The following is a case study about Nedbank and Tom Broadman. "The vision of an organization gives it direction. This is enabled and underpinned by its corporate strategy and values. In the absence of a vision, an organization has no direction. Strategically, Tom realized that there were a number of pressing and immediate issues that had to be dealt with quickly in order to fully carry out his vision. To address these pressing concerns, Tom launched the ‘Journey Back to the Top’ initiative, underpinned by a three year planning process. This was meant to provide focus to these and other key initiatives aimed at the turnaround of Nedbank, and ensured that each responsible business division, as well as Tom, would be actively tracked and measured against these items. At the same time, in 2004, Tom personally led the Strategy, Values and Brand (SVB) workshops. These were held for the top senior leadership in Nedbank to brainstorm the strategic direction, corporate aspirations, key focus areas, and core values. A number of these workshops were held to constantly evolve and improve these aspects. The summaries of the discussions from every workshop, together with amendments to the group strategy, values and brand, were consolidated into one document, which was presented to, and approved by, the Nedbank Group Executive Committee. The result was a finalized group strategy and clear direction for the Nedbank Group brand campaign and values ‐ the ‘Dagwood’. Global research has shown that highly successful companies often use a single concept that focuses all the efforts in their organizations. Powerful single concepts are built on three pillars: what the organization is passionate about, what sets the organization apart from competitors and what drives the organization’s economic engine. Tom believed that Nedbank could be the best at understanding their clients’ needs and that they could deliver value propositions that would meet these specific needs better than any other bank in Southern Africa. He believed that being more client‐driven would set Nedbank apart from the rest and would be a cornerstone in the ‘journey back to the top’. Furthermore, and in line with the strategy of becoming a more client‐driven organization and to remove the silo mentality from the business, the frontline business model had to be reviewed. As a result, the existing retail and operations business structures were reviewed and a new business model was introduced with the aim of unifying the business, which in turn would support a more client‐centric approach. The review was based on feedback received from all Nedbank employees, and by evaluating best practice in other international markets. This is aligned to the maxim of ‘the wisdom of many is better than the wisdom of few.’ The breaking down of silo behaviour within Nedbank was another one of the key challenges. To encourage unity one set of values were developed ‐ values that were shared by staff in all the clusters and divisions, and that were also in line with the values of the broader Old Mutual group. Four values which aligned to the greater Old Mutual group, and which were adapted for Nedbank, were chosen, as well as a fifth which was chosen specifically in order to create a sense of uniqueness and relevance to Nedbank. All staff was invited for their input in selecting the fifth value as this represented buy‐in into the shifting of the corporate culture which was a prerequisite for the turnaround. Being People-Centered was eventually selected, to go along with Integrity, Respect, Accountability, and Pushing Beyond Boundaries. In order to create a ‘High Performing Culture’ it was critical these values were adopted, accepted and lived by all employees, and be seen to exist within top leadership. Another key concept as a result of the SVB workshops was ‘Deep Green’. This idea was about a composite culture, encompassing the vision, and driven by a depth of aspirations, values, and focus areas (‘Deep’), built around the brand imaging of Nedbank (‘Green’). It represented the feeling that the senior leadership team at the time of the SVB workshops felt best summarized the Nedbank that they had planned to see, and would work towards. To enable Deep Green, the ‘Leading For Deep Green’ (L4DG) programme was constituted. This encompassed employee and team mastery and effectiveness, while also focusing on community involvement and staff volunteerism. One of the workstreams that was constituted was a combined leadership and strategy process. It was a unique process that had been developed for Nedbank by the Centre for Conscious Leadership (CCL), a team of organisational psychologists. The process was built on the latest thinking in leadership development. The key aspects of this was to be aware of oneself in terms of ones personality, leadership style, and on the impact and influence on others, and how Nedbank could harness the synergy of differences and leverage our insight to build a sustainable future for Nedbank. To date 162 teams and 1,969 staff members have gone on the programme, and it is continually being enhanced to ensure an effective working corporate culture and values. Another area where much change occurred and excelled under the leadership of Tom is that of Transformation. He saw that Nedbank, as a leading banking group, had an ‘opportunity to effect and influence transformation at a number of levels – notonly internally but also in the markets that we serve, among our corporate clients, in capital formation projects, and in all out business interactions.’ Transformation is not just a numbers game, where it looks like it’s all about employment equity targets and black economic empowerment. This checklist mindset can diminish the socio‐economic actualities of what transformation is really about. It’s about human rights, equality, justice, and dignity. It’s about a belief in an abundant future for all. The financial sector charter was one of the first movers in organizing business to setup a governing charter that would prioritize Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) within the sector and guide financial services institutions in its implementation. The Financial Sector Charter (FSC) was developed by the major players in the sector and brought into effect in January 2004. It sets out key strategic measures to promote BEE across the sector, together with targets for implementation. