Strategic Management: Professional Development Portfolio and Project

In this analysis we will discuss about strategic management and below are the summaries point:- The text discusses a strategic professional development portfolio (PDP) and its importance for personal growth and goal-setting. It emphasizes the use of self-assessment and self-appraisal for creating a PDP and overcoming challenges effectively. The author shares their experience as an AVP Finance and how they created an action plan for continuous development.

Running head: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Strategic Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Task 1: Strategic Professional Development Portfolio (PDP)...................................................2
A. Introduction.......................................................................................................................2
B. Critical Reflection.............................................................................................................2
C. Personal Action Plan.........................................................................................................7
Bibliography and Annotation...............................................................................................10
Task 2: Strategic Management Project....................................................................................14
1. Executive Summary.........................................................................................................14
2. Introduction......................................................................................................................15
3. Literature Review.............................................................................................................22
4. Analysis and Restructure..................................................................................................24
5. Conclusion........................................................................................................................26
Bibliography and Annotation...............................................................................................28
Appendices...........................................................................................................................35

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Task 1: Strategic Professional Development Portfolio (PDP)
A. Introduction
Personal development planning is a significant procedure to create any action plan for
awareness, reflection, planning, values and goal-setting for the personal development (Tattum
and Tattum 2017). The major strengths, competencies and attributes are considered for
indicating how the personal development plan is to be realized. This type of plan involves a
portfolio containing evidence of such skills that are being gathered within any specific time
frame (Holt 2016).
Personal development plan is also completed with the help of self-assessment and
self-appraisal (Dowling 2014). A minimum of 6 months is required for knowing about the
annual performance review process. The great successes and accomplishments are being
achieved with this kind of self-evaluation. The challenges are easily overcome with self-
appraisal and hence it is extremely vital to share the challenges and overcome them
effectively and efficiently (Moon 2013).
I have done created my personal development plan or PDP for the purpose of
enhancing the skills, abilities and also for motivating towards my attainment of previously
determined objectives and goals. I have been working as AVP Finance in one of the most
popular and significant Banks in United Arab Emirates. Hence, I had to create my PDP so
that I can be much effective in continuously developing process. I have taken as exercise on a
monthly, quarterly, half yearly and annual basis (Beausaert et al. 2013). I was able to sort out
my entire yearly actions with the help of an action plan.
B. Critical Reflection
B.1 Myself as AVP Finance

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Being the Assistant Vice President Finance of Emirates NBD Bank in United Arab
Emirates, I have to ensure that I am able to use my skills as well as expertise for achieving
success. It is one of the largest financial institutions and is serving clients through several
branches (Pais and Santos 2014). This bank is a major economic engine that is providing vast
services and capital after facilitation of trade and development in the entire UAE. While
working in this particular organization, I had to achieve my efficiency driven KPIs or key
performance indicators.
My strongest skills identified would be analytical and interpersonal skills. Since I am
the AVP Finance in this bank, it is my responsibility to check various works like maintenance
of sound financial management practices, overseeing fiscal operations, payroll, budget,
accounts payable or receivable and many more. It is easy for me to use these skills for
fulfilling my duties (Oreglia 2014). Moreover, I also am able to undertake relevant and
suitable decisions and coach and develop other people in the company. My most significant
attribute of leadership is being clear and logical thinking.
I can be best described as analyst and after my observation, I got to know people
usually notice about my ability to succeed in the face of conflict and opposition (Hopkins and
Putnam 2013). After completing the chapter 1, I got score of 21a of organizational structure.
In the chapter 2 of strategy, organizational design and effectiveness, I got to know about my
strategy and performance strength. While keeping the records, I have the tendency to be both
careful and attentive regarding documentation (Hallam and Council 2015). One of major
strengths is to commit for getting the things work.
Since, I am a grasshopper thinker and thus I get hopped from one idea to another. My
organization expects me to manage analysis and then oversight of investment on behalf of my
firm and with my creative ideas, I am able to do so. My score for this chapter was 8 and I was

