BOARD STRATEGY DAY

Yesterday the Hanley Board spent a full day reviewing our business strategy and planning our key strategic goals for the next few years. We do this annually. Our aim is to assess business performance and refresh our thinking on how best to continue with our successes as an independent local mutual. We have an unusual financial year which ends on 31st August so we were able to discuss our very creditable results at the half- year end as a platform for evaluating our priorities in the short and medium term. We also discussed our distribution plans, our IT strategy and the impact on the society of a sustained period of low interest rates.
It is a day that I personally relish It reinforces my belief in the strength of our Society and in the distinctive part we can play in our heartland marketplace, and it also makes me realise just how much we are still capable of achieving for our members and customers. The next job is to translate our strategic goals into ongoing implementation plans, all of which I can assure you will be positive for Hanley members and will demonstrate our optimism for the future.Watch this space!

VARIETY IS THE SPICE

If ever a single day can encapsulate the fantastic variety in my job then it has to be today.Let me explain. Having been away from my desk since Wednesday morning I spent a couple of hours first thing today sifting my post and responding to various correspondence and emails, before heading to Keele University for an annual meeting of the Nominations Committee that I am privileged to sit on. I really enjoy ricocheting into the world of academia and the people at Keele are great. I returned to my office at lunchtime to compete in the putting and boules competitions being organised by our Customer Services team to raise funds for Comic Relief. I made sure that I was victorious at putting by playing until I got the hang of the tricky contours of the green, ie. the bobbly carpet. Clutching my box of Roses as a hard earned prize I then spent 2 hours in a meeting with some of my senior management team discussing how we should alter our savings rates and SVR mortgages following last weeks 0.5% cut in bank base rate. We have become accustomed to agonising over the delicate balancing of the needs of savers and borrowers, challenging ourselves to be always transparently fair and still remain commercially astute with the interests of the Society at the core of every decision we make. I am always hugely impressed by how hard we strive to do the best we can for our customers and today was no different. Next up is a review of the week with my Finance Director and a first read of some proposals on a strategic paper which we plan to take to Board on 25th March. It has been a varied day for sure.

SIZE ISN'T EVERYTHING

This week has been all about contrasts in scale.The magnitude of the losses declared by RBS and by the Lloyds Group is almost too huge to digest. These banks have competed for the title of Biggest Loss Makers in UK corporate history and the press has been full of tales of corporate largesse and individual greed. Meanwhile back on planet- mutual, I had the privilege of attending the AGM of our local competitor The Stafford Railway Building Society whose results for 2008 demonstrate that, by sticking to the business that you know about, you can achieve profits, growth and efficiency even in a turbulent market. Stafford Railway is less than half the asset size of The Hanley and has only one branch (in Stafford) but I have more admiration for their business acumen and customer focus than I could ever muster for the banking giants of the financial services sector. Maybe now the hackneyed image of a local building society as a crusty relic of a more benign era, will be shed once and for all. Surviving and thriving in a contemporary market is about how good you are not how big you are. Both the Stafford Railway and The Hanley will I'm sure work hard to continue proving that point.

WHY BLOG NOW?

An odd time to post your first blog, you may think. And understandably so.At a time when the financial services industry is emblazoned across newspaper headlines and as lead story in numerous TV broadcasts (and for all the wrong reasons) why would any CEO choose to break cover and encourage 2 way communication!!?? Well aside from the obvious kudos of being able to tell my children that I've joined the 21st century information super-highway from the sliproad of traditional communications methods, I genuinely believe that small, local, mutual building societies like The Hanley, can be beneficiaries of the changing public mood. Virtues such as trust, reliability, solidity and security are now high on the customers wish list. I can recall plenty of occasions in recent years where commentators viewed small building societies as crusty and dull, more akin to a Hovis advert than a contemporary financial services business. But not any more.We have plenty to offer.In truth we always did. I intend to use my blog to comment on how we will thrive in the emerging new landscape.