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) have since introduced the BEE Codes of Good Practice, which forms an addendum to the B‐BBEE Act and provide a means of measuring BEE on the broad‐based terms introduced with the Act. This marks a further step to motivate transformation in the private sector. In all the measurement areas of Ownership, Management Control, Corporate Social Investment (CSI), Enterprise Development, Preferential Procurement, Skills Development and Employment Equity there has been a steady increase, and in some cases surpassing annual targets, since their introduction. This is not only directly related to the leadership of Tom being an example of a positive role model in his belief of Transformation, but also in his ability to get comprehensive buy‐in from all levels of employees to the merits and spirit of Transformation. Indeed, the success of the transformation of the employee composition of Nedbank contributes greatly to it being named as the third most empowered company in South Africa in 2008, and ahead of its other ‘Big 4’ competitors. In his book ‘Let Africa Lead’, Reuel Khoza refers to the Doughnut Leadership model. The highest level of attainment in this model is that of an organization which is led by a value‐based leader. ‘Guiding the 21st century business are value‐based leaders who depend on experts to shape innovation and create networks of exchange. The implementers – no longer mere ‘workers’ – are those who share the vision and carry it into the workplace and the marketplace.’ When Tom took over in late 2003, one of the more immediate organizational structure tasks was the reorganization and appointment of a new Executive Committee. This was coupled with a reorganization of the Nedbank divisions in order to align it to a synergistic client‐driven business model. It was vital that he chose leaders that would not only be able to buy into his vision, but who would also be great leaders in their own right and be able to galvanize their employees in the achievement of the turnaround. Tom and his senior leadership had to be values‐based and had to lead by example. One of the key elements of Tom’s first ‘Five Point Plan’ was that of improving transparency. This was not only related to transparency with regards to accounting policies and reporting, which was also important, but more so with regards to employee communications, specifically to the early days of the ‘Journey to the Top’. A variety of mediums were utilized to ensure that all levels of employees were kept informed of strategic decisions being made which would undoubtedly affect morale and confidence. A key of this was the ‘Talk to Tom’ concept, a vehicle for employees to share with Tom their concerns, fears and suggestions. This ensured that he was in‐touch with what all of the employees were feeling and thinking, but also more importantly, it opened the doors for employees to him and made him more accessible and the relationship more personal. All great leaders are great communicators. Measurement and Tracking ‘A strong culture is said to exist where staff respond to stimulus because of their alignment to organizational values. In such environments, strong cultures help firms operate like well‐oiled machines, cruising along with outstanding execution and perhaps minor tweaking of existing procedures here and there.’ ‐ Dean McFarlin. It has been said that ‘what cannot be measured, does not count’. This is also applicable in the areas of cultural change, transformation, and staff morale. These dimensions in particular were carefully monitored and tracked on a monthly and annual basis by Nedbank. All of these dimensions have shown marked improvement, year on year. 
In order to track alignment of employee’s personal values versus current organizational culture values versus desired organizational culture values, Tom enlisted the help of Richard Barrett. In his annual Barrett Surveys, which have seen the number of respondents in 2005 increase from 1,827 (or 20% of employees) to 18,206 (or 63% of employees) in 2009, the number of matches of culture dimensions increased (between current culture to desired culture) steadilyover the years, from 3 matches to 6 (out of the top 10 dimensions selected). This was indicative of an organizational culture shift in a positive direction, aligning what employees wanted to see from the organizations culture, to what it actually experienced of the organization. Another important element of the Barrett Survey is that of the measurement of Entropy, which is a measurement of the degree of dysfunctionality within an organization’s culture. A less than 10% value is a healthy functioning organization. The best employers have the lowest entropy, and the employers with the lowest entropy also have the highest financial returns (Hewitt Associates & Barrett Values Centre, 2008). In 2005 this value stood at 25%, which meant that there were significant problems requiring attention. In 2009 the value almost halved to 13%, which is indicative of an improvement in staff morale, and working towards the less than 10% value would result in healthy functioning of the organization. The Nedbank Staff Survey (NSS) was another annual survey used to measure the staff morale of the organization. There are 12 dimensions measured, with an ‘Overall’ value also tracked which is a composite of all the dimensions. All of the dimensions showed major improvement since 2005, some as high as 38.7%, and overall the score improved by 26%. Staff morale had indeed turned for the better. Tom Boardman’s time at Nedbank can be described as one where success has been achieved in the face of extreme adversity. This adversity included negative market sentiment, low staff morale, a dysfunctional organizational culture, no clearly articulated vision and strategy, and a low confidence level in the senior leadership of Nedbank. The effective turnaround of Nedbank happened as Tom had promised: at the end of the first cycle of the three year planning process. The ‘hard’ target measures of 20% ROE and 55% Cost‐to‐Income ratio were delivered and celebrated. But all of this would not have been possible without strong leadership, a determination and conviction to change the culture and values, and more importantly, to win the support and belief of not only the outside investor community, but of all employees."
 
In the text, what is an example of "Give frequent feedback and relate to plans. "