MANAGING AND LEADING STRATEGIC CHANGE

Introduction

In this paper, we will study about the Banking industry. This has been done by studying the Bank of Singapore. It is a popular bank of the Singapore which has its own image in the mind of the people. Here, we will discuss the experience of change within the Bank of Singapore. It faces a huge number of changes in its life circle such as the replacement of physical token with the digital token. This change will bring a large number of challenges in front of the organization. Apart of this, various ways of leading change also suggested to the organization. This has been done under the light of certain change model and theories. These give us a significant direction in which we need to move. On the basis of these models, the change experience of Bank of Singapore is turned on the positive side. Apart of this, the main focus of this assignment is change within the Banking industry of Singapore. On the basis of industry study, we can recommend a better solution for managing change. Therefore, it can be said that change management is crucial not only for the Bank of Singapore but for the whole industry.

Section 1

Company Profile

Bank of Singapore is known as the global private bank of the Asia. The headquarters of the bank is situated in Singapore. It is operating in the strong and open economy. It mainly offers assured and unrivalled security and stability to its customers. It has established its brand image on the basis of its high quality and secured services. It has its own research team which highly involves in producing best financial services for the clients. It offers a large range of commercial and consumer banking solutions like insurance, brokerage services, and financing.

Industry Background

The Banking industry of the Singapore is considered a hub of the banking facilities and services. It is such a powerful hub that does provide not only the domestic finance solutions but also a monetary activity of the whole Asia Pacific (Ashkenas, 2013). The banking industry of Singapore is highly heartened by the stable economic and political climate, law enforcement against money crimes and fraud, efficient taxation and legislations. The banking industry of Singapore is the combination of 6 local and 117 Asian financial centres that provides a large range of services from consumer credit to insurance, and investment operations (Cameron, 2015). The banking industry of the Singapore contains commercial, consumer, and private banks that offer a wide range of financial benefits to different customers.

Significant Drivers and Trends of Change

The significant drivers and trends of change within the banking industry of the Singapore are following:

The Dominance of Foreign Banks

It is an important trend of change in the banking industry of Singapore. This trend drew Singapore into the scene of the global banking which makes it more competitive player than prior (Clegg, 2015). This trend will enhance the level of constant competition which further encourages the development of the different financial products and effective conductive pricing policies. Apart of this, the dominance of foreign banks trend also motivates the banking organizations towards merger. It is because the merger has the full potential of help local banks in the way that they want.

Liberalization in Banking Sector

The second and essential trend of change in today's banking industry of Singapore is liberalization. It has placed in the banking industry of Singapore during 1999 (Coleman, 2016). Such liberalization comes with a large number of benefits for the banking sector. Some of them are banking licenses to foreign banks, reconsidering corporate governance, enhancing the limit of foreign shareholding in local banks, and offering more freedom to offshore banks. Liberalized banking trend enhance the level of competition within the banking industry of the Singapore.

Competitive investment hub

Nowadays, Singapore turned into a competitive investment hub due to the presence of huge government efforts, the success of Singapore exchange, and approved bonds that lured hordes of overseas organizations (Hallegatte, 2015). A large number of investment banks demands investors through meditating, and underwriting between the investor and the issuer, or corporate re-organization services. Therefore, all such initiatives enhance the competitiveness by promoting mergers, and acquisitions.

Attention towards SME sector

Another trend of today’s Singapore banking industry is that the banks mainly focus more towards SME sector. This has been done by the banking firms of Singapore to win the repute of reliable business partners (Hill, 2014). Generally, the SME sector in Singapore has access to premium bespoke financial, investment, insurance, and loan products. The attention of banking firms towards these SME sectors helps them in launching comfortable schemes for upgrading and expanding their financial operations.

Deposit and Capital gain Taxes

Another important trend that plays an important role in the success of Singapore banking industry is a deposit and capital gain taxes (Komives, 2016). The government of the country frees its banking sector firms from paying the capital gain and deposit taxes from incomes earned abroad.

The presence of all of these trends makes the whole industry challenging and attractive for other investors. Such trends will bring positive as well as negative impacts for Bank of Singapore. Therefore, it can be said that Singapore banking industry is fulfilled with more growth opportunities that can easily grasp by taking an active initiative.

Purpose of Change

The main purpose behind changes in the Banking industry is to enhance its attractiveness and efficiency. More change will come with high difficulties which the existing organizations need to face to survive themselves in the target market. On the other hand, the change also brings improvement in existing or traditional working system of banking by launching innovative financial products (Van der Voet, 2014). So, the purpose behind the change is positive that will prove beneficial for the company as well as target customers.

Impact of Changes in Banking Industry on Bank of Singapore

Generally, it can be said that changes in the banking industry will influence the Bank of Singapore in both positive and negative manner. The positive outcomes of the changes are enhancement in competition, profitability, reduction in taxes and growing participation of the government. Above-mentioned changes will lead all such benefits in Bank of Singapore. On the other hand, the negative aspect of all such changes is that the organization needs to formulate new policies, perform high efforts towards change management, and difficulty in strategic management of change. Therefore, it can be said that changes influence the situation of an organization positively and negatively as well.

Why Change is not prevented

The various changes in the banking industry, as well as the functioning of the Bank of Singapore, do not prevent due to its positive outcomes of the change. For example, the changes of physical tokens in the digital token will easy the functioning of the organization by reducing the level of complexities. These complexities may be in terms of high management and more care of tokens. Therefore, these changes will perform for the benefit of the organization as well as the customer. That's why these changes do not prevent by a single organization. With the help of these changes, the organization and different players like customers will effect in a significant manner. These changes affect customers by reducing their complexities and easier their functions. On the other hand, these changes help the organizations in making them digitalized and advanced as per the current and prevailing trend. Therefore, these changes have important for everyone.

Banking Industry in Coming Future

All these changes make positive improvements in the performance of the banking industry. In coming future, all functions of banking industries become digitalized. This enhances the level of convenience for customers as well as the employees. On the other hand, the industry becomes more competitive due to freedom in operations. This gives birth to competition and various other innovative financial products and services. So, it can be said that future of the Banking industry will bright in coming future.

Key Areas

The key areas that require huge focus from managers of the banking firms like Bank of Singapore are following:

• Deposit and Capital gain taxes: This trend is quite prevailing nowadays. The managers should focus on this because it will bring a large number of growth opportunities for the organization. It does not only helpful in enhancing profitability but also in plan significant expansion. The managers should adopt this trend on an immediate basis to grasp the available growth opportunities without wasting a single time (Uzkurt, 2013).
• Competitive Investment Hub: Another trend that requires huge focus from management of a banking organization is competitive investment hub. This competition demands more research activities from the management. In order to survive in the challenging banking environment of Singapore, the organizations need to come with efficient finance products that do not only enhance the reputation but also improve the existing competitive advantage in the target market.
• Attention to the SME sector: It is another trend that demands the suitable attention of the manager. In order to gain competitive advantage, it is necessary for the banking firms to attract investors (Richter, 2013). This can successfully perform by enhancing its focus on SME sector. Nowadays, SME sector of Singapore has placed itself in the eyes of investors. Therefore, in order to win the support of investors the management of an organization needs to put more emphasis on SME sector of Singapore.

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