Barclays Bank Case Study

Introduction

As one of the world's leading banks, with 135,000 employees in more than 50 countries, Barclays plays a significant role, from working with governments on major infrastructure projects to bringing banking to customers in emerging markets. Barclays is made up of two major businesses: Global Retail and Commercial Banking (GRCB) and Investment Banking and Investment Management (IBIM). There strategy is to achieve growth through time by diversifying their profit base making their growth relevant to their customers at all times. Barclays realise their position as a global corporation fits them with the responsibility to be a responsible global citizen. With this in mind they aim to be carbon neutral by 2009 and have set high standards to reduce their waste and increase their recycling. They also value the importance of human rights and look to uphold these values in the projects that they finance, the communities in which they impact and amongst their employees. Barclays have also sought to raise their profile with its association with the Premier League in England and the Scottish Open Golf Championship to name a few.

Reasons for Success

The main keys reasons for the success of Barclays are, with over three hundred years of history and expertise in banking Barclays has seen and has gained a reputation for being a trustworthy and a reliable institution to bank and invest with. This reputation has seen it grow into over 50 countries and become truly universal bank providing loans, investments and protecting the money of over 42 million customers and client worldwide. Another reason for the success of Barclays would be that it follows a simple strategic premise; 'anticipates the needs of customers and clients and serve them by helping them achieve their goals.' Part of Barclays recent success has been their ability to target and identify upcoming emerging markets e.g. India, parts of Asia and Africa, namely South Africa, expanding its retail network and cash machine availability. Despite being a truly global corporation from a basic bank account to funding Governmental projects, Barclays focus has always been to meet the needs of the individual customer.

Threats and Problems

The threats/ problems that Barclays may face in the future is the sustained economic situation being experienced in the United Kingdom, Europe and America has lead to a growing uncertainty within the retail consumer and also a shortage in the availability of credit in this market. This in turn has put ever more importance on the company's ability to drive its overall corporate profitability and margin by seeking to offset the shortfalls in the UK domestic market with advances in emerging markets. All companies, like Barclays, are being forced to re-examine in particular the retail aspects of their operations seeking to remain competitive on the high street and also making cuts where necessary. In this current financial climate, banks are unwilling to finance each other, with the UK market on the verge a projected severe recession any of the retailing factors that may influence Barclays competitiveness on the high street depends largely on how the Bank of England and the Treasury seek to regenerate and reinforce the flagging confidence of the stock markets which as we have seen in other financial institutes the sharp fall in market value and speculation can lead to disastrous consequences.