External environment for banking industry Essay

Standard Chartered is the world’s leading emerging markets bank headquartered in London. Standard Chartered employs 30,000 people in over 500 locations in more than 50 countries in the Asia Pacific Region, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the United Kingdom and the Americas. It is one of the world’s most international banks, with a management team comprising 70 nationalities. Standard Chartered has been committed to Hong Kong and China for nearly 150 years. Standard Chartered Bank opened its first branch in China in 1858 and is the oldest foreign bank in the country. The Bank has operated in Hong Kong since 1859 and has been issuing Hong Kong banknotes since 1862. Standard Chartered PLC listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in 2002. The bank is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and is in the top 25 FTSE-100 companies, by market capitalization. It serves both Consumer and Wholesale Banking customers. Consumer Banking provides credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, deposit taking and wealth management services to individuals and small to medium sized enterprises. Wholesale Banking provides corporate and institutional clients with services in trade finance, cash management, lending, custody, foreign exchange, debt capital markets and corporate finance. Standard Chartered is well-established in growth markets and aims to be the right partner for its customers. The Bank combines deep local knowledge with global capability. The Bank is trusted across its network for its standard of governance and its commitment to making a difference in the communities in which it operates. The new millennium has brought with it two of the largest acquisitions in the history of the bank with the purchase of Grindlays Bank from the ANZ Group and the acquisition of the Chase Consumer Banking operations in Hong Kong in 2000. These acquisitions demonstrate Standard Chartered firm committed to the emerging markets, where it has a strong and established presence and where it foresees future growth. With the acquisition of ANZ Banking Group, StanChart became the largest foreign bank in terms of branch network and profitability in India. The merged entity has a combined network of 61  branches and 74 ATMs across 15 cities of the country. Understanding the global, political, technological and socio-cultural segments of its environment is obviously critical to Stanchart’s success. It has acquired companies in order to consolidate its global operations; operates in 50 countries; seeks to display environmental and social responsibility; and deals with communications technology. It strives to take advantage of opportunities in the dynamic environment, the need to deal innovatively with new acquisitions, the problem of reframing the public’s view of banking and ongoing cut throat competition from other commercial banks and non banking entities. The bank therefore has to make clear the communication challenge and make clear the global nature of its operations to the wider community, governments and the population at large. Research evidence suggests that external environment affects a firm’s growth and profitability over time. Changes in political, regulatory features, the strength of different nations’ economies at different times, and the emergence of new technologies are a few examples of conditions in the external environment that are affecting banks like StanChart and several other firms throughout the world whether in manufacturing or services sector. The companies in attractive environments perform better than the companies that are in less attractive environments. Therefore strategy development is about ‘fit’ i.e. identifying opportunities in the environment and building strategy matching resource capabilities to those opportunities. The resources and competences of organizations also play an important role as they explain the differences between organizations, potential uniqueness and therefore superior performance. The ‘stretch’ view argues that strategies should be built on the unique competences and resources of an organization by seeking out markets in which competences have special value or by trying to create new markets on the basis of such competences Another consideration is the stakeholders of company. Organizations have different stakeholders (shareholders, customers, employees, government) who have expectations of the organizations and may exercise considerable influence and power over the strategy to be followed As said earlier, the external environment plays an important role for banks. Most of the external factors are beyond the control of a bank. The factors such as competition; political, economical, legal, government rules and regulations influence the firm’s choice of direction and action and also affect the internal environment of a bank. The external environment influences a company’s strategic options as well as the decisions made in light of them. The firm’s understanding of the external environment is matched with knowledge about its internal environment. Matching the conditions of the two environments is the foundation the firm needs to form its strategic intent, to develop its strategic mission, and to take strategic actions in the pursuit of strategic competitiveness and above-average returns. The external environment encapsulates many different influences which makes the tasks of CEOs more difficult. Identifying the different environmental influences though makes sense, is not very much useful as the overall picture of these influences does not emerge. The second difficulty is that of the speed of change. The impact of technological changes on businesses is much faster