 The Irishman revolutionising a British institution
It is one of Britain’s biggest success stories but it took a man
from Mayo to put it in place. Patrick Waldron tells how he helped transform
the Post Office’s financial services.
As an ambitious young man growing up in Cong in Co. Mayo in the 1970s
Patrick Waldron always had his sights set on a career in financial services.
Fast forward to today and he is in control of one of the fastest-growing
financial service providers in Britain directly employing nearly 100 staff
and another 750 through various supplier partners.
It is doubtful that back in Cong even he could have envisaged the level
of success he would later achieve in such a fiercely-competitive business
arena.
Patrick is chief executive of Post Office Financial Services a joint
venture between Bank of Ireland and the Post Office which recently celebrated
reaching the 1million customer mark.
Patrick spent 24 years carving out a career in finance with the Bank of
Ireland before heading to Britain along with several Irish colleagues
to set-up the venture.
Patrick explains: "Before I began at Post Office Financial Services
I was director of change and strategy in the Retail Ireland Division of
Bank of Ireland where I managed sales, human resources, finance, costs,
strategy and planning functions."
"I also spent four years as marketing director and five years running the
365 direct channels including ATM, internet and call centres."
"You could say I learnt my trade in Ireland developing a firm and wide
understanding of all aspects of financial services over the years, which
put me in great shape to begin my role as CEO."
Patrick was thrilled when he was appointed to head-up the new joint venture
company based in London in 2004.
So, three years on how far does he feel he has come?
Patrick says: "It was certainly an exciting prospect to move into the
British financial services market especially as part of a joint venture
with such a well-known brand as the Post Office which has face-to-face
contact with over 24million customers each week."
"I saw the opportunity as a challenging new chapter for me. However
although the scope and size of the market is of course much larger than
in Ireland, ultimately the demands and expectations from customers remain
the same — reliability and value for money."
Patrick has capitalised on his vast experience to grow Post Office Financial
Services and increase its product offering at an impressive rate.
It launched its first product in March 2004 and has since gone from strength
to strength introducing a range of insurance, savings and lending products
in quick succession. It currently insures one in every 50 cars in Britain
and the North of Ireland.
Ambitious plans were also unveiled recently to quadruple the Post Office’s
insurance market share to become one of the top-five motor and home insurers
within the next five years.
To achieve this goal the Post Office is now working with Junction part
of the Budget Group which uses a panel of car insurers to provide the
best deals.
Insurance policy sales recently exceeded 500,000 so Post Office Financial
Services certainly looks set to achieve its goal.
Patrick says: "I am delighted we have attracted such a large number
of customers. Our aim at launch was to bring innovation and fair value
to the financial services market and in turn become a major player in
the industry."
"So far we are on target to achieve this. But this doesn’t mean
we will become complacent. We will continue to offer customers fairer,
easier and better value financial services than can be found with any
of our competitors."
On reaching the 1million customer milestone Patrick says he was delighted
adding: "With an average of 50,000 customers joining each month our customer
uptake certainly shows no signs of slowing down."
"The Post Office is really making an impact in shaking up the financial services
market especially in providing customers with a real consumer champion
which can always be relied upon."
"The Post Office has an extremely strong and trusted brand and the success
of the joint venture is based on combining this with a range of innovative
products which customers know they can trust to provide great value."
And going forward Patrick believes innovation is the key.
"We intend to grow our market share by continuing to develop services
which are not merely ‘me too’ products in the market."
"Instead we aim to provide customers with a better deal than they can
find elsewhere — whether it be through offering market-leading rates
for savings products or introducing van insurance policies with optional
physio treatment in case of injury."
The Post Office also strives to deliver superior services in the travel
industry.
Patrick says: "We don’t believe customers should have to pay commission
on foreign currency which is why we pioneered the 0 per cent commission
rate. And we are one of the very few credit card providers in Britain
to offer 0 per cent commission on overseas transactions with the Post
Office credit card."
Last year the Post Office also introduced a Travel Money card offering
the convenience of plastic combined with the security of travellers cheques.
Patrick says: "The service has been very well received by holidaymakers
as an alternative to using a credit card."
"It is very appealing in particular to the Irish community living in
Britain because it means they can top-up a card with euros before visiting
relatives back at home, safe in the knowledge that their money is protected,
they won’t overspend and that they won’t return home with
huge credit card commission charges."
Patrick’s philosophy is very simple.
He says: "I believe in offering customers better and fairer products
than previously available. With our unrivalled network of 14,000 Post
Office branches the largest retail network in Britain we are certainly
best placed to do this."
"It’s clear the market has responded well to our products and our success
has certainly taken many of our competitors by surprise."
"It’s both exciting and rewarding to be part of such a market-leading
force which I feel will go from strength to strength in the coming years.
It’s also fantastic to see an Irish business linking up with an
established British institution to generate a powerful new force in the
market."
Who would have thought all those years ago the young man from Cong would
be at the head of such financial innovation? |
