Background

The following report is aimed at analysing the business of the bank Emirates NBD, the headquarters of which are located at Dubai. The work commences with the short introduction of the company, in terms of the origin, nature of business and the regions of operations. The next segment of the work sheds light on the success story of the company over the years. This will include the strategies used and the policies that were helpful in the achievement of the overall organisational goals. The reason for the choice of the company is that it is one of the biggest finance companies of the Dubai in terms of the overall asset base, and thus would shed light on the success strategies in the finance sector. The company has a record asset base of AED 492.6 Billion, (equivalent to approx. USD 134 Billion), as on 30^th September 2018 (Emirates NBD, 2018).

The bank was originated as a result of the Government approved merger between the Emirates Bank International (EBI) and the National Bank of Dubai (NBD), in the year 2007. The listing of shares of the newly formed company followed the merger on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM). The merger was a significant consolidation in terms of the banking and finance sector of the nation, thereby bringing together the two largest banks of Dubai. In addition, it passed the biggest lender back then, i.e. the National  Bank of  Abu  Dhabi, to enable the country of UAE to compete in the global markets in the finance sector (Salim, 2013). The company has become one of the largest companies in the Gulf Cooperation Council in terms of the asset base. Currently the company is an employer to around 9000 employers belonging to around 70 nationalities. In addition to the above, the bank currently has 227 branches and 1058 ATMs and SDMs in the UAE.

In order to state the vision of the bank, this is mention that the bank has the vision to be the most valued financial service provider in the area of Middle East and make recognition at a global level. The mission of the subjective bank is to make the lives of customers easy by providing them with financial assistance and aspiration. Moving towards the values of the same, this is to be stated that the bank makes it is focus on customer development and satisfaction. The bank believes to act as an organization in order to fulfill the exact requirements of the customers and to provide them valuable services.

Range Of Business Activities

The entity is engaged in the provision of a number of services and products to the various range of customers. The company provides a range of banking solutions in the form of accounts, corporate finances, credit and debit cards, investments, insurances, trade finance and more. Additionally, there are number of business financing solutions such as the various kinds of loans, mortgages, and related services. A significant product of the entity is in the form of various packages such as the Business Banking, Business Banking Plus and Business Banking Select to provide the range of business activities together to the business entities. The company is also engaged in the mobile banking solutions and the range of wealth solutions. Some of the associate and the group companies of the Emirates NBD are Emirates NBD Capital Ltd (DIFC), Union Properties PJSC, Emirates NBD Trust Company Ltd (Jersey), Emirates Islamic PJSC, Emirates NBD Capital LLC (KSA), Diners Club UAE, Emirates NBD Securities and many more. Thus, the company has a very wide umbrella of services and the companies.

Evaluation Of Success Strategies Of The Entity

Over the years, the company has maintained a positive outlook towards the corporate social responsibility. Recently the company won the CSR team of the year award at the Gulf Sustainability and CSR Awards (Gulf Business, 2018). Some of the important partnerships of the company in terms of the CSR objectives fulfilment is with the Emirates Wildlife Society–WWF (EWS-WWF), that is working towards the conservation of nature and thus the environmental security. One of the another examples of the contribution of the entity towards the stakeholders was in the form of launch of “The Careers Network,” which was intended towards the inclusion of the employees at the workplace, who are suffering from the cognitive disabilities (Trade Arabia, 2016). The aim of the drive, as an employer was to build the trust and loyalty with the employees and thus the transform the UAE workforce. The entity was a part of the one of the ‘Sustainability Network Task Groups for 2013, as launched by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Centre for Responsible Business (Albawaba, 2013). The entity was the member of the Waste Management and Resource Efficiency Task Group. Thus, it can be stated that the entity has been consistently engaged in the various CSR strategies over the years.

In the field of innovation, Emirates NBD is known to be the leading financial institution. It also awarded as “World’s best consumer digital banks” in year 2018 at ME awards. In addition, it was also known as best bank that provides the digital services to its customers. In UAE and Middle East, it offers the best banking site to consumers. Digital innovation is the main basis of its success. The digital innovation was led by the company to deliver the best banking experiences to customers. Due to this, it is known as the best digital innovator. In addition to this, Emirates NBD also established the Future Banking lab. It is one of the key initiatives of its digital strategy (Lama, 2018). It has taken this initiative in order to hasten the development of next generation mobile as well as digital services. It has three zones in its innovative design. The first zone is: digital banking zone” in which customers can avail the self-banking services. The second zone is: Future banking zone” that will enable the future changes in technology to provide the best banking services. The last zone is “relationship zone” that offers the relax environment to its customer. Through this zone, customers can easily browse thee banks services as well as products (Zawya, 2018).

