USA World Bank - Case Study Example

PROBLEM SOLUTION: USA WORLD BANK Problem Solution: USA World Bank Goes Here of Phoenix Problem Solution: USA World Bank USA World Bank has been a very successful firm, both for consumers and small businesses domestically and internationally. Like all companies, it needs to come up with new and exciting products for its customers so that they remain committed to the company. The Board of Directors wants the company to launch just one product each year. This one product can focus on the consumer side or the small business owner side. However this can result in conflicting ideas internally and as well as with conflicting customers. It is the decision of the president and vice president to come up with the new product and launch it in the current time frame. Situation Analysis Issue and Opportunity Identification Each year Managers at USA World Bank are required to launch a new product for their bank. This has become the tradition that the president and vice president of New Product Development brainstorm and then create an idea for the product and then present it to the Board of Directors for approval. In recent years the all the new products launched have been marginally successful therefore there is increased pressure on the president and vice president this year to deliver the goods. Without concurrent launching of new products, USA World Bank feels that it would lose its market share and its huge customer base to other new and agile banks. [3] Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas Basically there are three stake holders involved in this scenario as explained in Table 2. Like any company UWB, wants to maximize its profitability while satisfying its customer needs. It takes into consideration the customer requirements and prioritizes the needs to identify which customers its product will be targeted towards. The Company faces a dilemma in this scenario whether to launch a Consumer Product or a Small business Owner product. Catering to one or the other will create a bad reputation from the other side. The second stakeholders are the general consumers. They have the right to purchase the product from UWB and to be or not to be a part of the company. They want to maximize the utility they get on purchasing the products from the company. Their interests clash with the interest of the Small Business Owner Card holders and they are given higher priority. The third stakeholders are Small Business Owners for whom a different kind of card is being sought to be produced. They have the right to purchase the product from UWB and to be or not to be a part of the company. They want to maximize the utility they get on purchasing the products from the company. Their interests clash with the interest of the general consumers because they are given lesser priority. [1] Problem Statement USA World Bank will cater to all customers to increase market share and market value by building close customer relationships. End-State Vision USA World Bank will add value to its customer base by offering affordable products and incentives to increase its market share. Alternative Solutions Alternative solutions are generated from the problem at hand. Mary Monroe wants to go ahead with the Consumer product while Jim and executives emphasize for the Small Business Owner product. Brian is confused whether to go for both products or simply do more research to find out which one is more feasible. Here is the list of alternate solutions Launch General Consumer Product Launch Small Business Owner Product Launch Both Products These alternatives are included in the secondary alternatives as the company wants to launch the product this year without any delays. Delay launching product until further research studies are not completed Don't launch any product this year Analysis of Alternative Solutions There are 4 different goals that have been identified for USA World Bank from this scenario. The cost is not considered that important like Brian Allen said therefore it is assigned a rating of 2. A rating of 3 is given to convincing the Board of Directors since they matter in approving the product before launching it, however they are not that important. Satisfying all Stakeholders is giving a weightage of 4 because this is one of the core activities of the company without which the reputation and morale of the company will fall. The highest weightage is given to launching a successful product because specifically this year the management is under great pressure to launch a profitable product. Furthermore the progress and customer base is directly related to launching new and successful products. The best alternative is given a rating of 1 for achieving low cost. Since both cards will be launched, the cost incurred in research and marketing will be really high. Fortunately the UWB isn't concerned about cost that much. A rating of 4 is giving to launching successful products since both cards are being launched and there is higher risk attached that one of them can fail. Convincing the board members to approve both cards for the current year will be extremely difficult since traditionally they only approve the launch of one product each year therefore it is giving a low rating. The highest rating is given to satisfying all stakeholders because with the launch of both cards, the general consumers and small business owners both will be happy. This will result in the company getting more sales and therefore more profits so the company will be happy as well. Risk Assessment and Mitigation Techniques All the three alternative solutions have certain amounts of risks attached to them. By delaying the launch of the cards for a while can impact both positively and negatively. Since even after delaying the product may not be perfected to give the necessary returns, the time will be wasted. Delay may even cause the customers to shift to other banks which will reduce the customer base and the revenue will be lost. Consequently the profits and the reputation of the