Customer Relationship Management in Bahrain Investment Banking Arena Essay Example for Free

Customer Relationship Management in Bahrain Investment Banking Arena Essay The banking industry has undergone widespread changes within the operating environment and this involves globalization of markets and technological improvements. These two factors have influenced and encouraged innovative practices within the banking industry that has served to enhance its operational efficiency. The introduction of ATMs and e-banking facilities are some of the major milestones in the banking industry that have revolutionized business operations. The global markets have intensified the competitive environment of the banking industry that has created the need for increased efficiency in operations and increasing customer satisfaction. Customers are the lifeblood of any organization and the banking business too depends on the acquisition and retention of consumers for its profitability. Customer relationship management forms a vital aspect of business strategy driving the company’s market shares and market leadership position. Customer relationship management (CRM) has been defined as a business strategy that â€Å"is a fusion of a series of functions, skills, processes, and technologies which together allow companies to more profitably manage (acquire and retain) customers as tangible assets† (Shanmugasundaram, 2008:98). It is viewed as an interactive process that creates a balance between corporate objectives and customer satisfaction to increase the profitability of the business. Acquisition and retention of customers is one of the vital requirements of business and the effectiveness of strategies driven towards this goal determines the success of business enterprises. The past few years have witnessed growing application of CRM in retail banking and investment banking sectors. The key objective behind such initiatives is to ensure the delivery of superior customer service and to fulfil the needs of consumers. Such practices are effective in enabling organizations to meet the needs of the consumers and provide improved services in comparison to other players in the industry. Competitive advantage and business gains are driven by a proactive approach that focuses on consumer needs and expectations, provision of consistently high quality service, looking into consumer convenience and an effective follow up service to ensure consumer loyalty. A vital aspect of investment banking and any other financial services is the changing consumer mindsets. Owing to the abundance of information easily accessible over the Internet the consumers today are more knowledgeable of the wide range of choices and alternatives available to them. The consumers are equipped with more knowledge related to the banking options available and hence their banking decisions are guided by their well-researched study. This fact holds true for all economic sectors and business operations but forms a critical aspect of banking industries since it caters to a diverse segment of consumers. In nearly all business to business markets in which clients are as large as, or as in this case, often much larger than their suppliers, the latter must respond quickly to pressures from their clients to improve client management processes and systems† (Foss Stone, 2002: 211). CRM in Investment banking sector The short term objective of the marketing department is to acquire customers while the long term objective translates to retaining the old customers through effective customer relationship management (CRM) strategies. Reaching and acquiring a new customer is one thing, keeping the relationship healthy and strong over a long period of time is the mark of the true marketing professional concerned with long term health of the organization† (Dolak, 2009). The increasing competitive market makes it difficult to retain customers over a longer period of time owing to the constant influx of new and substitute alternatives invading the shelf spaces at the local retail shop. This makes the task of CRM increasingly challenging and organizations adopt various strategies to attract old customers back. Retention strategies often employ measures such as consumer behaviour research and product surveys that enable the organizations to assess the needs and expectations of the consumer and enable them to serve better. Customers always appreciate the personal touch that results in building strong relationships. The net today provides numerous effective communication channels that are being used to keep the customer happy. Web based customer relationship management has effectively integrated all modes of communication – web, email, chat, video, voice to serve and support the customers to enhance the total customer experience. Investment banking differs from other forms of banking in the role a few major clients play on the bank’s performance and productivity (Foss Stone, 2002). This form of banking targets a fixed client segment that drives the sales of investment products and services. The efficiency of the banking sector is determined by the types of products and services sold to customers in response to their investment needs and expectations. Customization of products and services are the key to deriving client satisfaction. Identification of the client segment is a vital factor in targeting and reaching out to the desired client population and this process is driven by market research. The changing demographics and intense competitive pressures from global industry players have however made a significant impact on the business strategies of investment banks worldwide. The challenges faced by investment bankers lie in reaching out to target consumers and providing them with increased ease of banking services that serve to retain clients over a longer period of time. Moreover, the increasing demands of consumers and growing expectations have driven the banking sector to adopt technology based innovative applications for meeting consumer needs and expectations. Online banking services and mobile banking applications are some of the innovative