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highest amongst my peers (Kraiger and Cavanagh 2014). For the third chapter of
fundamentals or organizational structure, I understood the pleasure and pain of working in a
team. I have got score of 7 and hence it proves that I prefer to work in a team. It interprets
that team work motivates me to work and I am extremely comfortable while working with
other team members. The next chapter is for the external environment. It was required to fit
mind to an organization within the most uncertain environment (Dolga et al. 2015). I have
scored 3 and hence it proved that my mindfulness level is suited to an organization in a stable
environment.
The chapter 5 is regarding inter organizational relationships and personal networking.
I have several sources of information and after answering few questions, I got the score of 8
and hence it depicts that I possess the opportunity of active networking. I have considerable
amount of networking and have a culture of efficiency for out of the box thinking. Hence, it
becomes easier for me to encourage diversified ideas of dissimilar weightage. In the sixth
chapter, I have scored 4 and it depicted that I have cognitive CQ and I undertake decisions
from my intellect (Agafonova, Bryukhova and Kaigorodov 2015). The seventh chapter is for
manufacturing and service technologies. After completing this specific chapter, I have got
score of 6, which demonstrates I consist of a distinctive processing style.
For chapter 8 of goal setting, I have scored full marks of 9 and hence it proved that
goal setting is my style. A better preparation is done by me for completing the tasks by
setting clearer, specific as well as challenging goals. These goals were fulfilled by me so that
it becomes easier to achieve success in work. Regarding selection of organization size, life
cycle and decline, I have scored only 2, which depicts that I am happier in small and less
structured company. This is a major demerit since I am not comfortable while working in
larger organizations. In the chapter 10, I understood that I have corporate culture preference

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of bureaucratic culture. I understood the organization is stable as well as structured with
utmost clarity and established processes.
For chapter 11 of innovation and change, I have scored 7 and it proved that I am
extremely innovative and can easily adopt changes. Innovativeness is eventually considered a
positive quality for people and corporate entrepreneurship is enhanced with effectiveness.
The decision making process was involved in the chapter 12. There are distinctive five words,
which best describe how I make my final choice and these are logic, inner knowing, concepts,
reason and significant feelings (Arthurson 2015). With the core help of these above
mentioned five words, I am able to undertake subsequent decision for my organization and
how I am benefitted from the work. In this particular chapter, I got score of 5 and thus it
ensured that I have excellent decision making process. The final chapter is for conflict, power
and politics. Although, I tried hard, I scored extremely less and hence I understood that I do
not comprise of any kind of political skill. My score in this chapter was only 2 out of 8 and I
gained broad support an influence.
After discussion with my group members, I understood that I have scored higher
points in comparison to my other team members. Only in two sections of political skills and
selection of organization size, my score was lower than the rest. I decided to work in these
two points for making my professional life even better and efficient. I also had similarities in
score in few sections like score of HR and organizational stability with one of friends and we
both were able to compare and contrast our scores.
B.2 Areas of Future Development
(I) Political Skills: My first and the foremost area of future development is political
skill. Since, I have score only 2 out of score, it proves that I do not consist of any political
skill. I am often unable to resolve organizational conflicts by using my power (Chen and

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Huang 2017). The points of this particular chapter included whether I have the ability to
properly and effectively communicate with other team members, whether I spend most of my
time for development of connections with several individuals outside my domain and many
more. I got “mostly false” in almost all of the 8 factors. The only two factors that I have got
“mostly true” are I am good at sensing several motivations or hidden agendas of other people
and I instinctively know the correct thing to say and do.
An effective score of more than 6 was required for suggesting higher active political
skills and a better start for the career majorly in the company for getting things done.
However, since I have scored only 2, it was evident that I should work on my political skills
for understanding the political scenario of the company. The companies are subsequently
viewed as political arenas (Ross et al. 2014). Although, I believe it is quite important to
emphasize on the personal networking, I have to inspire others in working or completing my
tasks in an efficient manner. I even acted responsibly after proper consideration of political
skill development and also selecting the correct words to be spoken at the appropriate place.
(II) Organization Size: The second distinctive and important future area of
development is organizational size. Although, I comprise of some of the most significant and
important factors like corporate culture preference, goal setting, personal networking, mind
and environment, strategy and performance strength and various others (Glück and Bluck
2013). However, in spite of all of these skills and scoring extremely high in these areas, I
have not quite less in chapter 9 of organization size, life-cycle and finally decline. The
selection of proper organization size is highly mandatory for reducing work pressure and load
to a high level. I have scored only 2 in this particular chapter. As per this score, I am more
comfortable in working in smaller and lesser structured organization and I often face issues
while working in larger organizations.

