Nigeria Bank Case

Executive Summary

This case shows us the importance of company¡¯s core principles and makes us think how to keep the values of the principles and renew the organization. Guaranty Trust Bank has three main principles when it is founded. Those three principles are ¡°Integrity,¡± ¡°Professionalism¡± and ¡°Honesty.¡± Even though the environment was not good for the banks in Nigeria, GTB had been successful. Because it has a strong culture which represents three principles as above. And strategies the company applied to the society in order to fit with national culture worked effectively. For example, it funded at initial investment differently from what the common Nigerian banks did and grew rapidly. It became one of two commercial banks to receive a good rating in the survey. The bank is a really local success story. As the organization grew bigger, GTB had challenges on company¡¯s principles. A lot of employees including managers didn¡¯t pay the tax to the government properly. That could give harmful damage to the company. I argued some solutions about how to handle challenges Adeola faced. I suggested that GTB set up its principle sharing system, consolidate middle management, modify recruit system and reconstruct the organizations.

I can clearly say that ¡°Integrity,¡± ¡°Professionalism¡± and ¡°Honesty¡± are the main principles the GBT founded on. When I look at the reasons why Fola Adeola and Tayo Adeola left Continental Merchant Bank, the reasons represented Fola and Adela¡¯s basic idea about what the bank should be. At that time, Adela and Tayo thought Continental Merchant Bank¡¯s owners saw banking as a peripheral extension of their own business interests with neither the integrity nor professionalism that Adeola and Tayo sought.

When they started Guaranty Trust Bank PLC Nigeria, they need to raise quite a lot of money amount to 2.5million dollars. What the common way for banks in Nigeria to gather fund at the initial stage is to go to one or two politically powerful investors. And the banks rely on political favoritism, privileged position and varied degrees of corruption to help the banks themselves survive. But, Adeola and Tayo did differently.