The challenge

Northgate Bank had grown by acquisition for two decades. The result was nine business lines running nine different processes, with handoffs that added days to every customer request. Digital challengers were pricing below Northgate’s cost base, and the board wanted a credible path to a leaner bank without damaging the relationships that made it profitable.

Our approach

We started by mapping 40 end-to-end journeys with the people who ran them. That showed where work waited, where it was redone and where customers fell out. Working side by side with Northgate’s leaders, we redesigned the operating model around five shared service hubs and a single decision-rights framework.

Every change had a named owner, a baseline and a monthly review. Nothing was left as a recommendation in a slide deck.

The outcome

Within 14 months Northgate had taken $180M of run-rate cost out of the bank and cut average cycle times by almost a third. Customer complaints fell, and the leadership team now runs the same cadence on its own.