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I got negative in almost every factor like wanted to ensure that the organization
comprises of better advantages, earning 90000 dollars a year as a vice president within small
company than earning 100000 dollars a year as the middle manager in a bigger organization
and many more. I only got 2 points in the factors of valuing stability and predictability within
the company, where I am working and I would rather work on a specific team, in which the
managerial responsibility is being shared than working in a department with any one
manager. I have to improve myself and have to work efficiently so that there is no issue for
organizational size. Since, working in a larger organization is an extremely different
experience from working in smaller organizations, I had to improvise myself in such a
manner that in such a manner that issues are resolved eventually and I can enhance my multi-
tasking capacity.
C. Personal Action Plan
My personal action plan is as follows:
Short Term Goal (8 to 12 Months)
Action Personal
Performance
Indicators
(PPI)
Specific
Challenges
Approaches to
overcome
challenges
Target
Start
Target
End
Obtain
certification
for enhancing
communication
skills for
handling
Achieving
certification
and hence
enhancement of
professional
career.
Time span is
shorter than
others
Considering
help from
senior authority
and managers
regarding time
management
September
2016
May
2017

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political skills.
Medium Term Goal (12 to 24 Months)
Action Personal
Performance
Indicators
(PPI)
Specific
Challenges
Approaches
to
overcome
challenges
Target
Start
Target
End
Enrolling and
planning for
appearing in
managerial
examinations to
secure better
position for
selection of
organizational
size.
Assisting to
secure position
of Vice
President in
my bank.
Gaining success
in the managerial
level
examinations.
Take proper
guidance for
overcoming
the
challenges.
May
2017
May
2018
Long Term Goal (2 years +)
Action Personal
Performance
Indicators
(PPI)
Specific
Challenges
Approaches
to
overcome
challenges
Target
Start
Target
End
Obtaining Gaining Understanding Periodical May June

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position of Vice
President for
further growth in
career.
knowledge
about entire
operation of the
bank.
existing issues
and how to
solve them.
meetings
with my
juniors.
2018 2020

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Bibliography and Annotation
1. Agafonova, S., Bryukhova, N. and Kaigorodov, B., 2015. Professional and personal
undergraduates’ development in the educational process from the perspective of competency-
based approach. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 214, pp.479-486.
This article has focused on the higher education objectives and the role of moral
development within personal development is being revealed.
2. Arthurson, K., 2015. Teaching mindfulness to year sevens as part of health and personal
development. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(5), p.2.
This journal article has described on the mindfulness of health and personal
development for PDP development. Teaching mindfulness is emphasized in this article.
3. Beausaert, S., Segers, M., Fouarge, D. and Gijselaers, W., 2013. Effect of using a personal
development plan on learning and development. Journal of Workplace Learning, 25(3),
pp.145-158.
This journal article emphasizes on the effect of utilizing a personal development plan
on proper learning and development. It has focused on the PDP so that learning and
development of an individual is being completed effectively.
4. Chen, G. and Huang, S.S., 2017. Toward a theory of backpacker personal development:
Cross-cultural validation of the BPD scale. Tourism Management, 59, pp.630-639.
The cross cultural validation of the personal development is being considered in this
article. It is extremely vital to check the complexity by understanding these cross cultural
validations.

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5. Dolga, L., Filipescu, H., Popescu-Mitroi, M.M. and Mazilescu, C.A., 2015. Erasmus
mobility impact on professional training and personal development of students
beneficiaries. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 191, pp.1006-1013.
This journal article focuses on mobility impact on professional training as well as
personal development over the advantages of various individuals. It would be required for
developing a PDP.
6. Dowling, M., 2014. Young children's personal, social and emotional development. Sage.
This book is helpful for understanding the personal, social and emotional
development of an individual especially for the children.
7. Glück, J. and Bluck, S., 2013. The MORE life experience model: A theory of the
development of personal wisdom. In The scientific study of personal wisdom (pp. 75-97).
Springer, Dordrecht.
The article focuses on the life experience model and this helps in perfect development
of personal wisdom. It is required to check the personal wisdom by proper PDP.
8. Hallam, S. and Council, M.E., 2015. The power of music: A research synthesis of the
impact of actively making music on the intellectual, social and personal development of
children and young people. International Music Education Research Centre (iMerc).
This book helps in making understand the power of music for knowing the impact of
actively making music on especially children. The intellectual, social and personal
development of young people and children are considered here.
9. Holt, N.L. ed., 2016. Positive youth development through sport. Routledge.

