HSBC: A Multinational Financial Institution

Discuss about the Strategic Management Recommendation to HSBC.

Strategic management in business organisations are essential to formulate policies and decisions. Over the years there have been several theories and models that have been coined by many scholars to help and guide managements of organisations. The success or failure of an organisation depends upon the ability of the company to achieve the objectives that has been set (Senge 2014). In order to set the objective and to deliver those companies undertake strategic management decisions. In order to understand the concept of strategic management better, the organisation that has been chosen to complete the assignment is HSBC. It is one of the largest financial organisations in the international market. The assignment will focus on providing the organisation with strategic recommendations based on the analysis with the help of various tools. It will focus on overcoming the barriers and achieving competitive advantage.

Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation or HSBC is the world’s seventh largest financial institution in the world. The company was established in 1886, and is a multinational organisation that operates in the sector of banking and financial services. Originating from Hong Kong the company is based and headquartered in Britain, UK and is listed with the London Stock exchange (Hsbc.com 2018). Over the years of operation the company has been through several ups and downs. HSBC has its operation in more than 80 countries with the help of offices in 7500 locations. The functions of the business can be divided in four broad categories:  Global Private Banking, Retail banking, Commercial banking as well as Global Banking (Hsbc.com 2018). In the years of operation the organisation has become a forerunner in the industry  by setting several benchmarks in terms of economic, employment facilities, setting trends in the consumer behaviour, updated technology with a greater communication system as well as recognise the duties the company have towards the society and the environment (Hsbc.com 2018; Alvesson 2012). The company focuses on Europe, Hong Kong, Asia-pacific region, Australia and America as the area of operation.  Asia-Pacific region is recognised as an emerging market for the company.

Industry overview and analysis

The finance industry has evolved over the years, the companies that operate in the industry has incorporated technology in the process of service. The industry helps the customer take care of their financial aspect as well as helps them get financial back up as well (Senge 2014).

Importance of the Financial Industry

One of the major barriers of this industry is credibility, after all these years there are customers that lack their trust in the industry and do not recognise the advantages associated by doing business with a financial institution like HSBC. For long-term economic growth and development it is important for people to save, investment and make use of the other financial services that the companies in this industry has to offer (Weforum.org 2016).

The finance industry is important to the economic development of a country as it is directly associated with the savings rate, investment rate which in turn provides the country with financial stability, improvement in the rate of poverty and provide job opportunities in the long-run. The industry is crucial as it helps the country in raising capital; improving the foreign trade, the transfer of liquidity, it also provides higher level of integration for global transactions.

Some of the direct competitors of HSBC are Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank, Deutsche Bank.  The industry has intense competition and is strictly bound by rules and regulations. There are several international authoritative organisations in the finance sector that behave as a check on the companies that operate in the industry like the World bank and IMF (Jaber and Al-khawaldeh 2014).

Pest Analysis

The external environment of an organisation factors impact the strategies and decisions of the organisation. Organisations have to keep monitoring the external environment as the dynamics of the factors are not under the control of the management of the organisation therefore decisions must be taken to understand and determine the opportunities and in order to overcome the threats and weaknesses. PEST analysis will help in determining the external business environment of HSBC; this will further help in proving strategic recommendations.

Political: A business organisation has to agree with the government of the countries in which the company runs it s functions. As HSBC is a financial organisation the company has to keep up with the framework of the government of the country regarding the financial rules and restrictions (Worldbank.org 2016). Political stability index must be considered while expanding the business. In order to successfully achieve the objectives of the organisation aligns the interest with the interest of the customers and the country of operation the company (Senge 2014). The encouragement of trade and business by the government of the country provides support to the mode of entry and operation for HSBC. As a multinational organisation that operates in the international market HSBC follows the international political codes and regulations as well (Jaber and Al-khawaldeh 2014).

Direct Competitors of HSBC

Economy: The economic development and the current condition as well as the predicted overview of the country helps an organisation take decisions to use the situation in its benefit. The company has faced several setbacks and has been able to combat the situation based on strategic management decisions taken during the depression of 2008, HSBC had faced severe economic meltdown (Worldbank.org 2016).  Some of the economic factors that impact the functions of HSBC are fluctuation and the dynamic nature of the global stock market, difference in the foreign exchange rates and, inflation rates, fiscal policies of the country of operation  etc (Weforum.org 2016). The higher management of HSBC say that the improvement in the performance and revenue development is because of the growth in the international and commercial banking sectors. There are more potential in Asia as several countries in the region are developing rapidly or are improving the rate of development radically. Therefore, this aspect of Asia makes it an opportunity for a financial institution like HSBC to expand the operations and grow (Worldbank.org 2016).  