than ever before. Technology has transformed the way in which the banking business is carried out. In addition the competitive pressures are also driving more banks to diversify their product range in response to market demands. We can broadly categorize this environment into two types: remote environment and operating environment. Remote environment: This environment consists of a set of forces that originate beyond a firm’s operating environment. This comprises of political, economic, social, technological and industrial forces which create opportunities, threats and constraints to the firm. For example macroeconomic instability in an economy characterized by chronic inflation, fiscal imbalances and periodic balance-of-payments crises also affect all the banks. Operating environment: The operating environment involves the factors that provide many of the challenges a bank is facing when attempting to attract  or acquire essential resources or when striving to profitably market its goods and services in the immediate competitive position, customer profile, reputation among suppliers and creditors and accessible labor market. The operating environment is also called the competitive or task environment. Hence by considering conditions in the operating environment business can be much more proactively planned. An organization’s external environment is shown in the figure below. The figure depicts the firm’s business area, remote environment and the operating environment cutting into an area of total external environmental impact on the firm. In the banking industry if the Reserve Bank increases the reserve requirements for the commercial banks it would affect all the banking companies in the economy. This is an operational risk. Over the past two decades, commercial banks across the globe have aggressively repositioned themselves to compete under new economic, technological, and regulatory conditions. These institutions are no longer protected by regulatory entry barriers, and are confronted with a marked transformation in telecommunications and computer technology. Banks can no longer rely on traditional banking models and therefore have invested huge amounts of resources in the search for new competitive strategies. While many of these attempts had fruitless results, the most successful strategic innovations have set a new paradigm in banking and have changed the way banks compete. The manner in which commercial banks currently underwrite their loans, finance their activities, grow their franchises, distribute their services and market their images can hardly be compared to ones that bankers adopted in 1970s. Coming to the regulatory environment, banks still do not compete in a completely unregulated environment. Regulations continue to shape banking strategies for example, in US, the federally insured deposits are the basis of community bank business strategy. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) loans are a mandatory for all banks (in India, priority sector credit is mandatory for all commercial banks, this would be dealt in detail in subsequent pages). Investment decisions of every bank are influenced by capital regulations. The system of multiple regulators can affect the choice  of organizational form of banking companies. While most banks are regulated by the RBI (Reserve Bank of India), some are under dual control of government and RBI. In India, all banks are subject to RBI’s regulation but the framework is not uniform in the sense that public sector banks, cooperative banks, and private banks are governed by significant differences and not all of them have access to the payments system. The Department of Company Affairs (DCA) regulates the deposit taking activities of non-banking non- financial companies and also some activities of Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs). SEBI regulates the capital markets and supervises stock exchanges, mutual funds, securities dealers and brokers, merchant bankers, credit rating agencies and venture capital funds. Companies in the insurance sector are regulated by IRDA. Banks are permitted to be involved in insurance activity through joint ventures/equity participation/selling agency type arrangements. Thus, the object of regulation itself is susceptible to some overlap. Several scandals in banks have led regulators to make increased informational demands on banks. As banking markets grow more concentrated, anti-trust laws may increasingly limit the scale and scope of bank mergers. At a minimum, regulation is simply a fixed cost that must be borne by banks, which does not influence a bank’s behavior. At the other extreme, and perhaps in a more realistic situation, regulation can significantly affect banks’ strategic choices and influence competition in financial markets. Innovations introduced in the markets are often driven by, and in some cases succeed exclusively because of the prevailing regulatory environment. Similarly, commercial banks’ competitive strategies are shaped by both new technologies, and the limitations of technology. Retail banking had traditionally been built around the paper-based payments, but IT has created new strategic possibilities for it. Electronic delivery of banking services can reduce a bank’s overhead costs to a great extent. However abandoning bank branches can also give rise to disastrous strategic costs. New technologies have a led to a great transformation in the risk management practices of commercial banks, but application of such techniques may also create some unforeseen new risks. After generations of technological stasis  in the banking industry, the ongoing rapid pace of technological change has made â€Å"strategic innovation† a viable competitive strategy for banks.

