STRATEGIC RESPONSES BY CITIBANK LIMITED TO EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES BY: PIIOEBE GITAU UNIVEk S* i < i 31 LOWER KAP5TE LIBRARY A Management Research Project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Business Administration of the University of Nairobi, School of Business October 2009 DECLARATION STUDENT’S DECLARATION I declare that his research project is my original work and has not been presented to any other university for the award of a degree. / / £ J r - Signature — Student s Name PHOEBE GITAU Reg. No. D61/P/8412/2003 Date _ / / < / Q Will pay high prices (due to high dependence or low product significance) > Will pay top prices Tailored products that include quality and service Bargain basement Aggressive 16 > Sensitive to price > Powerful customers y Relatively insensitive to service > Price sensitive > Quality standards set for low costs > Quality sensitive > Service sensitive These classes of customers are increasingly being recognized, with banks tailoring their strategies to target those segments that match their own positioning. Crane and Eccles (1987), suggest that business units be treated as a separate business. Once separated then each division can develop its own strategy based on the segment it serves. 2.4.4 Cross-Selling Strategy The basic thrust of bank marketing strategies is to increase the penetration of products to their existing customers through more effective cross- selling (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). Gavigan (1992) has articulated this strategy as: i. it is much easier, and cheaper, to sell to “warm bodies”; and ii. Farming an existing account base is much belter than hunting for new customers. Products are no longer seen as providing banks with sustainable competitive advantage (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). However extending the range of services that are available through branches may improve the effectiveness of these channels. Banks have the people and the systems to distribute “information-based” products that are linked to their core activities, such as travel services, house sales and conveyance. 2.4.5 Relationship Strategy A retail bank may adopt a relationship strategy based on attracting the low profit cash transmission business of customers in the “carriage trade” segment, and then deepen the relationship by superior service, to cross-sell more profitable products (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). The same bank may use another division to service the “bargain 17 basement customers”, through a non-branch telephone banking system, which has a product based focus. Obviously those banks that operate on low costs and have good credit policies can offer lower prices, and will dictate prices in the industry. Huge relational databases are being built that capture data on customers from their day- to-day transactions through the bank’s Information Technology (IT) systems. This provides bank marketers with information to improve techniques to identify customer segments and predict customer needs. Segmentation, in the past, was a crude affair used to blanket the market with fairly unsophisticated marketing techniques such as the ubiquitous mail shot (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). The objectives of segmentation today are to profile the lifestyle of those in the customer base (in addition to their demographics) in order to tailor products and delivery to meet the needs of the selected segments. Changing lifestyles and increased affluence have led to higher service expectations by the customer. This has made distribution the key marketing variable (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). The traditional delivery channel is the branch network. The mass marketing era saw the establishment of branches on every main thoroughfare; however, as this investment took place, it was not fully recognized that these new non-business customers did not have the same discretionary time to visit the branches as the business community on which banks had traditionally focused. This new mass market was engaged in earning their incomes in the 10.00 a.m. until 3.30 p.m. slot that the banks chose to do their business. Prior to the introduction of computers, banks needed time to perform manual account administration, at which times the public were seen as an “inconvenience”. This is now changing, with 9.00 a.m. until 5.00 p.m. opening, and late evening and Saturday opening returning (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). 2.4.6 Direct Marketing The introduction of widespread networks of cash machines and the willingness of retailers to give cash on the growing numbers of debit cards is reducing the need for 18 personal customers to come into a branch (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). The delivery of products to the personal sector is an important area of strategic thinking, as there is a perception of non-availability of branch service, and this is coupled with the increasing number of non-branch outlets for obtaining cash. Pottruck (1992) states that product innovation no longer offers banks a source of sustainable competitive advantage, as sophistication in IT means that products can be quickly copied. Marketing strategy is thus increasingly focused on delivery. The survey by Trethowan and Scullion (1997) shows that 84 per cent of respondents believe that the numbers of banks offering an alternative to the traditional branch network will increase, and 84 per cent also believe that direct marketing and branch networks will also increase. Direct marketing offers the advantages of convenience, total sales orientation and low maintenance costs (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). Branch networks are the primary delivery channels for bank services, and also act as a barrier to entry in the industry (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). Many branches were designed in the past to reflect the solidity of the parent bank, not the needs of the mass market personal customer. However, their architectural features have attracted preservation orders making them difficult to renovate for today’s needs. This increasingly leads to the following strategic issues (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997): i. Are all branches necessary and in appropriate locations? Is a high street presence valued over convenient car parking? ii. Will an acceptable payback be achieved by amalgamating or relocating selected branches? 