People, Service, and Profit at Jyske Bank
PEOPLE, SERVICE, AND PROFIT AT JYSKE BANK
The Jyske Bank Group is managed and operated as a business. At the same time, we attach great importance to treating our three groups of stakeholders-shareholders, customers and employees-with equal respect. This is illustrated by three equally big overlapping circles which must remain in perfect balance. If the balance shifts in favor of one or two of the groups, this will be to the long-term detriment of all the groups. -Jyske Bank Management Philosophy
In 2003, Jyske Bank Group's primary operations consisted of Jyske Bank, which was the third largest bank in Denmark after Den Danske Bank and Nordea's Danish operations (see Exhibit 1). Jyske Bank was created in 1967 through the merger of four Danish banks having their operations in Jutland, Jyske being Danish for "Jutlandish." Jutland was the large portion of Denmark attached to the European mainland to the north of Germany. Until the late 1990s, Jyske Bank was characterized as a typical Danish bank: prudent, conservative, well-managed, generally unremarkable, and largely undifferentiated.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, Jyske Bank embarked on a change process that led to its no longer being characterized as either unremarkable or undifferentiated. By 2003 its unique "flavor" of service made it a leader in customer satisfaction among Danish banks (see Exhibit 2). At the heart of these changes was the bank's determination to be, in the words of one executive, "the most customer-oriented bank in Denmark." The bank achieved its goal by focusing on what it called Jyske Forskelle, or Jyske Differences.
DENMARK
At the onset of the twenty-first century Denmark had a population of approximately five million. A member of the European Union retaining its own currency (the Danish Kronor, DKKl), Denmark was the southernmost of the Scandinavian countries. Denmark had been a wealthy country for hundreds of years.
The Jyske Bank Group is managed and operated as a business. At the same time, we attach great importance to treating our three groups of stakeholders-shareholders, customers and employees-with equal respect. This is illustrated by three equally big overlapping circles which must remain in perfect balance. If the balance shifts in favor of one or two of the groups, this will be to the long-term detriment of all the groups. -Jyske Bank Management Philosophy
In 2003, Jyske Bank Group's primary operations consisted of Jyske Bank, which was the third largest bank in Denmark after Den Danske Bank and Nordea's Danish operations (see Exhibit 1). Jyske Bank was created in 1967 through the merger of four Danish banks having their operations in Jutland, Jyske being Danish for "Jutlandish." Jutland was the large portion of Denmark attached to the European mainland to the north of Germany. Until the late 1990s, Jyske Bank was characterized as a typical Danish bank: prudent, conservative, well-managed, generally unremarkable, and largely undifferentiated.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, Jyske Bank embarked on a change process that led to its no longer being characterized as either unremarkable or undifferentiated. By 2003 its unique "flavor" of service made it a leader in customer satisfaction among Danish banks (see Exhibit 2). At the heart of these changes was the bank's determination to be, in the words of one executive, "the most customer-oriented bank in Denmark." The bank achieved its goal by focusing on what it called Jyske Forskelle, or Jyske Differences.
DENMARK
At the onset of the twenty-first century Denmark had a population of approximately five million. A member of the European Union retaining its own currency (the Danish Kronor, DKKl), Denmark was the southernmost of the Scandinavian countries. Denmark had been a wealthy country for hundreds of years.