Business Leadership

Any organization’s effectiveness is determined by the tactics it implements as well as the style of leadership it employs. This paper offers an analysis of Barclays PLC and the latest issue affecting its efficiency and productivity.

Barclays PLC is a multinational financial corporation that specializes in finance. The corporation is a public limited company with offices in over 40 countries around the world. Since its inception in 1896, the firm has achieved long-term success in the financial industry. Barclays’ offices are in London, England. Some of the products and services that are offered by Barclays Company include wealth management, retail banking, investment and commercial banking. Other services offered by the company include financial advice, risk management and business expansion and growth (BCS: Summary for Barclays PLC - Yahoo Finance, 2017). One of those strategies that it has embraced in ensuring that sales are boosted is market segmentation. The marketing strategy entails promotion of services and products to specified target groups. It has also been involved in corporate acquisitions which are in line with its business expansionary goal. As at the year ending 2016, the company had a total of 129,400 employees.

The current stock price for the organization is $9.84, while its market capitalization is represented by $41.77 billion (BCS: Summary for Barclays PLC - Yahoo Finance, 2017). Before Brexit vote, Barclays Corporation enjoyed an increase in its financial performance, and this was as a result of the unique strategies that it had put in place. However, in the past two years, the company has experienced a decline in its productivity with its African division being the most affected.

Description of the problem that the organization is currently facing

In the past two years, Barclays PLC has experienced a significant decline in its financial performance. This has contributed to the closure of some of its branches in several African countries (Barclays set to exit African business, 2017). The reduction in the company’s financial performance has been attributed to various factors. Aggressive competition stands as one of the primary problems that Barclays has failed to come up suitable measures to address it. There has been an increase in the number of financial institutions in those regions where Barclays has set its operations, and this has primarily been witnessed in the African continents. Most of those banks that have cropped up in Africa over the past decade have a better understanding of the market compared to Barclays PLC. This has since made it hard for the company to keep up with its rival firms in terms of market share, thus leading to the closure of some of its branches.

Other than aggressive competition faced by the Barclays PLC, it has also been exposed to cracks in the organizational structure of some of its branches around the world. This has in return ended up leading to a reduction in the productivity and failure by the employees to meet the set goals and objectives. The problem of poor working relationships among the workers in some of the Barclays’ branches has further ended up leading to a drop in its financial performance.

Conclusion

Barclays is one of the giants in the financial sector in terms of assets and market capitalization. The bank has, however, in the past two years, been faced with the problems of a reduction in its productivity as a result of aggressive competition and poor working relationships among employees in some of its branches.

References

Barclays set to exit African business. (2017). Ft.com. Retrieved 8 September 2017, from https://www.ft.com/content/01d64502-dca4-11e5-827d-4dfbe0213e07

BCS : Summary for Barclays PLC - Yahoo Finance. (2017). Finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 8 September 2017, from https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BCS?p=BCS