Charlotte McLaughlin
President and CEO, PNC Capital Markets, PNC Financial Services Group
Cost control is a mantra for Charlotte McLaughlin, who prods her PNC Capital Markets managers and employees to be as sparing as possible when it comes to business expenses (watching the travel budget, cutting out redundant costs between departments, and so on). The result is a flattening expense structure that is producing an improved efficiency ratio as revenues rise.
But McLaughlin does not impose much of the belt-tightening directly. She leaves much of the cutting to her managers' discretion, allowing business line leaders to determine how they will meet their expense goals. The savings results have been part of a 14 percent annual compounded growth rate for PNC Capital Markets-and validation of McLaughlin's strategy to empower staff with decision-making authority that encourages managers to treat their department's money as they would their own.
On the revenue side, she is championing new analytics providing detailed reporting on the reach and effectiveness of PNC's products and services. Employees are aided by ongoing training that is, in part, based on relationship manager and portfolio performance metrics showing where they might need a boost.