The company has been consistently engaged in the growth and expansion activities within and outside the Dubai region. The operations of the bank are scattered around the globe in various regions such as United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the Indian Subcontinent, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Riyadh), Central Asia, Middle East, and South East Asia as well. Recently the company began its operations in India in the year 2017 (The Economic Times, 2018). Another instance of company’s growth strategy was when company had planned expansion with the aim to acquire the banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council, Africa and regions of the Turkey, thereby opening new branches and business centres as well (Khan, 2017).

Range Of Business Activities

Marketing strategies adopted by Emirate NBD also helped in success of its business. It also got the award for using “best social media strategy” at the marketing show awards. In the marketing show awards, it has received the pleasure to get this award. It has received this award against the top financial organization such as Bank Sohar, Bank Audi, and Barwa Award (Alwaba, 2018). Emirate NBD also has 53% voice on the Twitter by facing the direct competition in GCC. In a report, it is stated that it is positively committed towards the continuous innovation in all the services it provides. The award winning strategy is the best example that it effectively uses the marketing strategy for its bank. Due to the growing demand for internet banking services, online and mobile services, it has adopted social media as its core strategy in order to reach near to larger customer base. It has also stated that by encouraging from the recognition, it will continue focus on the social media platform on a larger part. In 2012, it was first bank to have the 135,000 fans on Facebook (Bawaba, 2018).

Conclusion

As per the discussions conducted in the previous parts, it can be concluded that there are a number of business strategies and the policies that the companies in the finance sector can learn from the case study of the Emirates NBD, as explained above. The companies can adopt these business strategies according to their business models and resources, but the basic strategies for the success as learned from the case study above are the consideration of the interests of the stakeholders, adoption to latest technologies, expansion, and growth agreements, and provision of the range of business activities. In addition, it is significant to note that the entities must continuously adapt themselves with the changes happening around in the industry, to sustain the competition. Thus, from the discussions conducted in the previous parts it can be concluded that the mix of business operations, formulation, and introduction of the effective business policies and their efficient implementation is the key to the success of the entities in any sector including the finance sector.

References

Albawaba. (2013). Dubai Chamber launches the Sustainability Network Task Groups for 2013. Retrieved from: https://www.albawaba.com/business/pr/dubai-chamber-task-groups-497120

Alwaba. (2018). Emirates NBD to target millennials with $136M digital strategy. Retrieved from: https://www.albawaba.com/business/emirates-nbd-target-millennials-136m-digital-strategy-847552

Bawaba. (2018). Emirates NBD recognised for Best Social Media Strategy at The Marketing Show Awards. Retrieved from: https://www.albawaba.com/business/pr/emirates-nbd-social-media-532768

Emirates NBD. (2018). About Emirates NBD. Retrieved from: https://www.emiratesnbd.com/en/about-emirates-nbd/about-us/

Gulf Business. (2018). GCC’s best CSR teams recognised. Retrieved from: https://gulfbusiness.com/gccs-best-csr-teams-recognised/

Khan, S. (2017). Exclusive: Emirates NBD plans Saudi expansion with 20 additional branches, CEO says. Retrieved from: https://www.thenational.ae/business/banking/exclusive-emirates-nbd-plans-saudi-expansion-with-20-additional-branches-ceo-says-1.629007

Lama. (2018). Emirates NBD, an almost perfect digital transformation. Retrieved from: https://digit.hbs.org/submission/emirates-nbd-an-almost-perfect-digital-transformation/

Salim, B. (2013). Strategic Initiatives During Merger Between Emirates Bank International (EBI) And National Bank Of Dubai (NBD). Journal Of Global Strategic Management, 1(7), 34-34. doi: 10.20460/jgsm.2013715674

The Economic Times. (2017). Dubai bank Emirates NBD begins operations in India. Retrieved from: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/banking/dubai-bank-emirates-nbd-begins-operations-in-india/articleshow/61574846.cms

Trade Arabia. (2016). ENBD launches cognitive disabilities awareness drive. Retrieved from: https://tradearabia.com/news/HEAL_316142.html

Zawya. (2014). Emirates NBD recognized as The Innovator in the Middle East by Global Finance. Retrieved from: https://www.zawya.com/mena/en/companies/story/Emirates_NBD_recognized_as_The_Innovator_in_the_Middle_East_by_Global_Finance-ZAWYA20181111102941/