Implementing Change Initiatives in the Banking Industry

The main objective is to guide banking organizations in the change management process, providing information on change models, skills, and competencies required for successful implementation. The Bank of Singapore can successfully introduce a digital token if it follows recommended initiatives, ensuring timely and quality implementation. Effective change management is crucial, especially in the constantly growing banking industry of Singapore, where active government efforts contribute to its success.

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................................1
Section 1....................................................................................................................................................1
Company Profile....................................................................................................................................1
Industry Background.............................................................................................................................2
Significant Drivers and Trends of Change.........................................................................................2
Key Areas..............................................................................................................................................5
Section 2....................................................................................................................................................6
Legal Aspects........................................................................................................................................6
Change Models.....................................................................................................................................6
How to facilitate the change to be better...........................................................................................9
How to prepare leaders/Managers for the Change........................................................................10
Section 3..................................................................................................................................................11
Qualities and Skills required for managing change........................................................................11
How to Lead and Manage Change...................................................................................................12
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................................13
References..............................................................................................................................................15

Introduction
In this paper, we will study about the Banking industry. This has been done by studying
the Bank of Singapore. It is a popular bank of the Singapore which has its own image in
the mind of the people. Here, we will discuss the experience of change within the Bank
of Singapore. It faces a huge number of changes in its life circle such as the
replacement of physical token with the digital token. This change will bring a large
number of challenges in front of the organization. Apart of this, various ways of leading
change also suggested to the organization. This has been done under the light of
certain change model and theories. These give us a significant direction in which we
need to move. On the basis of these models, the change experience of Bank of
Singapore is turned on the positive side. Apart of this, the main focus of this assignment
is change within the Banking industry of Singapore. On the basis of industry study, we
can recommend a better solution for managing change. Therefore, it can be said that
change management is crucial not only for the Bank of Singapore but for the whole
industry.
Section 1
Company Profile
Bank of Singapore is known as the global private bank of the Asia. The headquarters of
the bank is situated in Singapore. It is operating in the strong and open economy. It
mainly offers assured and unrivalled security and stability to its customers. It has
established its brand image on the basis of its high quality and secured services. It has
its own research team which highly involves in producing best financial services for the

clients. It offers a large range of commercial and consumer banking solutions like
insurance, brokerage services, and financing.
Industry Background
The Banking industry of the Singapore is considered a hub of the banking facilities and
services. It is such a powerful hub that does provide not only the domestic finance
solutions but also a monetary activity of the whole Asia Pacific (Ashkenas, 2013). The
banking industry of Singapore is highly heartened by the stable economic and political
climate, law enforcement against money crimes and fraud, efficient taxation and
legislations. The banking industry of Singapore is the combination of 6 local and 117
Asian financial centres that provides a large range of services from consumer credit to
insurance, and investment operations (Cameron, 2015). The banking industry of the
Singapore contains commercial, consumer, and private banks that offer a wide range of
financial benefits to different customers.
Significant Drivers and Trends of Change
The significant drivers and trends of change within the banking industry of the
Singapore are following:
The Dominance of Foreign Banks
It is an important trend of change in the banking industry of Singapore. This trend drew
Singapore into the scene of the global banking which makes it more competitive player
than prior (Clegg, 2015). This trend will enhance the level of constant competition which
further encourages the development of the different financial products and effective
conductive pricing policies. Apart of this, the dominance of foreign banks trend also

