Yorkshire Building Society

Navigant Consulting, 2008

Distribution strategy and transformation planning

Summary

With two million members, assets of £16 billion and 130 branches, the Yorkshire Building Society is the third largest building society in the UK. But scale and fierce competition bring their own challenge and YBS needed a distribution strategy which would give them sustainable growth in a changing market while also staying true to their values as a building society.

Looking for outside help and expertise to carry out a strategic review of its distribution, Ian Bullock, YBS’s Sales and Marketing General Manager chose Troika (part of Navigant Consulting). “We were impressed by their market insight and intelligence,” he recalls. “They clearly knew the subject very well. We also liked their pragmatism in terms of how best to approach the work - comprehensive without being over-engineered. Finally, we liked them as people: we felt we could work well with their team.”

This 12-week project involved a small team of three consultants working closely with YBS’s own staff to develop and agree a new five year distribution strategy, and to help YBS’s senior management to plan its implementation.