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5. Hunt for Growth Prospects

By abandoning targets that its wealth management arm had lived and died by for years, UBS admitted that new client money doesn't equal growth. Hamers needs to oversee a new way to lift UBS' profitability, which lags industry rivals. In wealth management, co-heads Khan and Naratil are looking to spending cuts and «delayering,» as well as more lending, which is lucrative.

Ermotti's efforts to seek new client segments weren't always given time: the bank abandoned the British robo adviser Smartwealth and a pilot program with affluent clients in Taiwan. Of late, Ermotti has talked more of partnerships like a Japanese wealth management one – a strategy that Hamers will have to fine-tune.

Giving clients the time of day before they are properly super-rich – more than $50 million – would also be prudent. UBS, often likened to a supertanker for its size and speed of turning around, can do more with what it has.

6. Back to Drawing Board

Ermotti has shied from major strategic moves, even as he weighed some sort of tie-up with troubled Deutsche Bank's asset management arm last year. Another frequent refrain from detractors is to reconsider investment banking – and potentially go «pure play».

Hamers will have to go back to the drawing board with an unsentimental eye to the same questions and evaluate what structure makes the most sense for UBS. That may mean selling its asset management arm – an age-old topic at the Swiss bank – or even its investment bank. Equally, it may mean mergers and acquisitions to vault the bank into a top spot in a wealth segment it currently doesn't focus on.