motivates the banking organizations towards merger. It is because the merger has the
full potential of help local banks in the way that they want.
Liberalization in Banking Sector
The second and essential trend of change in today's banking industry of Singapore is
liberalization. It has placed in the banking industry of Singapore during 1999 (Coleman,
2016). Such liberalization comes with a large number of benefits for the banking sector.
Some of them are banking licenses to foreign banks, reconsidering corporate
governance, enhancing the limit of foreign shareholding in local banks, and offering
more freedom to offshore banks. Liberalized banking trend enhance the level of
competition within the banking industry of the Singapore.
Competitive investment hub
Nowadays, Singapore turned into a competitive investment hub due to the presence of
huge government efforts, the success of Singapore exchange, and approved bonds that
lured hordes of overseas organizations (Hallegatte, 2015). A large number of
investment banks demands investors through meditating, and underwriting between the
investor and the issuer, or corporate re-organization services. Therefore, all such
initiatives enhance the competitiveness by promoting mergers, and acquisitions.
Attention towards SME sector
Another trend of today’s Singapore banking industry is that the banks mainly focus more
towards SME sector. This has been done by the banking firms of Singapore to win the
repute of reliable business partners (Hill, 2014). Generally, the SME sector in Singapore
has access to premium bespoke financial, investment, insurance, and loan products.

The attention of banking firms towards these SME sectors helps them in launching
comfortable schemes for upgrading and expanding their financial operations.
Deposit and Capital gain Taxes
Another important trend that plays an important role in the success of Singapore
banking industry is a deposit and capital gain taxes (Komives, 2016). The government
of the country frees its banking sector firms from paying the capital gain and deposit
taxes from incomes earned abroad.
The presence of all of these trends makes the whole industry challenging and attractive
for other investors. Such trends will bring positive as well as negative impacts for Bank
of Singapore. Therefore, it can be said that Singapore banking industry is fulfilled with
more growth opportunities that can easily grasp by taking an active initiative.
Purpose of Change
The main purpose behind changes in the Banking industry is to enhance its
attractiveness and efficiency. More change will come with high difficulties which the
existing organizations need to face to survive themselves in the target market. On the
other hand, the change also brings improvement in existing or traditional working
system of banking by launching innovative financial products (Van der Voet, 2014). So,
the purpose behind the change is positive that will prove beneficial for the company as
well as target customers.
Impact of Changes in Banking Industry on Bank of Singapore

Generally, it can be said that changes in the banking industry will influence the Bank of
Singapore in both positive and negative manner. The positive outcomes of the changes
are enhancement in competition, profitability, reduction in taxes and growing
participation of the government. Above-mentioned changes will lead all such benefits in
Bank of Singapore. On the other hand, the negative aspect of all such changes is that
the organization needs to formulate new policies, perform high efforts towards change
management, and difficulty in strategic management of change. Therefore, it can be
said that changes influence the situation of an organization positively and negatively as
well.
Why Change is not prevented
The various changes in the banking industry, as well as the functioning of the Bank of
Singapore, do not prevent due to its positive outcomes of the change. For example, the
changes of physical tokens in the digital token will easy the functioning of the
organization by reducing the level of complexities. These complexities may be in terms
of high management and more care of tokens. Therefore, these changes will perform for
the benefit of the organization as well as the customer. That's why these changes do
not prevent by a single organization. With the help of these changes, the organization
and different players like customers will effect in a significant manner. These changes
affect customers by reducing their complexities and easier their functions. On the other
hand, these changes help the organizations in making them digitalized and advanced
as per the current and prevailing trend. Therefore, these changes have important for
everyone.
Banking Industry in Coming Future

All these changes make positive improvements in the performance of the banking
industry. In coming future, all functions of banking industries become digitalized. This
enhances the level of convenience for customers as well as the employees. On the
other hand, the industry becomes more competitive due to freedom in operations. This
gives birth to competition and various other innovative financial products and services.
So, it can be said that future of the Banking industry will bright in coming future.
Key Areas
The key areas that require huge focus from managers of the banking firms like Bank of
Singapore are following:
 Deposit and Capital gain taxes: This trend is quite prevailing nowadays. The
managers should focus on this because it will bring a large number of growth
opportunities for the organization. It does not only helpful in enhancing
profitability but also in plan significant expansion. The managers should adopt
this trend on an immediate basis to grasp the available growth opportunities
without wasting a single time (Uzkurt, 2013).
 Competitive Investment Hub: Another trend that requires huge focus from
management of a banking organization is competitive investment hub. This
competition demands more research activities from the management. In order to
survive in the challenging banking environment of Singapore, the organizations
need to come with efficient finance products that do not only enhance the
reputation but also improve the existing competitive advantage in the target
market.

