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Case Study Write-Up
Brief synopsis of the ING Insurance
Asia/Pacific case
ING is among the 20 largest financial organizations in the world and amid
the top ten banks in Europe. It offers a
variety of insurance services in Europe, Asia as well as America. It
also does wholesale and retail banking across the world. ING bank was the first
to enter life insurance markets in places like South
Korea, Taiwan
and Japan.
Jacques Kemp under the leadership of ING has made major accomplishments like setting
up of the growing banking markets worldwide. He has recently become the chief
executive of the Asia/Pacific ING sector and making efforts to prepare his
company for the future competition (Schotter 2).
The Asia/Pacific region is the key market for the ING insurance. Both China and India have huge economic growth thereby encouraging ING investments. ING also dominates the markets in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and New Zealand/Australia and invests in small markets like Philippines and Singapore (Schotter 7). In the Asia/Pacific region, ING serves over six million clients, and it is classified among the leading five financial sources in that region. The following factors arose as a result of Asian/Pacific size up; other insurance organizations invested in the region and increasing returns per household created room to a vast customer base for ING. Life insurance also gave way to increased tax advantages, which made the Asian nations a model market entry. Kemp focused on the importance of facilitating communication and more entrust authority (Schotter 9).
Local versus regional management aspect
One regional management strategy that ING can apply to help define its objectives is through creation of an apparent vision along with real mission including the mission statement for each company and describe what each division function should be. This will strengthen the company both locally and globally as it will allow different Asia/Pacific branches to get a clear understanding for their major goals and purpose (Schotter 14).
Locally, functional managers should have a direct contact with specific business units. This will help them in reconnecting with their countries and improving the link between units and help to solve any new problems. Functional managers should familiarize with their actual jobs to help implement strategic programs of different business units. This would enhance the execution of the company strategy across the ING region. If this strategy is implemented, then managers will have distinct objectives to help reduce the time taken for priorities and information to travel from the highest to the lowest level management. This strategy can also enable manages to perform their jobs better and comprehend their exact duties (Hitt, Michael Ireland, and Hoskisson 2).
By using Kemps own knowledge to make ING a better organization, the company staff can learn how to exploit their functionality and be ready to face future challenges. ING should also improve all regional divisions to help prepare for any future issues by giving a competitive advantage over all its competitors in the region (Schotter 15).
Challenges in implementing the above suggested changes
Sometimes it is hard to convince people to leave
their original way of doing things to adopt new technical way. This means that
it is difficult to convince people to accept change. Despite the fact that
companies are afraid of being left behind, they still wary of new innovative
responsibilities that make workers skeptical of the effects that the proposed
change will bring. Another challenge that ING is likely to encounter in executing
the regional versus global strategies is the implementation issue. Difficulties
often upshot from constraints whether money, existing systems or time. The other
main challenge is fear and anxiety. Every employee expresses the anxiety with
different defensive forces. It is hard to deal with individuals concerns about
vulnerability, inadequacy and exposure prompted by the conflicts between low
trust levels and increased levels of openness (Hitt, Michael Ireland, and
Hoskisson 316).
Works cited:
Hitt, Michael A, R D. Ireland, and Robert E. Hoskisson. Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization. Cincinnati: South-Western College Pub,2011. Print
Schotter, Andreas. ING Insurance Asia/Pacific.The University of Western Ontario,London,2006. Print