Involving the whole team to achieve advanced growth

Andrew Black joined the St George Bank Margin Lending division six years ago.  Initially he worked to fix systemic underlying problems, prevent write-offs and curb staff turn-over. 

His next focus was growing the business. He found that the business had the right platform and controls but wasn't positioned for advanced growth.  Andrew realised that to achieve growth he didn't need to change strategy, rather he needed to change the mindset of his team from focusing on the present to focusing on the future, in order to increase momentum and sales.

Having met with Chris Dionne from Shirlaws on a speaking circuit, Andrew appointed Shirlaws to assist him in taking the business to the next level.

Shirlaws' core premise is that to sustain business growth, there has to be a balance between commercial issues, such as the drive for revenue, achieving efficiencies and maximising profitability, and cultural issues, such as communication skills, team building and leadership.

Shirlaws believes that getting the balance between strategic and people issues is fundamental to moving a business forward and has developed a range of tools, or frameworks, that its coaches use to support businesses at various stages of their development, providing a commercial and cultural vision for a business.

Shirlaws also believes that a business will achieve advanced growth by involving the whole team or company, not just senior management.

Andrew and Chris brought the whole team into a room and together they worked through different frameworks to understand what stage the business was currently at, what the issues were and how they wanted the business to grow in the future. The team was shown how they could help support and frame the vision.

Shirlaws continues to work with St George Bank every month and are helping them to take the frameworks from concept to implementation. They work on a flexible basis and look at different areas of the business that require assistance, such as the back office function and internal communication across the division.

Andrew says his biggest objective was getting his team's buy-in, in order to be able to take things forward and position the business for advanced growth. Involving his team in his vision means they are more willing to move the division forward and leave aside personal issues such as blame when coming across a problem.

The commercial outcomes from this exercise have been fabulous.  The margin lending division has achieved profit growth of 30% per annum over the last six years. Last year the group delivered 61.7% growth in profit. Some transactions have increased by 400% in value. Andrew attributes much of this success to Shirlaws and to the new sense of camaraderie in the team.

"The single most effective learning I've taken from Shirlaws has been the ability to analyse the business, break it down into different areas and phases, look at what and how to evolve into the future and determine what is required in order to achieve this", says Andrew. "The knock-on effects have been great outcomes in terms of profitability and camaraderie among team members."

Chris Dionne, Founding Partner and Global Director, Shirlaws Australia says: "We typically find it is the cultural side of a business, for example communication skills, which holds it back. When a company or business division addresses its people issues, as well as its business issues, and involves the whole company in business strategy and forward planning rather than the senior management only, it is well placed to move forward."

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