Learning Outcomes addressed and assessed in this Assignment:

1. Analyze both the organizational and external environments as part of the strategy formulation process
2. Evaluate accepted theories and frameworks and their application to organizational strategic planning
4. Appraise the resources and capabilities of the firm in terms of their ability to confer sustainable competitive advantage and formulate strategies that leverage a firm’s core competencies
5. Analyze dynamics in competitive rivalry including competitive action and response and make appropriate recommendations for acting both proactively and defensively
7. Critically evaluate the strategic performance of an organization.

Assignment Context

Financial Technology (Fintech) is causing massive disruption in the wider financial sector. Previously dominant financial institutions are being directly challenged by a whole host of innovative financial technology providers. Fintech itself covers a whole range of areas such as Lending, Financial Payments, Insurance and Wealth Management. Globally, the total number of investments in this sector doubled from $50.8 billion in 2017 to $111.8 billion in 2018 (FT Partners Research, 2020).
One of the most prominent of these disruptive phenomena in the area of financial payments is that of ‘Challenger Banks’. These online ‘banks’ such as Revolut in the U.K, N26 in Germany and Alipay in China are experiencing exponential growth, tapping into consumers’ preference for mobile transactions and attracting a loyal consumer base.

Assignment Tasks:

Select 1 company of your own choice*within the Financial sector and complete the following tasks:

1. Drivers of Change

There are many external drivers of change for financial providers today, particularly in the area of technology. Analyze 3 such external drivers for change for your chosen company as they seek to compete in the global, dynamic and fast-changing world of finance. Analyze and critically evaluate the impact that each of these drivers is having upon both the relevant industry sector and upon the selected company.

2. Competitive Environment

For 1of your company’s business units, conduct a competitive analysis utilizing the five forces of competition analysis as outlined by Michael Porter. You must also classify whether the overall threat/power of these forces is low, medium or high, justifying your points.

3. Internal Analysis:

Conduct each of the following tasks:
3.1 A Resource Audit, distinguishing between Basic and Distinctive Resources
3.2 An Analysis of Capabilities (Analyse a maximum of 5 capabilities distinguishing between Threshold and DistinctiveCapabilities) Justify your answer by conducting a VRIO analysis for both distinctive Resources and Distinctive Capabilities.

4. Conclusions and Recommendations

Draw conclusions as to the key issues that you have analyzed. Put forward key recommendations as to how your selected organization should proceed in the future in terms of their strategic direction.

Overview

The learner will identify a business that they are familiar with and develop a high-value stream map of a specific product line for that business. They will identify two areas of value and non-value, citing typical measures that are appropriate for that business. The learner will then identify potential lean tools and solutions that will optimize the process. Extensive use of Lean tools will demonstrate the learner’s knowledge and application of the learning outcomes.

Assignment Details

Question 1: In Excel, construct a Value Stream Map of a business process. This process can be of your own choosing but must outline the following items,

• Details of the Customers
• Details of the Customer Requirements – Quantities, Frequencies, Deliveries
• Demands defined of the Suppliers
• An outline of the internal process flow
• For each process step outline some critical parameters, examples could include duration, inventory, yield, wastage, resources, etc.
• Details of Customer deliveries

Question 2: Identify some potential improvements in the Value Stream based on your observations. These improvements can relate to the lean wastes or process instabilities or errors. Provide some evidence that supports your reason for improvement. This evidence can be estimated from data, observations, blockages, delays, excess inventory, etc.
Question 3: Pick two areas you identified for improvement and suggest how improvements to these processes could be implemented using the lean tools of 5S, SMED, Kanban, error-proofing or otherwise. The use of Process mapping, layout maps, visual management, and other lean tools would also be important to describe the process before and after the improvement.
Question 4: Redraw the overall Value Stream Map with the improvements implemented and indicate the potential benefits that these changes could make to the overall Value Stream.