means that are being used by investment bankers to reach out to their target consumers. Such applications have served to improve banking services and efficiencies in resolving customer queries and needs promptly through the click of the mouse button. The anytime and anywhere access to banking services have defined new trends in serving consumers. â€Å"Online customization is one useful customer relationship management strategy adopted by e-business to add value and improve sales of their products and services using the Internet† (Khosla et al. , 2003). Investment banking in Bahrain The banking sector in Bahrain is one of the key sectors influencing economic growth and development in the region. The contribution of the financial services and banking sector is second only to the oil and natural gas industry in the country. The country has experienced an economic boom and an upward trend in economic growth and development over the past few decades on account of globalisation influences and opening of trade channels. The banking sector has also opened to multinational corporations establishing their operations in the country to tap the growing number of high net worth individuals in the country. Despite the globalisation of banking operations and increased de-regulation of the financial services sector in the area the country continues to have a significant control and supervision over the regulatory environment. The Central Bank of Bahrain continues to be monitor and control the banking environment in the country. The modernisation of banking services and strategic approaches made by investment bankers in other parts of the globe have not produced much impact in this region owing to the constraints applied by the existing cultural influence. The retail banking scenario in Bahrain is to a considerable extent driven by the culture of the country. The cultural impacts are realised in the conservative approach of consumers towards banking and investment. Various research studies have concluded that while the region is an emerging market for technology applications and innovative practices, user attitudes have limited the scope of technology based business models in the banking sector. The conservative market environment and user attitudes towards the CRM strategies adopted by investment bankers in Bahrain forms the focal point of the research study. The research study will analyse the various perspectives involved in CRM approach by investment bankers through the study of Unicorn Investment Bank in Bahrain. The bank was founded in the year 2004 and has its headquarters in Bahrain. It is an Islamic financial services group that has an international presence in various locations such as Malaysia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and United States. The bank currently has six distinctive business service categories that include asset management and real estate, capital markets, corporate finance, private equity, strategic mergers and acquisitions and treasury. Among the various services offered by the bank the key approach is to deliver the customers with a comprehensive range of investment solutions that are customised to meet client needs and expectations. Unicorn’s integrated product offering and financial engineering skills are closely intertwined with a strong capacity to distribute the Bank’s products and services to a broad client base across the GCC region, the wider Middle East region, Southeast Asia, the USA and the Europe† (Unicorn, 2010). The target customers of the bank include high net worth individuals, business enterprises, financial institutions, corporations, and government agencies and departments. The products offered by the bank are Shari’ah compliant and conforms to the international financial practices (Unicorn, 2010). Issues and challenges â€Å"All major banks have invested heavily in technology and infrastructure over the last 5 and 10 years in this area, but hardly any of them have been successful in actually getting it effective† (Infosys, 2009). The failure of CRM initiatives within the investment banking sector have provided a new ground for research into increasing the effectiveness of CRM applications. There are many strategic implications related to the application of CRM within investment banking sector. This involves the adaptation of normal banking processes and systems to integrate with innovative use of technology based applications and automated query processing systems that require efficient management and handling of issues. Such issues pertain to the efficient use of CRM systems to meet operational goals and integrating the different banking functions to provide a structured application that can be used easily by consumers. Ease of use and convenience are some of the key parameters involved in the development of CRM based banking system. A key challenge facing these areas involves the security and privacy issues that form a major source of concern for consumers using the technology based applications. Technology based business models and CRM strategies enable investment bankers to provide the customers with efficiency in delivery of services, access to relevant information, product details and ease of transactions. Mobile banking and e-banking facilitates the customers of investment banking to a host of facilities that range from product enquiry; access updated rates of interest and market values of the investment products chosen and conducts investment transactions online. Investment portfolios can also be accessed and manipulated according to user convenience from the comforts of their home or office. However, widespread usage of such systems has been restricted on account of user reservations related to security issues and privacy of vital user data and information. Mobile banking and online transactions raise security and privacy concerns among most of the consumers (Barati Mohammadi, 2009). The transfer of sensitive financial and personal information across mobile networks is found to be the prime reason behind the psychological barriers created among potential mobile banking customers (Laukkanen, 2007).

