Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Analyising strategic direction
How to conduct strategic analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Introduction Barclays group PLC is one of the largest financial providers in America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and Middle East. , It which is mainly engaged deals with credit cards, retail banking, investment banking, corporate banking, and wealth management. The bank is made up of investment and corporate banking, global retail banking and wealth management, each of which has several business units (Burn, Cartwright &Maudsley, 2009). Barclay’s group practices integrated global banking that which serves their clients and customers and also optimizing risk adjusted for their shareholder returns. In this case, it moves, protects and invests money for over 38 million customers and clients globally. This group is the third largest in the world in assets and in terms of financial provider provision all over the world with a core tier one ratio of 11 per cent (Barclays PLC SWOT Analysis, 2013). In the UK, it is the third largest on the market capitalization, with its headquarters at Churchill in London, England. The iImportance of cChanging the Sstrategy in the dDigital Ccompetitive eEnvironment of 2014 The increase of business digitization processes, services and products ensures a better understanding of the digital strategies of a business. Some of the digital strategies such as IT outsourcing and investments in general information technology are major elements of overall business strategy, which most of the timesoften allow organizations to differentiate themselves from their competitors and also creating create demands that conform with the norms of the competition (Cadle, Paul & Turner, 2010). The needs need to changeof changing the digital strategies for competitive environments areis prompted by: Industry Turbulence Tu... ... middle of paper ... ...mer satisfaction: a research agenda. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 26(3), 170-182. Mithas, S., Tafti, A., & Mitchell, W. (2013). How a Firm’s Competitive Environment and Digital Strategic Posture Influence Digital Business Strategy. MIS Quarterly, 37(2), 511-536. Qatar Financial, C.(2009).Qfinance : The Ultimate Resource, London: Bloomsbury. Reed, D. (2010).'Barclays banks on being personal', Marketing Week (01419285), 33, 50, p. 35. Roy, D. (2009). Strategic foresight and Porter's five forces : towards a synthesis. München: GRIN. Setia, P, Venkatesh, V, &Joglekar, S (2013).'LEVERAGING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES: HOW INFORMATION QUALITY LEADS TO LOCALIZED CAPABILITIES AND CUSTOMER SERVICE PERFORMANCE', MIS Quarterly, 37, 2, pp. 565-A4 Turnbull, P. W. (1983). Corporate attitudes towards bank services. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 1(1), 53-66.
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, also known as CIBC, is Canada’s fifth largest bank. Established in 1961, the bank that we know today was formed through the merging of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and the Imperial Bank of Canada. At the time, these two banks were the largest banks in Canada. CIBC’s head office is located at 199 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario. This international company operates in Canada, Europe, the United States and the Asia Pacific region. CIBC`s vision is To be the leader in client relationships. They value Trust, Teamwork and Accountability. Their corporate objectives include building on their financial strength, unlocking value for reinvestment and to culture focus on client relationships. CIBC currently
A great deal of information was covered this week such as, the necessity in which businesses need to effectively plan and set objectives, the strategies utilized and how they are executed to obtains results, and how managements decisions can potentially affect those results. Although each topic covered was found to be interesting and informational, there was something in particular that struck a chord, which was how business establishments have to be flexible and adaptable and in many instances plan and change their strategies of today, in order to keep up with the evolving technology of tomorrow. Something that one often thinks about is how individuals use technology today and how companies that provide that technology are adapting. For instance, author Richard Daft of the textbook, Management, 12th ed. brings to light the potential issues that Intel is facing explaining “As another example of an external threat, Intel, whose microprocessors power most PCs, is being hurt by the decline in demand for personal computers as more people turn to tablets and smartphones.” (Daft, 2016, pg. 259). After reading this, one wanted to take a deep look into what it is exactly that Intel intends to do to overcome this obstacle and found some
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is one of the world’s largest and well-known financial institutions. The firm was founded in New York in 1799. JPMorgan Chase & Co. was built on the foundation of past institutions that have come together throughout the years to form the firm that JPMorgan Chase & Co. is today. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a global financial service firm with operations in more than 50 countries. The firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers, small business and commercial banking, financial transaction processing, asset management, and private equity. JPMorgan Chase & Co. serves millions of consumers in the United States and many corporate institutions.
In summary, “Internet activities are not most significant in competition, such as informing customers, processing transactions, and procuring inputs”. (Porter, 2001) significant corporate assets--skilled employees, proprietary product, and efficient logistical systems – these factors are the most important to keep competitive advantages. In fact, it is foreseeable that the Internet's evolution will come up in the future involve a shift “in thinking from e-business to business, from e-strategy to strategy”. (Porter, 2001)Only by integrating the Internet into overall strategy will this powerful new technology become an equally powerful force for competitive advantage.
