Colin Grange is a senior leader in Commercial Banking with extensive experience in running and transforming Customer Service and Operations teams. He has worked globally, sponsoring large investment programmes that have achieved successful outcomes. Colin is passionate about transforming how banks serve their non-personal customers. Most recently, Colin led Customer Service and Operations for NatWest across all customer segments and products.
In this Q&A, Colin shares his experiences in financial services and discusses how Albany Beck's innovative approach helps clients tackle their key challenges.
Why I joined Albany Beck
I've come onboard Albany Beck because I see a clear market need for their innovative solutions. Having faced the challenges of managing a disjointed, costly workforce myself, I’m passionate about finding effective solutions. Albany Beck’s culture stands out for its commitment to delivering essential capabilities through a diverse, high-quality workforce, and their focus on providing top-notch employee propositions further impresses me.
The challenge of bridging the gap between strategy and delivery
In my career, I’ve seen many firms face the challenge of bridging the gap between strategy and delivery in large-scale initiatives. Traditional consulting firms can be effective in defining the strategy, but resourcing delivery can be a hurdle. Consulting firms are seen as too expensive, and internal teams aren't sufficiently developed to take over, leading to an over-reliance on independent contractors.
Albany Beck offers a unique solution by building dedicated teams with leadership alignment and clear accountability for performance. This approach is more cost-effective and allows organisations to strengthen their internal teams by hiring skilled professionals at the end of a project.
Meeting Unexpected Demand: The Challenge of Scaling Teams
I have also frequently encountered the challenge of rapidly scaling teams to address sudden spikes in demand, such as during surges in complaints or customer onboarding. The overhead involved in quickly building and training new teams is significant and often comes under intense scrutiny from executives and regulators. This includes managing hiring, training, performance, and capacity forecasting. The result can be increased turnover, missed deadlines, and unmet expectations.
Streamlined Scaling with the AB Model
The Albany Beck model sets out clear expectations around performance and capability, with Albany Beck assuming the overhead of hiring people and providing the required training, thus removing the strain on existing line management. The model also addresses challenges with performance management, again with single points of accountability. Resources can be switched out if performance is not met or demand for capacity reduces. Again, the opportunity to hire the resource into permanent roles gives leaders a great chance to see talent in actions before making the commitment.
If you want to leverage Colin’s extensive experience and deep industry knowledge to address your strategic challenges, get in touch with us today
