Korn Ferry and Egon Zehnder to develop leadership strategy for public sector banks

15 August 2018 Consultancy.in

In light of a struggling banking sector, the Banks Board Bureau in India is looking to develop comprehensive management strategies for senior leadership at public-sector banks, and has appointed the power-packed combination of Korn Ferry Advisory and Egon Zehnder International to assist with devising these strategies.

Switzerland-based global executive recruitment and management consulting firm Egon Zehnder will now work with the Banks Board Bureau (BBB) as a knowledge partner, specifically working on devising, implementing, and subsequently institutionalizing a leadership development strategy for public-sector banks across India.

BBB is a government body endowed with a great deal of autonomy to maintain and improve the operational structure in public-sector banks across India. The body is a recent initiative, launched only in April 2016, and is tasked with the mammoth operation of salvaging India’s banking sector, which has been in trouble recently.

Last year, reports revealed that the cumulative value of non-performing assets across the Indian banking sector lies at a staggering $140 billion, and overall loan defaults stand at $36 billion. The figures sparked immediate outcry, alongside the initiation of insolvency proceedings at a number of major public sector banks in the country.

Korn Ferry and Egon Zehnder to develop leadership strategy for public-sector banks

Leaders of Indian industry have called for banking reforms, based on a clear vision of the near future in the sector. BBB's first order of business is to tackle the leadership strategies in the sector, and the enlistment of Egon Zehnder will prove particularly useful, given its expertise in the domains of executive search, board advisory and general leadership solutions.

Egon Zehnder will act as knowledge partner, while Korn Ferry – specifically the division formerly known as the Hay Group – will provide additional support to BBB, tasked with conducting leadership assessments and evaluating the potential of candidates for Director-level posts at major public sector banks.

Korn Ferry is another choice that matches BBB’s strategy perfectly, given that the firm’s operating principle is that “90% of strategy is execution, and 90% of execution is people.” The firm is active across the globe in helping deal with the prevalent talent crunch, and has long integrated the capacity to manage digital transformations.

According to BBB, the focus on leadership is an effort to improve the quality of decisions taken in bank management, lapses in which are the root cause for the approval of faulty loans and the subsequent build-up of default amounts and non-performing assets.