How do you bring innovation into the mainstream of essentially conservative organisations?
Simon Caulkin reports on a groundbreaking initiative at UBS Investment Bank. Most banks are creatures of hierarchy, tradition and conformity. They are not alone in this, of course so are most companies, full stop but they are alone, as we now know only too well, in the severity of the consequences when such management conservatism is tested to destruction by the systemic complexity of the industry’s products and processes. Thankfully, there are exceptions to the norm: Svenska Handelsbanken, consistently the most successful Nordic bank, and UBS’s Wealth Management arm have both made innovations in the area of planning and budgeting that change the way managers think about their business. But it is fair to say that on the whole management innovation has not been high on top bankers’ agenda. This makes the attempt by a group of “renegades” at UBS Investment Bank to bring innovation into the mainstream doubly interesting. Not only was the notion of liberating the ideas, feelings and opinio
