Clearing the Bull
The Financial Crisis and Why Banks Need a Human Transformation
by
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In the wake of the financial crisis, there are many who believe that it is possible to regulate and legislate our way to a prosperous and successful banking industry; this is a great fallacy. There are severe limitations to what governments and regulators can achieve, and the reality is that neither is capable of creating great organizations. Real change in banking can only come from within the industry. Since the eruption of the financial crisis, however, banks have shown little indication that they fully comprehend the scale and nature of the transformation they need to undertake in order to make themselves both economically and competitively sustainable. By taking an up close and personal look from inside the industry, Clearing the Bull analyses and clarifies the issues involved and in doing so sets out the major challenges to the industry’s long-term survival. It then offers a highly adaptable framework within which banks can address each of these major challenges in turn.
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About the Book
The financial crisis shows that the banking industry requires a transformation, as its business model and practices are no longer sustainable. Even so, such transformation cannot be made without Clearing the Bull—moving beyond old and tired orthodoxies in order to properly diagnose the problem.
Drawing on more than twenty years of experience in banking, author Jonathan Ledwidge shows how the financial crisis exposed the industry’s poor system of values, leaving it mired in conflict with its human environment. Specifically, this includes how poor leadership, virtually unmanageable organizations, dysfunctional suppliers, infuriated customers, alienated employees, and dissatisfied communities all arise from the inability of banks to understand that values are more important than valuations.
As a result there is now a total disconnect between banks and their human environment. That disconnect cannot be fully addressed by conventional solutions involving more regulations, more governance, and more controls. Banks have a very human problem, and thus by definition what they require is a human transformation.
Clearing the Bull provides both a clear diagnosis as well as a detailed and comprehensive roadmap for the banking industry’s human transformation—and while doing so it remains totally engaging and accessible to bankers and non-bankers alike.
About the Author
Jonathan Ledwidge was born in London in June 1959 but grew up in Jamaica. He studied physics and chemistry at the University of the West Indies before joining Price Waterhouse and completing his ACCA. He returned to London in 1986, earned an MBA from Cass Business School and has worked for at a number of banks in the City, including Continental, CIBC, and ABN AMRO. He is also the author of The Human Asset Manifesto and A Mannequin for President.