ANZ overhauls its organisational approach to improve customer experience

" It’s an exciting and different way of thinking about work."
Shayne Elliott, ANZ CEO

Elliott told BlueNotes on video the bank will adopt a “scaled-agile” philosophy – a proven approach which originated in the tech industry – across its Australian division over the coming year.

“It’s an exciting and different way of thinking about work,” he said. “It moves away from a very hierarchical structure… to a very team-based approach to getting things done.”

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“This is about self-directed teams. Teams that have total clarity about what they are doing.

“It’s about speed to market, responding to customers really quickly and it’s about empowering our people to do absolutely the very best with our resources at hand.”

Elliott said it was a radical shift in many ways for ANZ but he noted the bank had experienced success with the philosophy for its Apple Pay launch in 2016.

“We were able to go from the idea of Apple Pay, the concept, to actually having something in market, that people could use, in about 10 weeks,” he said. “That’s exactly the sort of thing we want to be able to do all the time.”

ANZ already uses the approach to deliver around 20 per cent of technology and digital projects and in announcing the program Elliott said agile would remove hierarchies and shift ANZ to being a bank built around small, collaborative, self-directed teams focused on delivering continuous improvement in the customer experience. 

The announcement comes as ANZ posted a $A3.4 billion cash profit in the first half of its reporting year, a 23 per cent rise on the previous-corresponding period.

Elliott also touched on the bank’s future in partnering with external organisations and measuring success for the transition. Watch the video above to find out more.

Andrew Cornell is managing editor at BlueNotes