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 - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, 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 -
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.
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.
Analytics focus
– Abay Ing is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Paul M. Healy, Gautam Mukunda, Esel Cekin can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
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.
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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Abay Ing is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
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.
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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Abay Ing in the sector have low bargaining power. A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Abay Ing to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Abay Ing is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Abay Ing can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Abay Ing operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Abay Ing to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Abay Ing in the consumer business. Now Abay Ing can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Abay Ing can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
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.
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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Abay Ing can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study A Challenger's Strategy: Pinar Abay at ING Bank Turkey, Abay Ing may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
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.
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.
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 .
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.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Abay Ing business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Abay Ing has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Abay Ing needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
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.