2.4.7 Quality of Sales and Service Banks at present use a mix of advertising and sponsorships at national, regional, and local levels (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). Many banks’ promotion strategies are now turning to building a cultural identity of sales and service excellence that will be recognizable to their customers and the marketplace in general. Whitley (1991) suggests 19 four points to achieve good third party reputations through the quality of their sales and service. First, service quality must be intertwined. This requires commitment to the concept from the whole organization. The burden should not fall solely on front-line staff in each “moment of truth” for quality, to achieve the required standards of service. The production and support process must be tracked back through the organization and the contribution of all involved should meet these standards. Secondly, there should be consistency in product and delivery standards. This requires careful design of both factors to minimize the variability of the human resource. Thirdly, control of standards must be achieved by adopting techniques that will turn service into tangible measurements. Lastly, quality will continue to improve, and therefore what was good today may not be good enough in a year’s time. For this reason, chosen quality levels must be kept under review. Banks today need to work hard to repair their image; it is a paradox that when the consumer is seeking higher standards of quality, much of the focus of bank strategy is on managing to survive with depleted capital following past strategic mistakes (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). It is evident that various strategic areas already discussed cannot be viewed discretely; capital adequacy is influencing marketing strategy, which in turn is influencing human resource and IT strategies. These in turn are closely linked to how banks operate and organize themselves. At present, banks are highly bureaucratized organizations that are set up to excel in administrative procedures rather than as retailers (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). This is achieved by using the divisionalized form supported by machine bureaucracies that have served the banks well and will continue to predominate. This provides tight controls of standards and performance, both in the internal operation of banks, and in facilitating fairness and standards to the customer. This is especially so as a major part of their operation entails performing a number of routine tasks many times and across a large 20 number of remote locations. Banks will continue to fine-tune their organizations to facilitate change, to be more market-oriented and to save costs. This will be achieved by implementing wider, flatter organizations with improved internal communication (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997): 2.4.8 Human Resource Strategies The importance of human resource strategy is crucial to banks, as the performance and cost of those employed in the industry is fundamental to its future success. The survey by Trethowan and Scullion (1997) shows 84 per cent agreement with this statement. This is another area where banks are attempting to raise quality and at the same time cutting costs. Human resource strategies must support the strategic direction of the organization. Cost is a major differentiator in financial services and all major participants must pay attention to staff costs, which is their major cost driver, to remain competitive. Players in the industry will continue to match each other around the market price, so other forms of differentiation are needed, with service quality being increasingly important in achieving competitive advantage. The strategic challenge is thus to reduce costs while simultaneously improving quality (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). In the past, banks needed large numbers of clerical staff to process the paper that snowballed because of the business generated by the mass marketing campaigns. Technology is increasingly providing solutions to the administration of the banks’ business (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). The obvious place for capital-hungry banks to save costs is in reducing their biggest cost area - staff The reduction in overall numbers is being contrasted by the rising proportion of part-time staff and contractors. The process will be achieved by voluntary and compulsory redundancy schemes and by early retirement. Contracting out services is fairly limited at present, confined to areas such as IT development, cash transportation and cheque printing (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). 21 Thus all banks individually engage in non-core activities which lead to dis-economies of scale in premises, capital and manpower, and raises the general level of costs in the industry. A greater emphasis on contractors will only happen when suppliers emerge that will provide the same services at a lower cost than the banks currently incur for the service. As well as being part of the value chain, contractors will also be part of the quality chain, and must therefore be as reliable as the systems that the banks currently pay dearly for to control themselves. 