Essay On Westpac's Development And Growth: Strategy, Analysis, And Practices.

Briefly trace the development and growth of the organisation from its beginnings to the present through the application of corporate strategies – what types of strategies have these been?

There have been many criticisms of the business practices that company has pursued over the years. Describe TWO of these practices and outline the outcomes.

Perform an environmental analysis for the involvement of the organisation in the context of the industry it operates in – what are the main opportunities & threats?

Describe the organisational culture or leadership style within the organisation.

Westpac was established in 1817 and there are more than 35,200 employees who are assisting more than 12 Million customers in Australia, New Zealand and also in the Asia Pacific Region (Westpac, 2018). In this report, the discussion will be made on the Westpac Company.

It is important to consider effective strategies by the companies as it can help to enhance the growth in the competitive market.

The vision and mission statement of the company is “To be one of the largest great service organizations that help the customers, communities, and people to prosper and grow”.  The core competency of the company is related with the customer focused strategy which is considered by the company and the emphasis is also given on the values and culture of the company. The company earns trust by considering the highest standards related with honesty and ethical behavior.

The strategies considered by the company in the past are related with technology plans that emphasize on the strategic investment priorities. It can be stated that in 2008, Westpac enhanced its entire strategic focus in relation to technology. The emphasis is also on bringing improvisation in the reliability in context to the development technology strategy and implementation plan. The company considered the set of strategic investment priorities which is created to focus on technology strategy and to help the group to deliver its customer focused multi brand strategy. In 2010, the company implemented the SIPs program and proceeds over the next 4 years. In this program the group executive is accountable for the overall costs and benefits. The financial implication of SIPs was $2 Billion, and it was 5 year investment program which consolidated the overall project investment. The capital expense enhanced from 2011 by adding over 1 percentage to the expense growth in 2011 and by over 2% to expense growth in 2012, 2013 and 2014 (Westpac Group, 2018). 

Westpac recent strategy is related to sustainability strategy in which the focus is given on the three factors related to embrace societal change, environmental solutions and better financial futures. In the factors related to embrace societal change, assist to improve the working pattern of the employees according to the society. The next aspect is related to environmental solutions which assist to find the solutions to manage the challenges of the environmental. The last one is related to better financial futures which assist the customers to have better relations in context to money as it can help to maintain the life of the people (Westpac Group, 2018).

Sustainability strategy

Westpac’s commitment to sustainability focuses on considering the essential role in addressing the societal issues which impact customers, communities, environment and the people. This strategy emphasizes on considering the societal issues which impact the customers, communities and the environment. The actions which are guided by the sustainability of the company emphasize on the three areas and it measures the objectives of the company. Sustainability strategy is considered by the company as it helps to analyze the solution to the challenges of the environment and also it continues to manage the overall leadership which focuses on the environment footprint of the activities.  In 2015 – 16 the company enhanced the sustainability strategy which consists of the three targets to minimize the absolute electricity consumption and water consumption (Yeates, 2018).

Successful strategies deployed in past

Contingency approach is considered as the situational approach in which the set of principles are considered by the company and this is also considered by the Westpac Company.  It can be seen that in this the principle considered by the company is related to adapting the constant challenges by satisfying the desires of the employees.  Also, the company considered that the employees should be motivated and empowered so that it can be easy to enhance the team building of the activities in the workplace. In Westpac the focus is given on the information sessions and brainstorming sessions which can be considered as the culture for the Westpac Group.

• Criticized on social media

Westpac has been criticized by the experts of social media at the time of censoring the comments on the Facebook page by the irate customers. Also, the incident has enhanced the debate related to business that the company should censor the comments which are made on the Facebook pages or they should allow them to remain in the open discussion.  It has been observed that customers of Westpac Facebook page have noticed some negative comments deleted from the page within minutes. The customers also complained that comments were criticizing the decision by the bank in relation to raising the interest rates. The company also introduced the new social media policy that will prevent from making the negative comments in relation to bank on Facebook and Twitter. So, this act is related with managerial ethics of the company and also emphasizes on not fulfilling the corporate social responsibility (Stafford, 2018).