Societal: The lifestyle and the standard of living among the people of the country of operation are important to understand the needs and requirement of the customers. The target market of a financial institution like HSBC understand the value of money and is concerned about improving their monetary value in the long run therefore they need an institution like HSBC (Senge 2014).

The place in which HSBC operates the people has become conscious towards their spending and hence the services of the company are required. The people have a tendency to save and the bank is the best institution to do so. Not only that the company has also taken measures to adapt to the culture and traditions of the country of operation in order to provide the people with better customised service (Weforum.org 2016). The diversity in the work place also helps the company to serve with a wide range of customers all over the world. The modern lifestyle and the luxurious ways of living on credit have provided the company with opportunity (Worldbank.org 2016).

The Company has also adapted to the triple bottom line concept as a part of their objective and considers the conditions of the planet and people associated with the company as important as the expansion and growth of the business (Worldbank.org 2016). HSBC understands the responsibility the company has towards the society (Weforum.org 2016). HSBC releases its CSR report every year like the annual financial reports; the company hosts various programs and events for the betterment of community, education and the environment as the organisation perceives these factors as the basis for the overall development of the community (HSBC.com 2018).

External Environment Factors Affecting HSBC

Technological: Technological advances has made the organisation reach its previous objectives, HSBC has adapted to the changing dynamics to serve the customers better. Technology has a big role to play in the finance industry (Senge 2014). Therefore the impact of advancement in technology is also significant. People from anyone can have access to their bank accounts owing to the technology (Jaber and Al-khawaldeh 2014). The company has adapted its business functions over the years and is always looking forwards to incorporate innovation in the process of operation on a daily basis (Hsbc.co.in, 2017). The company outsources its technology from several countries; apart from running the basic business operations the company uses technology for CRM as well. HSBC has faced controversy in the past regarding the leakage of service information due to technical security issues. Therefore, HSBC uses its resources and capabilities in order to improve the goodwill and also deal with situations like this (Jaber and Al-khawaldeh 2014).

Porter’s five force Analysis

With the help of the analysis coined by Michel porters the competition in the industry can be determined. The five force analysis will be made keeping the UK industry as that is the home country of the company (E. Dobbs 2014).

Threat of new entrants: A number of major players in the market have diversified in the finance business, for example: Tesco or Sainsbury have entered in to the market. The UK government encourages trade and business and helps in the development of the finance industry as it is crucial for the development of the country’s economy (Worldbank.org 2016). There is growing demand from the perspective of the target market therefore the industry is lucrative for investors. But gaining the trust among the people is important. The rate of threat from new entrants is therefore medium (Porter, 2008).

Intensity of competition:  The completion in the industry has been strong as there are a number of companies that operate in the global financial sector, the companies deal with both B2B and B2C clients (E. Dobbs 2014). With the new entrants in the market the competition is on the growing trend. Some of the direct competitors in the industry are Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank etc. HSBC incorporates a number of strategic management decisions in order to maintain an edge over the competitors.

Bargaining power of the customers: In case for an organisation that operates in an industry where credibility and goodwill is the major aspects of choice among the customers, HSBC has been able to serve a number of loyal customers over the years (E. Dobbs 2014). Despite facing issues and controversies the company has emerged with plans and strategies to perform the way that they claim. The bargaining power of the customers are high considering the intensity of competition yet the fact that trust play an important role this power reduces therefore making the switching cost for the customers high (Porter, 2008).

PEST Analysis of HSBC

Bargaining power of the suppliers: The suppliers of the service that are provided by the industry are in terms of the technology and resources (Worldbank.org 2016). As HSBC is an important client to severe the third party suppliers switching cost becomes high and therefore lowering their bargaining power (E. Dobbs 2014).

Threat of substitutes:   As there is major apprehension in the mind of the people regarding the services of a financial institution keeping the money with them and not investing or spending it on other items are substitute. On the other hand, illegal money lenders etc are some of the substitute for banking institutions (Worldbank.org 2016).

The internal or the micro environmental factors are the ones which can be controlled and monitored by the company and these are to be used in order to use the opportunities that has been recognised in the external environment and also to combat the threats of the industry. The resources and capabilities of the company are the major aspects of the micro environment.

Porter’s value chain analysis will help in understanding the potential of the resources and capabilities of the organisation. There are two segments of the theory:  primary and secondary activities.  Following is the analysis of HSBC value chain

Primary activities

These are the factors that lead to the service creation, sales and transfer of the service to the client to gain by using the benefits (Kynaston and Roberts 2015). 

