Bank's strategy shared on world stage

Global business leaders will hear about Bendigo and Adelaide Bank's strategy at an international summit in New York this week.

Bank Chairman, Robert Johanson will speak at the 5th Annual Shared Value Leadership Summit - established by Harvard professor and world-leading business strategist, Michael E. Porter and Mark Kramer - where he will discuss the Bank’s long-standing Shared Value strategy with leading experts.

Mr Johanson said the global conversation about corporate social responsibility is changing.

"There's a growing recognition that a business has a broader role in community beyond a narrow transactional role, and that this can sit comfortably at the core of a business,” he said.

"Shared Value advocates that businesses can add value to communities through solving social and environmental issues as part of core business strategy.

"Often confused with philanthropy, Shared Value is something quite distinct. For true shared value to exist, there must also be a reciprocity in what is being shared, that is, that the success of a business is intertwined with community prosperity, but that the community also see that their success feeds into the prosperity of the business."

Mr Johanson said the Bank's unique banking model, the Community Bank^® model, was a strong example of Shared Value.

Established in 1998 in the regional Victorian towns of Rupanyup and Minyip, the Community Bank^® model responded to a growing trend in major banks reducing their branch presence, particularly across regional Australia.

Sixteen years later, the model has grown to 309 Community Bank^® branches operating across regional and metropolitan Australia, returning more than $130 million to local communities, generating local employment opportunities and ensuring future sustainability and prosperity.

"Banking is about the individual but also the many, and we feed into the prosperity of the communities and interest groups to which our stakeholders belong," he said.

"You can't run a successful bank unless your customers succeed and they live in strong, prosperous communities, so it’s in our interest to invest in creating both."

"We're very pleased to be able to tell our shared value story on an international stage, a story that has been decades in the making.

The Shared Value Leadership Summit is hosted by the Shared Value Initiative, a global community of leaders who connect around the most effective ways to implement shared value.

Our Bank is bigger in more ways than one. To find out more, visit the Bendigo Bank website.