Change agent Ralph Norris takes over at CBA

SYDNEY - Ralph Norris this week begins what his predecessor David Murray has dubbed one of the nation's most important jobs when he takes over as head of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).

Mr Norris, 56, has already spent a week of work experience at Australia's second biggest bank but he officially begins as chief executive at the close of business on Thursday.

The New Zealander is regarded as a change agent with a talent for breathing life into a company's culture and a knack for cutting costs by upgrading to cutting-edge technology.

Both are qualities he'll need at CBA, which has the lowest customer service ranking of the six biggest banks, anxious staff due to the massive job losses of recent years, and higher costs relative to some of its peers.

But if Mr Norris' track record is anything to go by, he should be able to imbue some positive changes at CBA.

He comes fresh from Air Zealand where in just three years he successfully turned around an airline on the verge of bankruptcy, with more than $1 billion in losses, to what an analyst recently described as "one of the world's xmost financially sound and well-managed airlines".

Before that, he spent 30 years at CBA's New Zealand subsidiary ASB Bank, including 10 as chief executive, where he also achieved major improvements in profits and customer service.

The strategy Mr Norris developed for ASB formed the basis for CBA's three-year transformation programme 'Which new Bank'.

The program involves the loss of 3,700 jobs, an overhaul of CBA's IT system, branch refurbishments and staff retraining.

It comes to a close in June next year and with key hurdles already overcome, Mr Murray decided it was time to hand over the reins to Mr Norris to work out where the bank will go next.

Mr Norris has already flagged that he'll push CBA even harder, with the potential to further expand the bank into Asia.

"The opportunity for the Commonwealth Bank now is to get the Which new Bank platform and to go for a more aggressive growth strategy than what has been the case in the past," Mr Norris said in June when his appointment was announced.

Burdett, Buckeridge & Young analyst John Buonaccorsi said Mr Norris would firstly need to improve customer service and efficiency in CBA's branch network.

CBA has more than 1,000 branches across Australia and the biggest customer base of all the banks with 9.5 million customers.

"They have got a great position, they're just not exploiting it as well as other banks," Mr Buonaccorsi said.

He also expected Mr Norris would work to further cut costs.

"Probably the cost front as well and a bit of a shake-up of the bureaucracy from someone who - albeit having worked for the New Zealand subsidiary for many years - has never really been part of the head office culture there, unlike David Murray," he said.

Analysts from Citigroup also expect Mr Norris to improve the bank's IT processes.

"We expect that technology spend and training/recruitment are areas likely to be targeted by Ralph Norris in an effort to improve the competitive position of the bank," Citigroup said in a recent report.

As Mr Norris begins, Mr Murray will leave CBA after 13 years in the top job and nearly 40 years with the bank.

He'll leave with a hefty payment of $A17.5 million plus the potential for millions of dollars extra in share options if the bank's share price meets certain performance criteria.

Mr Murray has not yet announced what he intends to do next.

- AAP