Italy’s ‘Albert’ project highlights hundreds of new opportunities for simplification
Simplification is one of the pillars of our UniCredit Unlocked strategy – and we have already made great progress in simplifying processes and products throughout the Group. In Italy, one such initiative comes in the shape of our ‘Albert’ project.
So named after Albert Einstein’s belief that “if you cannot explain it simply, you do not understand it well enough”, the project empowers every colleague to become a potential agent of change by encouraging every person to submit simplification ideas.
In 2022 the Albert project led to 200 new simplification initiatives – and, in 2023, we extended its scope. Since then, 12 macro initiatives have been identified, including around 150 individual activities to be addressed – covering product catalogue simplification, network process optimisation, automation of non-commercial controls and processes, and digitalisation of processes and documents.
Submitted ideas are grouped into five pillars: optimisation of branch processes; simplification of product portfolio and sales processes; improvement of Know Your Customer processes and risk controls; digitalisation of document management; and automation of operational processes and controls.
We know that simplifying our Bank is a top priority and that if we all work together towards simplification, this will have far-reaching benefits for each of us in making our processes and working methods more efficient and effective. We want to make your talents perform at their best in our organisation so that we can offer our customers an excellent level of service, and thus realise our UniCredit Unlocked strategic plan.”
Deputy Head of Italy
Simplification as a tool for building value for the Bank and our customers: this is the vision of the Albert project, which aims to analyse, evaluate, and implement significant simplification initiatives to support the UniCredit Unlocked strategy. The search for continuous improvement is what we aspire to, paying particular attention to activities that bring high added value and improvement to our processes.”
Head of Simplification Office Italy