Operations of the business: The business function of HSBC is in the finance sector they serve both B2b as well as B2c clients in their business. The company strives to achieve excellence and come up with innovative; path breaking service oriented methods of operation that will help the customers and help the organisation retain and build the position in the long-run. On a daily basis the functions are associated with wealth management, retail banking, proving loans and credits, commercial banking services. The organisation has its global team in several countries like Malaysia, China and Philippines (Hossain and Khan 2016).

Marketing and sales: the organisation uses marketing strategies to communicate with the customers as well as develop services based on the needs and requirements of the clients. HSBC maintains a valuable relation with the customers and the clients. The company uses a mix of traditional and contemporary ways of promotion and communication.  The marketing team of the company develops campaigns and helps the organisation fix price of their services like any other company. The marketing mix is used to make an assortment of the services and then with strategic management plans the company incorporates the policies which are appropriate for the company to maintain their competitive advantage.

Competition Analysis Using Porter’s Five Forces

Logistics: The company merges the transportation, aviation and logistics in the same department and this department has gone through a number of changes in the past few years (Gbm.hsbc.com 2018). The mergers and acquisitions is a major part of the logistics department and it is. the factors of the external business environment like economic and political aspects  is likely to show new scope for the company and the logistics will help in keeping up with the changes and use this scope as an opportunity. The company uses third party services to ensure that the logistics are efficiently used (Hsbc.com 2018).

The factors under these are the ones which help the company to use the primary activities efficiently.

The human resource and organisation infrastructure: These aspects are the back bone of any organisation a company uses the infrastructure along with the human resource to achieve the objectives of the company. The company focuses on talent acquisition and encourages the employees to be innovative in their work approach (Business.hsbc.uk 2018). The number of people working for HSBC is approximately 229,000 making the company one of the major employers (Statista.com 2018) HSBC has a hierarchal organisation structure which helps in proper communication within the organisation as well as with the stakeholders of the organisation. The company is committed to maintain a high standard in the corporate governance; the board of directors are responsible for enforcing the governance and aligning it with the culture of the company (Hsbc.com 2018).

Technology: HSBC uses technology in the process of business functions in almost all the operations of the business. The company not only uses technology in order to ensure better services, they also use technology to reach out and communicate with people. The company also have faced controversies in the past due to technological failure but in order to combat that situation, the company has incorporated the strategy of releasing the technology report, and also have improved the security of the system (Hsbc.com 2018). Some of the examples of technological features used by the company are as follows: Block chain, voice recognition, chat option with customers and customer service, Robo-advisors using AI algorithms, Finance programmes over social media digital wallet etc (Kynaston and Roberts 2015).

Procurement:  The procurement of the company is focused in the information technology and banking operations. In order to manage the supplier’s the management of the company has formulated five principles that focus on the way the company must treat the suppliers in terms of their communication, transparency (Masterman and Masterman 2013). The services that are provided by the suppliers are used by HSBC in order to improve the process of business operation. As a multinational company there are service providers of the company all over the world. The focus of the process is to provide the customers with better services and security plays a significant role in the process (Gbm.hsbc.com 2018).  

SWOT analysis

Adapting to Changing Dynamics through Innovation and CSR Initiatives

Strength

• HSBC is one of the leading finance organisations in the world and over the years the company has gathered goodwill among the stakeholders of the company (Gbm.hsbc.com 2018). The company has also gathered credibility in the process of operation for such a long time.
• Resource and capabilities of the company are sufficient to engage in opportunities as well as deal with the external threats that the company can face. This also helps the company to keep up with the changing dynamics of the external environment. The mergers and acquisitions that the company has successfully accomplished are also the strengths of the company (Kynaston and Roberts 2015).
• The revenue of the company is also one of the major strengths, as it allows the company to develop and grow in the future. In 2017, the company has gained a profit of £12.3bn profit after tax, which is a staggering 141 percent improvement than the previous year (Bbc.com 2018).
• The leadership and the management of the company are also skilled and talented who help the organisation to function in a successful way by taking decisions and policies that are based on strategic rational.
• The wide range of operation has enabled the company to grow and reach out to the international customers. The bank has undertaken many cost-cutting measures to make its operations more efficient and increase its long-term profitability.
• The extensive use of technology has helped the company to reach out and fulfil the requirement of the customers; the customers of the bank seek to reduce the complications associated with the management of the wealth. This helps the company to provide qualitative services that helps the company to gain an edge over the other organisations in the industry.
• The company has faced several ups and downs in the process of business operation but the organisation has always been able to deal with risky situations.
• HSBC maintains a valuable relationship with the customers which help the company to build a loyal customer base.
• Lastly the company is already the market leader in the finance industry, thus the management of the company has to ensure they retain the position (Gbm.hsbc.com 2018).