• Second criticism (criticism reveals friction at the Westpac stadium)

It can be analyzed that restrictive business practices at Westpac stadium has added the fuel accusations in relation to venue. In this it is stated that venue is not serving according to the interest of the customers. The criticism also leveled at the food and drink venue which is spotless catering not the stadium management. The best example in this is related with the spotless charges the phoenix the retail price of $4 for bottle of water the team is bringing into the stadium. The products are offered through the deal with A- league sponsorship and it is not the cost of the stadium. Also, the incident was not be verified with the management of Phoenix who are again and again ignoring the calls from the Dominion Post.  Also, customers complained about the prices of tickets which are high in comparison to the other stadium. The quality and price was one of the major issues which took place and the criticism reveals friction at the Westpac stadium (Robson, 2018).

STRENGTHS

• There are many branches and ATM’s in Australia.
• Offers flexible banking services in Australia
• More than 40,000 workers serving 12 million customers

Weakness

• high competition in retail banking sector
• many branches but still it is less as compared to other banks

Opportunities

• High technology and innovation is considered that assist to create new baking products.
• The operations are set up in the emerging economies so that leverage can be on the growing economies.

Threats

• There is credit limit and also regulatory changes that will affect the activities of bank
• Australian and New Zealand economy will impact the entire economy.

Political factor

It can be noted that the changes in the policy takes place which affect the entire operation of the company. The introduction of bank levy is one of the factors related to the political aspect. In this the Australian parliament passed the bank levy bill 207 in which it is mandates that 0.06 levy will be on the banks with over $100 Billion in the overall liabilities. The purpose of the government is to reduce the budget deficit in the short term and also it has boosted the structural fiscal position.  This can also be stated as the insurance premium in which the government would bailout the banks to prevent the contagion impact on the different sector. The impact will be on the customers and shareholders of the banks (Salim, Arjomandi & Seufert, 2016).

Sustainability strategy

Economic factor

In this the factors related to stable Australian and global economic outlook over 2018 is one of the factor which impact the operations and also Chinese investments has boosted the overall property prices.  When the price of property enhances it has also affect the growth of the company in the sector as infrastructure is necessary for managing the overall activities in the competitive market (Jackson, 2016).

Social factor

The impact on the activities is due to the increase in the ageing and also because of the diverse customers who requires particular product and services.  Also, the entire demand related to affordable housing and services has been enhanced which is important to be controlled as it can help in boosting the overall activities of the banks (Blowfield, Karam & Jamali, 2017).

Technological factor

Digitalization is providing the opportunities to boost the services in different sectors. Westpac is focuses on digital journey and has considered various initiatives. The company introduced 160 new features in relation to banking platform in which there are different section related to customer transactions, payments and loan applications.  The partnership has also enhanced with fin-tech startups.

Legal factor

Challenging regulatory environment affecting business like the Australian security investment commission has introduced an investigation into the Westpac lending practices in 2017. The company also implemented the policies which strengthen the scrutiny of borrowers. The overall regulations have also enhanced the overall cost for BT financial group and also the wealth management affects the overall outcome of 2017 (Cummings & Durrani, 2016).

Environmental factor

The banking sector focused on the investment in the projects which facilitate the overall climate change solutions and also it has boosted the overall profits of the company in the market. This is also one of the major goals for the staff motivation and sustainability. The investment by the Westpac also emphasizes on maintaining the high standards of quality and also other deliverable.  So, the job of the manager, as a front line manager of the Westpac division is to consider and respond to the contingencies which are changing (Huang, Pepper & Bowrey, 2014).

• Customers : According to the vision of the company it has been observed that the strategy of the company is to focus on the vision by creating deep and effective customer relationships and also they focuses on delivering superior returns for the shareholders.
• Partners: The partners of the company are Auror, data republic, Nabo, SocietyOne, Zetaris, Coinbase and Fillr (Westpac, 2018).
• Industry: The license is given by the company in other countries which can enhance the market share and can expand the activities globally.
• Unions: the finance sector union focused on the overall activities of the company.
• Competitors: commonwealth bank, national Australian bank and Australian and New Zealand banking group.
• Suppliers: there are thousands of suppliers who offer goods and services on the annual basis. The supply nation network is one of the suppliers of the company.

