Strategic Analysis of the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) Report

This report provides a comprehensive strategic analysis of the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS). It begins with an introduction to the bank and its operations, followed by a SWOT analysis to identify its key strengths and weaknesses, such as its strong market position in Asia and the increasing competition from Fintech companies. The report then utilizes PEST analysis to examine the political, economic, social, and technological factors influencing DBS. It also includes a value chain analysis, explores key opportunities and threats, identifies key stakeholders and their issues, and addresses ethical and corporate social responsibility considerations. The report concludes by discussing the bank's emergent strategies and their advantages and disadvantages, offering a holistic view of DBS's current standing and future prospects.

Running head: DEVELOPMENT BANK OF SINGAPORE
Development Bank of Singapore
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Development Bank of Singapore
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
The Key Strengths of Development Bank of Singapore:............................................................3
Weaknesses of Development Bank of Singapore:.......................................................................4
Value chain analysis........................................................................................................................5
Macro-environment using PEST Analysis..................................................................................6
The Key Opportunities for DBS Bank:.......................................................................................9
Threats of DBS bank are:........................................................................................................9
Task 2:...........................................................................................................................................10
Key Stakeholders of Development Bank of Singapore:............................................................10
Issues affecting Stakeholders:....................................................................................................12
Task 3:...........................................................................................................................................13
Ethical and Corporate Social Responsibility Issues:.................................................................13
The Main Ethical and CSR stances Taken by DBS:..................................................................14
TASK 4:.........................................................................................................................................14
Emergent Strategies of Development Bank of Singapore.........................................................15
Advantages of the Balance of Intended and Emergent Approaches..........................................16
Disadvantages of the Balance of Intended and Emergent Approaches.....................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
References:....................................................................................................................................18

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Development Bank of Singapore
Introduction
Development Bank of Singapore is banking and financial organisation that operates its
business globally. Development Bank of Singapore is headquartered in Marina Bay, Singapore
(Serrat 2017). The bank was formed in 1968 by the Singaporean government to handle all the
financial and monetary transactions and related activities from the Economic Development
Board (Dbs.com.sg 2018). Development Bank of Singapore is considered as one of the largest
banks in the South-Eastern part of Asia region in terms of assets. Development Bank of
Singapore provides financial services like Retail Banking, Private Banking, Wealth management,
corporate banking and Investment Banking. The organisation earned an operating income and
annual revenue of $4.95 billion and $ 10.89 billion respectively in the year 2017. In 2016,
Development Bank of Singapore earned a net income of US $3.07 billion (Emery 2018).
Currently, the organisation provides employment to 22,194 employees in the organisation
(Dbs.com.sg 2018).
The Bank of Singapore is one of the famous and largest banks in the world. It has
occupied a huge amount of market shares due to the strengths of the organisation and at the same
point, the organisation is facing tough challenges and has suffered the loss in many occasions
due to some of the weaknesses that the organisation has. SWOT analysis will help to understand
and identify the key Strengths and the Weaknesses of the organisation.

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Development Bank of Singapore
Task 1
The Key Strengths of Development Bank of Singapore:
Development Bank of Singapore has a strong position in the market of Hong Kong and
Singapore (Rich 2014). The organisation provides diversified services and products that help
them in generating a huge amount of revenue. Development Bank of Singapore has earned a
huge amount of goodwill when the organisation was awarded for ‘Safest Bank in Asia’ and ‘Best
Bank in Singapore’ (Hill and Menon 2014). Development bank has a global presence and is
expanded to 15 countries, the organisation is also has a huge customer base and serves to more
than 4 million customers globally.
The dividend, which is earned by the Development Bank of Singapore, is relatively
higher when compared to the score of another financial sector (Acharya, Viral and Shin 2017).
Development Bank of Singapore also occupied a huge amount of market shares in Singapore that
makes them one of the most reputed and investor attracted organisation in the market
(Dbs.com.sg 2018). The market in which DBS is operating is suitable for the financial industry.
Asian countries are growing rapidly and they are the global hub for many financial institutions
(Vogel 2014).
Asian countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, China are growing and they are attracting
many local and foreign investors in their country, which is a perfect opportunity for
Development Bank of Singapore to expand their business in the organisation (Dbs.com.sg 2018).
Singaporean market is filled with experienced and skilled employees and this is plus point for
smooth running of the organisational functions. The organisation provides effective and
conservative business policies that help them in attracting more customers. The Development

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Development Bank of Singapore
Bank of Singapore is a very old organisation established in 1968, they have a huge amount of
experience in the industry.
Weaknesses of Development Bank of Singapore:
Singapore is one of the largest and fast leading economies in the world; as a result, the
country is a global hub for many financial institutions. This has increased the competition for the
existing banks like Development Bank of Singapore. Singapore has also attracted many foreign
and local banks in their financial industry (Fu, Lin and Molyneux 2014). Development Bank of
Singapore failed to penetrate the market outside Asia. DBS failed to penetrate the market of
European and the American nations.
Penetrating those countries would have helped DBS in expanding their business all over
the world (Hartwell 2013). Financial Technology companies are changing the concept of
banking providing an easier way of transacting using the internet facility. Fintech companies are
acquiring the market of existing banks and this is affecting DBS on a large Scale (Dbs.com.sg
2018). The expectation of the customer from the financial industry is increasing day by day.
Financial institutions are facing a huge problem to fulfil all their demands and when the bank is
not able to fulfil their demands, they shift another bank.
Though DBS has very flexible policies for their customer, still they are facing many
problems in fulfilling the customers need. Banking sectors are not gaining a huge amount of
return on investment. Despite the hype that DBS is a leading financial institution, they are
acquiring a very low return on equity (Dbs.com.sg 2018). This is also affecting the shareholder's
trust in the company.