Corona Beer

Grupo Modelo S. A. de C. V. was formed in 1992, and opened its first brewery in 1925. It’s Mexico’s largest beer producer and distributor. Among the company’s many brands was Corona Extra, which had been the world’s fourth best selling beer in terms of volume. Under the operational direction of Diez, Modelo started producing Corona in clear quarter bottles in response to consumers’ preference for clear glasses. It became the strength and let it become popular. What’s more, Modelo bought the brands and assets of Toluca Mexico Brewery as well as the country’s oldest established brand of beer, Victoria.It led the company to have a strong growth. At this moment, the opportunity was that most local competitors were selling beer to the American army for WWII, so Modelo aimed to concentrate domestic market and improve distribution methods and production facilities within Mexico. Another economic factor was Mexico became industrialized, and it ’s infrastructure allowed for large scale distribution. Because of the two factors, Modelo was successful to be a local leader. And Corona was listed on the Mexican Stock exchange in 1994.Mexico, the world’s 11th most populated country was one of the largest beer markets in the world and it’s also the birthplace of most affluent tequila. So there’s no doubt Modelo have lots of competitors, especially FEMSA. Though Modelo had built up a strategic alliance with Anheuser-Busch to broaden its international impact, FEMSA was distributing Coca-Cola products in Mexico and had a partnership with Heineken—Modelo’s international competitor to attack the U. S. Market. Heineken planned to be the market leader in US through aggressive campaign.So Modelo made efforts to be more competitive. According to Modelo’s expanding abroad, Corona distributed by Amalgamated Distillery Products Inc, and because of its unique products, it had become the second most popular imported beer in United States. Then, a political problem—coupled with federal excise tax on beer made Corona’s distributors absorb the tax rather than pass it on to consumers. However, it turned to be Corona’s strength that the sales increased ever since and Modelo also took advantages of NATFA environment.As a result, Modelo was exporting five kinds of beer to United States and three brands ranked among eight first. Since its entrance into the American beer market, Corona had built a market campaign around the idea of â€Å"fun in the sun. † It’s a brilliant and unique market campaign. It was born out of Modelo’s international expansion strategy of giving autonomous control to experienced, local distributors. It targeted on women and party scenes. Then Corona was able to get the non-beer-drinking population to drink beer by its unobtrusive and bland taste.Furthermore, with its advertising slogan, it built strong images of esca pe, enjoyment and relaxation successfully. However, Modelo were still facing challenges. Though FEMSA did not experience the same in the international arena as Modelo, it is the exclusive distributors of Coca-Cola and Central America. Though Corona surpassed Heineken as Ameriaca’s top imported beer, but it’s because the failure that Heineken always advertising for the superior quality ,with little attention devoted to any other aspect of its brand.So Medelo had to face its new status to make its success story a sustainable one. To conclude, for Modelo, it’s strengths are 1) Mexico’s largest beer producer and distributor 2) Corona Extra had been the world’s fourth best selling beer in volume 3)Top imported beer in US 4) Distributors absorb the tax rather than pass it on to consumers 5) Brilliant market champaign 6) Strong brand image. It’s weaknesses are 1) Lack of merger with other companies 2) Lack of partners. For the direct environment, i t targeted those non beer drinking people especially women.Modelo’s direct competitor in Mexico is FEMSA. It’s the distributor of Coca-Cola and Central America and it has high quality and have a partnership with Heineken to attack the US market. The international competitor is Heineken. It’s main importer in US and it planned to be the market leader through market campaigns. For the global environment, the political factors are 1)North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) environment. 2) Federal excise tax —-absorb the tax rather than pass it on to customers. The economical factor is Mexico is the world’s 11th most populated country.The social factors are 1)Mexico is the birthplace and still home of the most affluent tequila market. 2) It targeted non beer drinking population especially women. The technology factor is the advertising style and the legal factors are laws and regulations of alcohol. Above all, Modelo can focus on advertising more to increase the number of non beer drinking consumers and develop more customers to establish a supply chain to make products available in more places. What’s more, Modelo can also expand its international market not only in US and Europe but in Asia.