2.4.9 Information Technology Money has frequently been described as “information in motion” and banks are among the biggest users of information technology. Over the past two decades IT has allowed banks to expand their activities to the mass market. However the survey results by Trethowan and Scullion (1997) show that 85 per cent of retail bankers are not fully satisfied with their IT systems. The first generation of automation has now passed, and in retrospect three main failings have been identified (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). The first failure is that they were initially designed with a product focus. This has led to systems in banking resembling patchwork quilts, constantly in a state of repair and modification. Problems associated with systems that no longer match the needs of the business include line staff being unable to cope with the administrative burden, caused by the work generated to achieve operating plans’ as well as customers of one division not being identified as common customers of the group as the types of products banks offer expand. This resulted in poor performance in cross-selling, which is the very area that banks are staking out as their main marketing strategy. The second failure is that of user involvement in the design and implementation of the systems (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). The first generation of system analysts consulted with users and then disappeared until implementation date when it was too late for users to comment on the systems that they would have to use every day. Finally, banks set up their initial IT accounting systems at account level, to reflect the way they had administered their old manual systems (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). It was easy to detect the extent of a customer’s overall relationship by examining physical ledger 22 pages. However, automating this arrangement gave banks real headaches in retrieving customers’ files from all around their systems. Paradoxically, just as banks’ systems are addressing this issue, the banks’ voluntary code of practice is placing constraints on how they use information on their personal customers. Although capital is scarce in the industry, banks continue to invest huge sums in IT, as it is acknowledged that lack of investment in this area damages a bank’s ability to compete effectively (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). Banks are making the transition to customer- based information being held on relational databases in their efforts to become more market-oriented and to resolve the difficulties of holding details of customers at account level. The details of individual accounts are clustered around the customer’s static details records, such as name and age. The speed at which technology continues to develop makes predicting the future of systems in banking difficult. IT solutions to business problems must provide information support to place the customer in the centre of their operations; aid in-time compression in the development of banks’ products and services; and reduce overall costs by improving productivity throughout the organization (Trethowan and Scullion, 1997). 2.5 Strategy and Performance Strategy is the broad way in which an organization seeks to maintain or improve its performance. This is relatively enduring and unlikely to change substantially in the short term (Zajac and Shortell 1989). A broad range of management research supports this contention. For example, the literature on population ecology argues that once an organization is established so is its structure and overall approach (Hannan and Freeman, 1977), and a range of evidence indicates that organizations are relatively inert; once routines are set they are difficult to change (Amburgey, et al., 1990; Barnett and Freeman 2001). Earlier on, Porter (1980 and 1986) pointed out that a firm can gain its competitive advantage by producing value to its customers. The author emphasized that a firm can gain its competitive advantage by peiforming the chain of strategically important 23 activities (such as production, marketing, sales, service, human resource management, technology development and procurement) cheaply or better than its competitors. Based on these activities, Porter developed the following three generic business strategies; low cost, differentiation and focus (niche). In a low cost strategy, the firm attempts to reduce cost and increase profit as well as sales by using economies of scale, scope and technology. In a differentiation strategy, the firm emphasizes on developing ways to make products appear unique and different. Finally, in a niche (focus) strategy, the firm focuses on product development and marketing efforts in a particular market segment that the firm has a cost or differentiation advantage. Using the Porter's three generic competitive strategies (low cost, differentiation and focus), Schroeder, et al., (1995) indicated the linkage between the generic strategies and manufacturing technology. In addition, Mosakowski (1993) found that entrepreneurial firms that adopted focus and differentiation strategies performed better than firms that do not use these strategies. Although, many studies have found that different companies in different countries tend to emphasize on different performance measurement, the literature suggests financial profitability and growth to be the most common measures of organizational performance. Nash (1993) claimed that profitability is the best indicator to identify whether an organization is doing things right and hence profitability can be used as the primary measure of organization success. Furthermore, Doyle (1994) pointed profitability as the most common measure of performance in western companies. Profit margin, return on assets, return on equity, return on sales are considered to be the common measures of financial profitability (Robinson, 1982; Galbraith and Schendel, 1983). Abu Kassim et. Al (1989) found sales, sales growth, net profit and gross profit were among the financial measures preferred by the manufacturing firms. 24 CHAPTER TH REE: RESEARCH M ETHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Design This study adopted a case study design meant to investigate strategic responses to external environmental challenges by Citibank Limited. Terry & Franklin (1997) define a case study as a description of a situation involving problems to be solved. A case study is also an in-depth investigation of an individual, group, institution or phenomenon (Mugenda O & N. Mugenda 1999). 