Comprehensive Analysis of Strategic Agility, Leadership, and Fintech

This report delves into the concept of strategic agility, exploring its various forms such as disruption, adaptation, client-centricity, and acquisition, using examples like The Financial Times, Tencent, and Unilever. It identifies key drivers of agility, including new technology, client focus, limitations of traditional strategies, and innovation. The report then examines Amazon's management practices and their impact on agility, highlighting features like continuous opportunity seeking, employee involvement, customer focus, and long-term project approaches, while also discussing potential threats. Furthermore, it compares the leadership styles of Marcel Telles and Akin Onger, emphasizing similarities in valuing training and product quality, and differences in employee motivation strategies. Finally, the report investigates the rationale behind ING's creation of Yolt, its success factors, and its role in the open banking sector, emphasizing the need for innovation and customer-centricity in the fintech landscape. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the themes of agility, leadership, and fintech innovation.

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AGILITY
Student’s Name
Class
Date

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Part A: Video Projects
1. Forms of Agility
The video projects focus on different types of agility. The first form is based on
disruption. For instance, The Financial Times adopted a new operating model that
enabled it to take advantage of the disruptive technology.1 The process entailed the
migration from print to digital media because print media was losing it value due to a
change in customer preference. This form of agility was also utilized by Tencet, which
developed the WeChat application.2 The application was developed with the aim of
connecting those who have family ties and has features that are easy to use. Overall,
disruptive technology necessitates the need for innovation, which creates agility.
The second form of agility is based on adapting to new environments. For
example, the Ball Corporation demonstrated agility by moving from the wooden to glass,
from glass to aerospace, from aerospace to metal and from metal to plastic industries.3
Evidently, its adaptation makes it agile as it establishes new ways to remain in the
industry. Secondly, Finance Times also adopted the latest digital technology to
revolutionize the newspaper industry.4 After adoption, the newspaper ventured into the
online advertising business using the content generated from the subscription. This form
of agility allows firms to adapt.
The third form of agility is based on meeting the needs of clients. Wong was an
oil company that changed its business to a retail company after facing a lot of
competition and changing economic conditions.5 After changing its model, the new
1 Group 11. 2018. Achieving Strategic Agility. DVD.
2 Group 12. 2018. Tencet. DVD.
3 Group 13. 2018. Ball Corporation. DVD.
4 Group 11.
5 Group 9. 2018. Wog. DVD.

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model was tailored to meet the specifications of the client. Ultimately, meeting the needs
of the clients helped the company to stay agile. Another example is the WeChat
application that was developed to meet the communication needs of the customers.6 In
fact, it was designed to keep families closer since it is highly private.
The fourth form of strategic agility is based on acquisition. In the video projects,
Unilever acquired Dollar Shave Club to withstand competition from other companies.7
After acquiring the company, it allowed it to develop on its own as a separate unit.
Additionally, Unilever gained a new way to interact with customers through a new
distribution channel.8 Unilever also learned how to implement e-commerce in its current
business model, which enabled it to compete with companies like Amazon. Essentially,
this way of doing business allowed it to observe the Dollar Shave Club business model
while mitigating risks since it did not implement it immediately. This form of agility
enables a company to acquire new technology and stay ahead of its competitors.
2. Drivers of Agility
One of the drivers of agility is new technology. From the video projects, Financial
Times used the adoption of digital media to develop agility that enabled it to gain a
competitive advantage. In particular, the Financial Times adopted strategies that moved it
from print to digital technology in the newspaper industry.9 The move was necessitated
by the emergence of digital technology, which affected people’s preferences. Another
example is the use of technology by the ABInBev. According to the video projects, the
company created a unit to explore the modern areas of the beer industry.10 It utilizes
6 Group 12. 2018. Tencet. DVD.
7 Group 8. 2018. Unilever. DVD.
8 Ibid.
9 Group 11.
10 Group 14. 2018. ZxVentures. DVD.

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digital technology such as e-commerce and Rate Beer to achieve this objective.
Evidently, new technology can be used to drive a firm to develop agile strategies for
survival.
The second driver of agility is focusing on the needs of the clients. Based on
Wog, a company can become agile by focusing on meeting its customers’ preferences
that are continuously changing.11 Wog developed a new business model to create
differentiation, which included food, gas and coffee selling in gas stations after Ukraine
experienced recession and oil prices fell. After competitors began to copy its model, it
decided to own the whole value chain in the food production sector and tailored its
products to meet the clients’ needs. Eventually, Wog became prosperous through the
agility developed after facing these challenges.
The third driver of agility is the limits of traditional growth strategies. For
example, for ABInBev, the traditional strategies did not guarantee future sales especially
when the preference of customers began to change from alcoholic to non-alcoholic
drinks.12 Therefore, the company developed an agile strategy that entailed the sale of non-
alcoholic drinks and the formation of a unit that would explore the beer industry and
discover new areas of the beer industry to exploit.
The fourth driver of agility is innovation. Based on video projects, the majority of
the companies had to innovate to remain significant players in their industries. For
example, Tencet developed WeChat as a response to a threat where another company
wanted to gain market share.13 In this case, being innovative made Tencet agiler and it
was able to retain control.14 Another example is the Financial Times that had to innovate
11 Group 9.
12 Group 14.
13 Group 9.
14 Group 12.

