Ranks alongside I.T as most ready for change across all industries surveyed

The financial services sector is one of the most ready for change, according to a new diagnostic tool. The online tool, developed by Capita’s financial services consultancy practice, looked at how a range of organisations from across industry approach change.  Financial services had some of the highest scores on virtually every performance measure. Only I.T ranked as highly.

The tool looked at three themed areas – change engagement, change readiness and benefits delivery. Financial services came out top in the engagement of leadership and management teams, identifying and tracking benefits and defining readiness for change. At the other end of the spectrum, some of the lowest scores came from the construction and not for profit sectors.

Tony Tarquini, head of financial services at Capita’s consulting practice, said: “In times of economic uncertainty such as these, it is especially important for organisations to be able to change and evolve, in order to remain profitable and competitive. Our diagnostic tool is designed to provide an insight into those areas where change works well and where there may be scope to do things differently to achieve better results.

“What is really interesting to me is that while financial services comes top in many areas, and is clearly strong when managing change on a large scale, it finds it less easy to deal with non-standard aspects of change. These include innovation during the change process, local initiatives and adaptations to forecast benefits. Agile change and the ability to adapt to evolving business needs are crucial in a dynamic business environment. Without it, large change juggernauts can run out of control. Perhaps financial services organisations could look to achieve better engagement with smaller groups? There may be opportunities for the sector to act global, but think local in its approach to change.”

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Notes to editors:

The Capita Group Plc is the UK’s leading provider of BPO and integrated professional support service solutions.  With around 45,000 people at more than 350 sites, including 64 business centres across the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and India, the Group uses its expertise, infrastructure and scale benefits to transform its clients’ services, driving down costs and adding value. Capita is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (CPI.L), and is a constituent of the FTSE100 with revenues for 2010 of £2,744 million.  Further information on The Capita Group Plc can be found at: http://www.capita.co.uk