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This book focuses on positive youth development by involving sports. It is important
to include sports and other activities for making the personal development even better in
comparison to others.
10. Hopkins, D. and Putnam, R., 2013. Personal growth through adventure. Routledge.
This book has focused on the personal growth through subsequent adventure. It helps
in understanding the major issues and complexities of an individual and hence personal
growth is enhanced.
11. Kraiger, K. and Cavanagh, T.M., 2014. Training and personal development. The Wiley
Blackwell handbook of the psychology of training, development, and performance
improvement, pp.225-246.
This book focuses on the training and personal development and improvement of
individuals and professionals. Challenges are also considered in this book for organizational
success.
12. Moon, J.A., 2013. Reflection in learning and professional development: Theory and
practice. Routledge.
This book focuses on the reflection in learning as well as professional development
with proper effectiveness and by focusing on the difficulties.
13. Oreglia, E., 2014. ICT and (personal) development in rural China. Information
Technologies & International Development, 10(3), pp.pp-19.
This journal article provides a better effectiveness for ICT and personal development
in rural China as an example. The personal development of this country is being focused
here.

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14. Pais, L. and Santos, N.R.D., 2014. Knowledge‐sharing, cooperation, and personal
development. The Wiley Blackwell handbook of the psychology of training, development, and
performance improvement, pp.278-302.
This book helps to focus on the knowledge sharing of individuals as the basic
cooperative procedure in organizations or impact of knowledge sharing in personal
development.
15. Ross, J., Head, K., King, L., Perry, P.M. and Smith, S., 2014. The personal development
tutor role: An exploration of student and lecturer experiences and perceptions of that
relationship. Nurse education today, 34(9), pp.1207-1213.
This journal article has formed a part of the LCCP or Leadership in Compassionate
Care Programme by embedding the norms of person centred compassionate care.
16. Tattum, D. and Tattum, E., 2017. Social education and personal development. Routledge.
This book helps to provide a detailed analysis of social education and personal
development and how teachers seek to influence social as well as personal development of
individuals.

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Task 2: Strategic Management Project
1. Executive Summary
The main aim of this report is to know about the strategic organizational failures such as sales
failure, high staff turnover, internal conflicts and many more. These are termed as the
symptoms for a significant combination of failure within one and more of the 4Cs of
communication, collaboration, coordination and control. This report has properly outlined the
entire case study of a popular and significant bank, namely Emirates NBD Bank in UAE. I
have been working in this organization as the Assistant Vice President and hence have gained
hands-on experience on investments and management analysis. The process of strategic
planning eventually results in a basic strategic plan for helping the organization to achieve
them for successful decision making by the management. The entire management refers to
the strategic plan for guiding the company’s leaders for faster process. The major elements of
a successful strategic plan are a proper vision, core values, clearly defined outcomes, proper
accountability and KPIs.
The main advantages of strategic planning mainly include it being a formalized and
documented organizational managerial process that is utilized for analysis of the current
situation or setting the priorities and even for focusing on resources for gaining competitive
advantages. I have also restructured the business case and have identified the causes. Various
structural dimensions as well as contingency factors are being considered in this report. The
design restructuring and monitoring is also done in this particular report. Customer is kept on
top priority so that all the customers are satisfied with the products and services of this
particular bank. This type of satisfaction influences the future banking behaviour of the new
customers’ future banking behaviour and hence it affects the major factors like additional

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cross sell, incremented profit as well as decrease in the cost to services. A detailed analysis of
the bank is being done here.
2. Introduction
A. Company Overview
Emirates NBD Bank is one of the major and the most significant banks in the United
Arab Emirates that is serving their customer for several years and is considered as one of the
most successful banks in the entire UAE. This bank is the financial institution, which
eventually accepts deposits from the public and then creates the bank credit (Bryson 2018).
For the importance and significance within the subsequent financial stability of UAE, it is
highly regulated. The business strategy of this particular bank in which subsequent growth is
being gained by proper increment of the number of branches within which the respective
customers can opt for their products as well as services (Smith 2013). Unlike relocation, this
business expansion eventually entails opening up of few new branches within separate
physical locations and also proper maintenance of their current business locations. Being one
of the most significant banks in the United Arab Emirates, they have few branches for their
customers and almost all of them are running successfully. However, a major issue of
utilization of multiple channels for reaching to the new customers has been raised in the bank
(Suarez, Calvo-Mora and Roldán 2016).
B. Long Term Financial Goals
They have been adopting long term and forward looking view for doing business that
eventually supports the major strategy of long term capital investments. In the next five years
period, the financial goals are achieved to double their subsequent profits for the business.
Serious efforts are undertaken by the organization for a constant analysis of organizational
structure (Cassidy 2016). They always focus on their basic facilities that are to be provided to

