1. The two main external drivers of our strategy are:
- shareholders and investors. Increasingly shareholders are looking at global comparatives on efficiency metrics. The increasingly global, savvy investor is looking for improvements on all metrics such as cost/income ratio to levels that they see elsewhere. This focuses us on operating more efficiently through better management of costs and streamlining of operations so that growth is achieved both at the bottom and top line.
- Customers are increasingly aware of both the range and quality of services globally and are pressurising us to make services available locally that they have seen and heard about elsewhere. They no longer tolerate mediocrity or high expense – they demand lower prices and increasing efficiency, which places great challenges on small markets.
2. IT investment is crucial to improve long-term efficiency, especially in a low population market. For an economy with about 1.7 million people and even less bankable customers, we felt that significant IT investment in Botswana was not justified with regard to achieving economies of scale. We have therefore taken the path of outsourcing our IT needs through a central SCB Group hub, which services a large customer base and therefore allows us to maintain our efficiency without the significant costs associated with such an investment.