financial and professional Services
Financial and Professional Services
Change is constant across financial and professional services.
Regulation shifts, customer expectations evolve, technology advances; and your teams have to adapt every day.
We help you build the capacity to keep up with that pace of change while maintaining trust, compliance and performance.
our industry Expertise
We work with Australia’s financial and professional services sector to help teams navigate change, strengthen collaboration and maintain strong performance. Our clients span banking, insurance, consulting and data analytics, and we support leaders as they adapt to the fast moving financial environment.
01.
You’re under pressure to deliver value, stay compliant and improve customer trust. All while adapting to new technologies and expectations.
We help your teams handle ongoing change with confidence, so performance improves without burning people out.
02.
Your customers expect simplicity and speed. Your teams are managing complex systems and constant updates.
We work with insurers to streamline communication, improve capability and reduce the stress that comes with continual transformation
03.
Consulting, legal and accounting firms face non-stop change. New tools, new client demands, new ways of working.
We help you align your leaders and teams, build capacity for change and maintain quality under pressure.
04.
Digital innovation is essential but challenging. We help your people adapt to new technology and ways of working while keeping the customer experience front and centre.
05.
Data drives decisions, but teams need clarity and consistency to make the most of it.
We help you build confidence and skills across your workforce so insight turns into real business results.
Across Australia’s financial and professional services sector, we help organisations move from “managing change” to living with change.
Our focus is on reducing the friction, confusion and fatigue that often come with transformation; so your people have the capacity to perform, adapt and thrive.
Frequesntly Asked Questions
Why does change feel slower and more complicated in financial and professional services?
Because you are working in an environment where trust, regulation, and reputation carry real weight.
Even small changes often have to pass through:
regulatory and legal review
risk, compliance, and internal audit
multiple internal committees or approval forums
client impact assessments and communications checks
A simple process step on paper might:
change how advice is recorded
alter how client data is captured, stored, or used
affect how fees, disclosures, or obligations are met
This means that changing a form, script, or workflow is never just an internal matter. It touches obligations to regulators, clients, and sometimes external partners or licensees.
On top of that, many financial and professional services firms have:
matrixed structures, where accountability is shared across product, function, geography, and legal entity
legacy systems that are tightly coupled and hard to modify
high expectations from boards and regulators around documentation and evidence
So change is not simply a decision. It is a chain of consequences that must be tested, documented, and defended if challenged. That does not mean change is impossible, but it explains why it can feel heavy, even when everyone agrees it is necessary.
Why are teams exhausted by transformation when so much of it is meant to make work easier?
From a strategic viewpoint, many changes genuinely aim to simplify things: streamline processes, reduce manual work, improve client service, meet new obligations more efficiently.
From the team’s viewpoint, the experience is different.
They are often balancing:
tight billing or sales targets
client meetings and relationship management
internal training, accreditation, and mandatory compliance modules
multiple change programs (for example, a new CRM, a revised advice process, and new product disclosure rules all at once)
Even helpful change still demands:
time to learn
time to unlearn old habits
emotional energy to handle mistakes and questions
If capacity, sequencing, and expectations are not managed, it can feel like constant transformation is simply more work on top of already stretched roles. That is why people describe being tired of “the next initiative” even when they agree with the rationale.
How do we help advisers, bankers, or professionals adopt change without hurting client relationships?
Client facing staff carry a lot of responsibility. They are judged on:
relationship quality and trust
responsiveness and reliability
deep subject matter or technical expertise
Change can feel risky if it threatens any of these.
Support works better when:
clients are given a clear, simple story about what is changing and why
For example, “We have updated our process so your information is recorded more securely, which means we will take an extra few minutes at the start of our meeting.”advisers have time to practise the new process in simulated or low risk scenarios
Role plays, test accounts, or shadowing can help them refine their language and timing before using it in high stakes client meetings.performance expectations are realistic during the transition
If KPIs remain unchanged while staff learn more complex processes or systems, they may cut corners to protect numbers and relationships.leaders acknowledge the emotional load
Saying to teams, “We know you are carrying client expectations while you adapt to this” is not just feel good language, it recognises the dual role they are playing.
When advisers feel that change is not simply dropped on them, but managed with client trust in mind, they are more likely to give it a fair try.
Why do digital or system changes often fail to land, even after big investments?
Common reasons we see include:
underestimating how embedded legacy ways of working are
Staff may have developed workarounds over years that are not visible in process maps.focusing on configuration and testing, but not on how people will actually use the system
Training is often feature based instead of workflow based.too many changes hitting the same teams in the same period
For example, a core system upgrade plus new regulatory reporting plus a new service model.lack of clarity about what the old system or process is being turned off
If old tools remain accessible, people fall back to them when pressured.
A digital program is only successful when business process, people capability, and internal incentives all shift together. Without that alignment, the technology may be sound, but adoption remains shallow.
Why do cross functional change initiatives stall in financial and professional services?
Firms in these sectors often have:
product teams
segment or channel teams
risk, legal, compliance, and operations
technology or shared services
practice groups or sector teams
Each of these has its own priorities, metrics, and language. A cross functional change may stall when:
no one is clearly empowered to make trade off decisions
teams protect their own risk or revenue position, sometimes at the expense of collective progress
dependencies are not mapped, so bottlenecks appear late
success is measured differently in each area, making alignment feel costly
Progress improves when:
there is clear, visible sponsorship that spans these functions
teams agree upfront on shared objectives and non negotiables
decision rights are explicit (for example, who can accept a risk, who can change scope, who can change timelines)
governance forums focus on solving real issues quickly, not just reporting status
It is not enough to bring people into a room. They need shared context, shared goals, and clear authority to move things forward.
How do we build internal capability so we are not reliant on external partners for every change?
Capability in this context means:
leaders who can communicate clearly and honestly about change
staff who can adapt to new tools, processes, and rules without excessive disruption
internal teams (change, project, risk, operations) who can work well together on future initiatives
Practical steps:
invest in simple, repeatable frameworks that teams can use without heavy jargon
build change skills into leadership development, not as an optional extra
identify and support change champions in business units who understand both the local reality and the broader context
create lightweight review rituals after each major change to capture lessons and improve the next effort
The goal is not to avoid external support altogether, but to ensure that internal capability grows with each initiative, rather than staying static.
How do we know if a change has actually taken root, not just been “delivered”?
In financial and professional services, a project can be marked as delivered while behaviours quietly stay the same.
Useful signs that change is genuinely taking root:
old templates, systems, or workarounds genuinely fall out of use
If people are still using the old spreadsheet secretly, adoption is not complete.audit or quality reviews show improvement in the specific risk the change targeted
For example, fewer documentation gaps, fewer mis codings, or fewer late submissions.client complaints or queries shift
Old pain points reduce, even if new questions appear as people adjust.staff can describe the new process in their own words
Not just, “We do it because we were told to”, but, “We do it this way because it protects us and the client.”KPIs and incentives are aligned with the new way of working
If people are rewarded for behaviours that match the old world, adoption will be fragile.
Real adoption is visible in habits, not just in project logs.