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the employees and customers for a stronger hold in the UAE banking sector. Moreover, they
are continuously upgrading their business processes and operations so that it becomes quite
easy for them to resolve the existing complexities in such processes. Being a part of this
bank, we have faced several situations related to financial issues.
The credit unions and banks have eventually found that since they have introduced
newer channels, the total number of interactions of the customer’s getting increased. Several
channels are required for transaction in business. Emirates NBD Bank should focus on these
channels as it enhances customer satisfaction. Although, almost every branch of this Emirates
NBD Bank is serving to their customers with their unique services, the new customers are
unable to reach them out. Due to these types of issue, several new customers do not know
about their products and services (Rothaermel 2013). I had to check for solutions for this
particular issue. Since, I was associated with finance department, I had to ensure that my
organization is not under debt. I prepared for group meetings with my associates and finally
came up with solutions and finally was able to solve the problem. With the increased rate of
customers and higher competition in all over the banking sector, it is extremely important for
Emirates NBD Bank to use new digital channels after determination of optimal channel mix
for every customer, which would maximize revenue by not reducing customer satisfaction
and engagement. This following report has clearly outlined a clear discussion on the
restructuring of business case for Emirates NBD Bank.
Business Case Analysis for Restructuring
The most significant and important sector of this particular UAE based bank called
Emirates NBD Bank is their online services. Since they had been serving their customers for
several years, it is quite vital to work on their 5 year strategic plan (David and David 2013).
Until present day, the graph of their success is going up and they have been considered as one

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of the best and successful banks in the United Arab Emirates. However, for the core purpose
of maintaining their position in the top most position, they have to make their strategic plan
extremely upgraded and appropriate (Vecchiato 2015). As per the calculation of management
department of this Emirates NBD Bank, after 5 years, i.e., in the year of 2024, the profit of
this specific company will be doubled and could even exceed the number of double. It is
being evaluated by them that they should use new digital channels to reach out to their new
customers for enhancing profit (Albrechts 2013).
The migration to digital channel is responsible for the channel preference and use.
The optimal channel mix of Emirates NBD Bank for best migration is as follows:
i) Financial Impact of Channel Use: Since, Emirates NBD Bank is a successful
banking institution in the United Arab Emirates, recent regulations which have impacted the
core ability for the banks to effectively generate the fee income from every retail customer
that they are serving (Daft 2015). Moreover, several banks as well as credit unions have to
reconsider their optimal mix of digital channels that their customers are using to interact with
this specific bank and then transacting the businesses for the costs associated with several
channels (Gordon 2013).
One of the major issues that occurred in this bank was a project was not delivered on
time. Being the AVP, I was given the core responsibility of delivering this project on time,
however, my team found out that the budget was overrun and it caused subsequent problems
in the organization (See Appendix B). This would also enhance the key performance
indicators like satisfaction with the channel as well as engagement with bank. The major
consequences of this late project delivery included customer dissatisfaction and incurring of
huge costs. However, being the AVP, I was able to resolve this issue by reducing the
maintenance costs and also by taking care of budget in the further preceding tasks.

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ii) Organization being in Debt: The second significant factor that could enhance
involvement of digital channels in Emirates NBD Bank is organization being debt free. It is
quite vital to ensure that whether the bank is debt free or not for checking that they do not
have any issue in enjoying major profit in the business (Martin 2014).
iii) Customer Channel Preference: Each and every customer has their own choice of
channel that is preferred by him or her to interact with the credit union or bank for their
several requirements. Few prefer a branch, while others prefer a mobile channel or online or
an ATM. Due to these kinds of vast preferences of customers, it becomes extremely
important for the bank to fulfil each of them as it would be drawing more new customers to
that particular bank. Moreover, such channels also help in learning regarding newer products
as well as services or even request for a loan payoff. In this bank, the most preferred channels
are utilizing a branch, going online or even speaking to their live customer care service.
iv) Customer Channel Use: The customers do not always utilize their first selection
of channel when completing a transaction in business. While the customers are tended to
utilize the channel they have preferred in comparison to other channel due to cost and
convenience. The less variance between actual use and preference use for more included
transactions like opening of an account, paying bills, applying for loan and even transferring
of funds. I understood that Emirates NBD Bank should focus on their customers’ selection of
channel use so that they remain upgraded under every circumstance.
Lack of 2 Cs of Communication and Collaboration
The communication is the act to convey messages from any one entity to the other by
using mutually understood signs, semiotic rules and symbols. The major steps of this
communication include formation of communicative reason or motivation, composition of
message, encoding of message like digital data, pictures and speech, transmission of the

