Managing People at Work

First Chicago Corporation:

Global Corporate Bank (A)

The Global Corporate Bank (GCB) was created as a distinct business entity within FCC in 1986 in order to focus attention on serving the large corporate customer. GCB would be one business, with a common target market and a common interest in maximizing the bank's ability to serve those customers well. The strategy included three mutually reinforcing elements: develop and maintain a strong relationship with customers, intensify coverage of current clients and Increase coverage of the target market, and broaden and deepen the GCB's product line.

There are certain main challenges for FCC

* To implement this strategy, even though the RM position was central to the bank's relationship-focused strategy,

* People were eager to move from relationship management positions and into "higher level," better paying management positions.

* The bank was having a hard time hiring and retaining people with investment banking skills.

* Relationship managers were not working effectively with investment bankers.

To fight with this problem the new "partnership" approach was supposed to facilitate cooperation between relationship managers and functional managers, but it was not working as smoothly as everyone had hoped. It was the job of Jim Alef, Corporate Senior Vice President and Head of Human Resources, to help top management resolve these issues.

Relationship Managers

The lead positions in the relationship-focused strategy at GCB were the relationship managers (RMs) There are certain main responsible for RMs and one of the main responsibility is coordinating all transactions that the bank had with a given company.

Relationship managers, had always been a part of banking at FCC, but would play a different role now. As one of the bank's senior level GCB partners explained: Prior to the GCB formation the RM was the "gatekeeper," judge and jury as to whether product areas should be selling to an...