Discuss about the strategic development of one of the biggest bank in Australia.
The report is focused on the strategic development of Westpac Bank, which is one of the ‘big four’ banks in Australia. This organization is one of the best and major financial service providers in the Australian region and the same is headquartered in Westpac Place, Sydney. The company has been successfully operating its business in Australia for more than 200 years and has approximately 13 million customers at present. The following report will highlight strategic activities of the company.
Mission:
The mission of the company is to establish an effective and meaningful relationship with the communities in order to enlighten the lives of the community people (Westpac, 2018). The company aims to provide financial services to the backward communities as well as to the general people of the country.
Vision:
Westpac’s vision is to be the part best financial service companies across the world, help the customers and the communities and to support growing people (Westpac, 2018). The strategic vision of the company includes achievement of the financial requirements of the customers along with the expansion of the business.
Core Competencies:
The core competencies of the company comprise of the strategic advantages of the same in supporting and helping the communities along with the existing customers. The company is has succeeded in gaining potion within the top four backs in Australia and this creates an advantages for the organization in terms of the reaching more customers. The partnership with various non-government organizations for community support and flexible business strategies can be counted within the core competencies of the company. In fact, the organization has been sharing relationship with the Mission Australia to support and address the homelessness and deliver affordable housing.
Successful Strategies:
One of the most vital strategies that had been undertaken by the company is based on the relationship shared by Mission Australia and Westpac back in 1800s. In 2014, the organization announced to support the Missionbeat service of Mission Australia with a three-year sponsorship deal worth $1.305 million (Westpac, 2018).
Current Strategies:
The current strategies of Westpac are based on the performance discipline, service leadership, digital information, targeted growth and workforce revolution. The strategic objectives of the company are to meet potential challenges existing in the current environment and balance the growth of the business with that. Hence, the present strategy is focused on the achievement of the vision with the providence of superior return for the stakeholders, building of enduring and deep customer relationships and being the leader of the community transformation (Westpac, 2018).
The contingency approach is one of the successful and major strategies undertaken by the managers of the organization in terms of achieving the business as well as the organizational objectives (). The contingency approach is entirely based on situations and the adaptation style of the managers accordingly (Wu et al., 2014). There are various risks such as sustainability risks, insurance risks, compliance risks, equity risks and many more which are faced by the organization (Bosworth and Rich, 2013). The managers who are the leaders of the organizations successfully applied this theory of contingency approach towards the salutations mitigate the same. Though, being of a hierarchal organizational structure, each unit is independent for performing their responsibilities. Hence, the issues are solved easily through the contingency approach.
Strategic partnership is another major strategy undertaken by the organization to accomplish the mission and aims of the company (Al Jerjawi, 2015). Back from 1800s the company has acquired the strategy of collaboration with Mission Australia to help the community people. As mentioned there has been number of instances for Westpac on the strategic partnership (Callinan, 2012). The support of the communities and sponsorshipof various events with the Mission Australia for the same has been proved an effective strategy for the company in terms of reaching wide range of customers with financial requirements.
There are several controversial and unethical business practices of Westpac which have been criticized by the media, government and the customers of the organization. The two most discussed issues are:
The remuneration of the boss of Westpac has been found to be the highest in New Zealand. The union of the bank workers have branded this salary of Westpac Boss to be unethical. The remuneration package of the George Frazis, the boss of Westpac is found to be worth $5.59 million. The yearly remuneration as published by the annual report of the bank is worth $4,386,308 (Parker, 2018). There have been controversies regarding this as a spokesman of Westpac said the remuneration package was not all from the bank. On the other hand, spokesman of Finsec, Andrew Campbell, commented that the company should not include such extravagant package to its boss while being underwritten by the taxpayers. There has also controversies from the Finsec spokesman regarding the economy of the country and the unemployment. In terms of the economy of the country of New Zealand, this salary package of the boss of the organization.
