Spring
2007 Training Course/Seminar Series
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Central Bank Modernisation
4-day intensive residential programme, 25 - 29 March
2007 
Venue: Cumberland Lodge, The Great Park, Windsor
Course Chairman: John Mendzela, Director, Mendhurst Associates
Course Adviser: Charles Goodhart, CBE, Professor Emeritus, London School
of Economics, Financial Markets Group
Details of how to register are here
Dear
Delegate,
CENTRAL BANK MODERNISATION
Long gone are the days when central banks could simply
offer lifetime careers in an institution that outsiders knew little about.
Now, central banks need to compete for a diverse range of talented specialists
in increasingly international labour markets. In some central banks, the
trickle of qualified staff leaving for the better remuneration available
at private sector firms threatens to become a flood.
Central bank executives and senior managers must motivate their staffs
in innovative ways without diluting core central bank values and objectives.
At the same time, as independent but accountable institutions, they must
demonstrate their institutional effectiveness and efficiency.
Since each central bank performs a unique role in its national economy,
these are not easy tasks. This seminar allows participating central banks
to benchmark their functions and policies against those of their peers
and pool precious experience. By showing how leading central banks have
in fact tackled the challenges of modernisation, this course aims to demonstrate
why, how and where they have succeeded in reform and renewal – whether
it be upgrading governance or strategic planning, or managing internal
or external reforms. The programme has been designed to be relevant to
the full range of central banking environments by stressing both common
core principles and key practical differences.
Interactive workshop sessions, led by central bank experts, will explore
how governors, advisers and project teams can work together to develop
strategic approaches to change. And, crucially, how these strategies can
be implemented successfully.
Detailed case studies show how central banks have in fact tackled such
daunting projects as: modernising policymaking processes, taking on new
roles, reorganising, streamlining or outsourcing functions, and spurring
national financial sectors to greater efficiency and competitiveness.
Each session allows participating supervisors and central bankers an opportunity
to share experiences and analysis from their home jurisdiction and to
exchange views with their peers in an informal setting.
Since 1999, over 1,200 central bankers and supervisors have attended roundtable
seminars hosted by Central Banking Publications Ltd, publishers of Central
Banking journal and a groundbreaking study on central bank reform, Central
Bank Modernisation.
For more information about the programme, please take a few moments to
look at the detailed course contents presented on the pages which follow.
I look forward to welcoming you to Windsor.
Yours sincerely,
William Clarke, PhD, CBE
Chairman, Central Banking Publications
Chairman: John Mendzela, Director, Mendhurst Associates
Governance trends and management implications
Henry Schiffman
Consultant and former IMF Adviser
Consultant and former IMF Adviser
This session identifies some of the key challenges currently facing
central banks, and examines how governance changes and new management
practices in leading parallel organisations can focus and promote modernisation
efforts. Central banks must adopt best practices in many areas of their
work such as corporate governance, risk management, information technology
or talent management, if they are to maintain effectiveness in changing
markets and retain the approval of their stakeholders. In this opening
session, the speaker draws on his work with central banks to discuss
standards of governance, communication with stakeholders, issuing and
enforcing rules.
How leaders attract, retain and motivate talent
Graeme
Yell
The Hay Group
Without cultural change, any organisational
change will be short lived. However, change can be painful and some
stakeholders will suffer. To ensure lasting change, senior management,
up to the level of the governor, must buy in to and lead programmes
of change and modernisation. How organisational cultures can be changed,
with a particular emphasis on how managers and executives can retain
and motivate staff in increasingly competitive global labour markets,
will be the focus of this session.
The role of technology in central bank
transformation
Chris
Piper
Head of Information Systems &
Technology, Bank of England
As more and more central bank staff
become “knowledge workers” and processes become every more
reliant on technology, the effective deployment of this technology becomes
increasingly critical. Few modernisation projects are without a technology
dimension, many are entirely dependent on new systems. Yet the investment
required – both capital expenditure and training for staff –
can amount to a significant outlay for a central bank. This session
examines how banks can has approached these issues, with particular
emphasis on IT governance.
Effective and appropriate codes of conduct
Henry
Schiffman
Consultant and former IMF Adviser
(invited)
The way leaders behave sets the tone
and indeed the standard for the institution as a whole. Increasingly
central banks are looking to develop or formalise their codes of conduct
or statement of business practice. Such a code can set out the central
bank's responsibilities and duties, and be used to make a statement
about its values and ethics. As a tool for management, it provides guidance
on what is appropriate behaviour in dealing with organisations from
the public and private sectors as well as the media. In this session,
the speaker examines the processes central banks must undergo when designing,
implementing or updating a code of conduct.
