Effectiveness in Business World Barclays Bank

Question: Discuss about the Essay for Effectiveness in Business World for Barclays Bank. Answer: The portfolio is focused on the external analysis of the Barclays Bank, and PEST analysis is used as the analytical tool for evaluating the external environment of the company. The external analysis helps the company to get a wider overview of the major external factors that are affecting the business performance of the company. Therefore, by analyzing the external factors, the company becomes eligible for designing efficient and effective strategies, which will, in turn, help the organization successfully as well as profitably (Yksel 2012). The portfolio will also emphasize upon the business operation strategy of the Barclays Bank and the two main factors that helped the company to offer improved customer experience. In the third and final portion of the portfolio how the company has been affected by the process of globalization along with the effect of globalization on the role of the line manager has also been discussed. PEST Analysis of Barclays Bank PEST analysis is used as an analytical tool, which is used to analyze the external environment of the Barclays Bank. The external factors consist of Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural and Technological factors (Yksel 2012). These will broadly determine the strategic framework that the Barclays Bank should adopt in order to cope up with the current competitiveness of the market. Hence, the PEST analysis is used to enquire about the external as well as macro factors affecting the company. Political Factors: Barclays has expanded its strategy's sustainability; this means that the company is putting more pressure on the expanded business structure and also on the growing interest of the stakeholders in the competitive world. The growth of the business group has also been widely affected by the political stability of United Kingdom, Europe, United States, Asian and Southern part of the Africa. Again, the introduction of Basel rules on bank capital has also affected the operability of the bank (Liu et al. 2012). The rule states that all the banks are required to keep their top quality core tier one capital equalizes with 10% of their total assets in order to manage risk. Another political factor that affected the bank significantly is the Project Merlin Agreement. The agreement states that the biggest banks in the United Kingdom should focus on lending more money to the smaller businesses in 2011 (Altbach 2013). This is to compel the banks to pay lower bonuses than they did in the past year s along with establishing more transparency in their pay packages. Furthermore levying direct as well as indirect taxes has adversely affected the bank. On an added notion presently there is a significant awareness in the society about the environmental and climatic changes, poverty and scarcity. According to Fujita and Thisse (2013), the responses that are received from the government, various business as well as different non-government organizations has helped the Barclays Bank to maintain its sustainability. Economic Factors: The economic factors that affect the business environment and the sustainability of the Barclays Bank are broadly explained below. The bank has currently emphasized on its corporate responsibility in order to present that it plays a crucial role in constructing an economic advantage in the concerned country it operates (Altbach 2013). Furthermore, certain economic changes have smoothened the business operation of the bank, such as, an increase in the Gross Domestic Product of the United Kingdom by 0.5%. in 2011, the level of inflation had been held steady on the Consumer Price Index and Retail Price Index at 4.5% and 5.2% respectively (Telegraph.co.uk 2016). Social Factors: The prime strategy of sustainability of the Barclays Bank focuses on their objective to enhance the business values and that of the stakeholders. The bank thrusts more on the satisfaction of the customers and the clients and thereby promotes the company. It is done by concentrating on the global strategic design and developing an innovative solution and thereby improving the performance. On the other hand, the people who are providing service to the Barclays Bank influence the performance of the bank in the global industry. Moreover, the bank indulges its employees to collect the talents, train them in accordance with the global need for the business world, and retain those employees as well (Glassman 2015). Business Operation of Barclays Bank Plc: Barclays Bank operates in a precisely defined business structures those are Barclays UK and Barclays Corporate International. The Barclays Bank can be characterized as a transatlantic consumer, corporate and investment bank that provides services and products across personal, corporate and investment banking as well as credit cards and portfolio management (Baud and Durand 2012). The bank is present evidently in its two home markets the United States and the United Kingdom. According to Bckerman and Maliranta (2012), Barclays UK is distinguished as a franchisee providing personal and business banking and that too along with serving the customers needs as well. The Barclays Bank comprises of the retail banking in the United Kingdom, credit card business and corporate banking for the smaller businesses. The bank has more than 22 million customers in the retail sector alone and nearly 1 million of clients in the business-banking sector (Telegraph.co.uk 2016). The Barclays Bank has adopted the strategy of providing improved customer service and enhanced quality of the products and services in order to satisfy the needs of the consumers. The brief description of these two factors is given below, Customer Service: As per the statistics of 2012 data monitor, 70.7% of the customers in the United Kingdom will share their experience with their family and friends it they are satisfied with the service. On the other hand, more than 74% of the customers will share their experience with their friends, family, and others if they are not satisfied (Telegraph.co.uk 2016). Therefore, from the above statement, it is quite evident that the customer service quality is a crucial factor in the business of the bank (Rodriguez 2015). Barclays has tried to address this issue and thereby generate enhanced customer experience and thereby gain a competitive advantage in the market. Barclays has announced that the frontline employees of the banks will not provide with incentives on the basis of their sales performance, but they will be incentivized on the basis of