Challenge

Challenge

In the early 2000’s, DBS Bank (formerly known as the Development Bank of Singapore) was the largest retail bank in South-East Asia. However, it was better known by customers at that time as “Damn. Bloody. Slow. “ and had a reputation for being a bureaucratic, unimaginative and unresponsive bank. This public experience and perception was in stark contrast with the original purpose DBS had been created for 50 years prior: to be the financial engine driving the dramatic development of the newly-formed Singapore nation. With a new CEO at the helm, in 2012 DBS Leadership sought to (re) align the bank with its original purpose, launching an aggressive digital transformation.

In 2014, the senior team realized that for the digital transformation to be successful in the long term, it had to be more than an intellectual exercise – it had to shift behaviors, perceptions and culture. To be truly transformational, they needed to capture both the head and heart of leaders and employees alike, connecting into those underlying beliefs which drive behaviors. What DBS needed was to anchor their digital transformation in a deeper purpose, as motivating and impactful as when the bank was first created.

Solution

Solution

CLI Impact

CLI Impact

This purpose delivered on key fronts, notably by first engaging all employees in meaningful ways, uniquely fueling innovation (i.e. how could each contribute to ‘joyful banking’?) – then, subsequently, by delivering important and, likewise, unique value for customers with its focus on customer-centricity. In fact, DBS saved 100 million customer waiting hours in one year, resulting in them catapulting from the bottom to the top of the customer satisfaction scores over the previous year.

DBS’s new purpose connected so deeply with employees, that instead of seeing their identity as “Damn. Bloody. Slow.” they now had a new pride in their work and in their bank, that was equally present with customers. Stories and examples of how banking was becoming joyful began to surface everywhere, to the point that the bank redesigned all meetings to have a ‘MOJO’ – a Meeting Owner that ran the meeting, and a Joyful Observer that gave feedback on how well they levied the DBS Purpose!

In 2019 DBS achieved the amazing milestone of being the first bank in history to win all 3 Global Banking awards in the same 12 months. DBS’s journey of transformation, based on ‘Making Banking Joyful,’ is detailed in several case studies, including one from Harvard Business School.

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Paul Cobban

Paul Cobban
Former Chief Data and
Transformation Officer at DBS Bank

“The work we did defining our purpose of ‘Making Banking Joyful’ gave us an ambitious direction and the courage to be bold enough to be different. We realised that in order to be ‘Joyful’ we would have to stop thinking and being like a bank. It was our purpose that powered the DBS transformation.”

Paul Cobban

Paul Cobban
Former Chief Data
Transformation Officer at DBS Bank

“The work we did defining our purpose of ‘Making Banking Joyful’ gave us an ambitious direction and the courage to be bold enough to be different. We realised that in order to be ‘Joyful’ we would have to stop thinking and being like a bank. It was our purpose that powered the DBS transformation.”

Paul Cobban

Paul Cobban
Former Chief Data
Transformation Officer at DBS Bank

“The work we did defining our purpose of ‘Making Banking Joyful’ gave us an ambitious direction and the courage to be bold enough to be different. We realised that in order to be ‘Joyful’ we would have to stop thinking and being like a bank. It was our purpose that powered the DBS transformation.”

Impact DBS | Core Leader

Purpose works at DBS

DBS’s journey of transformation, based on ‘Making Banking Joyful,’ is detailed in several case studies, including Harvard Business School and this one from INSEAD Knowledge

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Have a similar leadership challenge or business need?

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