Basic HTML Version
The Lion King | 9
Ask the Executive
How did you get to where you are
today?
Through God, people who believe
in me, hard-work and diligence.
The Bank’s management has
saddled you with the responsibility
of coordinating Project Alpha. This
attests to the level of confidence
the Bank has in your ability to
handle great responsibilities. To
what personal qualities of yours do
you attribute this?
My ability to follow through on
given assignments and projects to
achieve the desired result, good
interpersonal and coordinating
skills.
What are the key objectives of
Project Alpha?
Project Alpha was conceived as a
3-year game-changing program,
consisting of buckets of projects
and strategic initiatives which will
enable the Bank to achieve its
financial targets and also reclaim
its industry leadership by 2015.
The following are some of the key
initiatives that the Bank will be
implementing over a 3-year period
to enable us reclaim the industry
leadership position:
• Repositioning UBA branches
for deposit mobilisation
• Customer Service
Transformation Program
• Aggressive account
acquisition and reactivation
of dormant accounts
• Regaining leadership in
e-Banking play
• Regaining leadership in Trade
• Positioning for domestic &
regional dominance in Africa
• Significant improvement in the
knowledge base and skill set
of workforce
Does Project Alpha mainly set
targets for staff?
Project Alpha does not set targets
for staff. Rather, we provide
interventionist support to enable
staff/business areas achieve
the targets set by the Bank by
determining root causes of
performance gaps and escalating
challenges to executive
management for immediate
resolution.
How does it deal with unforeseen
circumstances given the
peculiarity of our operating
environment?
Project Alpha’s 2-way process
approach (Financial Targets
Tracking & Monitoring Process
and Strategic Initiatives Tracking
& Monitoring Process) provides
the opportunity to adjust to
unforeseen circumstances through
its monitoring and escalation
process.
We have built in regular check-ins
and milestone deliverables, where
we look at objectives set-out
at the beginning and measure
progress against the objectives.
Where there are obvious financial
performance gaps, due to
unforeseen circumstances or
otherwise, the project office will
identify the root-causes and share
its observations with the relevant
functional area and also agree on
corrective action items.
How do we track implementation
of the project considering the
diverse nature of the bank’s
operations and models?
Execution of action items and
deliverables is the responsibility
of the SBG/SSG heads and
the relevant functional heads.
However, given the sheer number
of action points (about 262) and
expected scale of the various
projects required to deliver the
strategic initiatives, it is essential
to piece together these disparate
projects and initiatives into a
blueprint for ease of execution.
Accordingly, the team
maintains a dashboard to
track and monitor all strategic
initiatives and deliverables in
addition to coordinating all
interdependencies and steps that
span businesses and functional
areas.
In addition, we also regularly have
review meetings with each of
directorates/functional heads to:
• Review progress of action
items and milestone
deliverables
• Highlight dependencies
and handoffs on each
directorate’s action item/
deliverables
• Highlight action plans falling
due
• Review and assess the impact
of completed tasks
• Agree remedial actions for
past due action plans
UBA has presence in 19 African
Countries, New York, London and
Paris. How is Project Alpha being
implemented in these countries?
What matrixes are in place to
track and monitor project Alpha in
these countries.
As noted earlier, the tracking/
monitoring and escalation
framework developed for Project
Alpha is used bank-wide to track
implementation of strategic
initiatives and supporting action
items.
Most times, when initiatives like
this come up, people tend to think
only market facing /front office
staff are affected. How do the
back office staff key into Project
Alpha?
I must say that Project Alpha is
a transformation agenda that
requires the dedication and
contribution of every member
of staff. This has been reiterated
several times by the GMD/CEO
and we all need each other to
achieve the set goals.
Essentially, the market facing
staff will require the support of
the back office to deliver their
targets. Therefore, everyone in
the Bank has a vital role to play in
the success story of Project Alpha
and the Bank as a whole. We
must continue to work together to
the race and reclaim our industry
leadership by 2015.