BMO: Darryl White’s Transformation Agenda

Julian Birkinshaw, Doug Murphy, Sadaf Taimoor

Product #:W48984

Supplier:Ivey

Discipline:Organizational Behaviour/Leadership, Strategy

Setting:United States, 2025

Details:Case (PDF) • 13 pages • 2026-06-26

Your Price:

$9.71

Purchase this material with a free Educator Account and enjoy more benefits:

Free Educator Copy
Free Teaching Notes
Build your coursepack
Discounted academic price

The case describes chief executive officer (CEO) Darryl White’s transformation of Bank of Montreal (BMO) from his arrival in the role in 2019 through to summer 2025. The bank had done well under White’s leadership, but White wanted to grow the bank and improve its return on equity (ROE) as compared to BMO’s peers. Having publicly committed to increasing the ROE within the next three to five years, White must decide where and how to invest the bank’s capital.

Learning Objectives

The case works well in a strategic management course at the undergraduate or MBA level to put students in the position of a CEO of a large successful company and undertake the following:

Understand how an incoming CEO (of a successful company) defines and implements a new strategy.
Understand the tension between creating a high-performance organization that focuses on profit and a purpose-driven organization that emphasizes people and engagement.
Evaluate growth options for a large company and understand the trade-offs involved in making choices.
Differentiate between two product market growth options and the risks and opportunities of inorganic growth strategies.

BMO: Darryl White’s Transformation Agenda

Subjects:

Industries:

Geography:

Learning Objectives