Weakness

• The company has a number of third party service providers and suppliers this makes the responsibility of the service divided among the people.
• As a financial organisation HSBC has faced one of the worst controversies of money laundering in America during 2012. This has impacted the company’s reputation.
• One of the services that can be deemed to be the weakest among the range is retail banking.
• Some of the strategic measures that the company has taken have also impacted on the reputation and relation with the stakeholders like the decision of lying off employees to deal with crisis situations. One of the major reasons of the case of money laundering was observed to be a shortage of human resource in the area (Kynaston and Roberts 2015).
• The company positions itself as a global brand and therefore loosing on the cultural connect with the local communities which is essential to establish for a foreign financial organisation as it will ensure credibility and understanding of the perspective of the people (Cacciattolo 2014).

Opportunities

• The company has opportunities in the Asia-pacific market, the company has targeted the developing countries for expansion as these are the places where the saving and investments rates are high thus the expansion will prove to be fruitful for the company (Gbm.hsbc.com 2018). HSBC already have china as their part of the global family which opens more opportunities for the company in the future. The developing countries have the kind f market that the companies target as the people residing here are looking for wealth management and personal banking facilities with no fuss (Gbm.hsbc.com 2018). The growing need and understanding among the people of developing countries to save and invest money responsibly, provides the company with a wide scope of opportunities (Kynaston and Roberts 2015).
• With the help of growing technology the company can develop the customer relationship management process more efficient and make the process of providing support to the customers easier. This will help the company create valuable relationship with the customers so that they can convert them in loyal customers of the brand.
• Growing technology is one of the greatest opportunities for the company which runs in a finance sector as the possibilities are endless.
• As described in the PEST analysis the government of a country encourages financial organisation in the country as it directly impacts the economy of the country directly as well as indirectly therefore, HSBC gets support and guidance from the government and this in turn provides the company opportunity to widen the horizon of the business (Gbm.hsbc.com 2018).

Threat

• As HSBC is heavily dependent on technology as a part of their business function the company is under constant pressure to maintain the security parameters strong. There has been an incident where the security has failed and customer information has been at jeopardy.
• Economic impact on the industry is intense and the dynamic impacts of the global economy have a severe negative impact on the operations of the business. The 2008 global financial crisis was a major hit for the company as it was for any other business organisation (Kynaston and Roberts 2015).

As discussed above the company has the opportunity to invest in innovation as a process of their business strategy as the company has resources and capabilities. HSBC is one of the leading companies in the finance sector and the company has the potential of setting benchmarking records in the product development and innovation sector (Senge 2014).

Therefore, in order to achieve competitive advantage the company must use two of the strengths that are discussed above the skilled employee and the capability of the company. Along with the opportunity of the developing technology coming up with innovative approaches will help the company gain goodwill and also provide the customers with an improved performance (Medarac et al. 2016).  

Market development has long been the strategy of the company to achieve their competitive advantage, but the expansion process will take place as it has become a part of the business development, HSBC has established its operations in more than 70 countries of various organisations. But innovation is yet to be adapted by the company as the approach of competitive advantage (Zeschky et al. 2014). In making innovation significant part of the business model, HSBC can not only innovate the product but also incorporate innovation in the process of the business operations. The company is already in the top position and in order to maintain the position the management should incorporate the process of Innovation to maintain a fresh outlook and keep up with the changing demands (Watson 2013).

Other recommendations

• The company should use a localised approach in the process of communication in various countries; this will help HSBC to connect with the customers better. Having a global approach in the promotional activities might take away from the interest of the customers.
• The organisation can add diverse value in the culture to make the corporate governance more inclusive.
• The organisation has to work on employee engagement and fill in the gaps of the requirement; this will also reduce the work load from the existing people.
• HSBC must focus on the services of the bank’s operations and train the employees to efficiently communicate in order to reduce the gap in the front and back office structure.
• There is a growing trend among the SME market which is an opportunity for to provide customised financial services to clients who run SMEs.

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the above discussion that HSBC is a successful organisation that has been in the market for a long time. The company has strong resources and revenue to back up the objectives and scopes that are recognised by the company. On the other hand,  it has been also observed that the company despite having capabilities lack in innovation in the services, therefore the recommendation that has been stated is in terms of product development with the help of innovative approach and technology.

Reference list

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