Bendigo and Adelaide Bank

According to Forbes (2017) report, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank is among the largest and most successful companies/firms globally. The bank is located in Australia and serves as a community bank by improving the public’s livelihood. The bank has had great success in the recent years including rising in their profit margin according to a report released about the 2017/2018 financial year. The bank is dedicated towards achievements of its goals which include the raising of the people’s standards of living by offering high quality and tailor-made services and products to fit their needs and also their tastes and preferences. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank is set to ensure that their success is not only in financial gains but also it should be seen in their customers’ satisfaction. This paper gives a deep analysis of the bank citing issues about why it is chosen at a personal level depending on the features of the bank and its capabilities. The paper also examines some of the issues to deal with the specific external environment in order to have more insight of bank. The paper includes other topics as the Organization’s ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and lastly the organization’s culture.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank

Introduction

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank is a successful bank that has been growing over the years. It is an Australian banking institution that focuses mainly on retail banking hence it deals with retail customers. This means that it provides its services such as savings and issuance of transactional accounts to the public. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank is a community bank guided by values that direct the behavior and conduct of the employees and the whole bank in general (Stubbs, 2010). The bank is involved in community work by having charitable services by donating and sponsoring projects for a better welfare of the community. The bank is led by their vision. The bank ensures that the bank-customer relationship bonds are not broken by offering quality services not available in other banks (Stubbs, 2010). The bank has many brands as a result of their partnerships with a number of other different banks thus widening their range of services offered.

Purposes of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank

 Bendigo and Adelaide Bank is a community bank meaning that it serves the interests of the local community. Following an external and internal analysis, it is clear that the bank is able to deal with threats and risks and the strength of the bank outweighs its weaknesses. The bank made huge strides in making profits and according to reports released in the financial year ending in December 2017, it had made profits of over $200 million. The bank has also increased its share dividends up to 35% per share. (Bendigo and Adelaide, 2018)

The bank has set various goals which it has to achieve. For example, the bank has experienced a big growth of loans to the local community and this shows that their bank is still recognized by many people who still prefer it over other competitor banks. About the behavior of its members and customers is that the bank recognizes the roles played by all its stakeholders something which makes the bank to be recognized both locally and internationally. The bank’s services and products offered are recognized for being of great value in terms of loans, interests, and mortgages offered to the public. The positive impact generated by the banks’ good work is drawn from their goal to create a sustainable society to all Australians.

Specific External Environment and its Impacts

Customers

            Customers are key stakeholders in any business because they are involved in buying goods and services. The customers of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank consist of the general Australian public. The bank aims at improving the status and lives of its customers. The bank is customer oriented and thus their main concern is the satisfaction of customers and to ensure their needs are met. The goal of the bank is to ensure that their customers and the general community flourish (Stubbs, 2010). The bank does all it has in its powers to ensure that customers feel comfortable seeking its services.

The bank offers the best services to customers to earn their trust. Quality services given to customers include giving out of loans at low interests to develop themselves. Customers as a factor of the specific external environment are well taken care of by the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank. The bank gives priority to customers by ensuring that products and services given to them are relevant and applicable to the customer’s lines of operation e.g. business loan. The bank avoids any discrimination and gives same quality services to all customers without religious or ethnic or class discrimination. The bank said that it values tolerance and inclusiveness, which are important parts of a strong community; the bank closed an anti-Muslim account (Simon 2014, p.1).

The bank ensures value to customers, shareholders, and community by ensuring fairness and just means in the way all categories are treated. Since it is a community bank, Bendigo and Adelaide is interested in ensuring that it creates relationships with their customers (Stubbs, 2010). These relationships are based on the best of the services than other banks, fairness and also advice to customers. This not only creates a normal relationship but also a life-long relationship between the two parties involved. The bank believes that it can only be successful if its customers are satisfied. Hence, all stakeholders have to benefit from the firm’s activities.

Partners

             In this case, partners are organizations that work together with Bendigo and Adelaide Bank for its success. Some of these partners include:

Leveraged- It is one of the lending firms founded in 1991 by a stockbroker company. Leveraged is recognized for its good lending habits.

Rural bank’s Heartland - It is a bank found mainly in rural areas of Australia. This brand of Bendigo and Adelaide bank provides banking services to primary producers which mainly includes farmers and customers involved in agribusiness and other types of businesses that are seeking for loans.

Rural Finance- It is a firm that has operated since 1945 and in recent years became partners with Bendigo and Adelaide Bank. This firm is also involved in agribusinesses loans and they are specialists as they visit the farms of customers and give advice on the type of loan packages that will well work for them.

