Assignment Brief

Choose HSBC international bank

THE TASK:

In this assignment, you have to consider any international bank in Oman. You have to analyse and evaluate its marketing strategies, applying the principles and practices of Business in a Global Context. In a challenging business environment, strategy gives an organisation the direction and the scope over the long term to achieve advantage through its configuration of resources. You need to evaluate a company of your choice with global perspective.

There are five parts that you must complete throughout the semester as specified below:

Part 1: Analyse the Company's Growth and Performance. To begin your case study, evaluate the bank's internal and external capabilities and growth. Employ descriptive statistics to support your analysis and investigation.

Part 2: Carry Out the SWOT Analysis of the Company. Using the information you gathered in step one, continue your analysis by examining and making a list of SWOT factors, for example,
- Strengths: The firm's strengths are its resources and capabilities that can be used as a basis for developing a competitive advantage like diversified services, changing from mere savings & loan facilitator role and connecting people
- Weaknesses: The absence of certain strengths may be viewed as a weakness, e.g. lack of coordination, vulnerable to risk and can't reach to under-penetrated market etc.
- Opportunities: The external environment analysis may reveal certain new opportunities for profit and growth, e.g. expansion, changing socio-cultural & demographic factors and rise in private sector banking etc
- Threats: Changes in the external environment may also present threats to the bank, e.g. recession, stability of the system and competition etc.

Part 3: Determine the Effects of Competitive Advantage. Competitive advantage is a benefit over competitors gained by offering consumers greater value, either by means of lower price or by providing greater profit and service that justify higher prices. Using the information based on Part 2, discuss all the effects on the performance of the chosen bank.

Part 4: Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. Using the information in parts two and three, you will need to create an evaluation for this portion of your analyses on the studied case regarding the compliance of the bank to the 'Stakeholder Theory'.

Part 5: Reflective Summary. The final part of your case study analysis should include your learning outcome from the study undertaken and recommendations for the bank. Every recommendation you make should be based on and supported by the context of your case study analysis