 Attention to the SME sector: It is another trend that demands the suitable
attention of the manager. In order to gain competitive advantage, it is necessary
for the banking firms to attract investors (Richter, 2013). This can successfully
perform by enhancing its focus on SME sector. Nowadays, SME sector of
Singapore has placed itself in the eyes of investors. Therefore, in order to win the
support of investors the management of an organization needs to put more
emphasis on SME sector of Singapore.
Section 2
Legal Aspects
A large number of Singapore banks faced a series of regulatory investigations from
watchdogs and different government agencies. Some of these regulatory investigations
are passed by the Singapore Parliament during 2016.The Monetary Authority of
Singapore is the central bank that operates all the legal policies and functioning
regarding the banking industry of the Singapore It has launched different policies to
govern the banking industry of Singapore. (Renz, 2016) The first and the foremost legal
aspect launched by the MAS is the development of Financial Stability Board and the
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Both of these play an important role in
managing the financial aspects of the Banking System. Apart of this, there are some
other legal aspects that are launched by the MAS is Financial Action Task Force,
Banking Act, Securities and Futures Act, and various others. All these legal aspects
ensure adequate functioning of the Singapore banking industry.

Challenges Faced in Change Management Process
The management of banking organizations or others may face five types of challenges
during the implementation of the change within the premise of the organization. These
challenges are; developmental, transitional, maintenance, crisis, and paradigm shift. All
of these challenges have their significant influence on the success of the change
implementation. But the foremost important challenge that needs to focus more on the
management is development. This challenge is associated with the skills, talents,
expertise, knowledge, and technologies. These are the core factors that require high
concern from management. It is the manpower that can do everything with their
knowledge, talent, and skills. With the help of the talented manpower, an organization
can implement the change in the desired manner. Therefore, it is essential for the
management to look more towards developmental challenges and try to take effective
initiatives to resolve and make a control over it.
Change Models
In order to adopt the change in a positive manner, it is necessary for the management
of the organizations to adopt the different change models. These models derive an
effective implementation of change process which leads positive outcomes for the
success of the company as well as the banking industry. Some of these change models
are following:
Lewin’s Force Field Analysis Model
The management of the banking organizations can use Lewin’s Force Field Analysis
model in order to implement the change in the desired manner. This model of the
Lewin’s helps the management in change management by identifying driving and

restraining forces that affect the change in the organization. It described the two
opposite forces which can easily understand by looking the below-mentioned figure:
It maintains the change implementation process within an organization by investigating
the balance of power, important players involved in decision making, and ways of
influencing change. The management of the Bank of Singapore can use it identifying
the change forces which further hampers its success in attracting the potential target
markets. The knowledge of change forces helps it in putting a proper control and turns
them as per their requirement. With this Bank of Singapore can use Lewin's model to
resolve its problem of establishing itself in the eyes of the target market. Therefore, it
can be said that Lewin’s force analysis model has great potential for implementing the
change with the desired specifications.
Lewin’s Change Management Model

It is an important change management model that helps the management team in
managing the change successfully. For example, Bank of Singapore wants to offer
digital token instead of physical. In order to manage the implementation of change, the
organization can go with Lewin’s change model (Rock, 2014). This ensures greater
flexibility to employees as well as customers of the organization. If it decides to go with
Lewin’s change model, the organization needs to follow its three steps which are
following:
 Unfreeze: A large number of people make an active effort to ignore resistance of
change. This stage of the Lewin’s model tells the suitable method of avoiding
resistance. As per this stage, in order to overcome the change tendency, a
period of unfreezing and thawing should initiate by the Bank of Singapore
through motivation (Olins, 2017).
 Transition or Change: Once the change is initiated by the Bank of Singapore, it
comes on transition stage which may last in some cases. But in the case of the
Bank of Singapore, it is not last. At this stage, the organization should provide