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encoded message as a significant sequence of signals with the help of medium and channel,
reception of signals from a sequence of received signals, decoding of reassembled encoded
messages and finally interpretation as well as making sense of the original message. Being a
part of ENBD Bank, it is required to eradicate the lack of communication for solving the
issue of project not delivering on time.
Collaboration is the procedure of two or more people for working together to
subsequently complete a task and achieve an objective. This collaboration needs leadership,
although this form of leadership could be social in the decentralized group. The groups that
work collaboratively often access the resources while facing competition for the finite
resources. In ENBD Bank, due to lack of collaboration, I had to resolve the issue of customer
satisfaction for project not being delivered on time.
Issues with Digital Channel in Emirates NBD Bank
The major and the most significant issues that had been faced regarding selection of
digital channels in Emirates NBD Bank are as follows:
i) Attaining Perfection in Application: The first and the most significant issue that
had been faced by this particular organization of Emirates NBD Bank is attaining major
perfection in their banking application. There is a strong feeling of reassurance and power
while using a smart phone application (Dibrell, Craig and Neubaum 2014). These smart
phones are quite progressive for biometric verification and for actions like screen unlocking.
Emirates NBD Bank, although has provided a mobile application for their customers, they are
unable to make it perfect and absolutely upgraded. This application was ridden with bugs and
hence faced major performance issues. It was difficult to navigate and often crashed (Perova
2015). Thus, the organizational progress was decremented.

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ii) Technology Upgrades: The next subsequent and significant issue that Emirates
NBD Bank have faced for their business is the major requirement of constant technological
up gradation to meet up the respective balance of competition. Due to the constant change of
evolution of technology, it has become quite important to periodically upgrade the previously
existing technology in every bank (Haines 2016). However, I understood that my technical
team did not upgrade their technology in the application and hence, for meeting the required
needs and requirements of customers, they should focus on their mobile application and how
well this application could be made.
iii) Delivering Quality at Speed: For the core purpose of delivering more
products and services at the most accelerated speed, Emirates NBD Bank had tend to
compromise on the overall quality. This issue with quality is that there was problem with bug
and hence the product and service was defected. It was highly required to deliver a proper
product with high speed so that the new customers could easily reach out to them without
much complexity.
Another significant issue that I have faced while working in this bank was during
Cards GL Automation. Previously, my bank used to deliver integrated payment solutions for
all types of businesses irrespective of the size. We tried to make the entire system much
easier for our customers so that they do not face any issue while for actionable production
schedules. My bank extracted credit cards transaction data from source system and the
manual entries were posted in the General Ledger and thus we were not able to segment our
customers. This created a major issue in our organization and being the AVP of this bank, it
was responsibility to resolve this particular issue in time. I gave the idea of cards GL
automation in my bank.
Issues with Cards GL Automation

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The main issues faced during Cards GL automation are as follows:
i) Customer Segmentation: The credit card transaction data were being extracted
from the source system and manual entries were posted in General Ledger. For this purpose,
we were unable to segment our customers. Customer segmentation is required for
understanding and resolving every issue related to customer demand. It was required to
understand customer demand in a better, cheaper and faster manner than any other bank.
ii) Process Analysis: The second issue faced during credit card automation is process
analysis. The entire process of the card automation was extremely complicated and it
included every system of the financial world.
These above mentioned two issues clearly depict that it is highly important for this
company of Emirates NBD Bank to restructure their business in such a manner that the
previously existing business processes are executed with efficiency (French 2013). This could
be done only after proper analysis of organizational design and structure. Daft model is useful
in this case to understand the issue as Emirates NBD Bank has an extremely complex
organizational structure (See Appendix C)
Symptoms of Structural Deficiencies
There were some of the most significant symptoms of structural deficiencies that
helped me to identify that there was a major requirement of business case restructuring.
These symptoms are as follows:
i) Lack of Collaboration: A project is completed after subsequent collaboration
amongst several departments in the bank. However, due to lack of collaboration, the project
was not delivered on time and we faced major issues.