company will fall. It is advisable to analyze the situation better by taking aid from professionals and consulting firms. The customers should be asked customers to bear with the company for the time delay and should offer incentives like discounts so that the company is able to retain customers. By launch Small Business Owner Cards the general consumer base will be lost as they would feel that their needs are not being catered to. The probability of this occurring is medium since the revenue from some customers will be lost and the profits and reputation will fall. To mitigate risk the company should research intensively to find out the level of penetration possible and the demand of the product in the market By launching both cards simultaneously into the market, the company can satisfy all stakeholders however if one card fails, the cost incurred on it will be wasted. And in the case where both cards fail, then the cost on both of them will be wasted. However the probability of both cards failing is very low. The risk here is that the board of directors may not agree going through with both products. In that case the cost can be high and the profits will below. To counter this research must be done thoroughly to find the demand for both types of customers and then market the products aggressively taking help from a marketing agency. Optimal Solution The optimal solution at the moment is launching both the products concurrently into the market. This observation is also visible from the scenario that Brian Allan wants to analyze both the products. The justification for launching both products can be given product by product. The general consumers are the priority customers of the firm therefore a product that caters to their needs must be launched. As Bea pointed out that the initial research may be flawed, further research can be done to predict the outcome of launching this product. It is likely to be successful because the sample taken is huge and tells that a large number of people demand such a product. The Small Business Owner's product should also be launched since another research conducted by Jim Wilson on a smaller scale identifies the need for a card that caters to the needs of business owners as well. Although they are not he priority customers of the company, they are customers none the less and they account for a quite a share of all the customers. Furthermore launching this product can counteract against any losses incurred from the other product. Implementation Plan The company wants to launch a new product every year. For the current product, around 6 months are left before its deadline to launch is reached. Doing backward scheduling we can get an appropriate timeline as identified in table 5. The first step is to identify the problem and opportunity which already has been describe in previous parts. Survey to identify the possible solutions will take up most of the time since it is a very critical part of the implementation plan. Alternatives will be generated by interviewing, using focus groups and by using other statistical tools from the customers. Then analysts will be given about a month to investigate and prepare an evaluation of all the alternatives. Thereon a purely managerial process will begin to select the best choice and presenting it to the board members for approval. Finally the product will be launched in the market and continuous checks and feedback will be monitored to find any problems with the launch. The activities described above are flexible in nature meaning that a few activities can vary from the time given in table 5. However any delay of more than 5 days will have to be compensated in other activities. [5] Evaluation of Results The end state goals for the UWB can be categorized into qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative goal is to satisfy all the stakeholders. This can be measured through the positive and negative feedback gotten from the customers and the company employees. The quantitative goals are to keep a low cost, get approval from the board of directors and to launch a successful product. From previous experience the cost incurred to launch a new product has been $40,000. For this year this cost is expected to be around the same and should not exceed $50,000. The approval from the board of directors is only a game of getting a majority vote (7/12). Success of the project is broken into quantitative terms by measuring the return it gives to the company. $1 billion revenue is thought to be good for the product based on past experience. The important thing here is the Return on Investment which needs to be 15% to mark this product as a success. Conclusion Problems and opportunities are an ongoing process for USA World Bank as new products need to be rolled out each year to maintain and even increase the customer base it has created. The important point here is to take on the challenge to bring new and innovative products in the market. This can only happen if the employees are committed to their work. The employees must work cohesively to brainstorm new ideas and discuss all possibilities. Furthermore research and analysis forms the basis for identifying the need for a certain type of product. This research must not be compromised in any way and should be conducted by professionals. Feasibility studies should be done to find the value it can provide to the customer and the company itself. Any risk that may be involved in choosing a possible solution should be mitigated and the optimal solution should be chosen and implemented. This process should not end here as feedback from the customers forms an important part of research and future development of products. In the end what matters is whether the goals have been achieved or not and whether these goals are in line with the long term vision of the company. This is extremely important as the future of the company depends on it. References 1. Alexander, Ian. "Stakeholders - Who is Your System For" Retrieved September 30, 2007, from Read More