The big four banks of Australia are found to be accused on the land grabs of the local land owners. In order to cope with the rising food price in the global food market the chosen company along with the other three big banks in Australia. It has been reported that the company and the others three banks are grabbing the lands of the poor people.Westpac has been sharing 19-year-old business relation with Malaysian WTK group which is responsible for the logging operation in PNG. In 2003, the Westpac along with the WTK logging operations grabbed the land of the poor local land owners (Roden, 2014). There has been complained against the logging operation in terms of the sexual misconduct with local women, use of violence, environmental damage and possible illegal logging. Controversies and criticism raised voice against the operations and mentioned that Westpac along with other banks are only concerned about their achievement of business goals and does not perform the corporate social responsibilities. However, the company being a stern support of the communities disagree with the allegation (Callinan, 2012).
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Strengths |
· Westpac is the largest bank in Australia in terms of the number of branches and network. Thus, it is beneficial for them in covering more number of customers. · Having the brand identify of being one of the top four banks of Australia helps them to push their new offerings along with catering to the new customers effectively. · Offering of diversified service offerings helps them to target and cater to different customer requirements. · Their extensive activities related to corporate social responsibilities helped them to gain goodwill and reputation in the market (Hasan, 2013). · Huge operational history and having the status of oldest and first bank of Australia. |
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Weaknesses |
· Competition in the banking sector is rapidly increasing with the entry of the global players. This is further reducing the profitability of Westpac (Clerides, Delis andKokas, 2015). · Emergence of different issues related to their unethical business practices has tampered their reputation. · Not having extensive global outreach except in New Zealand. Thus, the market coverage will be limited. · Increase in the amount of the bad debt hampering the business potential of Westpac. |
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Opportunities |
· Entering in more foreign markets will enhance the business opportunities for Westpac. · Introduction of updated technologies will help them to effectively cater to the new customers. · In the recent times, developing countries are having the highest growth rate in terms of national economy. Thus, targeting these countries will help Westpac to enhance their business opportunities (De Melo, 2015). · Further strategic partnerships will enable them to cut off the competition along with gaining more market share. |
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Threats |
· Emergence of global economic slowdowns will dent the business potentiality of Westpac (Serricchio, TsakatikaandQuaglia, 2013). · Emergence of criticisms regarding the unethical business practices will further hamper their reputations. · Introduction of the strict regulations in the banking sector will reduce the business flexibility of Westpac. · Threats of new entrants. |
Human resources
One of the key resources being identified for Westpac is the human resources. This is due to the reason that; financial institutions are having the requirement of varied skill set of the employees. In the case of Westpac, human resource is the core source of gaining competitive advantages. They are having diversified workforce in their organization, which further helps them to gain different ideas for implementation (Alfes et al., 2013). Moreover, the human resources can be imitated by other players in the market, but their individual skill sets cannot be imitated. The training and development programs being run by Westpac help to enhance the competitiveness of the employees. Thus, it involves cost for other organizations to gain the same competitive advantages from their employees.
Brand value
As earlier discussed, Westpac enjoys immense brand identity and brand value due to their heritage and being the award of oldest bank of Australia. This helps them to attract more customers due to the reason that, Westpac is having their market presence in Australia for centuries and thus customers are having more brand recall for Westpac (Kirk, Ray and Wilson, 2013). This positive brand value can also not have imitated by their competitors. In addition, the positive brand identity is rare due to the reason that, not every organization are having the same level of brand loyalty and it can get hampered at any point of time.
The brand value gained by Westpac is also costly to imitate due to the reason that, it will involve huge and extensive marketing activities and investment to enhance the brand awareness among the target customers. With having the largest number of branches around Australia, Westpac is having the ideal organizational structure and process to capture the optimal value of their brand value.
Westpac is having inclusive organizational culture with having their considerations in every need and requirement of their internal stakeholders. One of the key elements being practiced is the diversified workplace. Westpac is open and welcoming to diversity in their workforce in terms of age, culture, social backgrounds and sexual preferences. This helps them to include employees from every sections of the society (“Flexibilty | Westpac”, 2018). Moreover, the working environment is being maintained by them in such a way that, it will create equal opportunities for all the employees. Another important element being practiced in the organization is the promotion of the gender equality. According to the CEO of Westpac, Gail Kelly, gender equality is one of the most important aspects being considered.
