Cost Optimization Case Study

Context

One of the subsidiaries in the leading CEE banking group suffered from high operational expenses and ineffective organizational structure in the distorting market after the world financial crisis. Sales declined at that time, and the bank searched for solutions to optimize its operational costs to meet the new tough market conditions.

Problem

Bank faced products sales and clients bases decrease, which led to the need for operational costs optimization. The management could not manage to make tough decisions on cost cutting. There were no right competencies in the HR team to conduct the analysis and propose the solutions. It was the next wave of cost cutting in the bank after 2-3 waves already finished.

What we did

01
Evaluated the organizational functions and headcount of units based on key activities and products model
02
Created management understanding of the internal products which really bring value to the customers
03
Proposed streamlining of some processes
04
Changes in organizational structure and headcount were proposed, and implementation was managed

Results achieved

01
Detailed analysis and optimization of processes in 18 banking functions. This led to: 
02
Headcount decreased by 15% or 450 FTE 
03
12.5% (EUR 3 mln annually) of HR budget saving
04
Changes in organizational structure - units were removed and/or merged
05
Streamlining and optimization of some core processes 