New action-oriented finance strategy

Defining and implementing a new finance strategy to ensure functional cascading of the Ikano bank growth strategy.

Challenge

Following a corporate strategic process, there was a need to further cascade the overall strategic initiatives to the finance functional levels and to create direction and engagement for the future finance strategy.

The corporate strategy for growth focused on three core elements:

• The customer experience
• One Ikano Bank brand
• Profitable growth

The change in strategy required a change to the setup and focus within the finance function. Moreover, the structure for operating model requirements was defined to ensure operational implementation of the finance strategy.

Approach

Based on Implement’s strategic “Playing to Win” framework, a series of workshops were conducted to define the new finance strategy.

The finance functional strategy was developed, covering group financial accounting, business finance functions, treasury and group reporting, including governance, meeting schedules and supporting metrics.

Impact

The definition of the winning aspiration “To infuse a finance transformation towards data-driven, efficient and valued business support” provided a clear direction and transition road map for how to implement the strategy and a sequence of the activities required. The impact created centred around:

• Transparency
• A clear road map and prioritisation
• Communication material to support the vision