3.2 Data Collection In this study, emphasis was given to primary data. The primary data was collected on the external environmental challenges facing Citibank Limited and the strategic responses there-to. The primary data was collected using interview guides. Interview guide was chosen for it allows for flexibility in the direction of question hence comprehensive data collection is ensured and the interviewer can direct the interviewees in case of difficulty in answering a question. The interview guide was structured into three sections named Section A, Section B and Section C; Section A was on general information, Section B was on the external challenges while Section C was on strategic response to the external challenges. The interview was done on 5 senior employees of Citibank Limited; the number is small enough to eliminate duplicity and redundancy of data collected and large enough to ensure comprehensive and exhaustive data collection on the external challenges that Citibank Limited faces and the strategic responses there-to. The interview was administered through personal interviews with the sampled interviewees after the researcher booked appointments with the five senior managers at Citibank Limited. 3.3 Data Analysis Being that the data collected was qualitative in nature, the study employed thematic content analysis. Content analysis is the systematic qualitative description of the composition of the objects or materials of the study (Mugenda and Mugenda, 1999). The analyzed data was then presented in prose. 25 CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATIONS 4.1 Introduction This chapter presents the data analysis and interpretations of the findings. Data was analyzed using thematic content analysis and presented in prose. All the 5 sampled interviewees including heads of finance, risk management, human resources, marketing and research division, and public affairs and communication division were interviewed which makes a response rate of 100%. The commendable response rate was achieved at after the researcher made personal calls and visits to remind the interviewees to honor the interview appointment that they had accepted earlier. 4.2 Demographic Information The study was conducted on the interviewees who 3 males and 2 females senior managers from various departments; human resource, research and development, external affiliation, customer relations and finance. The study found that Citibank have around sixty five employees in the two branches combined with several interns and contract staffs who help in offsetting perennial increase in service demand. 4.3 Major Challenges in the External Environment To the question on whether the Bank assesses the impact of external environment so as remain vibrant and successful in the long run, the interviewees were in agreement and further intimated that the Bank assesses the relevant groups as customers, competitors, consumers, suppliers, creditors and the government or political climate. The study proceeded to determine whether the organization was faced by major challenges in the environment. All the interviewees agreed that the organization was face by external environmental challenges. The study then proceeded to inquire from the respondents the various external environmental challenges that had a major impact on the operations from the environment. The interviewees cited competition from firms within the banking and non banking industry, global economic crisis, political instability and low technological advancements. The interviewees further confided that 26 fluctuation in the foreign exchange market, the perception that the bank is foreign owned hence individual customers shunned it; the extensive branch network by other banks more than it had has affected its operations. To the question on the changes that have taken place due to political climate, the interviewees cited low cash flows, reduced foreign investments in the country, entry of many competitors due to liberalization of the economy; regulation and receptive attitude of potential customers since the bank is foreign owned. The study also proceeded to determine whether the organization had been faced with technological changes due to challenges posed by the same. The interviewees concurred that the Bank had been faced with technological changes like establishment of various areas that technology had taken toll like adoption Information Communication Technology such as Management Information System (MIS), putting up of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and mobile banking system. 4.4 Strategic Responses to the External Environment To the question on the type of strategic responses to the changes in the corporation’s external environment, the interviewees intimated that strategic responses were both proactive and reactive to the changes in the coiporation’s external environment. The interviewees further intimated that the Bank had put up various measures to mitigate the effect of these challenges. The interviewees said that the responses were strong financial strategies (operation cost reduction), innovation (product, technology) and invention (new product and technological) strategies and research and development ventures aimed at developing the relevant customer knowledge. The interviewees also cited investment in technology strategies that had been adopted in response to the challenges. On technology the interviewees said that the Bank has a powerful technological infrastructure supporting CitiService such as multitasked environment, access to bank applications, internal messaging system and tax gateway, automatic call distribution 27 system and automated query handling systems. So as to develop a competent staff to match those of their competitors the respondents said that the Citibank provides diverse world-class challenging career opportunities by developing, recognizing and rewarding performance. The management style consists of a robust and transparent process of assessment, coaching, training and reward, which enables the employees to realize their full potential in line with their career aspirations. The interviewees further said that the Bank ensures that the most competent employees enter its stream by recruiting graduates who have first class or second class upper or GPA 3.4+ from an internationally