Bank Negara Indonesia: Enabling transformative change through human capital

The case is set in 2014 in Indonesia, with the leaders of a once strong national bank – Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) - facing the challenge of transformation amidst a volatile and uncertain business environment. With growing competition and the rapid economic growth of the nation, the bank leadership recognises that a major change is needed to ensure the future survival of the bank.In 2008, a new management team was appointed to address those issues as BNI fell from number one to four in terms of market share in Indonesia. The bank suffered from inefficient business practices and a capability gap due to a zero-growth policy in terms of employees. As a long-time stable state-owned enterprise, which was typically slow to adapt, bringing about change would be quite a challenge.At the centre of the transformation agenda is the need to shift from a product-centric approach to a customer-centric one. To achieve this, a strong emphasis on human capital was necessary to address the firm’s strategic needs in the areas of talent, leadership, culture, and structure. For this purpose, Felia Salim, the Vice CEO, took charge of the human capital strategy.