Change Management

First National City Bank

Operating Group

Prepared By

MUSTAFA SURTI 3175303

University Of Wollongong in Dubai

Submitted To

DR. NORHAYATI ZAKARIA

Professor, College of Business Studies

University Of Wollongong in Dubai

Date : 11th November 2009

Introduction

The first national Citibank is one the highest ranking banks in history. This report discusses the various issues faced by one the six major divisions established by the reorganization committee in 1968. The Operating Group (OPG) was the back office of the other five major market-oriented divisions (Exhibit 1). Pressure had been increasing on John Reed, the newly appointed head of OPG who thought the department needed a new computerized system to cope with the increasing paperwork in the office. Although, Bob White, Reed’s new assistant thought the group needed a change management approach. OPG faced immense pressure from the rising workload, increasing costs and service quality complaints from the five other major groups who had been developing at ever increasing rates each year.

The Problems

The main problems faced by the OPG were pretty obvious to the entire department. As the workload increased, total expenditure had been increasing at an average of 17.9% since 1962. In 1969, Reed put together a taskforce which reorganized the activities of the group and realigned reporting responsibilities. The group was divided into four major areas by late 1969 and was running smoothly (Exhibit 2). This began the series of changes that was to follow and by late 1970 Reed assigned Larry Small to Area 4 who displayed high management skills and was also responsible for the smooth transition of reorganization in 1969 (Seeger J.).

Area 1 which controlled all the physical flow of paperwork and constituted majority of the groups operating activity was the next center of concern. Errors were encountered every day, costs for which were never even calculated. The tradition or the organizational...