Hunters in the Snow by Tobias Wolff Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Hunters in the Snow by Tobias Wolff - Essay Example But in "Hunters in the Snow", lies, betrayal and insensitivity have overshadowed the good aspects of one another. This situation is played out in a snowy surrounding, as if the whiteness of the place makes a stark background to the evil that's brewing among the three friends. Each of the three buddies tries to look for a deer to shoot, each not really keen on doing so, and this accounts so much for their failure (other hunters as told in the story would have their deer "strapped to the hoods" of their jeeps and cars) as not having seen a deer to shoot. Tub, the first character introduced in the story is a sensitive person who battles a gluttony problem and hides it with apparent efforts to diet. Sensitivity in a person, though a positive trait makes that person vulnerable to others and makes him violent at times. Tub fires off at a Kenny for shooting at old dog after their failure to shoot any deer, "What did he ever do to you" Both Frank and Kenny, rib him for being fat, knowing that "Nobody knows. That's the worst of it, Frank. Not the being fat, I never got any big kick out of being thin, but the lying. Having to lead a double life like a spy or a hit man. Like when I make a big deal about only having an orange for breakfast and then scarf all the way to work. Oreos, Mars Bars, Twinkies. Sugar Babies. Snickers". And when Tub shoots Kenny, out of weakness and fear that he would end up like the unfortunate dog, he could only say, "I had to". Among the three friends, Frank probably has the capacity to be understanding about the extreme sides of his two friends - Tub's sensitivity and Kenny's toughness. Instead, this insight to the truth made him perverted and manipulative. When Tub was horrified with Frank's confirmation of an affair with a fifteen-year old girl, he makes for a philosophical pitch against conformity, "You can't just put people into categories like that, Tub. That's why the whole system is wrong. And that's why this country is going to hell in a rowboat." Frank even likens his young girlfriend with Shakespeare's Juliet, an indication of his intellectual capacity "Fifteen. She'll be sixteen in May. May fourth, three twenty-seven p.m. Hell, Tub, a hundred years ago she'd have been an old maid by that age. Juliet was only thirteen." Frank also pitches for Tub's sympathy for his relationship trouble and to appease his guilt towards his plans of leaving his wife. He does by taking advantage of Tub's food weakne ss - and succeeds because Tub also needs Frank to expiate himself from shooting their friend. The two takes their time at another roadhouse, not really in a hurry to carry their bleeding friend to a hospital. Instead, Frank orders Tobias Wolff's's "Hunters in the Snow" platefuls of pancakes, butter and syrup to further corrupt Tub and make him an accomplice in his deceit. When at the end, and on the wheel, he says "I'm going to the hospital" to the bleeding Kenny's hope of making it alive - he commits the final betrayal, with Tub's connivance. Kenny, the apparent

Managing Human Resources in Contemporary Organisations Essay

Managing Human Resources in Contemporary Organisations - Essay Example Organizations have adopted various strategies and approaches with the aim of overcoming the increasing challenges, as well as meeting or exceeding the set organizational goals and objectives (Redman & Wilkinson, 2009, p. 14). The shift from traditional personnel management to human resource management is one such example of how organizations adopt new approaches and strategies in a bid to increase their competitiveness and improve their performance (Martin-Alcazar, et al., 2012, p. 512). There has been an argument among management practitioners that the traditional personnel management is outdated and that organizations need to adopt a human resource management approach, in order to achieve their goals and objectives in the increasingly challenging business environment (Durovic, 2012, p. 83). This essay will, therefore, discuss whether organizations need to adopt human resource management approach in replacing traditional personnel management that is deemed to be outdated. ... Specifically, personnel management is majorly administrative record-keeping function that seeks to create and maintain employment conditions and terms that are equitable (Legge, 2004, p. 55). On the other hand, the human resource management aims at integrating the functions of traditional personnel management to corporate strategies and goals, as well as performing additional people-centered organizational developmental activities. Basically, it can be seen that the significant differences between these two approaches are in terms of application, approach, and scope (Tripathi, 2002, p. 33). As has been mentioned, personnel management is the traditional approach, while the human resource management is the modern approach. In other words, personnel management preceded human resource management (Storey, 2007, p. 97). The origins of personnel management can be traced to the welfare tradition in the post World War One period where more focus was put on meeting the basic needs of the emplo yees. As the dynamics in relations between management and trade unions changed, the responsibilities of personnel management grew beyond welfare to include areas such as effective personnel and industrial relations administration. Personnel management approach put more emphasis on the formulating and monitoring procedures and rules conformance (Torrington et al, 2002, p. 29). Over the last three decades, there were changes in the business environment that wERE brought about by increasing competition and developments in technology. As a result, customers began to have widened choices which prompted companies to keep innovating and providing the kind of

Patient protection and affordable care act(H.R. 3590) Research Paper

Patient protection and affordable care act(H.R. 3590) - Research Paper Example In this paper, facts about the components of the new law will be discussed, with its corresponding advantages and disadvantages. H.R. 3590, also known as â€Å"The Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act,† has been in the public spotlight for months before and after the president ordered its issuance. According to the Democratic Public Policy (n.d.), the current health care reform will â€Å"ensure that all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care,† and allows modification within the health care service to fit whatever individual medical needs. The role of the health insurance holders is also emphasized, making them more in-control of their insurance companies, rather than insurance companies controlling them. The Kaiser Family Foundation (2010) argued that the change in the health care system â€Å"focuses on the provision of to expand coverage, control health care costs, and improve health care delivery system.† Its implementation would rely to the overall population with health insurance coverage; therefore, there is a need to make health insurance mandatory for every citizen. If a citizen fails to have such insurance a penalty of $695 tax should be paid, but varies in accordance to his or her marital status. In line with the widened coverage for health insurance, the new policy provides a longer coverage for young adults under their parent’s premiums. The Los Alamos National Laboratory (n.d.) contends that the employees or unemployed young adults who lost their insurance coverage on their 23rd birthday will be allowed to re-enroll under their parent’s insurance, regardless if they are married or not. Furthermore, the previous policy of insurance companies of disqu alifying children who have pre existing medical condition is already illegal. A 1% budget for the Abortion policy will be provided, as long as the pregnancy is due to rape or incest, or the pregnancy itself causes danger