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ii) Misunderstood Strategy: Since the strategies were not understood properly, there
was an issue related to project delivery.
iii) Lack of Team Cohesion: A lack of cohesion in the organizational finance team
within ENBD Bank was identified in the organization and hence I decided to restructure the
business for resolving the issue.
iv) Lack of Resources: There was a lack of resources in the ENBD Bank that were
required for making to function the organization effectively.
3. Literature Review
2.1 Structural Model for Emirates NBD Bank
SWOT helps to determine the major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
(Haines 2016). The SWOT Analysis of Emirates NBD Bank is as follows:

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Figure 1: SWOT Analysis of Emirates NBD Bank
(Source: Abdallah and Langley 2014)
As per Wolf and Floyd 2017, the above provided SWOT analysis clearly demonstrate
the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Emirates NBD Bank. As this specific
analysis, this organization is IT software expertise in the United Arab Emirates (French
2013). Moreover, they are providing popular customer relationship management programs for
their customers and they have solid financial reserves (Karepova et al. 2015). However, the
cost efficiency is much poor and there is a broad competitive set in the market (Nickols
2016). Apart from this, one of the major opportunities of Emirates NBD Bank is to attract
new customers by providing offers (Johnston and Bate 2013). This above provided SWOT
analysis has been effective to maintain a proper structure of the bank and so that major steps
are undertaken (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez 2018).
2.2 Organisation Design and Culture
According to Malphurs 2013, the organizational design and culture helps in proper
sharing of values, beliefs as well as principles, which comprise of some of the most
significant effect on employee perception and hence help them in perfect understanding,
diagnosing and responding to the emerging requirements within work place. The current
position of the organization has to become strategically advanced and structurally flexible for
operating effectively (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez 2018). Hence, I re designed my
organizational structure and business processes for eradicating the previously existing issues
in an innovative manner.
With the help of my strategic plan for next 5 years, I understood that I should find out
some of the creative ideas for solving these issues of bringing new digital channels for
communication with customers (Austin and Pinkleton 2015). The three identified issues of

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perfect application, technology upgrades and delivering quality at speed would be eventually
resolved and hence it would be easier to achieve organizational goals and objectives. This is
extremely important for having a subsequent growth in the bank revenue and thus having
long term benefits. Moreover, the issues related to credit card automation were to be resolved
with proper business restructuring and by changing the existing systems.
2.3 Key Growth Drivers for Supporting New Banking Strategy
Emirates NBD Bank has numerous customers in the country of UAE and all of them
have major demand for banking services and products like investments, loan application,
capital investments and this bank is successful in providing these services to the customers
(Wheelen et al. 2017). The two most significant factors that affect banking strategies are
generation of high revenue and expansion of national reserves (See Appendix A). Both of
these affect the strategies positively and customers are satisfied majorly in this case (Papke-
Shields and Boyer-Wright 2017). They are serving their customers and managing customer
requirements after delivering the largest choices to their clients. Work culture as well as
engagement of human capital is being recognized for customer satisfaction (Albrechts and
Balducci 2013). In this purpose, the bank has undertaken serious efforts by constant analysis
of organizational structure to align the long term goals and strategies.
The various issues and complexities of Emirates NBD Bank are being checked and
should be eradicated on time. When a proper requirement of this type of restructure is being
considered, it would be quite easier for Emirates NBD Bank to execute and complete the
restructure (Phillips and Moutinho 2014). The lack of technology upgrades is one of the
major issues in this company and this could only be possible is they cut their costs of
equipment, machineries and other resources. The issue for cards automation is yet another
significant issue that I have faced here. Such issues have occurred due to the combination of

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failures in two of the factors of 4Cs, which are communication and control. The issue had
occurred in the management department of Emirates NBD Bank is required to be eradicated
(Cordeiro 2013).
4. Analysis and Restructure
3.1 Designing Restructuring and Proposed Solutions
The restructuring of issues in Emirates NBD Bank could be done if it is properly
designed. The three issues faced in this organization are attaining perfection in the
application, technology upgrades and financial crisis delivering quality at speed for new
digital channel (Knight 2014). There are some of the major methods for reducing these issues
in Emirates NBD Bank.
i) For the first and the foremost issue of app perfection, I understood that the most
suitable method is by hiring Quality Assurance Professionals. These professionals are trained
for inspecting, assessing and assuring the software quality (Hübner, Kuhn and Wollenburg
2016). They also become included in the process earlier in the software life cycle and hence
ensuring that application in Emirates NBD Bank is error free.
ii) The next important and significant issue of technology upgrade can be resolved by
software testing and ensuring device compatibility with software for making it user friendly
(Gamble and Thompson 2014). I proposed this solution for the core purpose that the
customized software could be carried out in a better manner.
iii) Another significant issue of delivering quality at speed can be resolved by robust
software testing, it ensures that the product and software is hitting the market stronger and in
time (Brumm and Drury 2013). Being the AVP of this bank, this solution was required for me
to eradicate the pre-existing issues like project delivery.

