As we rebuild the banking industry the role of the banks in society has been under unprecedented scrutiny. The financial crisis in conjunction with a number of headline problems, exposed flaws in leadership, culture and values. When I joined banking over 30 years ago I joined because I believed that helping customers was a good thing, and I believed in and recognised the pivotal role that finance plays in society both economically and socially. I believe passionately that our role in society is even more critical now, and we can [...]
About David Thomas
David is Managing Director, Corporate Banking Division, Ulster Bank Group and joined Ulster Bank in October 2011. Prior to this David was Chief Risk Officer, UK Corporate Banking at RBS . Before joining RBS, he spent 10 years with Société Générale where he was deputy head of their Corporate Banking business in London. He spent the previous 10 years with Barclays in their SME business. David has over 30 years experience in banking, across both front line and support functions.Author Archive | David Thomas
The Business Achievers Awards – 96 Regionals Compete!
The Business Achievers Awards this year had almost 600 well thought out and well prepared submissions. The decision to kick off the competition earlier than usual and use the time to promote the myriad of good reasons you should enter seems to have paid off. Feedback throughout the judging process shows that those entering had really thought about their businesses and displayed a very deep understanding of their business models. The messages that went out, especially from this site, about working on the business rather than in it, to focus [...]
Business Achievers Breaks Records
A record number of entries were submitted for this years Business Achievers Awards. A total of 572! Unfortunately the closing date for entries has now passed. The competition is a celebration of everything that is great about business on the island. We have awards that respond to the vibrancy of new companies and the innovation in the economy. We also have awards that celebrate the traditional strengths that the island has competing in global markets. Women Led Business Category Nearly a third of entries were for the Women Led Business [...]
How Scary is Social Media?
When I meet customers both large and small the conversation often turns to social media and its value to business. As a generalisation, the larger the company, the less likely they are to have anything other than a defensive strategy. Senior executives tend to be of a certain age and social media is something their children do. Often when there are varying levels of understanding then it becomes scary, especially as it’s not something that can be “controlled”. Large companies seem to have a natural need to control. Innovation means that [...]
Sustainable success
It seems like the larger a company gets, the further away from its customers it seems to be. Today’s technology and social habits can accentuate that distance significantly. Whether it’s a call centre on the other side of the world, voice recognition software, the internet or mobile apps it all seems to conspire to get in the way of customer contact. In this post I look at customer satisfaction, how it can inspire huge loyalty and lead to sustainable success. And yet there are companies like Apple that can create [...]
Working with 11890
I had a really fantastic day on Friday with Nicola Byrne and the team at the Dublin call centre of 11890. As part of the development for our relationship managers they will be spending two days working in a customer’s business. We want our people to feel and understand more about how small businesses work so they are better able to work with customers to realise their ambitions. So this was my turn! Working with 11890 11890 have two call centres in Dublin and in Galway. The first thing that [...]
The women-led recovery
One of things that has been brought home to me in my first year living on the island is the entrepreneurial nature of people here. The ability to do business and export is deeply in the DNA of every community. So I don’t understand why we seem so much less developed in creating women-led businesses? The statistics speak for themselves. In the USA women are in the majority of entrepreneurs and women-led businesses have an astounding turnover of $1.9 trillion and employ 12.8m people. This is also true in UK [...]