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and use disruptive technology to its advantage. It had to use digital media because the
print media’s market share was reducing. Upon, innovating it was able to remain in
businesses and acquire more market share.
3. Vote
First place is Group 11 and second place is Group 8.
Part B
Amazon
Several key features of management used at Amazon affected its strategic agility. The
first one is that Amazon's leader was continually searching for the next significant opportunity.
This action can be illustrated by the various acquisitions the company has made, which has
enabled it to be a market leader in its industry. For example, it acquired Kindle to be able to gain
a more significant market share in the book industry.15 The second feature is demonstrated by
the inclusion of employees in the search for business opportunities. Additionally, the employees
were encouraged to make mistakes and were not punished for them.16 This strategy boosts their
morale and provides a conducive environment for developing innovative ideas.
The second feature was that the management model was deeply concerned about the
welfare of the customers. The well-being of customers affects a firm's agility because it concerns
their preferences. Amazon is more passionate about serving its customers than competing with
its competitors.17 The focus on customer fulfillment ensures that it retains the majority of them
thus defeating its competitors in the long run. The last feature is the long-term approach to
15Lisa, Duke, and Julian Birkinshaw. 2015. "Amazon.com: Staying a Step Ahead." London Business
School.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.

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development projects. Amazon invested in projected that guaranteed returns five to seven years
and may even provide zero or negative returns within the first years.18 This approach allows it to
predict its future and adapt, hence adopting the agile strategy.
One of the threats to Amazon's success is the continuous risk-taking, which is illustrated
by the various projects and acquisitions. In the past, the company has been stubborn even after
undergoing multiple failures, which is excellent when success is achieved.19 However, it may not
work out if the failed projects are more than the successful ones. Therefore, the leaders need to
establish the risks worth taking, which is not an easy task, and it faces the risk of making wrong
choices. The second threat is there is a probability the company may stop innovating when some
professionals leave especially if a few people did innovation. This act is a threat because
innovations drive the company.
The last threat Amazon faces is the loss of morale by the employees, which would lead to
their poor performance. The employees have previously complained about the harsh working
conditions in the company, and if they are not addressed, it may interfere with their performance,
which affects their ability to innovate.20 Nowadays, employers recognize the value of employees
because they are valuable assets that influence performance.
Leadership
One of the similarities of Marcel Telles and Akin Onger leadership style is that they both
valued training programs, which is meritocracy type of management. In the banking sector,
knowledge is highly valued since professionals are usually university graduates who know how
to manage money. Akin knew the valued of acquired knowledge, and he ensured his managers
18 Luke, 2015.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.

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attended regular training and he employed fresh graduates.21 Similarly, Marcel knew the value of
knowledge, and he employed fresh graduates as well through a graduate training program.22 In
addition, he hired the graduates who succeeded and gave them managerial positions. The use of
this type of leadership was essential since it ensured those who worked there were
knowledgeable to take advantage of the various financial opportunities.
The second similarity between Marcel Telles and Akin Onger leadership style is that they
both value the quality of their products and services. When Marcel took over, he realized that the
quality of the beer was poor and he looked for other brewers to improve quality.23 Similarly,
Akin restructured the services provided by the bank and implemented technology to ensure the
quality of the services offered improved.24 Ultimately, both produced quality services and
products.
One of the differences in the leadership styles of Marcel Telles and Akin Onger was their
way of motivating the employees. Employees can be motivated using rewards such as bonuses
and salary increments. Marcel used a performance measurement technique to monitor the
managers'' performance and reward them accordingly once they met the company's set goals.25
For Akin, the performance of the employees was measured by the general performance of the
bank, and none of them was given any rewards for improved performance. Therefore, Marcel's
employees were always competing with each other, but Akin’s employees did not compete as
much. Despite the differences, both styles worked, and the companies got good returns.
21 Rosabeth Moss Kanther, Maximillian Martin, and Daniel Galvin. 2005. "Garanti Bank: Transformation
in Turkey." Harvard Business School.
22 Donald, Sull and Martin Escobari. 2005. "Brahma Versus Antarctica: Reversal of Fortune in Brazil’s
Beer Market." London Business School.
23 Ibid.
24 Rosabeth, 2005.
25 Donald, 2015.

