Corporate Strategy Master Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Corporate Strategy Master - Assignment Example By July 2008 as a consequence, major banks and other financial institutions around the world had reported losses reaching $435 billion. The problem on sub-prime mortgages was exacerbated by the steady depreciation of the US dollar, whose value against the euro, for example, crossed the $1.48 threshold in November 2007 to settle at $1.50 (Phillips, 2007). While the US Federal Reserve showed no intention of intervening to strengthen the dollar, banks stopped issuing covered bonds and the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) hit a premium for treasury bills not seen since the dark days of the first oil crisis in 1987. The continued weakening of the US currency gave banks and financial institutions little incentive to sell dollars, completing the scenario for rising global inflation. Such a climate of uncertainty in the global economy, specifically in the banking sector, serves as backdrop for this paper as it examines the corporate strategies by which HSBC Holdings plc, one of the worl d's largest banking and financial services organisations, can emerge a winner through the use of appropriate models and tools of analysis. HSBC Holdings plc is the mother company of a wide array of banks and financial institutions that include the HSBC plc in UK; the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. and Hang Seng Bank Ltd. in Hong Kong; HSBC Finance in France; the Household International and HSBC Bank USA NA in the US; HSBC Bank in Brazil; Grupo Financiero HSBC in Mexico; and the HSBC Private Banking Holding (Suisse) SA in UK, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Monaco, Luxembourg, Singapore and Channel Islands. The Group's corporate strategy finds expression in the marketing pitch attached to its logo that proclaims HSBC as "the world's local bank." This campaign to differentiate the HSBC brand was launched in 1999 and started to guide all banking operations in 2005. The strategy projects HSBC as a financing institution with an international pedigree and world-class expertise, which sophistication is nonetheless used for the full benefit of the smallest local clients and their communities. In effect, the HSBC based its strat egy not only on product leadership and operational excellence but also on customer intimacy, the three value disciplines that drive corporate strategy (Green, 2003). That sort of makes the Group a high-street bank that serves low-end clients as a matter of preference. The banking clientele composed of ordinary people is a market segment usually identified in an RFM analysis to formulate a firm's corporate strategy. RFM stands for recency, frequency and monetary value and is often conducted to analyse customer behaviours and define market segments. In essence, RFM analysis asks how recent and frequent are the transactions done for a particular

Features of Employment Relations Systems and their Impact on the Essay

Features of Employment Relations Systems and their Impact on the Position of Women in Labour Markets - Essay Example Reduced levels of unemployment indicated that few households lacked a working adult. During this period, most of those working in different institutions were high school drop-outs with an estimated one third of the total population of the United Kingdom working in the manufacturing and agricultural industries. However, the 21st century has seen none of the above features in still existence in many economies across the globe. Most, if not all jobs are now evenly distributed across all genders with a host of households in each country having more than one member in the labour force. On the contrary, the steady rise in unemployment rates is an indicator that there are a number of families in which no member is employed or has a definite job. An increase in education and improved formal structures for learning has seen a rise in the number of high school graduates and college/university graduates as well; hence an increased mass of human resources available to the market. In addition, th e emergence of other fields and or industries, for instance, finance, business services as well as property management, building and construction services has resulted in the creation of more stable jobs than the manufacturing and agricultural sector could provide. ... The Employment Relationship An employee relations system can be referred to as a legal concept used by organizations and or institutions in different countries worldwide to refer to the relationship between an employer and their employees for whom the employees perform certain activities (work) under defined procedures and conditions but in return for salary and or wages. Employee relations help the employer and the employee to come up or develop obligations and rights to govern the performance of both the employee and the employer towards the success of their respective organizations and or institutions. Over period, this tool has acted as a medium through which employees gain access to various benefits, obligations and rights that are related to employment with respect to social security and laws of labour. According to Verma (2003), â€Å"an employee relations system is the key point of reference for determining the nature and extent of employers’ rights and obligations to wards their employees.† (p. 519). Today, intense changes are taking place in the contemporary world of work with particular concern on the labour market. These changes have led to subsequent emergence of new types or rather forms of employment relationships. As a result, market flexibility has been increased as well as an increase in the number of employees uncertain of their status of employment and thus falling out of the normal protection scope of employment relationships. This is a challenge that is described by the International Labour Office’s Director as follows: â€Å"The State has a key role to play in creating an enabling institutional framework to balance the need for flexibility for enterprises and security for workers in meeting the changing demands of a global economy. At