Comparative evaluation of training, consultancy and twinning as instruments to facilitate change
Category: Bank Management
After having presented the three main kinds of tools that can be used to support the change processes of C.I.S. banks (i. e. training, consultancy and twinning), we are able to summarize their respective strengths and relative weaknesses:
Comparison of the three main ways to support changes
| Specific advantages | Weaknesses | |
| Training | relatively less expensive,
efficient to introduce new ideas, flexible, can adapt to emerging needs or respond to new requirements, useful when provided to key individuals from targeted banks, |
frequently not well adapted to local circumstances,
is usually limited in depth or detail, not sustainable in long-term, thus is unlikely to produce, on its own, a real change in the recipient bank, requires a high quality of the recipient bank’s management. |
| Targeted consultancy | can be tailored to meet specific needs and
easily focused on key issues, may be delivered quickly and reach concrete effects, able to produce real change in the previous practices. |
cannot strengthen the whole bank,
nor change the culture, and sustainability may be low, is seldom likely to introduce long term relationship, |
| Twinning | high level of commitment and familiarity,
fully comprehensive approach (coverage of all areas), when the project objective is the transformation of all the aspects of the Recipient Bank, long-term involvement on the part of Western experts, brings in-depth and practical knowledge (through the opportunity to work with actual experienced people), supplies not just recommendations but also implementation, can effect deep ongoing changes and good sustainability, potential for long term partnership. |
efficient only when the recipient Bank has reached a sufficient level of internal development,
finding suitable partners can be difficult, very expensive (even if it is less expensive per day/man of expert), sometimes pedagogical weaknesses of the experts, time consuming and may induce long delays in case of misunderstanding, implies transposition of the methods taught, brings only the views of a single supplier, |
To help choosing the most helpful support to implement specific changes, the above observations should be translated into an operational tool which could be useful in identifying how to proceed most efficiently
How to choose the more appropriate way to implement changes.
| Training | Advisory | Twinning | |
| General basic changes | X | ||
| Global changes required | X | ||
| Need for specific changes | X | ||
| Planned Medium Term changes | X | ||
| Crisis (urgent, no time) | X | ||
| Preparation for progressive change | X | ||
| No limits of means | X | ||
| Restricted means | X | X | |
| Possibilities for funding from abroad | X | X | |
| Low degree of maturity of the local bank | X | ||
| Very heterogeneous knowledge | X | ||
| Lack of technical and managerial basic skills | X | X | X |
| Total score: |
See what are the characteristics of your project and their recommended corresponding means (« X »). Then totalize the scores in each column to know what could be the best way to prepare the changes you are intending to implement.