Delphi Bank - It as a bank that offers a wide range of banking services. They have over 10 branches in Victoria and this enables them to serve their customers more conveniently. The bank provides flexible financial services that any customer is interested in. Delphi bank ensures friendship and peace thus has a very good role in serving customers’ needs.

Some other brands and partners include Bendigo Bank, Adelaide bank, Sandhurst Trustees and finally Bendigo Wealth.

Employees

            The bank ensures that its employees are well taken care of when working. The management provides secure and healthy areas for employees. The bank ensures that its structures are safe such that a worker cannot get damaged either by equipment or bad design of a working area. Some of the tight measures to protect the employees while working this include ensuring hygiene in the bank to avoid health hazards that may be experienced due to unhygienic working conditions. The bank also promotes the security of its employees by ensuring presence of security guards and fire alarms and extinguishers to be used during fire and such occurrences which may cause injury or death of employees. The company has over 4,000 employees and it is their mandate to protect them from any harm.

Organization’s Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

            Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR according to Financial Times is the intention of a company to go beyond its normal operations and to focus on their awareness of the impact of their business to the public (Stubbs & Chris, 2007). CSR is beyond following and complying with laws and regulations, it also includes social actions that contribute to the greater good of the community and general society (McWilliams et al. 2001, p. 117). Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has a social responsibility to ensure that its activities do not affect the social tranquillity of the community around them. Due to the Bank’s comprehensive strategy, Bendigo and Adelaide has become the leading financial institution in Australia. The firm has a very good relationship which includes giving advice to the general public about their services and products. The bank is having a very good mode of operation. The bank fulfills the following;

Public Expectations

 Bendigo and Adelaide fulfill their customers’ expectations by offering services which have the best quality compared to other banks in Australia (Sheehy, 2012). The bank has in the recent years ensured customer satisfaction a fact proven by the regular growth rates of the banks’ profits. The bank gives loans at low interests with no hidden charges. This is what customers expect, a good and persuasive bank that offers best services. The public expects the bank to be open about its operations and this has seen the bank release of financial accounts document indicating what the bank has been doing in every financial year.

Stockholders’ Interests

The bank has ensured that all stockholders get the value for their money. The bank has been making huge profits and this ensures the growing of stockholders shares. Their shares have continued to gain value over years. This has seen the company raise the returns of stockholders by giving them a 35% increase in their dividends. This is progress that makes more stockholders interested to buy more shares and invest in the stocks market.

Ethical Obligation

Bendigo and Adelaide bank observe ethical conduct by following the set rules. The bank ensures it does the right thing and follows socially acceptable rules. The company believes that its success will be helpful to the customers and the public in general. This is a socially acceptable thing opposed to banks that are interested in just the making of profits while their customers continue suffering in poverty which is both unethical and immoral. The bank has ensured the growth of both themselves and also the growth of their customers by providing with convenient and sufficient information e.g. information about a loan that will best be suitable for a particular type of business.

Public Image

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank expresses the best image to the public. The firm treats customers and the general public with utmost respect as they believe the social arena in banking matters. The bank also realizes the need to have a good public image as a marketing tool to ensure continued trust by the customers. The quality of services and products offered by the bank are the best and it is obvious the social and public image is enhanced. The bank is also open in its operations by giving free communications to the public about its decisions and what it intends to do. The bank is also equitable and ensures transparency of its operations but ensuring it follows the virtue of honesty. The bank is also proud of its experiences. The celebration of pride in its success is shared with the community by involving itself in charitable works and a helping hand in times of need to the community. The bank has many other values to build on its public image. The management also ensures information about the firm’s operations is availed on the bank’s website. This website gives a complete description of the bank and also its operations over the years. The community can easily access this type of information for analysis and clarification if need be. The public will then judge if the bank has been doing a good job or not. This is an idea enhanced by the bank’s value of tolerance a fact which makes the bank to be open to criticism.  

Long-run Profits

            Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has strived to increase its accountability and operate in full honesty by shading light on all its operations to the public. The bank also is accountable for any mistake that may occur in the course of its operations. The firm announces its annual profits every year, something that shows that there is complete honesty. All the books on how profits were made are available to the public and also information about how these profits were made. This shows that through their operations, all the profits are secure and there is no chance that unlawful means were used to acquire profits.