their customer satisfaction scores. It has also decided to focus more on the teamwork of the employees rather than evaluating the performance of a single employee. According to Bratton and Gold (2012), an improved customer service has led the bank to stay a step ahead compared to its competitors. The bank is now operating all over the world, with a huge customer base. This is achieved by providing an excellent customer service, which gave rise to the satisfaction of the customers. Quality: The improved quality of products and services has also helped the bank to stay in an advantageous position in the market compared to its competitors. The extensive and wide range of products, services, and the designated product specialists the bank provide services that help the customers to obtain the solution in every dimension of the business needs (Jiang et al. 2012). It provides services to the large, medium and partnership businesses. The main two functions of the bank are cash management and financing. It helps the businesses to effectively and efficiently control the working capital along with the products and solutions. On the other hand, it provides assistance in financing to accumulate the cash flow for the operability of the business in an uninterrupted manner. Therefore, it can be said that the well structured and well-designed products and services of the bank have helped it to attract new customers along with retaining the existing customers (Budhwar and Debrah 2013). However, there are arguments about the service quality of the bank. It is stated that the bank was the most complained about bank in 2011(Telegraph.co.uk 2016). It received around 533047 complaints from the customers. Although, apart from these the bank has struggled enough to develop its products and services in order to provide the customers a better service in the banking sector (Buller and McEvoy 2012). Influence of globalization on the business: Renwick et al. (2013) pointed out that globalization can be defined as the amalgamation of the people, firms, and governments from all over the world. It can also be characterized as a result of the international trade agreements as known as the bilateral trade agreements. It has helped the business of the international organizations in many aspects, The first and foremost effect of globalization is the expansion of the market structure. This signifies the fact that if a business was operating in the domestic market, after globalization it will operate internationally. This has helped the Barclays bank to spread its business all over the world (Alfes et al. 2013). The second feature of globalization is that it has increased the availability of cheaper resources. Previously the country-based businesses were compelled to acquire resources at a higher price from the domestic country. However, according to Kehoe et al. (2013) now these businesses can obtain resources at a lower cost from the country where it is available at a cheaper rate. The third aspect of globalization is the international development. This is a result of the successful combination of expanded market and cheaper resources (Nyberg et al. 2014). This has also helped the Barclays Bank to operate successfully in the international market. However, Campbell et al. (2012) pointed out that apart from the widespread advantages globalization also possesses certain disadvantages as well. It has given rise to international competition among the large corporation, which has swept away the small businesses from the international market. Although, it has increased the market strength of the giant corporations in the banking sector, by enabling them to operate in the international market, with a large amount of working capital. Influence of globalization on the role of line managers: Vaiman et al. (2012) defined line managers as the persons designated with the duty of controlling and managing the human resource factors of an organization. With the emergence of globalization, the efforts of the line managers are being challenged from a number of aspects. The basic challenge that is arising because of globalization is the breakdown of monopolies and the emergence of a discrete market place with the extreme level of competition. Therefore, notions of the market place and the business environment the role of the line managers has been changed accordingly. According to Dries (2013), presently the line managers are more concerned about the business that is associated with the organization except concentrating on organizing the business revenues and profits. This, in turn, has helped the line managers to maintain the sustainability of the organization in an efficient manner. Moreover, the line managers are more focused on determining the strategic framework of the organ ization in order to maintain the competitiveness of the business (Park and Shaw 2013). Therefore, in the era of globalization, the roles of the line managers are changing at a faster rate. It has affected the values of the line managers as well as making the managers able to control the organization in a cost effective manner. For this purpose, the line managers are now more focused on the employee performance, team building activities and the other employee management techniques (Banfield, and Kay 2012). In order to conclude, it can be said that the portfolio has covered all the relevant aspects as required. The PEST analysis of the Barclays Bank has revealed that the external factors are in favor of the organization. However, in the case of the political factors, the bank should be more focused on the political environment of the concerned country in which it is operating. The effects of globalization are twofold concept; it has both the positive as well as adverse effect. Therefore, the bank should focus on the positive aspects of more importance. Finally, the effects globalization on the business as well as the role of line managers has also been discussed in the last portion of the portfolio. The line managers should be more flexible so that they can adapt the changes more easily. Reference List 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. Altbach, P.G., 2013. Globalization and forces for change in higher education. In The international imperative in higher education (pp. 7-10). SensePublishers. Banfield, P. and Kay, R., 2012. Introduction to human resource management. Oxford University Press. Baud, C. and Durand, C., 2012. Financialization, globalization and the making of profits by leading retailers. Socio-Economic Review, 10(2), pp.241-266. Bckerman, P. and Maliranta, M., 2012. 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