Banking on Lean Advantage

T he imprint of operations on a bank’s performance is hard to overstate—and extends well beyond the back office. Although the word operations implies something mechanical—perhaps impersonal—such activities and processes have a profound impact on customer satisfaction and retention. More than many other factors, operations influence how a customer views a bank. Years ago, pioneers in other industries—notably the automotive industry—began seeing operations as a strategic asset to be leveraged rather than a source of costs to be managed. They looked at operations holistically instead of through a one-dimensional, costoriented lens. In the late 1970s, for example, Toyota began reengineering operations to deliver not only huge cost efficiencies but also a superior customer experience, which led to an enviable strategic advantage.