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iv) For the issue for cards automation, I understood that it can be resolved by
throwing the accounting entries directly into general ledger from the source system with sub
segmentation of customers and hence it would automate the regulations and finally the data
recon would be automated.
I was able to achieve the success and complete the projects in time by eventually
completing the IT restructuring. It was done and the cross functional teams, known as IT
Agile Squads were being created. These squads included people from Product Team, IT
Team project management team, IT core system management team, UAT staff and
Multichannel Banking team members. With the help of the agile squads, all the projects were
sub divided into small parts and as teams were sitting and working together I expected to
have better and faster results since it improves the communication and collaboration.
3.2 Monitoring the Effectiveness of Solutions
Proper monitoring of these above mentioned issues and effectiveness is extremely
important and significant for the proper and successful execution of business processes in
Emirates NBD Bank (Nickols 2016). Since they are about to start new applications and
digital channels, it is required to get them checked by the AVP of this bank. It would ensure
that no issue is present in the mobile application and every customer’s need is fulfilled
without any issue and long term investment goals are achieved by them (Weigand et al.
2014). For the issue of cards GL automation, after the automation of regulations and data
recon, there will be a provision to better control and responsibility assignment to customer
segment heads and it would eventually lead to better control and communication.
5. Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that a strategic plan is one
of the major and important document that is being utilized for the purpose of communicating

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with the company and respective organizational goals, various actions required for achieving
all the goals and any other critical element that is being developed during the specific
planning exercise. Since, most of the companies are gaining issues, they have decided to
make their 5 years strategic plan in such a manner that the organizational members do not
face any issue. The above provided report has clearly demonstrated the entire strategic
planning of a popular and significant bank in the United Arab Emirates called Emirates NBD
Bank. They have decided to introduce new digital channels for customers and this report will
be provided for dealing any kind of issue. Proper details regarding the organization and their
previously existing issues like technology upgrades, delivering quality at speed, cards
automation and attaining application perfection are provided here. Proper analysis is also
done in this particular report for completing the work.

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1.

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Appendices
Appendix A
Factors Affecting Strategies
Appendix B
Organizational Structure of Emirates NBD Bank
Appendix C

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Daft Model: Organization, its structural-dimensions and contingency-factors
a) Organization: Emirates NBD bank is serving its customers for several years and have
emphasized on societal feature for successful achievement of objectives in a proper structured
hierarchy.
b) Structural Dimensions
Formalization: (Very high): Emirates NBD bank is a popular bank that has few complex
hierarchical levels in which capital investment approvals as well as asset management are
being centralized. It is extremely time consuming and lengthy process that can range until 6
months.
Specialization: (Division of Organizational Segmentation): On the basis of efficiency and
effectiveness of strategies, the employees of Emirates NBD bank has segmented the entire
organizational structure into few divisions. This is helpful to properly manage the work
culture of this bank.
Hierarchy of Authority: (Vertical Linkage): There is a vertical linkage amongst the
organizational members in this specific bank. The policies and guidelines for handling the
capital investments activities is much more efficient and effective in comparison to others.
All the employees follow this linkage and hence management is better.
Complexity: The complexity of the organizational management is much less. The vertical
complexity is high in comparison to horizontal and spatial. The cross functions of accounts
receivable and asset management help to ensure smooth horizontal link at the branch level.
Centralization (High): Emirates NBD bank is following centralized approach, however the
top level management is responsible for controlling decision making much relevant to the
capital investments after involvement of huge funds and price-fixing.
c) Contingency Factors: The above mentioned dimensions could be used for designing
organizational structure when the Daft model based contingency factors are provided below:
Size (Considerably Large): The size of Emirates NBD bank is extremely larger and they
eradicate the redundant employees.
Organizational Technology (Advanced): Emirates NBD bank has been using advanced
technology in their organization. They have been using RFID system for tracking their
business related activities and hence it is extremely effective for them.
Environment: Regarding capital investments, the organizational environment is much more
effective and they do not have any external environment influences.
Organizational Goals and Strategy: (Long term sustainability): Emirates NBD bank has
considered their goals and objectives for long term benefits and they have decided to double
their profits in every five years. They want to satisfy their customers in all types of bank
queries.
Culture: The organizational culture can be seen within few values that this organization is
following in their work and it helps in achieving the long term vision and for fulfilling the
customer demands.