recognized university. The Bank also ensures that the candidate is competent in the area of financial aptitude, excellent communication skills and leadership potential. The interviewees confided that these ensure that the employees deliver quality and innovative services to the customers. The interviewees also said that, due it’s in extensive branch network, two branches, Citibank made a decision to exit from retail business and SME’s because they could not compete with the large local banks that have wide branch networks to service this industry. Thus, Citibank’s target customers are the middle to top-end corporate clients. The interviewees further said that the Bank has overcome the lack of branch network through partnerships with other institutions for the delivery of their services, for example, Postbank for payments and G4 Security Group for cash collections The interviewees further confided that though, the bank faces competition from the large banks, they manage to keep them at bay with their superior automated product delivery (such as their payments system) which differentiates them. However, the interviewees acknowledged that the lead gap they’ve had is narrowing Due to global financial crisis, the interviewees confided that the bank has cut down its human resources in its Mombasa branch as a strategic response to reduce salary expenses. The interviewees further said that since superior service delivery is critical for Citibank, hence internally, the Bank’s business segments work closely together e.g. the product group and relationship managers 28 CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY O F THE FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Introduction This chapter presents the summary of the findings from chapter four, conclusions and recommendations of the study based on the objectives of the study 5.2 Summary of the Findings 5.2.1 Social Demographic Information The study was conducted on the interviewees who 3 males and 2 females senior managers from various departments; human resource, research and development, external affiliation, customer relations and finance. The study found that Citibank have around sixty five employees in the two branches combined with several interns and contract staffs who help in offsetting perennial increase in service demand. 5.2.2 External Environmental Challenges Affecting the Operations of Citibank Limited. I he study found out that the Bank assesses the impact of external environment so as remain vibrant and successful in the long run by focusing on the relevant groups as customers, competitors, consumers, suppliers, creditors and the government or political climate. The study’s findings indicated that the Bank faces major challenges from the external environment which affects its operations, such as, competition from firms within the banking and non banking industry, global economic crisis, political instability and low technological advancements. The study further found out that several changes have taken place due to change in political and technological climate. In political climate, the changes were: low cash flows, reduced foreign investments in the country, entry of many competitors due to liberalization of the economy; regulation and receptive attitude of potential customers since the bank is foreign owned while on technological environment the changes were: 29 adoption Information Communication Technology such as Management Information System (MIS), putting up of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and mobile banking system. 5.2.3 Strategic Responses to Challenges of the External Environment The study found out that the bank adopted both reactive and proactive strategies in order to combat the challenges brought about by external environment. The Bank had put up various measures to mitigate the effect of these challenges such as strong financial strategies (operation cost reduction), innovation (product, technology) and invention (new product and technological) strategies and research and development ventures aimed at developing the relevant customer knowledge and investment in technology strategies. On technology the study found out that said that Citibank Limited has a powerful technological infrastructure supporting CitiService such as multitasked environment, access to bank applications, internal messaging system and fax gateway, automatic call distribution system and automated query handling systems. So as to develop a competent staff to match those of their competitors the study found out that Citibank provides diverse world-class challenging career opportunities by developing, recognizing and rewarding performance. The management style consists of a robust and transparent process of assessment, coaching, training and reward, which enables the employees to realize their full potential in line with their career aspirations. The study further found that the Bank ensures that the most competent employees enter its stream by recruiting graduates who have first class or second class upper or GPA 3.4+ from an internationally recognized university. The Bank also ensures that the candidate is competent in the area of financial aptitude, excellent communication skills and leadership potential, all these, the study findings indicated that, ensure that the employees deliver quality and innovative services to the customers. The study’s findings indicated that the Bank, due its in extensive branch network (two branches), made a decision to exit from retail business and SME’s because they could not compete with the large local banks that have wide branch networks to service this 30 industry. Thus, Citibank’s target customers are the middle to top-end corporate clients. The study further found out that the Bank has overcome the lack of branch network through partnerships with other institutions for the delivery of their services, for example, Postbank for payments and G4 Security Group for cash collections. Though the bank faces competition from the large banks, they manage to keep them at bay due to their superior automated product delivery (such as their payments system) which differentiates them. Due to global