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Marcel Telles and Akin Onger had difference leadership strategies related to the
operation of the firms. Marcel focused on improving the operation efficiency of the business
because it could be translated to objectives that were to be met by a given deadline.26 The set
objectives were then translated into individual goals that all the employees had to meet. This
approach was based on the belief that human beings can only focus on approximately three
things at a time. For Akin, the focus was on the culture of the organization.27 He believed that an
organization could only succeed if it has a good culture that reflects its objectives. Therefore, he
worked hard at developing the right culture in that bank.
Fintech
The first reason why ING created Yolt is that it wanted to take advantage of the open
banking sector. Haworth states that the open banking sector is an emerging trend in the banking
industry.28 This trend is, therefore, a disruptive technology in the banking sector and ING can use
it to achieve agility. Having agility would allow the company to survive despite the high
competition currently witnessed in the banking industry.
The second reason why ING created Yolt is that it needed to innovate. According to
Haworth, the banking sector has stopped being innovative hence are not keeping up with the
digital trends in the fintech sector.29 Failure to innovate is risky for this firm because it may be
unable to withstand competition especially if a rival bank acquires or develops a revolutionary
innovation. Additionally, failure to innovate makes it challenging to grow because innovation
increases revenue, which fosters growth.
26 Donald, 2015.
27 Rosabeth, 2005.
28 Elliott Haworth. 2017. "How ING's Yolt Harnesses Open Banking To Create Next-Gen Money
Management". Cityam.Com. http://www.cityam.com/275653/ings-yolt-harnesses-open-banking-create-next-gen-
money. 29 Ibid.

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The last reason why ING created Yolt is that it needs to meet its customers' needs. The
primary role of any business is to meet the needs of the clients at all times. In this case, open
banking is becoming a preference for some of the bank's customers. Therefore, the bank created
Yolt to meet its customers’ demand for open banking.
Yolt is achieving success by acquiring clients with a short period. After being launched in
2017, by April 2018, the company had made approximately 230,000 clients.30 This figure shows
that the application is becoming popular and there is hope that it may have more than a million
clients by the end of the year. Additionally, it has been integrated with other innovation such as
Monzo.31 The integration ensures that users can access all their financial information in one
platform and it is easier for them to make decisions. Yolt has made significant achievements so
far thus it is doing well.
One of the things that Yolt may be doing wrong is the lack of aggressiveness in its
implementation. Yolt is a disruptive technology that may revolutionize the bank and credit card
sector due to the implementation of open banking. Open banking allows the third parties to
access customer data after obtaining permission from the customer. Such access could provide
significant insights leading to new opportunities. ING is not aggressively involved in its
operation, which is a mistake because it depicts the future of the banking sector. Additionally, it
offers integration with other digital banking innovation, which benefits the client. Therefore,
ING should pay more attention to Yolt.
Self-organization
30 Tanya Andreasyan. 2018. "Moneyhub Integrates with Monzo And Starling; Yolt Reaches Customer
Milestone." Fintech Futures. https://www.bankingtech.com/2018/04/moneyhub-integrates-with-monzo-and-starling-
yolt-reaches-customer-milestone/.
31 Ibid.

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Self-organizing is useful under specific terms. Firstly, it is appropriate for adhocracy type
of leadership. In adhocracy, the action is valued more than following the rules and the respective
chain of command. Therefore, self-organizing means that one is not following regulations but
doing what they believe is right or wrong, which is adhocracy. Secondly, adhocracy integrates
emotions or intuition in decision making. For this case, being self-organized required one to
make a decision based on one's intuition which is adhocracy.
Alternatively, self-organizing can be used in meritocracy. Meritocracy is a type of
leadership where knowledge is highly valued. In self-organizing, individuals rely on what they
know, and that is their knowledge hence meritocracy. Additionally, meritocracy encourages
individuality. In such situations, individuals seek their strength and knowledge to survive. In the
meritocracy, decisions are made through discussions where ideas are shared, and the most viable
is chosen. In this case, self-organizing would be appropriate since the individual decisions that
outweigh the rest are adopted. Furthermore, events in meritocracy occur in the free flow of ideas
and self-organization does not require outside intervention. Evidently, meritocracy is one of the
conditions that supports self-organization. Another condition that must be met for self-
organization is that hierarchies are not used. Initially, there is no chain of command to report to,
so the individual has to make his or her own decision. The lack of hierarchies also simplifies the
decision-making process and makes it faster.
Bibliography
Andreasyan, Tanya. 2018. "Moneyhub Integrates with Monzo And Starling; Yolt Reaches
Customer Milestone". Fintech Futures.

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https://www.bankingtech.com/2018/04/moneyhub-integrates-with-monzo-and-starling-
yolt-reaches-customer-milestone/.
Duke, Lisa, and Julian Birkinshaw. 2015. "Amazon.com: Staying a Step Ahead." London
Business School.
Group 10. 2018. Redbull. DVD.
Group 11. 2018. Achieving Strategic Agility. DVD.
Group 12. 2018. Tencet. DVD.
Group 13. 2018. Ball Corporation. DVD.
Group 14. 2018. ZxVentures. DVD.
Group 8. 2018. Unilever. DVD.
Group 9. 2018. Wog. DVD.
Haworth, Elliott. 2017. "How ING's Yolt Harnesses Open Banking To Create Next-Gen Money
Management." Cityam.Com. http://www.cityam.com/275653/ings-yolt-harnesses-open-
banking-create-next-gen-money.
Kanther, Rosabeth Moss, Maximillian Martin, and Daniel Galvin. 2005. "Garanti Bank:
Transformation in Turkey." Havard Business School.
Sull, Donald, and Martin Escobari. 2005. "Brahma Versus Antarctica: Reversal Of Fortune In
Brazil’S Beer Market." London Business School.