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BUSINESS OUTLOOK REPORT for a food retailer of your choice but not to include Tesco - Essay Example ercent share is genuinely an accomplishment when taking into consideration that this type of business model has very high operating costs and with growth in convenience stores in the country that provide competitive threats to the chain. This report identifies long-run prospects for Sainsbury’s over the next five to ten years with an emphasis on specific trends in the external market that will likely serve as the drivers of change with the retailer and with the food sector. The report further provides an evaluation of whether Sainsbury’s is well-positioned for key changes in the external environment. Sainsbury was highly responsive in adapting to changing market conditions, especially as it pertains to consumer growth in ethical consumption. Ethical consumption is a type of consumer activism that dictates whether to boycott a product or make purchases based on consumer perceptions that the organisation offering the product maintains an ethical stance and set of ethical objectives and values (Grande 2007). Contemporary business research recognises that companies with the aforesaid ethical values and focus maintain higher profitability (Lys, Naughton and Wang 2013). As a result of recognising these trends, the company began adding what is referred to as Steering Committees that are involved at the highest level of governance in areas of assessing the firm’s commitment to corporate social responsibility, providing a quality and enjoyable place to work for employees, and even a climate change committee (Sainsbury 2011). All of the activities and strategies developed by the St eering Groups are highly publicised to ensure that consumers are drawn to the ethical framework of business practice provided by the company leadership. Having such a strong ethical set of values and beliefs also provides Sainsbury’s with minimised costs in relation to human resources. Companies that have very strong ethical cultures also have much less problems with employee turnover

MR, empanada Internal Anaysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

MR, empanada Internal Anaysis - Research Paper Example The organizational chain supply process is tracked by the respective branch managers thereafter everything needed is then delivered from the Headquarter. Mr. Empanada is keen to employ an automated system which is able to check on the inventory and dispatch the required inventory to the centers even before the actual order has been placed. (Empanada Operations Manual 109). The organization is also keen to take charge of crucial interests ensuring that the company serves to the customers’ demands as seen July1992 during the launch of the 4th branch. One of the breakthroughs that have been achieved is the acquisition of a modern processing machine in Dec 2013 that has enhanced the processing speed and distribution to the various branches where preservations and sale is done. The main aim of this technology adoption targeted enhancement of efficiency and quality of production in terms of capacity buying and customers’ policy satisfaction. The restaurant has designed large grills where numerous panadas can be produced at ago and a dressing station where the staffing of the condiments such meat additives and other ingredients’ is done awaiting distribution to the branches (Empanada Operations Manual 109). Marketing and sales Mr. ... However, the effect of the final decision is based on the corporation officer who is also been accredited the powers to input and implement changes in consideration to the brands at Mr. Empanada (Mr. Empanada Operations Manual 109). As a matter of rewarding customers, the organization uses gift card coupons, which are loaded at the point of sale terminal in all the outlets with some specified amount of dollars in reference to the number of purchases made by the customers. When a customer wilts to redeem the points to pay bills, the card is, therefore, swiped at the POS and the deduction is automatically made by the card processor at the headquarters, which monitor the store lineage and either debits or credits appropriately in reflex to the location (Mr. Empanada Operations Manual 110). With the new social media working platform appearing an important aspect in all areas of marketing, Mr. Empanada Franchise Corporation has considered investing time and the organizations resources int o social media strategy as a definite necessity to wards customer awareness. Through the administration of all social media, the organization has received very real measurable returns of about 40% from initial media earnings. The facilitation has been made by the discretion of additional administrators responsible for hirirng agents who manage the social media pieces. Taking considerations to a social media site like face book, a single look design has been made, which can be accessed from different quarter while it is primarily administered at central location. This has popularized company branding and improved the awareness to a vast population while increasing customers loyalty and trust to the organization about the products the projection of lifespan of a product during