Challenges Faced by Barclays: A PESTEL Analysis

This document discusses the challenges faced by Barclays, including limited innovation and high corruption rate. It also provides a PESTEL analysis of the external environment, highlighting the opportunities and threats in the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Problems and challenges........................................................................................................3
External environment.............................................................................................................4
PESTEL analysis....................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Barclays is multinational investment bank being established in 1690 by Nigel Higgins
and headquartered in U.K. Its services are credit cards, Mortgages, investment banking,
insurance, wealth management etc. Barclays operates in 49 countries and have 4750 branches
across world.
Challenges
 limited innovation
 high corruption rate in different countries.
MAIN BODY
Problems and challenges
The sales of Barclays has declined to more than 5%.
Sales(2019)
33.7%. In the year 2018, the annual revenue of Barclays was $28.212B.
Market share(2019)
8.6% (Pears and Shields, 2019).
Illustration 1: Barclays sales and profit
(Source:Latest financial results, 2018)
Competitors
 JP Morgan
 Citibank

Products of competitors
Debit cards, credit cards, loans, investment, deposit accounts, treasury services etc.
Barriers for company in US
Limited innovation
These two major competitors are known for continuous innovation in services like
digitalization. This is making difficult for Barclays to generate a great revenue in US (Cite them
right, 2019).
Problems
Poor customer service
The employees of Barclays generally faced problems in dealing with the problems of
customers and most of the customer complaints about rude and unresponsive behaviour of the
staff.
External environment
External environment encompasses the various factors outside the firm which impacts
operations as well as functions of the business.
Importance
Helps business to evaluate opportunities and threats which helps in decision-making.
PESTEL analysis
This is framework which helps organizations to analyze macro-environment impacting its
operations.
Importance for Barclays
Help them to know the various factors which will influence their operations and functions.
Political environment
Opportunities
High political stability
Reduced tax
Due to these two factors, company can trade its products at reduced cost and will help to
increase market share (What is PESTEL analysis, 2019).
Threats
High corruption
High bureaucracy

These two factors will affect its market share as high corruption will become roadblock in
conducting business.
Economic
opportunities
Low interest rates
Employment rates
These two factors will make it easy for Barclays to borrow funds at low interest rates and
increase its sales (What is PESTEL analysis, 2019).
Threats
High inflation rate
low exchange rate
These two factors will impact organization in negative way as due to high inflation rate
people will not invest their money
Social factors
Opportunities
Lifestyle
Attitude
Due to luxurious life, people now are oriented towards spending huge amount in
investing in wealth
Threats
Age distribution
Population growth
Due to increased ratio of aged people over youngster, aged people generally do not invest
in various assets and do not invest in funds (Pears and Shields, 2019).
Technological factors
Opportunities
Automation level
Innovation
By bringing innovation in its services, company can increase its market share
Threats
privacy issues

poor security
With growing technology, privacy issues has also increased which might affect sales of
company (Cite them right, 2019).
Environmental factors
Opportunities
Sustainability
Technological dependence
The less use of paper work due to high technological advantage will help organization to
increase its market share
Threats
Environmental policies
Pressure from NGO
The changing environmental policies in different countries might affect sales of company
negatively (Pears and Shields, 2019).
Legal factors
Opportunities
Health safety laws
Discrimination laws
Company has opportunity to inculcate strict laws which will increase its goodwill and
hence sales.
Threats
Data protection
Employment laws
The increased privacy issues due to technology might affect company negatively and
eventually affect its market share (What is PESTEL analysis, 2019).

Illustration 2
(Source: What is PESTEL analysis, 2019)
Porter five forces
Forces High/ Moderate/ Low
Threat of new entrant Low
Bargaining power of suppliers High
Bargaining power of buyers Low
Threat of substitute product Moderate
Rivalry among firms High

Illustration 3
(Source:Porter five forces, 2019)

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Pears, R. and Shields, G.J., 2019. Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Online
Latest financial results. 2018. [Online] Available through: <https://home.barclays/investor-
relations/reports-and-events/latest-financial-results/>
Porter five forces. 2019. [Online] Availabel through:
<https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_08.htm>
What is PESTEL analysis. 2019. [Online] Available through:
<https://blog.oxfordcollegeofmarketing.com/2016/06/30/pestel-analysis/>
Cite them right. 2019. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.citethemrightonline.com/About>