significantly but conservatively scale up risk asset deployment and optimise treasury portfolio to increase yield on earning assets
- Engage in enterprise transformation to reposition the FirstBank brand and, over time, drive enhanced customer consideration, acquisition, and cross-sell/up-sell
- Optimise branch network via more targeted new branch openings, deployment of lighter/small format branches focused on sales (versus servicing).
Inorganic growth:
- Continue to explore the Nigerian landscape for merger or acquisition opportunities, to extend the franchise in a manner that benefits shareholders
- Explore international M&A (and organic) entry options.
Branch network and expansion
Employing the latest advances in global positioning system mapping, it was possible, in the review period, to superimpose macroeconomic data (including aggregate output of each state) on the industry's branch network. Read against the Bank's existing business locations, it is ultimately intended to build a 'city attractiveness' index that will drive business location deployment going forward. On this basis, we pursued a policy during the nine months to end-December 2009 of deliberately staggering our branch development to take full advantage of the deployment of the city attractiveness index. Accordingly, 47 branches were opened in the year, bringing the total number of branches on our network to 570.
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2. Service excellence
Overlaying growth must be a relentless effort to transform the enterprise – reducing costs, lowering processing times and mitigating risks, while increasing service quality to deliver greater value to customers and shareholders. FirstBank has engaged in a number of 'service excellence'-related initiatives that seek to modernise the Bank's fundamental operating model (processes, tools/systems, and roles/capabilities). Unreservedly, the Bank's service ethos is underpinned by a culture transformation that puts the customer at the centre of all that we do.
Key initiatives to drive this objective include:
- End-to-end process redesign (centralised processing and branch process re-engineering) focused on priority processes with the objective of standardisation, simplification and efficiency
- Branch transformation that updates the FirstBank branch format
- TouchPoint reengineering for all electronic/other customer touchpoints, including the Bank's interactive website (recently redesigned), e-statements and customer communications, etc.
- Channel optimisation and migration to optimise channel functionality while aggressively driving migration of transactions to the most appropriate channels
- Several key information technology transformation initiatives to enable strategic business objectives flow from a three-year IT transformation plan with detailed steps designed to stabilise and improve core elements of the Bank's IT infrastructure, and enhance the IT organisation/capabilities.
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3. Performance management
Beginning in late 2008, FirstBank began the deployment of a new Performance Management System designed to galvanise the organisation and create a performance culture in the Bank and to align individual, team and business objectives. This comprehensive system has been installed for each market-facing Directorate of the Bank. It features clearly defined KPIs (with weightings), targets, a performance monitoring system, and monthly and quarterly performance reviews with commensurate rewards. A dedicated Business Performance Monitoring (BPM) unit within the Finance function coordinates all performance management, as well as budgeting, activities.
Defined objectives within performance management include:
- Realign performance management system (KPIs, targets etc.) with the Bank's proposed operating structure; customising to align with BU objectives
- Extend balanced scorecard usage to back-office/ support functions
- Expand portfolio of metrics to track critical improvement areas for the future.
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4. Talent
Fundamental to FirstBank's success as the 'bank of First choice' will be its ability to attract, develop and retain a cadre of the best-performing industry talent available in the regions in which FirstBank operates. The Bank seeks to deploy mechanisms that would continually elevate and equip the best performers and attract new pockets of specialised expertise, where required. Several initiatives are underway on the people/talent management front. Some of these include:
- Staff productivity improvement initiatives and wellbeing programmes, particularly for the field organisation and critical back-office support functions have been put in place to ensure higher productivity of staff
- Staff capability building initiatives have been instituted to build and up-skill the competencies of the marketfacing/ front office and back-office workforce via formal in-house training (e.g. FirstAcademy), external training, on-the-job learning and an e-learning/self-development campaign to reinforce the talent development drive
- Culture change initiatives to drive entrepreneurship, leadership and desired change/culture that would transform performance and service culture attitudes
- Improved individual performance management systems in conjunction with BPM to ensure the alignment of individual KPIs/target to job functions and corporate strategy
- Improving FirstBank's employee value proposition by projecting FirstBank as a premium employer brand through participation in relevant job/career fairs and campus campaigns
- Career management initiatives to drive career development at all levels and sustain organisational performance (management development programmes, student mentoring, coaching, cross posting, secondment).
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