Resources are being classified into tangible and intangibles assets as the followings: *Resources of *Virgin Group Tangible Resources Intangible Resources Capabilities of Virgin Group are established by the integrated resources that assisted it to stay competitive and to outdo its competitors. Valuable capabilities will aid Virgin Group to effectively tap and explore spotted opportunities as well as to minimize threats in the external environment. Should capabilities are consistently and effectively utilized, they will turn significant and be difficult to be imitated or substituted. With the resources discussed above, 3 capabilities of Virgin Group are identified as follows: - *Capabilities 1: Unique C*ulture of *"Making difference and creating uniqueness"* (*Contributed Resources: *Financial, Organizational, Human, Innovation*, Technological*) Creativity, Innovation are the foundations to Virgin and Richard Branson’s success! Technology push is the spine for innovation and likely to simulate process innovation in how service is provided when looking into Virgin. Technology is more likely to simulate process innovation. Every turn and businesses Branson venture has been with some kind of innovation or creativity element if not something unique, something that has not been seen or heard of before in the relevant market. Virgin Group has achieved a competitive advantage among its competitors by uniformly followed its culture in all business in serving good value and service to the customers in different ways. The basic and the core competence of all Virgin Group's business ventures are to do things just a little bit differently from the rest. And also they always tried to add value by adding a little fun to the business. By differentiating in strategy itself to fit of the activities and the ways of doing business have also differentiated itself from the rivals and make it difficult to imitate Virgin’s strategy. Hence, they have established their business to an untouchable position. How would you characterize the corporate strategy of Branson's Virgin Group? The answer to that question will not be so different from the ones above. However to better understanding we can characterize the corporate strategy of Virgin Group as "Making difference and creating uniqueness" in any kind of customers' service. They are not stuck to any business field so that makes them flexible of thinking and creating new ideas for their customers and the whole consumers around the world who need (or will need) Virgin's service.
By and large, the firm's major activities includes providing Mergers and Acquisitions advices, asset management, underwriting services and prime brokerage to its clients which can be either of the corporations, governments or individuals. Apart from this, they are also involved in market making and private equity deals, and is a primary dealer in the United States Treasury security market.
Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. (2011). Race Against the Machine: How Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity and Ireversibly Tranforming Employment and the Economy. Lexington, Massachusetts: Digital Frontier Press.
Barclays’ Internal and External Customers Barclays offers a wide range of services to both internal and external customers. Internal customers are member of staff/colleagues that work in an organisation. Examples of internal customers in Barclays include: Small Business Managers, Customer Relations Team, telephone operators, Financial Planning Managers, Customer Service staff, Counter staff, Accountants, Consumer Relations Team, and Relationship Managers. External customers are the majority of individuals who lives in the local areas. Examples of external customers of Barclays include: disabled people, elderly, foreign people, parents, couples, widows, divorcees and students (from schools, colleges, and universities).
In today's competing world, many organizations are rethinking their strategies in terms of the online business and its capabilities and culture. Organizations are taking advantage of the widespread web to buy and sell goods from other companies and recently from individual customers. Exploiting these opportunities of convenience, availability and widespread reach of the web or Internet, many companies such as Amazon have benefited from the use of web successfully.
A digital firm is organizations that run its core business relationship with employees, customers, suppliers and external partners through digital networks. Digital Firm can be an example of an information technology flattener. A digital firm is organizations that run its core business relationship with employees, customers, suppliers and external partners through digital networks. Digital firms have transformed the traditional business process of firms, by providing more flexibility in a global market. Digital firms offer both time shifting and space shifting which now has become the norm. Time shifting is when business is conducted continuously for 24/7; instead of the traditional workdays from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. Space shifting is when the work takes place in a global scale. Firms such as Cisco Systems, 3M, and IBM, moving towards becoming a fully digital firm. Many companies today are replacing face-to-face interviews with “virtual” interviews such as video calls. One of the biggest advantages of a digital firm is the use of current technology to optimize resources and obtain the highest productivity and
This text is an attempt to make a rough analysis of the state of Barclays Bank PLC strategy in the area. Four sources were used for this article, being a highly reliable report from Ceres (formerly the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies) from January 2008, an article from the Director Magazine from May 2007 and two sources from Barclays itself; one being a press release from march 2007 and the other being Barclays actual website. These sources and this text were backed up by two articles from the Harvard Business Review issue of October 2007.
The Internet Era is here and the advances in digital technology are completely changing the way we live. From digital cellular phones to handheld computers not much bigger than a stack of playing cards, digital technology has created an unprecedented explosion of new products that allow consumers to communicate with one another as well as integrate the numerous products they use in their daily lives. This increase in integration along with the increased speed of communication has created the “global” economy in which most business must operate to remain competitive. “Hardly a day goes by that we do not encounter products that are enabled by DSP technology. From consumer electronics including cell phones, toys, TV’s DVD, answering machines, to military, scientific, medical and infrastructure applications. DSP’s are showing up everywhere.”(Frantz, 2000) Let us take a look at one company that is heavily involved in the Internet Era.
A company’s value chain can be created through a number of avenues. Tangible and intangible resources including knowledge, capabilities, skilled human resources, information systems, and company infrastructure can each be a distinctive competency. However, the multi-faceted business environment and industry dynamics can effectively erase a company’s advantage over time. This is particularly true with tangible resources. It’s easy for competitors to imitate one another. For example, all players in the package courier industry have invested heavily in tracking technology, shipping labels, and scanners. When UPS decided to move into the retail industry and acquired Mail Box Etc. in 2001, FedEx followed suit and acquired Kinko’s in 2004 (Hill & Jones, 2011). Marketing strategies related to pricing and promotions are also highly coveted.
Information technology is infiltrating all aspects of business, both large and small. Without it, a company will not be able to keep up with their competition. On the flip side of this theory however is the fact that information technology is cheap, therefore everyone had access to it. This in turn allows all the competition to have the same edge. This may work for a smaller company that has a good marketing campaign. Larger companies have always been able to succeed in the competitive market due to their ability to gain a foothold in the stock market and obtain funding that a smaller company may not be able to do. The ability to advertise allows these smaller organizations to become more lucrative simply by being recognized. A retail company that is willing to ship their products globally is in a position to increase their sales exponentially.
Turban, E. (2009) Information technology for management : transforming organizations in the digital economy. 7th ed. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons Inc.