Ian Walsh
Managing Director & Senior Partner
London
Ian Walsh is the co-leader of Boston Consulting Group’s Financial Institutions practice in the UK, the Netherlands, and Belgium, with experience in retail banking, commercial banking, and asset management. He advises CEOs and senior executives on strategic, organizational, digital, and operational matters. As the head of BCG's retail banking work for many years, Ian has supported over 100 organizations in 35 countries. Ian is the primary author of multiple BCG products and publications, including Bionic Banking. He is a regular speaker and panelist at industry conferences. Ian also has considerable experience in the media, energy, and private equity sectors.
Ian has served on BCG’s global leadership teams for the Financial Institutions, Operations, and Marketing & Sales practices. He also led BCG’s customer experience work for many years. He was a core member of BCG2020, BCG’s internal strategic review, and has held a wide range of internal roles within BCG UK. He currently sits on BCG’s partner performance and senior partner selection committees.
Ian is a board member of the Sutton Trust, a charity that pilots programs and advocates for improvements in social mobility through education and employment. He has been an advisory board member of the Education Endowment Foundation, a £250 million fund established to improve educational performance in the UK, and a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum. He also led BCG’s support of the London Olympics 2012.
Banks need to start acting like digital giants before digital giants act like banks.
Consumers increasingly expect their banks to approach them with helpful offers—without being intrusive. Welcome to the next digital challenge.
Retail banks that blend the best of the digital and physical worlds to reshape their distribution models, personalize their value propositions, and create end-to-end customer journeys can generate a 30% increase in net profit by 2020.
Consumer expectations, fueled by digital retail innovators, are disrupting retail banking. Banks must embrace the digital opportunity to improve the customer experience or risk becoming mere utilities.
Retail banks must develop digital capabilities that radically simplify their businesses while improving customer experience. This mandate for digital simplicity emerges from BCG’s report on global retail banking excellence.
How do leading banks achieve operational and digital excellence—and the financial rewards that excellence brings? How can other banks join them at the top?
BCG’s fifth annual operational-excellence benchmarking survey, involving 15 of the world's 35 top retail banks, explores four trending practices of leading institutions.
Retail banks today must provide digital functionality for speed and convenience, as well as thoughtful human interaction when the customer demands it. Retail banks must become, in a word, bionic.
BCG’s fourth annual retail-banking operational excellence benchmarking found that the top performers among the world's leading retail banks improved operational effectiveness while also becoming more customer centric than their competitors.
Retail banks need a proven methodology to turn their branches into the brand-building, loyalty-enhancing pillars of profitability that they can truly be.
