Barclays bank is a transatlantic bank which serves as a consumer and a wholesale bank mainly from the UK and US, as well as having a global reach. The bank has two main divisions which facilitate its operations and diversification to its business approach: Barclays UK and Barclays international (Barclays.com, n.d.). The bank specializes in offering services to consumers and wholesale businesses, as well as obtaining geographical diversification, in order to provide competitiveness across the globe. Through having a global outlook, the bank is able to deliver sustainable and consistence returns to the Group and its investors. The bank explores different strategies of carrying out its diversification objectives in order to reduce earnings’ volatility, generate high returns through business cycles, and improve and maintain resilience of the bank operations.
The impact of technology and innovation
Technological innovation can be defines simply as any invention which is derived from technical knowledge, research development, as well as service initiatives and independent products. It could also be defined as any new service or product using new knowledge.
The history of Barclays bank spans a period of over 300 years. The bank is believed to have been found by Quakers. Innovation in Barclays spans over three industrial revolutions, and the bank has been embracing digital innovation and diversity over the past few decades. The list of innovations in Barclays is impressive (Bajada & Trayler, 2015). The bank funded the first industrial steam railway, the first ATM machine in the world, as well as the first credit card which was launched in UK, among other life changing innovations. As such, the bank has been the main finance bank in British for more than 300 years, through using different innovations to provide their customers with services which meet their aspirations and needs. The innovations have changed the way the bank offers products and services with the inclusion of diversity and talents.
Barclays has remained in the cutting edge over the use of technology, from the use of the first adding machine to the recent high tech devices which have transformed banking completely. About a century ago, most of administrative and transaction services were mainly done manually and handwritten, right from clearing cheques to accounting and correspondence. Due to its unprecedented growth in late 19th
century due to its merger, Barclays began the process of introducing mechanical innovations to hasten provision of its services. The increase in business volume, increase in cost of labor due to growth in employment, as well as the transformation in banking necessitated the bank to look for alternatives in order to improve services and reduce the cost of labor (Bajada & Trayler, 2015). The introduction of the adding machine in 1914 was the first and essential innovation which inspired the innovation of other machines such as the Remington 24, Burroughs and NCR. As such, far much faster and efficient electro-mechanical machines were invented in order to speed up accounting processes in the bank.
In order to enhance communication between branches, Barclays installed telephone in many of its branches which had the reach of the national phone network. By 1955, the bank had innovated machines which would produce mechanized statement for their customers through the NCR 32 machines and NCR 3000. 1960 marked the last handwritten statement to be issued to customers. This was replaced when the bank automated its services by installing the first banking mainframe computer to address the rising demand for banking services. Following this was the installation of IBM mainframe in 1964 at the head office to handle the increased business volumes in the city branches (Bajada & Trayler, 2015). In 1966, the bank initiated a process of innovating the Barclaycard, followed by other computer-supported services such as online cash machines.
The first cash machine, Barclayscash, was introduced in 1967 which was installed at Enfield Town Branch by de la Rue, becoming the first through-the-wall cash machine in the world. By using a paper voucher, a holder of a Barclays account was able to make withdrawal. This enabled customers to get money when they needed them outside the normal banking hours. These ATM machines became very important such that by 1990s they had been installed in many streets, hence enabling customers to make transactions when they needed to. Due to increasing demand of these ATM services, new generation of IBM systems, zSeries, were installed in 2000s. by 2004, there were over 1 billion ATM transactions which had been processed by the bank, signifying the demand and capacity of the bank to offer the services.
Barclays bank’s department of FinTech has been attributed to innovations in the bank. In 2014, the FinTech, in conjunction with Techstars invented the Barclays Accelerator, making it the first accelerator to be used by a financial institution. This innovation was later adopted by more than 100 banks over a period of three years. The bank has been able to assist start-ups initiate the innovation in carrying out their businesses. Many of the start-ups and companies usually enter into partnership with Barclays in order to implement the programs. Through this technology, the bank has been able to predict customer behavior through machine-based learning, as well as in selling and managing insurance chatbots for property rentals (Vivekanandan & Jayasena, 2011). The technology is also able to use talents from external entrepreneurs as well as internal bank talents, experiences and competencies. This combination is highly innovative for Barclays in up-skilling its internal talent as well as benefiting from external innovations which the bank initiated.