Organisation’s Culture

            Organizational culture encompasses values and behaviors that “contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization” (Alvesson, 2013). Organisation culture includes beliefs, ideas, concepts and principles that affect the way people in an organisation act. An organisations culture directs all actions and ways of doing things in an organisation. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has a specific organization’s culture of how it runs day to day activities including their goals and objectives and the methods of conducting their business. The bank’s culture is seen in its vision and employed values while working. Their main is to become one of the largest connected banks in Australia by bringing banking services closer to the society and all citizens of Australia. The bank is aimed at changing and improving the status quo of their customers. Improvement of the customer’s lives will, in turn, ensure sustained growth of the bank. The bank is motivated by the needs of their customers and at the point of satisfaction of needs of their customers, the banks succeed. The bank rejoices not for the huge profits margin but rejoices for the good and success of their customers’ livelihood. The bank has the vision to enhance integrity by ensuring very strict following of this virtue. Integrity ensures that a customer’s trust is earned and retained such that the customer has a clear picture of what the banks stand for.

            As a community bank, Bendigo and Adelaide has a culture to ensure very close interactions with their customer (Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, 2018). The culture ensures that a bond in the market is created between the customer and the bank. The bank also ensures strict adherence to all laws and regulations set by the government. Furthermore, the institution follows the banking policies which guide its operations. The bank through this culture has received all manner of accreditation from The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). APRA has accredited Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and has seen it as a bank that is very active in implementations set out. This body has also seen the bank as a rallying point for other banks in Australia. Other banks thus are advised to benchmark with Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and understand its culture. The bank thus enjoys the pride due to its recognition as a top company and this joy is attributed to the role of customers, stockholders, and the general public.

            In addition, the bank’s culture is to focus on retail banking in that the general public is given a chance to have convenient banking services. The focus on the public has seen the bank make the public both happy and satisfied. The bank has ensured a huge profit due to increasing number of customers. This is happening at a time when Australia is experiencing a growth in the banking sector and the competition between banks to increase the number of customers is on the rise. Some profits gained by the bank are directed to finance projects that lead to improvement of the society’s life in Australia. The culture of the bank is to help and the customers feel comfortable as they know they will get to witness the value of their money. The Bank’s culture is to partner with different brands thus offering a wide range of products and services (Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, 2018). A customer has no problem identifying a particular service or product that best fits him/her.

The Right Organisational Culture for Me

On the personal Insights Quiz ‘What’s the Right Organisational Culture for Me?’ (Robbins et. al 2016, p. 46)

Score:22 out of 35

This score is an average preference for a more humanistic culture. The score shows I am able to work in any institution as there is room to be open-minded to new ideas and also the ability for innovation purposes. This shows I have the ability to comfortably fit into the organization’s culture.

Conclusion

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank is a world-class bank that every person desires. The bank offers high-quality services which attract a lot of people. As a community bank, it has played a role in ensuring the progress in the success of many Australians. Its strategies in management and also its culture is something that can be considered to be amazing. The bank and the graduate role I have matched perfectly as there is an indication of the bank’s interests that are similar to mine. I have an unexplainable interest in doing something worthwhile just as the bank does. I also have an interest in doing something that the public can appreciate and applaud. The bank does this by helping the public. It is also coupled with the fact that it has always been my dream to work at this community-bank in order to learn more about banking while still serving the community for the greater good.

References

Top of Form

Alvesson, M. (2013). Understanding organizational culture. Los Angeles: SAGE.Bottom of Form

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, 2018. Website. [Online] (Updated in 2018) available at:https://www.bendigoadelaide.com.au

Forbes, 2017. Bendigo & Adelaide Bank. [Online] (Updated in May 2017) available at:

            https://www.forbes.com/companies/bendigo-adelaide-bank/

 McWilliams, A. & Siegel, D., 2001. ”Corporate social responsibility: A theory of the firm                       perspective”. Academy of Management Review. 26 (1): 117–127.

Robbins et. al 2016, ”What’s the Right Organisational Culture for Me?’: Organizational culture.3:46

Sheehy, B., 2012. ”Understanding CSR: An Empirical Study of Private Regulation” : Monash University Law Review. 38: 103–127.

Simon, L., 2014. ”Bendigo Bank stands by decision to close account of anti-mosque group”.

ABC News.

Stubbs, W., & Chris C., 2007.  ”Cooperative, community-spiritedand commercial: social sustainability at Bendigo Bank.” Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management. 14(5): 251-262.

Stubbs, W., 2010. Sustainability as a business model. In Global Sustainability as a Business Imperative (pp. 33-53). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Weinstein, M.,2005. ”Survey on ethics training”. Ethics training. 15