financial crisis, the study’s findings illustrates that the bank has cut down its human resources in its Mombasa branch as a strategic response to reduce salary expenses. The study further found that since superior service delivery is critical for Citibank, hence internally, the Bank’s business segments work closely together e.g. the product group and relationship managers 5.3 Conclusion The study concludes that Citibank had been faced by various external environmental challenges. However the organization had made various arrangements to mitigate the consequences of these challenges. These included having a visionary leadership as the main ingredient of successful business, good corporate culture and institutionalizing of competitive strategies. Institutionalizing of competitive strategies, allocation of adequate resources, visionary leadership and good corporate culture, amongst others arc necessary ingredients for successful business strategies in response to environmental challenges. To be successful over time, an organization must be in tune with its external environment. 'There must be a strategic fit between the environment wants and what the firm has to offer, as well as between what the firm needs and what the environment can provide. Since human resources are the most important asset and most difficult to control, creating an environment that suits them is a good strategy for an organization, Citibank thus so as to produce the most quality product and services, provides diverse world-class challenging career opportunities by developing, recognizing and rewarding performance. The bank also ensures the same by recruiting graduates who have first class or second class upper or GPA 3.4+ from an internationally recognized university. 31 The study further concludes that the Bank, due its in extensive branch network (two branches) as contrasted to the extensive branch network of other banks exited from retail business and SME’s because they could not compete with the large local banks that have wide branch networks to service this industry and target customers are the middle to top- end corporate clients. The study further concludes that the Bank has mitigated the same through partnerships with other institutions for the delivery of their services, for example, Postbank for payments and G4 Security Group for cash collections. 5.4 Recommendations The study recommends that for Citibank to able to overcome external environmental challenges, the institution needs to employ human resource strategies. The importance of human resource strategy is crucial to banks, as the performance and cost of those employed in the industry is fundamental to its future success. The study also recommends that for Citibank to overcome competition as an environmental challenge, measures taken need to have a flexible approach so that they can adapt and improvise to the changing conditions to put their best foot forward. These may include competitive products and technological advancements. 5.5 Limitations The study was limited in that it was only carried out on one institution that is Citibank Kenya Ltd. Hence the findings were only related to the institution whereas there are various other banks with different strategic responses on environmental challenges 5.6 Areas of further research The study focuses on strategic responses on external environmental challenges. 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(1996) Structuring Networks for Maximum Performance Under Managed Care, Healthcare Financial Management, 58(12) 37-54. www.citibank.com. Retrieved on 5th September, 2009. Yip G. (1989) Global Strategy ... In a World of Nations, Sloan Management Review, 31 (1), 29-41. 34 UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI SCHOOL OF BUSINESS toA ntoaitA mi - uovte kabktk campus i M iu w » » < t vfiix ism fm M M naD m a Telephone: 020-2059162 Telegrams: “Varsity'’, Nairobi Telex: 22095 Varsity P.O. Box 30)97 Nairobi, Kenya DATE...?Q J lO I OJ TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN The bearer of this letter... E M £ M ...........A/V P.kA.&..... 0 Registration No: . ..... l'E -D°z...................................... is a Master of Business Administration (MBA) student of the University of Nairobi. He/she is required .to submit as part of his/her coursework assessment a research project report on a management problem. We would like- the students to do their projects on real problems affecting firms in Kenya. We would, therefore, appreciate if you assist him/her by allowing him/her to collect data in your organization for the research. The results of the report will be used solely for academic purposes and a copy of the same will be availed to the interviewed organizations on request. Thank you. ,^/pMi»V3bBSITY OF NAIROBI m r tn r ) M O O l . O f - B U S I N E S S BA OFF!OE r-irj \I\I IM iriAin 3019?DR. W.N. IRAKI rj/\in O fr{ CO-ORDINATOR, MBA PROGRAM Appendix I: interview guide: Strategic Responses by Citibank Limited to External Environmental Challenges Please fill in all parts as sincerely as possible by putting a tick on one of the options given, where applicable. For those that require your opinion, please use the space provided. SECTION A: DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONS 1. Gender 2. Name of the department......................................................... 3. What is the size of your organization in terms of employees? SECTION B: ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES 4. List the challenges that have had major impact on your operations from the environment. 5. What changes has taken place due to challenges posed by, political and technological environment? , 5 LO. . P « f\ I* r •IY SECTION C: STRATEGIC RESPONSES 6. Did you make any arrangements to mitigate the consequences of these challenges? How 7. 8. Which responses led to fruitful results? Indicate briefly why? 9. Do you consider the various response strategies adopted by Citibank Limited to be proactive or reactive to the changes in the corporation’s external environment? 10. What are the strategic responses that the bank has adopted to the challenges posed by the external environment? Thank you.