Public sector beats private sector?
Rohantha Athukorala
* Top valued brands in Sri Lanka in 2011
in the Public Sector
* SLIM People’s choice of most favourite
brand 2011 - People’s Bank
* The Sri Lanka GDP equals to Apple brand
When ever I get some free time I try to spend some time to understand
some macro trends that are emerging in the country. Last week during the
Easter break I spent some time on the Brand Finance report of 2011. What
was interesting to see was that the top three brands in the country
valued at Rs. 16.7 billion, Rs. 16.6 bn and Rs. 11.5 bn were Bank of
Ceylon, Peoples Bank and National Savings Bank all from the public
sector.
Rohantha Athukorala |
If one were to single out People’s Bank, it had won the Peoples
favourite brand of the year for 2011, Service Brand of the Year 2010,
SLIM Brand of the year 2009, People’s Bank of the year 2008, Best loved
bank of the year 2007 and Power of People Award 2006 which in my view
signified that the public sector was doing some cutting edge business
strategies and outsmarting the private sector which was contrary to the
current perception in the market place.
Let me analyse this in more depth.
Public sector -talent
My mind went to the time that I was the Chair of the Sri Lanka Export
Development Board I. I remember at that time that I was very surprised
at the talent of this state institution given that I was coming from a
fifteen year multinational career and the ethos that was floating around
was that the public sector efficiency was the lowest that one can
encounter .
However, the talent at the EDB was so high that it forced me to do
some fact finding given that this was the first public sector job that I
had done.
The facts gathered revealed some interesting information. Normally
the cream of the university material gets selected for the jobs in the
public sector. Namely the first and second class ranked students in a
batch. Which is why institutions like the EDB, which is a premier export
driving government agency has a set of very competent personnel.
People’s Bank is one such public sector entity that has been
outstanding
in performance over the private sector |
Thereafter when I took over as the Head of the National Council for
Economic Development (NCED) the pivotal policy making body of the
Government I came across the same talent base in many ministries and my
final conclusion was that provided that there is a strong leadership
which was transparent in nature backed with high levels of financial
integrity at the top echelons the middle management motivation levels
were at a very high level and in fact in my view was better than the
private sector.
The sad situation was that the public only gets a share of life of
the public sector like the local municipality council or the motor
traffic law enforcing officers and tend to form opinions of the public
sector which to my mind was unfortunate.
Marketing Excellence award -2009
At the 2009 Marketing Excellence Award I remember sitting in the
judging panel when the Peoples Bank’s Marketing Head was presenting the
performance of the entity. The performance was outstanding in my view.
Not specifically the numbers but more the discipline of the marketing
model that was at play.
There was also a brand equity measurement track that was discussed
that is normally practised by only the top brands even in a
multinational organization.
I gave my thumps up for the performance to be tipped for ‘Brand of
Year’ award. Even from a business angle from overall asset value to
deposit base and number of customers tracked on a monthly basis
signified the cutting edge marketing excellence practised by companies
was my view.
In fact I did not see this stature of brand marketing that were being
practised in the private sector entries that year. Which proves that the
Public Sector has the potential to out beat the private sector provided
that the leadership is right.
People’s Award 2011 - best bank
Even if we examine the recently concluded 2011 SLIM-AC Nielson most
favourite brand competition called the ‘Peoples Awards’, once againwe
see how the power of the public sector emerging.
Peoples Bank was selected by the people as the most favourite banking
brand 2011. Thisselection was orchestrated by the Global research
company AC Nielson which means that there is absolutely authentic on the
results.
What’s also important to note is that this selection is not on
internal data released by the organizations but on perceptions and
attitudes of the people’s based on real life experience, which makes the
results more valid and relevant.
Peoples Bank being selected by the people means that from a customer
care to touch point experiences that a typical customer gets exposed
tojust opening a current account the brand experience has been very
positive that has led the brand to be rated as the most favourite bank
over powerful private sector driven brands.
A point that needs to be highlighted is that in 2010 the advertising
spend of the banking sector alone was a staggering 2.4 billion rupees
that gives us an indication of the entrenched competition there is in
this industry. In this backdrop for a public sector brand to be at
cutting edge performance especially in a highly service driven industry
augurs well for this entity in my view.
Which also means that even with such an entrenched competitive
scenario and with such a strong marketing muscle of the private sector
it could not beat the performance of the Public sector entity that has
683 branches islandwide and ATM facilities, Foreign Exchange transfer
facilities and a range products to meet the changing consumer of the new
economy.
This indicates the sheer power of the talent in the public sector.
All that is required is strong leadership and as mentioned before the
performance will naturally happen.
Top valued brands 2011
If one examines the most valuable brands of 2011 as per the brand
finance report as mentioned we see that top three brands are public
sector owned and managed. Namely BOC, Peoples Bank and NSB. The combined
values of the brands as per Brand Finance 2011 exceeds Rs. 44 billion
which once again indicates the muscle that these entities have to expand
globally or at least regionally.
BOC leads the performance with Rs. 16.7 billion with a higher share
of the import-export trade, international remittances that has resulted
in a net profit of 10.1 billion rupees last financial year.
The beauty of this brand is that even among the next generation
consumers, namely the 4.2 million school going children the top of the
mind brand is BOC which tells us of the strong brand marketing work that
has been done by this state entity in the last couple of years.
Emerging strong brands
Apart from the above, we can also see that there are more categories
away from the banking industry that is demonstrating strong business
performances that can teach some strong lessons to the private sector.
1) Lanka Hospitals
Post the take over from Apollo the company has re-fashioned its
business model. Moving away from the AB SEC targeting to the C1/C2
target market the organization has developed some cutting edge business
practices that has been able to lure some of the loyal consumers from
the private sector hospitals.
In my view this is another classic example of a public sector entity
driving private businesses to second place.
2) Mobitel
Once again tracking back to the 2009 Brand Excellence award, I was
surprized to see how a brand equity model was practised where the brand
performance was tracked not just on revenue and profits but on brand
equity parameters.
To me, this was the ultimate of best practices in driving brand
marketing in the market place that require depth of talent in the
marketing division of the organization as well as the sense of
appreciation that the top management provides for such practices to be
continued.
Next steps
1) The continuity of these best practices in the identified state
institutions must take place. This must happen without any political
interference and financial irregularities even though in our part of the
world where a political economy exists this is tough to practice.
2) The People appointments at the higher level must be on merit and
not of political nature.
More importantly there should be security of employment so that
cutting edge branding and business strategies can be implemented and
tested.
3) A holding company can be set up where these government entities
can be placed under with strong private sector personalities at board
level.
This will drive in strategic thinking and new business practices that
are working in the private sector world.
4) Best practices in the public sector organizations must be
identified and shared among the rest of the enterprises in the
government so that diffusion of the practice happens.
5) A thrust to move on cutting edge mergers and partnerships must be
pursued. The successful public sector organizations must be encouraged
to move to the South Asian region or the global market like what Tata
did in India. |