Strategic Planning: How Two Banks Dodged Profit Perils

Most of us in lending would benefit from a crystal ball, particularly anyone responsible for strategic planning. Strategic planners face uncertainties arising from tightening regulation and expense constraints, economic turbulence, new competitors, and fragmented objectives. As a result, they struggle with questions like:

• How do I create an achievable and balanced plan for earning more profit 12 months from now?
• Can I quantify the likely profit and loss impacts of combinations of actions?
• Which step should I take first? Must some be taken simultaneously?
• How can I align all stakeholders toward the common goal of a more profitable portfolio?

To find answers, we’ve been working with several banking clients on a new approach to strategic planning—one that enables them to achieve profit targets sooner through deliberate, coordinated action. The method combines analytics and domain expertise to examine the main drivers of profit and loss across the lending product’s lifecycle. It pinpoints hidden opportunities and latent risks, and reveals each bank’s most powerful levers for improving results.

In just weeks, instead of months, these banks have a clearly mapped course to higher profit. And for most, it has resulted in an ROI of 30:1 or more.

If you’re interested in this topic, I invite you to check out our latest Insights white paper, “How Two Banks Dodged Profit Perils.” In it, we discuss this new approach to strategic planning in greater detail, while sharing two in-depth case studies from banks facing common profitability challenges.