Bank of Montreal 2008 Annual Report Download - page 33

MD&A
BMO Financial Group 191st Annual Report 2008 | 29
Enterprise-Wide Strategy
Vision
To be the bank that defines great customer experience.
Our Enterprise-Wide Strategy in Context
BMO’s strategies are built on three core elements of our business –customers, rapid pace of execution and sustained growth.
Our Perspective
Competition in the Canadian personal banking market continues to intensify,
from both traditional bank competitors and niche product and service
providers. This increased competition underscores the strategic importance
of a strong personal banking business operating through a focused sales
and distribution network that can provide Canadians with a differentiated
customer experience and the clarity they need to make their finances
less complex.
Commercial banking is attractive and growing, particularly in the small
business segment of the market. A financial institution that provides a
differentiated customer experience, an experienced sales force and leading
credit and risk management can achieve a leadership position on both
sides of the border.
As demographics and wealth distribution shift and demand for advisory
services grows, wealth management provides a number of attractive
opportunities for growth. A strong brand, a focus on customer experience,
deep capabilities and a full range of offerings provide a unique opportunity
to grow and outperform the market.
Delivering strong, stable returns in today’s capital markets requires a focus
on core clients and areas of competitive advantage, supported by a strong
risk management framework.
Financial institutions in the United States with strong customer loyalty and
financial fundamentals as well as a differentiated business model have
an excellent base from which to capture profitable growth opportunities
resulting from the structure of the U.S. financial services industry and
recent market and industry events.
Great customer experience must be supported by efficient processes,
effective technologies and leading risk management capabilities.
Fundamentally committing to customers requires excellent performance
management and strong, results-focused leadership.
Our Strategic Priorities and Progress in 2008
Build a superior Canadian personal banking business to ensure that
we can meet all of our customers’ financial needs:
•
Enhanced our branch network by opening 16 new branches in high-growth
areas, redeveloping 19 branches and renovating 15 others. Grew
personal loans by 18.7% year over year, and increased market share
by 89 basis points.
•
Strengthened performance management by introducing integrated
branch and individual employee performance scorecards across Canada,
which resulted in improvements in our customer loyalty measure,
the Net Promoter Score, in all divisions.
Further strengthen our commercial banking businesses to continue
to be a leading player everywhere we compete:
•In Canada, commercial loan growth was 9.5% and national Net
Promoter Score exceeded our target, driven by improvements in 90%
of commercial districts.
•In the United States, closed loans increased 62% year over year
and client count grew by 6% in our commercial mid-market segment.
We also took advantage of market disruptions to increase our
business banking sales force.
Grow our wealth management businesses, capturing an increasing share
of this high-growth market:
•Private Client Group earned $395 million, matching record 2007 results
in a difficult market and increasing market share in most businesses.
•
Invested for growth in our sales forces and businesses, including an industry-
leading financial planning tool and acquisitions that expand our asset
management capabilities, such as our acquisition of Pyrford International plc
and our recent announcement concerning our strategic investment in
Virtus Investment Partners, Inc.
Drive strong returns and disciplined growth in our North American
capital markets business:
•
Increased our focus on core clients by emphasizing our areas of strength
in niche North American and global markets.
•
Continued to optimize our businesses to generate appropriate
risk-adjusted returns.
•Invested in businesses where we can be competitively differentiated,
including the acquisition of Griffin, Kubik, Stephens & Thompson to double
our U.S. municipal bonds capability.
Improve our U.S. performance and expand our network to become
the leading personal and commercial bank in the U.S. Midwest:
•Further improved the customer experience and sales force productivity,
raising our Net Promoter Score to meet our target while our competitors’
scores fell, and increasing referrals per sales representative 21%
year over year.
•Completed acquisitions of Ozaukee Bank and Merchants and Manufacturers
Bancorporation, contributing to the 44% growth of our branch network
over the past three years.
Build a high-performing, customer-focused organization supported by
a world-class foundation of productive technologies, efficient processes,
disciplined performance management, and sound risk management
and governance:
•
Aligned internal and external communications with BMO’s customer commit-
ment, presenting our vision, values and brand positioning with greater clarity.
•
Strengthened our risk management capabilities, including enhanced risk
transparency and reporting .