Africa Guardian

By Correspondent Ernest C. Ambali
The commanding colour of the CRDB Bank, the bank that listens, is
green. Those who are educated in colour significance as given by Dr.
Marx Lüscher in his book, “The Lüscher Colour Test”, this colour means
“self-preservation”.
Writing in short on the origin of colour significance, Lüscher who was
Professor of Psychology at Basle University, gives a historical
background of colour as related to man. e says that to “primitive man,
activity as a rule, took one of two forms – either he was hunting and
attacking, or he was being hunted and defending himself against
attack.
This is an activity directed towards conquest and acquisition or
activity directed towards self-preservation.
The outgoing actions of attack and conquest are universally
represented by the colour red; self-preservation by its complement,
green”, he says.
It is not surprising therefore that CRDB Bank had for many years
succeeded to a greater extent in the battle against world economic
odds and internal thefts of its customers’ savings.
True: it has not been plain sailing. It has been trudging up the
economic hills in which the country passed. It did so in the spirit of
self-preservation. For example, last year the bank continued with the
drive of opening more branches although Tanzania was engulfed in the
world economic crisis.
CRDB Bank – the bank that listens to and acts on the needs of its
customers – had embarked on the implementation of its two-pronged
developmental strategy.
The first prong was that of improving services and the second was of
offering customers convenient, innovative, alternative delivery
channels that meet their needs. “For the bank’s retail banking, 2009
was the year of sustained growth and enhancement of its services and
capabilities”, says the CRDB Bank’s annual Report for the year 2009.
And it adds: “Key highlights for the year were the opening of new
branches, the launching of innovative, segmented offerings and other
initiatives.”
These initiatives “will enable CRDB Bank to build further on its
position as a progressive, secure and stable bank”. Somewhere in the
report the bank says: “we have been able to maintain our attributes of
progress, stability and security even during stormy economic times.”
indeed the year 2009 was notoriously marked for the almost harrowing
global, stormy economic crisis that threatened to gobble Tanzania’s
developing economy.
True: the CRDB Bank – the bank that listens – was not immune from the
effects of the crisis. Although it felt the impact, it was not
discouraged b the economic problems. In the words of the 2009 Annual
report, “the year 2009 was an exceptional year marked by the global
financial crisis and challenges for markets and financial institutions
everywhere in the world.
While CRDB Bank was not immune from the effects of the crisis, our
focus from early in the year was geared at anticipating and
mitigating, to the extent possible, its adverse impact on the bank’s
financial performance and balance sheet.”
The bank’s ability to wither adverse effects of the world economic
crisis, reflect the “strong foundation on which it stands”.
Sure: in economic terms, it ability also shows the robustness of its
business strategy and model which focuses on portfolio diversification
and retail banking.
“We were therefore able to respond to the crisis by taking
precautionary and corrective measures with particular focus on loans,
liquidity, asset quality, and risk and cost management without
changing our basic strategies.”
No doubt, the CRDB Bank – the bank that listens – focused on loans,
liquidity, asset quality… means sustaining its vision to remain “the
leading bank which is customer need driven with competitive return to
shareholders.”
What the CRDB bank has done, focusing on loans and other services, is
supported to the hilt by the then President and Chief Operating
Officer of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC, Mr. Horst S. Schulze.
In the foreword of the book, “Customer-Inspired Quality” by James A.
Shaw, Mr. Schulze says that today’s economy has forced many businesses
to focus on spreadsheet.
“To many the most expedient solution seems to be downsizing and
cutting costs to make the business more profitable.
All this attentions paid to the bottom line has blinded managers to
what should be their main focus: the customer.”
The CRDB Bank – the bank that listens – is aware of the fact that it
is its customers who have the power to change the profit or loss
figures in its annual reports, as argued by Schulze.
“Only by listening to the customer can one hope to make a solid,
lasting, and profitable change in business.
“By focusing on the customer, one is really concentrating on serving
and satisfying the customer’s needs. Customer satisfaction creates
customer retention which, in turn, means profitability”, Schulze says.
On Retail Banking, CRDB Bank’s Annual Report for the year 2009, says
that the year was of sustained growth and enhancement of the bank’s
services and capabilities.
“With changes in technology the bank was able to upgrade it
communication infrastructure across all branches thereby increasing
efficiency in transaction processing by reducing system downtime and
increasing ATM up-time”.
Continuing with positive drive along its two-pronged strategy, the
bank started implementing system-based changes geared toward
centralising back-office transactions and upgrading its core banking
system.
“These two systems will enable the bank to further improve its
services and enhance its growth momentum when fully implemented by the
second quarter of the year 2010”, last year’s report says.
The CRDB Bank is moving on. Last year it spread its network by
increasing its branches – traditional and mobile – to fulfil its
ambitions of having branches in half of the country’s districts by the
year 2012
No doubt, in the spirit of “self-preservation”, as represented in its
green colour, the bank opened six branches in the year under review.
The branches are Marangu, Zanzibar, Kibaha, Kariakoo, Nyanza and
Matiobo.
“The increase has made the bank the second largest in terms of branch
network. The microfinance subsidiary also increased its network of
partner MFIs to 425 from 376 in 2008”, according to the report for the
year 2009.
The green-coloured bank, is driving on along its mission which
requires it “to provide quality and competitive financial services
with a strong focus on retail banking and customised corporate and
institutional services while ensuring confidence and trust form
stakeholders”.