It can be stated that resources of the company are related to the employees. In the banking sector the tangible resources are the employees or the infrastructure. Intangible resources are related to the market share and goodwill in the market. Westpac focuses on considering the sustainable strategy which boosts the commitments to bring improvisation in the overall environmental performance. The company continued to analyze and manage the direct footprint which the progress of the targets in the competitive market. This helps to embrace the new ways of managing the overall business and it ultimately design the overall drive in relation to the sustainable growth and also emphasizes on the better social outcome which can boost the overall economy. The strategy helped the company to attain the competitive advantage in the market (Sari, 2015).

Cultural diverse leadership is also one of the aspects that served the customers and also it provides right direction to the employees. Westpac focused on the partnership with the Australian rights commission to introduce the cultural diversity blueprint. The blueprint offers the companies to understand the suitable practices and also it is related with the change for the cultural diversity. In the workplace the employees have chance to share their views and opinions with the management and it has boosted the positivity in the workplace. The company also emphasizes on the diverse leadership talent so that it can be easy to build the culturally diverse and inclusive workforce and it promote awareness of cultural diversity in the workplace (Westpac, 2018).

Conclusion 

So, it can be concluded that these factors should be considered by the company as it can help in achieving the competitive advantage. It is necessary for the company to make decisions by considering the factors related to internal and external environment as it can help in sustaining in the highly competitive market.

References

Blowfield, M., Karam, C., & Jamali, D. (2017). Introduction. Corporate social responsibility in developing countries: a development-oriented approach. In Development-Oriented Corporate Social Responsibility: Volume 2 (pp. 15-26). Routledge.

Cummings, J. R., & Durrani, K. J. (2016). Effect of the Basel Accord capital requirements on the loan-loss provisioning practices of Australian banks. Journal of Banking & Finance, 67(8), 23-36. 

Huang, T., Pepper, M., & Bowrey, G. (2014). Implementing a sustainability balanced scorecard to contribute to the process of organisational legitimacy assessment. Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal, 8(2), 15-34.

Jackson, S. (2016). No variance for filed orders: Hayes v Westpac Banking Corporation [2015] QCA 260. Proctor, 36(2), 42-43.

Robson.,T. (2018). Criticisms reveal friction at Westpac Stadium.Retrieved from : https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/8659886/Criticisms-reveal-friction-at-Westpac-Stadium

Salim, R., Arjomandi, A., & Seufert, J. H. (2016). Does corporate governance affect Australian banks' performance?. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, 43(5), 113-125.

Sari, T. K. (2015). Understanding Employee Attitudes to SNS Implementation in the Australian Banking Sector. In The Evolution of the Internet in the Business Sector: Web 1.0 to Web 3.0 (pp. 121-144). IGI Global.

Stafford.,P. (2018). Westpac criticised over social media policy after censoring rate rise comments. Retrieved from : https://www.smartcompany.com.au/technology/online/westpac-criticised-over-social-media-policy-after-censoring-rate-rise-comments/

Westpac Group. (2018). Technology plans focused on Strategic Investment Priorities (SIPs).Retrieved from : https://www.smh.com.au/business/westpacs-multi-brand-strategy-brings-in-the-money-20130326-2grn7.html 

Westpac. (2018). Inclusion across all cultures. Retrieved from : https://www.westpac.com.au/about-westpac/inclusion-and-diversity/Inclusion-means-everyone-matters/across-all-cultures/

Westpac. (2018).Our partners and portfolio. Retrieved from : https://www.westpac.com.au/about-westpac/innovation/our-partners-and-portfolio/

Yeates.,C. (2018). Westpac's multi-brand strategy brings in the money.Retrieved from :https://www.westpac.com.au/docs/pdf/aw/Strategy_Extract_from_Full_Year_2010_Investor_Discussion_Pack.pdf