In the wake of Mr Diamond's resignation, one of the most interesting things that stood out was the use of the word "franchise." Most of us with mortgages or loans for cars observe Barclays as a global business. When the term "franchise" is used we become very unhappy as we don't imagine a franchise model to apply to a bank, particularly a bank with seemingly quite a small number of fairly loose rules. Simply put, a franchise is not the way we understand a big financial services business to be run.
This means that there are two key factors when considering who should be the next person to take over the reins at Barclays. Firstly, it is important that the next person in line has a real understanding of how to turn around a big business and secondly, they must have an understanding of how to integrate a business around a clear set of guiding principles about how people work rather than just what needs to be done.
The new Chief Executive will certainly be under immense pressure, particularly because the politicians are calling for a broad change, not just for Barclays but for the entire banking industry. Barclays is facing a change in culture as it's not just about the resignation of one man or particular high profile employees; it's about the nature of how the whole corporation works. The situation at Barclay's has also invited a bigger question to which the whole of the banking sector need to stand up and answer; what is the role and accountability of the corporate centre?
That team at the centre of the organisation need to set the right tone in order for the change in culture to be successfully implemented and adhered to. People think culture is all the nice fuzzy bits around business such as sitting in an open plan office or organising away days but it starts and ends with the CEO and the central team.
The culture of an organisation relates to what you get praised for and what you get told off for in an organisation. The new CEO needs to be someone who can pull things together and realise it's not just about the short term win and it's not just about the team immediately around you feeling they had a great day, it's about Barclays becoming united and really playing together as a team. However, the difficulty for them is dealing with both internal and external issues because Barclays is not alone in having that short term winning culture in financial services. It's very difficult to come in from the outside but it might be necessary in these circumstances.
Of course there are other great challenges ahead including that of re-establishing the company as a brand that people trust. In this case it is not the general public affected but also corporate customers and of course the government, everyone's faith has been tarnished by recent events, particularly at a time when we have never needed to trust the banks more.
Once the central principles have been established and agreed going about such a transformation certainly won't be easy but it can be done and is best achieved simply by doing a decent job on a day to day basis and not making too much of a show about getting it right.
There will be no quick route to repairing reputation and broadly speaking it's likely to be a long slog. The notion of visionary leadership is of huge importance and will mark out the new central team in their first 100 days but once the new CEO is appointed it's about how they attract people to their team, because leaders need people to follow them; you can't be a leader by yourself.
Thereafter the underplayed characteristic of doggedness will be just as central to success. If you are going to turn around an organisation both on the inside and on the outside there is a lot of time, effort and hard graft involved.
If you look at the world of football, managers change all the time but it's the team who have had the manager the longest that's done the best overall. As such, there is a real deal to do within the first 100 days to bring people on side. It will also be key to win one or two sensible small achievements to get people on your side.
Overall, Barclays have to see this as an opportunity. It's clear they didn't want to appoint a new CEO and it isn't the scenario they wanted, so they clearly weren't thinking as a team. Moving forward, if they are going to start thinking as a team, fresh faces are probably no bad thing to help them achieve that.
CEO's come and go and it's a hard thing for a board to find a new CEO, they just have to say this is a golden opportunity.