leadership and reassurance facilities to its employees. It minimizes the change
resistance from the employee side of the bank.
 Refreeze: After the successful implementation and acceptance of change, it
needs to put efforts for making it stable. It is necessary to give a refreezing
feeling to staff members.
Bank of Singapore wants to attract potential target market. So, in order to achieve this
goal it needs to come with various changes. In that situation, there is a huge probability
of change resistance from the employee's side of the organization. In that case, the
management of the Bank of Singapore can use it to avoid change resistance from
employee's side. Therefore, with the help of the Lewin's change model, an organization
like Bank of Singapore can manage the change resistance and implement it in an
effective manner.
McKinsey 7-S Model
It is a change management model that provides a holistic approach to the different
organizations. It is an efficient method to understand and diagnose an organization.
McKinsey model is a combination of seven different stages which contains; shared
values, strategy, structure, systems, style, staff, and skills (Nahavandi, 2016). These
ensure the success of change through combines emotional and rational components.
Banking industry of Singapore can adopt this change model to avoid the resistance of
employees and implement the change in a successful manner. During the
implementation of the change plan, Bank of Singapore needs to focus emotions and
specialization of the employees as well. In order to manage these changes in required
manner, McKinsey model can adopt by the organization. It is because this model helps

the Bank of Singapore in implementing the change by concentrating the emotions of
employees as well.
Kotter’s 8 Step Change Model
Another change model that can adapt by Bank of Singapore and other banking
institutions is Kotter’s 8 step model. This model of change is launched by the Harvard
university professor named as John Kotter. It is the combination of 8 different stages
which ensures the successful implementation of the change within the internal
environment of an organization (Muthalagu, 2017). These steps are following:
 Enhance the urgency for change.
 Develop a team dedicated to change.
 Develop the vision for change.
 Communicate the requirement for change.
 Empower the whole staff with the ability to change.
 Develop short term goals.
 Stay persistent
 Make the change permanent
All of these change models helps the management in the implementation of the change
within the organization in an effective manner (Matos Marques Simoes, 2014). Use of
all these three models proves beneficial in implementing change. Therefore, Bank of
Singapore and the other organizations need to follow these models to manage the
resistance and implement change in a successful manner.

How to facilitate the change to be better
The banking organizations of Singapore can ensure the change success by focusing on
following elements:
 The first and the foremost method of facilitating change is that the organizations
need to formulate a changing baseline that guides them further in the
management process (Lozano, 2015). This will guide the management by
formulating their own assumptions and change program. They can create this by
identifying the dissatisfaction factors, vision, change resistance reasons and
various others (Laegreid, 2013).
 The second method of ensuring the efficiency of the change implementation
within the organization premise is the formulation of change strategies. At this
stage, the organization has complete information about the key issues of
stakeholders. This ensures the success of chosen strategy in a greater manner.
 Another method is the change communication. In this method, an organization
discloses the necessary information about the required change (Kuipers, 2014).
This helps the employees or change management team in identifying what needs
to change and in what extent.
All of these initiatives by the banking or other organization ensure facilitation of change
in an effective manner. So, it is suggested to the organizations to go with the same
initiatives if they want to implement the change in an effective manner.

How to prepare leaders/Managers for the Change
The management of the company can prepare the leaders or managers for change by
taking a large number of initiatives. These initiatives ensure the success of the change
by enhancing and improving the existing skills and competencies (Hayes, 2014). The
following are some ways with which the management of an organization can prepare
managers for change:
 Clarity of the Issues: The first and the foremost way with which leaders can
prepare for change is to give time to clarify the issues at hand. In this, it becomes
crucial for the management to give time to clarify the issues and helps them in
understanding change and its importance for the organization (Fullan, 2014).
Clarity of issues permits the leaders to objectively break down the risk factors for
successful implementation of the change.
 Gives Necessary Training: Another method of preparing the leaders is giving
required training on a timely basis. This allows higher success in change
management within the predetermined time period.
With the help of all these initiatives, the organization can plan the change management
program with the required specifications and competencies (Frame, 2014). Therefore,
leaders will come with more efficient skills and capabilities to implement change
successfully.