By 1997, the Barclaycard partnered with Cellnet to launch the first mobile phone banking, giving customers access to Barclays account information and Barclaycard from the screen of a phone device. It was followed by the use of internet to do purchase over a mobile phone, which was a revolution in the business world. Barclays partnered with Vodafone to launch the first WAP service in UK in order to combine credit card, banking, as well as share dealing services (Vivekanandan & Jayasena, 2011). This was followed by the launch of Barclays.mobi, a mobile phone service which enables customers to access online banking using a internet-enabled phone. It was advanced by the invention of a smart phone application.
Other innovations which were essential for customers and businesses which required instant bank services include: Pingit, a person-to-person service enabling sending and receiving of money through the use of phone numbers and the Barclaycard PayTag, which enables payment of services by sticking the PayTag at the back of a handset (Vivekanandan & Jayasena, 2011). By 2014, the bank launched Barclaycard Anywhere, a device which enables businesses to receive payment using mobile phones. This service has enabled customers to do online banking, pay for their shopping, save their money, have finances awareness, as well as use Skype in transactions. Additionally, the service offers information security, keeps business contact and enables business to do transactions over the globe (Westney, 2011). This has provided a platform from which international businesses are able to access their customers and receive payments over the internet with much ease. These innovations have also helped the customers in managing their accounts, paying bills, and depositing their cash and cheques.
Rolls – Royce Plc
Corporate Governance
Corporate governance refers to the system of directing and controlling companies. Governance in any company is the responsibility of the board of directors. The role of shareholders in governance is to appoint directors as well as the auditors to ensure that governance of the company is under the right people (Arora & Dharwadkar, 2011). The role of the board is to ensure that the company has proper strategic aims, offer leadership which is necessary in ensuring that aims and objectives are met, as well as supervise the management of business and give report to the shareholders on the progress of the management. The impact of governance is felt in improving accountability and transparency in the existing systems (Arora & Dharwadkar, 2011). The process of governance involves balancing the interests of management, shareholders, suppliers, customers, financiers, the community, as well as the government. Governance encompasses all spheres of management, beginning from action to all internal controls, and the measurement of performance to the corporate disclosure (Boddy, n.d).
Corporate governance also involves set of rules, resolutions and policies which have been put in place to direct the corporate behavior.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Corporate Social Responsibility is a business model which helps a company to be socially accountable to the public, shareholders, as well as the company itself. Through the CSR a company is able to be responsible for the impact it causes to all aspects of the society including environmental, economic and social. Corporate Social Responsibility ensures that a company engages in practices which enhance the environment and society at large instead of having negative impact (Arora & Dharwadkar, 2011). CSR takes different forms based on the kind of the company. The activities undertaken by companies include volunteer efforts and philanthropy. This helps in improving the society while at the same time boosting its brand and public relations. The activities are important in forging a bond between the company and the society at large (Morrison, n.d). In order to undertake a meaningful CSR, a company should be responsible to its stakeholders and the employees. The company should have grown to a level where it is able to give back to the society.
Archie Carroll’s CSR model
Archie Carroll published the “Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility” in 1991which identified four main areas which define Corporate Social Responsibility. These areas include legal, economic, ethical and philanthropic (Motohashi, 2015). This model has been adopted widely to guide companies in carrying out their CSR activities.
Legal
This requires that business carry out legal practices through obeying the existing laws and regulations in order to help in the protection of the consumers who depend on the business and its honesty in its products and relationship with investors who may suffer loss in case the business is shut down or penalized for engaging in unlawful practices (Westney, 2011).
Economic
A company should be responsible enough to be profitable, providing returns to its investors and shareholders as well as create jobs for the communities around it. As the company grows, it should be able to support the community through offering various products and services to the community (Mcfarlane & Curran, 2016). For profitability, the company should engage in innovative ways of running the business in order to increase revenue from its products and services.
