SCB to adopt 2-man leadership
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Yol, Arthid to take the helm as president Kannikar retires in April
The new co-captains of Siam Commercial Bank Group will work as “one team with one mindset” to make SCB “the bank of choice” in a consumer-centric and technology-driven world, the management announced yesterday.
With effect from April 3, 2015, Arthid Nanthawithaya will become deputy chairman of the executive committee and chief executive officer, and Yol Phokasub will be president. The two men will succeed Kannikar Chalitaporn, who will retire as president on April 2. Kannikar will stay on as director and a member of the executive committee.
Arthid and Yol have extensive experience in wholesale and retail businesses respectively. “It will be one plus one equal three,” said Anand Panyarachun, chairman of the board.
Both executives will report directly to Vichit Suraphongchai, chairman of the executive committee. He said SCB was now too big for one person to head, with increasing complexity in customer needs, abnormal economic volatility and the disruptive impact of technologies, adding that both would work with “one team, one agenda and in unity”.
With new challenges and a more competitive environment, SCB acknowledges that it must restructure its management style to deal with the large scale of universal banking, Vichit said.
The bank has to follow the changing expectations of all stakeholders including customers, investors and society.
It also has to prepare for the future, as non-banks have taken on more roles in the financial sector, while the Asean Economic Community will affect financial institutions. Therefore, the existing management style has become inadequate, Vichit said.
Yol said working seamlessly was important. Banking today has many challenges, so everyone at the bank must look to the same goals, the same culture and the same mindset. He raised the example of the digital trend, which is adjusting the role of SCB’s branches to serve as financial advisers, while digital banking will become the channel for transactions.
Arthid said the wholesale banking group would be restructured and a new head of the group would be nominated in April.
He said he and Yol would have to move operations away from a “silo” mindset, with too many different agendas, and build a more single-minded team.
To achieve this goal, Arthid said trust and mutual respect within the organisation would be the keys.