The organizational culture of Westpac also promotes flexible work life for their employees. Some of their flexible working culture is job sharing, part time working and work from homes. This motivates the employees to enhance their effectiveness and productivity in their workplace. Thus, eventually it helps the organization to have effective customer service to be offered and increased rate of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
According to the leadership style of Westpac, the era of autocratic and top down approach of driving the business is gone. This is due to the reason that, in the current business scenario, opinions and feedback of the employees are also important for the business organizations for seamless functioning (Kimmorley, 2018). Thus, transformational and motivating style of leadership is being followed in the organization in order to enhance the level of engagement of the employees.
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that, Westpac is having good and favorable market establishment in Australia and New Zealand. This is due to the reason that, they are having positive brand value in the market. This report also discussed about the business environments of Westpac and concluded that; market environment is highly competitive in nature. This report also identifies the issues being faced by them in the recent times and further analyzed in order to overcome the issues. The internal organizational structure, process and styles are also being discussed in this report in order to determine their effectiveness. It is being concluded that, he leadership and organizational culture being followed by Westpac is transformational and helps in motivating their employees.
References:
Al Jerjawi, K., 2015. The role of human resource executives in mergers: a comparative case study of two bank mergers, the merger of Westpac Corporation and St. George Bank (Australia) and the merger of Emirates Bank International and the National Bank of Dubai (UAE).
Alfes, K., Shantz, A.D., Truss, C. and Soane, E.C., 2013. The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2), pp.330-351.
Bosworth, E., & Rich, T., 2013. From optimisation to resilience: The changing nature of the risk reward conversation as seen through Westpac’s capital and liquidity management policies. Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions, 6(2), 160-166.Callinan, R. (2012). Westpac lends to firms tied to illegal logging. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 12 January 2018, from https://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/westpac-lends-to-firms-tied-to-illegal-logging-20120728-2346l.html
Clerides, S., Delis, M.D. and Kokas, S., 2015. A new data set on competition in national banking markets. Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments, 24(2-3), pp.267-311.
De Melo, J., 2015. Computable general equilibrium models for trade policy analysis in developing countries: A survey. In Modeling Developing Countries’ Policies in General Equilibrium (pp. 141-175).
Flexibilty | Westpac. 2018. Westpac.com.au. Retrieved 12 January 2018, from https://www.westpac.com.au/about-westpac/careers/westpac-difference/flexibility/
Hasan, M., 2013. Sustainable supply chain management practices and operational performance. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 3(1), p.42.
Kimmorley, S., 2018. Gail Kelly on what it means to be a successful modern leader. Business Insider Australia. Retrieved 12 January 2018, from https://www.businessinsider.com.au/gail-kelly-on-what-it-means-to-be-a-successful-modern-leader-2017-4
Kirk, C.P., Ray, I. and Wilson, B., 2013. The impact of brand value on firm valuation: The moderating influence of firm type. Journal of Brand Management, 20(6), pp.488-500.
Parker, T., 2018. Banker’s $5.5m package ‘unethical’. NZ Herald. Retrieved 12 January 2018, from https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10688154
Roden, D., 2014. Australia’s banks grabbing land from world’s poor. Green Left Weekly. Retrieved 12 January 2018, from https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/australias-banks-grabbing-land-worlds-poor
Serricchio, F., Tsakatika, M. and Quaglia, L., 2013. Euroscepticism and the global financial crisis. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 51(1), pp.51-64.
Westpac., 2018. Mission Australia | Westpac. [online] Westpac.com.au. Available at: https://www.westpac.com.au/about-westpac/sustainability/initiatives-for-you/social-enterprises-mission-australia/ [Accessed 12 Jan. 2018].
Westpac., 2018. Our strategic priorities | Westpac. Westpac.com.au. Retrieved 12 January 2018, from https://www.westpac.com.au/about-westpac/westpac-group/company-overview/our-strategic-priorities/
Westpac.,2018 Our strategy and vision | Westpac. Westpac.com.au. Retrieved 12 January 2018, from https://www.westpac.com.au/about-westpac/westpac-group/company-overview/our-strategy-vision/
Wu, T., Wu, Y.C.J., Chen, Y.J. and Goh, M., 2014. Aligning supply chain strategy with corporate environmental strategy: A contingency approach. International Journal of Production Economics, 147, pp.220-229.
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