Challenges for individual central banks
Workshop led by John
Mendzela
This workshop builds on the experiences
of participants in their home institutions. Each delegate will talk
briefly about the key issues that are presenting them with challenges
at their central bank or regulatory agency. Through discussion, delegates
will have an opportunity to benefit from each other’s expertise
and experience.
Chairman: John Mendzela
Ian Plenderleith
Former Deputy Governor, South African Reserve Bank
The journey towards institutional reform must begin with a strategic review of what roles and functions a central bank will need to perform in future. As a country’s economy develops, what tasks remain appropriate for the central bank to carry out? What new ones should it take on and what should it relinquish? This session will consider the practicalities of the review process and the use of a small planning team of senior management to put this into effect.
How do we link outputs to objectives? The role of strategic planning
François Van Zyl
Head of Strategic Management, South African Reserve Bank
While a strategic vision of institutional objectives is critical, change occurs in the implementation, rather than the formulation, of strategy. Outputs must be linked to strategic goals. This requires a top-to-bottom realisation that departmental goals must serve strategic objectives. Senior management involvement and support is of course integral to this process. This case study focuses on the implementation of the strategic planning process within the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). The speaker will elaborate on how the strategic planning function helps management to formulate, implement and evaluate strategy across the institution as a whole.
Evaluating outputs – management information, performance measurement and benchmarking
Gilles Noblet
Counsellor to the President, European Central Bank
Without objective management data, and specific measurable targets, modernisation programmes fail. Conversely, the creation, use and development of management information systems, in particular those which deliver financial and budgetary information, can act as a powerful catalyst for organisational reform. The unique roles and functions of central banks make performance measurement and the provision of effective management information tricky. Creative review processes are necessary to ensure decision makers can effectively evaluate outputs and allocate key resources to best effect. Often they must make difficult, perhaps even painful, judgments to set the right priorities. This session examines these key issues with reference to the European Central Bank’s recent zero-based budgeting exercise.
Involving outsiders: negotiation of outsourcing and external expertise
Semming Austin
Assistant Director, Norges Bank
Pressure to increase efficiency or sharpen organisational focus is leading many central banks to outsource non-core functions. Often it is technology-intensive areas that are evaluated for outsourcing. This session examines the key factors that are important for central banks to consider when approaching and negotiating any outsourcing project. It highlights some of the lessons learned from the IT outsourcing project in Norway’s central bank. Discussion will focus on organisational, personnel-related and management issues, and how the lessons can be applied elsewhere.
Chairman: John Mendzela, Director, Mendhurst Associates
Modernising
the Riksbank – core purposes key
Pether Burvall
Sveriges Riksbank
Managing liberalisation and change
Lionel Van Lare Dosoo
Deputy Governor, Bank of Ghana
Central banks in developing countries face a cluster of challenges and obstacles in their operations. Frequently they are required to develop and strengthen the private financial sector in parallel with modernising and reforming their own structures. This requires the same disciplines of project management, strategic focus and active leadership. This speaker examines how one developing country central bank has tackled these twin challenges.
Managing transition
Speaker to be confirmed
The far-reaching and fast-moving changes to the economic landscape which transition economies undergo provide tests for central banks. While institutions and skills may be in place, the rapidly-changing economy means they must be refocused and realigned with the evolving societal and economic needs. Yet such shifts in an institution can be potentially destabilising. This session looks at the lessons learned in managing institutional change in transition economies.
Chairman: John Mendzela, Director, Mendhurst Associates
Planning
change for the 21st-century central bank
John
Mendzela
Mendhurst Associates
Central banks need to take active
advantage of a complex, technologically advanced and global “knowledge
economy”. They must accept the blurring of organisational boundaries,
exchange people and ideas with other sources of expertise in highly flexible
ways, and adapt to working in a creative, team-based culture. Project
sponsorship and management become core skills, not just desirable ones.
Organisational structures, career paths and reward systems will all need
fresh thinking. Indeed the 21st-century central bank will need to go beyond
effectiveness and efficiency and add a new virtue that we might call “exploration”,
involving the ability to influence different issues in new ways. This
session outlines the new leadership skills and management practices required.
Action plans: workshop and course round-up
led by
John
Mendzela
This final discussion session will
aim to maximise the practical benefit of the week's key themes and issues.
Participants will identify and discuss how the experiences and ideas from
earlier sessions could be specifically applied to their own institution's
challenges.
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