What it Means to be an Athlete :: Sports Swimming Teamwork Essays

What it Means to be an Athlete A group of high school girls who have all joined a crew team for various reasons. Some are athletes, some want scholarships, some are the right body types, some have never been athletes, some have friends on the team, and some are being made to by their parents. The team is small and no cut and always in need of more rowers. As they row they come together as a team, they all gain in confidence and learn what it is to be an athlete both on and off the water. The protagonists are a novice four, that means five girls who have never competed in crew before racing a boat with four rowers and a coxswain (cox for short). The coxswain is normally small, in High School women's rowing they try to get as close to 110 pounds as possible, who yells out commands, steers the boat, and encourages her rowers. She is the only one facing forward and is generally sitting in the back of the boat. The four rowers in a four face backwards. The stroke is the rower closest to the cox and faces her. Behind th e stroke are 3 and 2 and bow is in the front or bow. Although the novice four is not the entire team, the boats practice in shifts so they don't spend much time with the rest of the team. The five girls are all there for different reasons. The cox, Hannah, is actually the only one who had been involved in sports before, but she is the smallest, loudest, and most of a leader. Stroke is Amanda, who is tall and has the "ideal" build for crewing and decided to start in hopes of getting a scholarship when she goes to college. Lauren, the three seats, is being forced to participate in a sport by her mother and heard that you wouldn't have to run for crew. Diana, two seats, is Amanda's best friend, and decided to tag along, and Jessie who thought she'd join for kicks is bow. Once they are set into boats, they have their first water practice as a team. Their coach, Molly, grew up having to fight for the right to participate in a sport other than cheerleading or dance, and feels that the girls have to live up to her legacy. They should be proud and see themselves exclusively as athletes, especially when they don their uniforms.

Death of a Salesman- Essay-Reflection Essay

In Death of Salesman, the conflicts that the characters face through out in the play, can be interpreted as reflections of the problems in America’s society today. The majority, if not all of these problems can be traced back to Willy Loman as the source. Willy Loman’s longing to be successful (either actually through himself or through his sons) was the origin of all the other problems, and was the reason he could not control himself and he ruined his life and his family. The most obvious societal problem face in the play is greed. Willy’s obsession with having money is a perfect symbol of the larges part of society, the part whose lives revolve around acquiring money, and having â€Å"the best†. The people have unrealistic expectations just like Willy. In Act 1, Willy is hallucinating about his brother Ben and he says, â€Å"The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! Walked into a jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he’s rich!† (41). Willy and countless people in today’s society, have unrealistic expectations, and are never honestly satisfied. They are willing to do anything to get to the top, even if it means hurting others, and most of the time they are left with nothing. Just like Willy in the garden, muttering, â€Å"Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground†; because they have done nothing substantial with their lives and have not â€Å"planted† anything (122). They used all their time concerned with money and neglected to invest in anything concrete, like real love, and having a family. They have no real lives outside of materialistic things, just like Willy. Willy’s constant disregard for others and their lives is another example of a problem America’s society faces being represented in the play. In today’s society, it is seen as expectable to push others down, and put your self first. In Death of a Salesman, Willy does this constantly when it comes time to be honest and care for his family. Willy’s actions greatly affected his family, and were the reason for many of Biff, Happy and Linda’s problems. When he was fired, Willy said, â€Å"I was fired and I am looking for a little good news to tell your mother, because the woman has waited and suffered†(107). Willy, like many people with any sort of conscience today, feels bad and wants to tell Linda that he was fired (something that will  drastically effect his entire family, especially considering their already pending financial problems), but this want is smothered by his need to have â€Å"good news†. This want is essentially just a ploy to make him feel better about himself, so once again Willy puts Linda second to his own needs, which is really the reason for all the waiting and suffering she had to do. This disregard, is also obvious in today’s society, one person’s actions can affect the whole community. Like in the case of all the terrible decisions George Bush. George Bush made decisions for the country, that were not for the common good, but his good, and now America is left picking up the pieces now that he’s gone. Many people argue that a major problem with the order of today’s society is that people no longer respect their elders. Arthur Miller, obviously saw this occurring even in the 1950 when he wrote the book. Willy raised Biff and Happy, putting all in hopes, dreams and inhabitations into them. But when they were old enough no to have to depend on them anymore, they walked away from him. Linda even acknowledges it and says, â€Å"It sounds old fashioned and silly but I tell you he put his whole life into you and you’ve turned your backs on him†(60). Biff and Happy used their father to become who they were, but when he needed them to live, they walked away from him. This is even more obvious of the problems faced today when looked at as if Willy represents all the older people in our society. The elderly are looked down upon, are thought to be crazy, and have their jobs, license and overall most real concessions, taken away for no reason other than age. We discriminat e against people who should be our equals and treated with respect. Peer pressure, is not just something that effects school aged children on the playground. Adults are pressured every day by, family, friends, co-workers into doing things that do not necessarily want to do. This is a tremendous problem in society because most of the time when people are doing something they do not want to do they are going to be upset. This feeling of being upset, usually leads to emotions that are more drastic such as being stressed and just completely lost and unhappy. Willy’s pressure on the Biff and Happy is the perfect example of this pressure to do things you normally would not do. Willy constantly says through out the play, â€Å"the man who makes  an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want†, this pressure to be well liked is what pushed Biff to neglect his school work and Happy to only care about pleasing woman and his father (30). Willy always pushed the boys to have and to be the greatest at everything they did. But in the end Willy’s pressure pushed the boys to make reckless decisions and made them feel like they could never do enough to please their father. Biff took to stealing and even admits that his father’s pressure got to him in Act 2 when he says, â€Å"I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody!† (131). Pressure can sometimes be positive, like when it pressure pushes you to give your best effort, and sometimes negative, like when it causes you to conform excessively. As in the case of Happy, who by the end of the play, even after his father kills himself is determined to follow in Willy’s foot steps and even says, â€Å"It’s the only dream you can have – to come out number-one man. He fought it out here, and this is where I’m gonna win it for him† (139). The biggest complaint that is heard from adults about today’s youth is the constant feeling of entitlement. Even when unjustified. Willy’s outlook on his life is a perfect example on teen’s unjustified feelings of entitlement in today’s culture. In the scene where he goes to talk to Howard about his job, Willy says, â€Å"You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away-a man is not a piece of fruit.† (82). Willy feels that Howard (the son of the father who had formerly promised Willy that he would be rewarded for his service to the company) has gone back on the word of his father by forgetting the salesman in his golden years, throwing away the peel after eating the orange, so to speak. But what Willy does not realize is that Howard owes him nothing, and neither did his father. Anything people do out of kindness is simply that, kindness. Students sometimes think that just because they received a good mark in a class that it will automatically be the same the next quarter, and aren’t always willing to do the work needed to earn the grade. But what Willy and countless others don’t realize is that no one is owed anything. During and argument Willy has with his son, Biff makes the comment, â€Å"Pop! I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you!† This infuriates Willy who counterattacks, â€Å"I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are  Biff Loman!† (132). Seen through Willy and people thought the world, entitlement is an illusion that blinds our work/life ethic and us. Death of a Salesman shows both family and societiatal conflicts; however, these conflicts are definitely more powerful when looked at as societal problems .It forces you to evaluate the ethics and principles of the culture we live in. and how they eventually reflect the things we truly hold important. However the reflection is not just the problems, but also all the damage that results from making those the most valued things. Death of a Salesman is a disheartening play but it is an honest reflection of our society. Bibliography: Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: 1949. Print.