Ethical
The ethical responsibilities of a company include waste management, recycling, as well as management. These aspects are in most cases regulated by state, city, or the federal government, but a company should be able to do more than what the law provides and use its own policies and programs which are able to sustain the environment for the future (Westney, 2011). A company should be able to provide measures in order to pay their employees more than the minimum wage and provide safety precautions for its employees, have programs for insurance and benefits, as well as have clean and safe working conditions. This boosts the morale for the employees
Philanthropic
Companies should be able to improve the lives of the society around and also spread goodwill. This could include running programs which helps the society improve their living standards such as construction of schools or provision of clean water to fight waterborne diseases in the society (Mcfarlane & Curran, 2016).
Rolls Royce plc
Rolls Royce plc is a company which develops, manufactures, markets and sells hybrid power and electromechanical systems internationally. The company provides aero engines for both corporate jet market and commercial aircraft (Rolls Royce Home, n.d.). It also provides maintenance, overhaul, repair, as well as aftermarket services. The headquarter of the company is in London
CSR for Rolls Royce involves the integration of the community through recruitment, development and engagement of staff. The CSR aims at investing in the community where the community is given opportunities to participate in activities and programs run in the community as part of Learning and Development section. These activities fall under the legal, economic, ethical and philanthropic aspects (Pomering, 2016). Rolls Royce runs a legal business of manufacturing different aero engines for aircraft. The business is economic in that the company is one of the leading and profitable companies in the manufacture of aircraft engines in the world. Each category of the opportunity is usually aligned to the framework of competency of the company. The staffs of the company are allowed to engage in activities in the community which help in building them up hence benefiting the company.
The activities are aligned to science, technology, engineering, and Maths. They help the staffs to be able to deal with ambiguity, be able to stand alone, and also acquire organizational savvy. These activities make the company ethical because its operations are beneficial to the community. It also runs philanthropic activities through community engagement and involvement (Rolls Royce Home, n.d.). As such, the activities include having the staff develop their own activities, with guidance from brokers of the activities, which are based on education outreaches. The staffs are allowed to engage in activities which will help the community and educate the society at large. The participants are required to provide feedback on the extent of their involvement in the activities and the learning outcomes to the community (Pomering, 2016). Additionally, the activities center on attraction and retention, employee engagement, development and reputation. The rationale behind every activity undertaken is to ensure that there is competency and that the community benefits from the activities.
References
Arora, P., & Dharwadkar, R. (2011). Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): The Moderating Roles of Attainment Discrepancy and Organization Slack. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 19(2), 136-152. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8683.2010.00843.x
Bajada, C., & Trayler, R. (2015). Technology-Driven Service Innovation in the Banking Industry. The Handbook of Service Innovation, 319-343. doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-6590-3_16
Barclays.com. (n.d.). Barclays seeks to boost e-trading innovation. Retrieved December 3, 2018, from https://www.bankingtech.com/2018/08/barclays-seeks-to-boost-e-trading-innovation/
Boddy. D. (n.d). Management, An Introduction by Seventh Edition, Pearson Press,
ISBN 978-0-273-73896-1
Mcfarlane, J., & Curran, R. (2016). Business Organizations The Internal Environment. Enterprise and Its Business Environment. doi:10.23912/978-1-910158-78-4-2923
Morrison J. (n.d). The Global Business Environment by, 4th Edition, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978 – 1 – 137 – 48374-4) Chapters 1 and 11.
Morrison, J. (2011). Introduction to the Business Enterprise. The Global Business Environment, 3-38. doi:10.1007/978-0-230-34437-2_1
Motohashi, K. (2015). Changes in the Global Economic Environment. Global Business Strategy Springer Texts in Business and Economics, 41-55. doi:10.1007/978-4-431-55468-4_3
Pomering, A. (2016). Communicating CSR Through Corporate Image Advertising. Handbook of Integrated CSR Communication CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, 171-190. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-44700-1_10
Rolls Royce Home. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2018, from https://www.rolls-royce.com/
Vivekanandan, L., & Jayasena, V. (2011). Link between the expectations of retail banking customer and electronic banking solutions. 2011 IEEE International Summer Conference of Asia Pacific Business Innovation and Technology Management. doi:10.1109/apbitm.2011.5996328
Westney, D. E. (2011). Global strategy and global business environment: Changing models of the global business environment. Global Strategy Journal, 1(3-4), 377-381. doi:10.1002/gsj.34
