A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey
In 2013, Pinar Abay was appointed as the CEO of ING Bank Turkey. At 34, she was the youngest bank CEO in Turkey's history. Her appointment raised eyebrows because of her youth and because her career at McKinsey had given her no day-to-day bank management experience. ING, however, wanted a younger leader who could relate to Turkey's young and digitally savvy population. Upon her appointment, Abay determined that major changes were required in operations, personnel and culture. She adopted a variety of innovative approaches to making these changes, ranging from non-traditional hires to sitting for hours in call centers to personally answering customer complaints on Twitter. As Turkey's 12th largest bank, however, ING Turkey lacked scale, so Abay and her team considered a number of non-traditional ways to organize distribution and market the bank to promote growth.
Authors :: Paul M. Healy, Gautam Mukunda, Esel Cekin
Swot Analysis of "A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey" written by Paul M. Healy, Gautam Mukunda, Esel Cekin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Abay Ing facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Change management, Emerging markets, Growth strategy, Innovation, Leadership, Organizational culture, Talent management and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Abay Ing, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Abay Ing operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Abay Ing
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Abay Ing
Strengths A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Abay Ing in A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Abay Ing is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Abay Ing is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Abay Ing has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Abay Ing has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Abay Ing has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Abay Ing has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Abay Ing are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Abay Ing
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Abay Ing does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Abay Ing has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Abay Ing to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Abay Ing to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Abay Ing to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Abay Ing has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Abay Ing is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Abay Ing in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Abay Ing is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Abay Ing is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Abay Ing has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Abay Ing has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Abay Ing has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Abay Ing has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Abay Ing 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Abay Ing is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Abay Ing needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Abay Ing to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey HBR case study mentions - Abay Ing takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Need for greater diversity
– Abay Ing has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Abay Ing has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Abay Ing even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey, in the dynamic environment Abay Ing has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Abay Ing has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Abay Ing products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Abay Ing needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Abay Ing in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Abay Ing to increase its market reach. Abay Ing will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Abay Ing to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Abay Ing to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Abay Ing can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Abay Ing can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Abay Ing can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Abay Ing has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Abay Ing to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey case study. Abay Ing can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Abay Ing can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Finance & Accounting segment.
Loyalty marketing
– Abay Ing has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Abay Ing can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Abay Ing is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Abay Ing to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Abay Ing can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey are -
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Abay Ing.
Regulatory challenges
– Abay Ing needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Abay Ing can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Abay Ing high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Abay Ing is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Abay Ing needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Abay Ing in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Abay Ing demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Abay Ing in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Increasing wage structure of Abay Ing
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Abay Ing.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Abay Ing can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Abay Ing can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Abay Ing with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Abay Ing needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