Sociological and Psychological Theories of Crime Causation

Sociological and Psychological Theories of Crime Causation The aim of this essay is to compare, contrast and evaluate two sociological theories of crime causation and two psychological theories of crime causation. Sociological Theories of crime, Labelling and Structural Functionalism/ Strain. Howard Becker is a sociologist that is often credited with the development of the labelling theory. However the origins of this theory can be traced back to sociologists at the beginning of the twentieth century who made invaluable contributions to the creation of the â€Å"labelling† concept. The first was Charles Cooley who wrote â€Å"Human Nature and the Social Order† in 1902, in which he introduced the term the â€Å"looking glass self†. This idea suggests†¦show more content†¦The structural functionalism/strain theory is similar to the labelling theory in the sense that it focuses on the influence society has on crime. However unlike labelling, it is the wider structures of society that are cause for concern. Emile Durkheim was a French sociologist credited with developing the functionalist theory. He believed that society should be viewed as a structure with each person playing a role, creating, to some extent a â€Å"functional† society. He also stated that society is held together through mutual acceptance of various norms and values. Durkheim published â€Å"Suicide† in 1897, which as the title suggests is centred round suicide and the patterns of suicide within society, a subject which at the time was seen as taboo. He believed that sociological influences were contributing factors of suicide, although the act itself is considered by society to be, one of individual choice. Durkheim also suggested that â€Å"anomie† played a pivotal role in suicide. Crime was seen by Durkheim as inevitable, he argued that a constant level of crime can be functional and only becomes harmful to society when crime rates are abnormally high or low. According to Durkheim the purpose of punishment is not to eliminate crime completely but rather to maintain the norms and values of the majority, in order to keep a relative amount of â€Å"social order†. Robert Merton developed some of Durkheim’s ideas, arguing that devianceShow MoreRelatedThe Theories Of Crime Causation1076 Words   |  5 Pages This paper will examine the three main theories of crime causation which comprise the Criminological Theory as well as provide some examples of each. The three main theories of crime causation are biological, sociological and psychological. Each of the three theories have come a long way since their inception and continue to be updated due to new findings through technological and medical advances. 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