Section 3
Qualities and Skills required for managing change
In order to manage the change, it is necessary to have certain specifications and
qualities in the leader or the change management team of an organization ( Goetsch,
2014). In order to operate the change in the banking industry, the following qualities
should be there in a manager:
 Know the Organizational Priorities: One of the essential skills which should be
among change management leaders in the banking industry is the awareness
about the organization priorities. They should have known what the organization
wants and what is happened (DuBrin, 2015). Such skilled leader will guide the
employees within their respective specializations in an effective manner.
 Innovative: The second and most important skill required in the leader of today's
competitive environment is innovation. If the leader has innovation qualities, he
or she can resolve the change management resistance problem easily
(DeAngelo, 2015). It is because of they able to offer the high innovative solutions
which gain the interest of employees and they become ready to go with the
change.
 Different Leadership: Another skill required in the leaders of today's generation is
different leadership. It is an important skill which gives competence to someone
to lead a team in a significant manner. With the help of different leadership skill, a
leader does not only prove successful in implementing the change but also in
managing the performance of team members (Burke, 2017).

 Different Personality: It is the core necessity that becomes the identification of an
individual. In order to implement the change in the desired manner, it is
necessary to have an attractive or different personality (Clegg, 2015). With the
help of personality, the managers can attract others towards itself and manage
their actions appropriately. Such control and management turn in positive
outcomes.
 Communication and Confidence: These two qualities should be there in the
change management leader (Drucker, 2017). These ensure the proper feedback
from the leader side to employees. IN the absence of both of these, they can't
lead the change successfully.
All of these qualities and skills of the leaders make them different from others ( DuBrin,
2015). The manager with such quality can lead the change in more successful manner.
What to Consider when making strategic Decision
During the formulation of the strategic decision, the management needs to consider its
assets and competencies or strengths. On the basis of such consideration, it can plan
better for its future. For example, the knowledge of the strengths gives an opportunity to
the organization to expand itself by using them. Such use of strengths makes them
efficient in functioning as well as profitability.
How to Lead and Manage Change
The management of the Banking organizations like Bank of Singapore can successfully
lead or manage the change by adopting the following styles:
Education and Delegation

Education and delegation help in managing change by convincing employees of the
need for change through (Fullan, 2014). For example, offer training facilities to enhance
their understanding, and get their commitment or delegate responsibilities to them.
Collaboration
In addition, collaboration helps in change management by enhancing the level of
employees' involvement in decisions about how and what to change (Booth, 2015).
Such initiatives from management motivate them to adopt change.
Participation
Participation helps the management of banking organizations by increasing the
employee’s involvement in how to provide the desired change (Muthalagu, 2017).
Direction
This style helps the management in leading and managing change by helping them in
the majority of decisions making about what to change and how (Hayes, 2014).
Coercion
This managing style has great importance in the eyes of the leaders. This style helps in
change management by using power to impose change (Burke, 2017).
With the all of these styles, the banking organizations or others can successfully lead or
manage the change with the desired specifications. These ensure high quality with
greater specifications.
Why we are here

We are here to award the management of banking as well as other industries regarding
the management of change (Kuipers, 2014). A business change has enough potential to
influence the working and profitability of an organization. Therefore, guidance is
provided to them so that they can implement the change successfully without any
interruption.
What are we trying to achieve
We mainly try to achieve our objective of guide banking as well as other organizations in
change management process (Hallegatte, 2015). This has been accomplished by
providing the significant information about the change models, skills, and competencies
required for successful change implementation.
Conclusion
After studying all this, the Bank of Singapore can successfully introduce the change of
physical token in digital if it follows the recommended initiatives. Higher quality initiatives
and skills ensure the change implementation with the required specifications and timely
manner. Apart of this, it can be said that banking industry of Singapore is constantly
growing (Alonso‐Almeida, 2014). This becomes possible due to the active efforts of the
government in the success of the country. So, it can be said that managing change is
complex but can successfully manage by following appropriate measures.

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