No time to dither, it’s time to invest
Posted on 9th November 21
I was once informed that the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at a building society was a boring job that required a boring person.
Having been the CEO at Bath Building Society for over three years, I can say that the job is far from being boring although the test of my personal flamboyancy is still open to debate.
This weekend however, while watching the new James Bond film ‘No Time To Die’, I was reminded of why I do what I do. Despite 007’s perks of fast cars, foreign travel and the keeping of very close company with numerous beauties….his day job is just a little too ‘fast and furious’ for my liking. Who wants to be driving around in a classic Aston Martin only to be shot at by the angry agents of foreign criminal masterminds? I’ll be sticking to the important, but somewhat less glamorous (and safer) job of delivering Bath Building Society’s business strategy!
James Bond is of course only fiction, but in this real world there are many hundreds of thousands of our citizens who are working tirelessly within very stressful or even dangerous environments in order to serve the nation. There are millions of other workers who are endlessly toiling away in a myriad of occupations, doing the best for their businesses whilst trying to keep the financial wolves from their own doors. After many years of subdued price increases, the spectre of inflation has risen once again. The personal living standards of all of us are seriously at threat, with those in lower income bands being particularly vulnerable to the rising cost of food and energy bills.
At Bath Building Society we try to do the right thing by our colleagues by way of pensions and salaries. We have a strategic aim of increasing the Society’s contributions to our colleagues’ pension funds and we try and increase annual salaries in line with CPI if we can. Our past record is excellent but, like many businesses, inflation of our cost base could limit our future ability to achieve our goals. The Society has realised that this is no time to dither, it’s time to invest, to improve productivity. We are ramping up our investment in technology and improvements to our processes that will speed up the processing of mortgage applications and improve the Society’s ability to grow faster in future years. This investment will deliver the future revenue growth that will secure the future prosperity of the Society and those who work for it.