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Development Bank of Singapore
Value chain analysis
The value chain analysis of the banking sector is unique. The uniqueness signifies in the
work and also means the industrial feature for the development of bank (Dbs.com.sg 2018). As
banking sector in Singapore is quite supportive, thus better chances of business proactivity will
surface the process. Client is the sole delivering factor of processing and that is the reason
supplier and Buyer these two extreme important sections that manages client.
Value chain analysis has five sections like inbound logistic, operation process, outbound
logistic, marketing and sales, and services. This is the primary activities that impacted on DBS,
as the process management and banking operation are the major process to make deal with
clients. The logistic in case of inbound and outbound linked with the support activities like
technology (Hill and Menon 2014). Better technology helps the logistics process smoother. In
case of bank, the logistic process of money lending of money transfer from the main centre need
some smooth process and security and that is the main support process of technology to boost the
process. In case of firm infrastructure, that highlight the sales process and increase number of
sales and account open will help to make more business in Singapore. The banking facility is
such things that initiated by the most of the people in Singapore, so better business opportunity is
there and that needs to be formulated by the Human resource department (Hartwell 2013). This is
one of the most crucial steps in support activities as the section of HRM needs to be string in
bank so that services will be fine and clients get good outcome through the process (Moosazadeh
et al. 2016). A genuine HRM manager takes care of that and procures the process is a suitable
way to measure the situational position they are in and at the level they place their mark in
future. There is some service management process like the use of marketing and the process of
advertisement are important in this process. The sales department of DBS deals with the

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Development Bank of Singapore
acquisition, offering, multi process management also. The product and service has three
segments like funding, investment and services as a whole (Ho 2014). The processes are
important for the credit, securities and corporate investments. The process of supplier buyer
relationship is the most important for the development of general people. In Singapore, as all the
infrastructural quality is high in nature and corporate assisting is there, so it will be important to
have client management procedures.
Figure 1: Value chain analysis
(Source: Created by Author)
The business expansion need people engagement and the business scope delivering those
linked between the market linkage and that is the reason this value chain is important for DBS.
Macro-environment using PEST Analysis
PEST analysis will help to understand the Political, Social, Economic and Technological
factors that influence Development Bank of Singapore (Ho 2014).
Supplier Needs
Anallysis Investment Divestiture Buyer
Client

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Development Bank of Singapore
Political factors:
Political stability is one of the important aspect in which the business based on their
ground. If the positing nation and their government assistance are not gettable by the penetrating
company, then associates marketing are crucial in that case and some difficulties need to be
faced by the organisation. Political stability affects the banking sector heavily because the
government sets particular rules and policies and if the frequency of change in political leader is
high, the policy changes are high that affects the banking sector. However, Singapore has a good
political stability and it does not affect Singapore’s financial industry heavily (Tremewan 2016).
Foreign and local investment: Singapore’s economy is attracting many local and foreign
investors; this is helping the growth of the Singapore’s financial sector. Foreign investments
have increased the business activities, which helped DBS on a huge scale (Newell, Pham and
Ooi 2015).
Economic factors:
Funding profile of Singapore: The funding profile is very strong in Singapore. This is
due to the developed economy of Singapore and also because of the huge number of investors.
This is one of the reasons why every financial organisation is selecting Singapore to headquarter
their organisation. This has helped DBS to expand and make a strong base of operation in
Singapore (Dbs.com.sg 2018).
Labour cost: In recent years, Singapore is highly facing the problem of increased labour
cost. This affects the organisation by cutting down the cost advantage.
Social factors:

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Development Bank of Singapore
The rate of intent for starting the business in Singapore has increased 20.3% as people are
engaged in a right way (Dbs.com.sg 2018).
New clients are hoping to start their business as the process of incubation, knowledge sharing
and mentioning the factors are the concerned process that helps to find more engagement in the
social aspect.
Improving and rising social states of enterprise situation is another initial process of this
social entrepreneurship service. The culture of materialism and hard work is the influencing
factors that encourage the development of the Singapore economy. The skilled labours are the
key asset for the organisation and they deliver their best in the improved scenario of Singapore.
Technological factors:
Introduction of Digital Banking: One of the main reasons for the success of the financial
industry in Singapore is the increased connectivity and improved communication. Proper and
advanced IT infrastructure in Singapore helped DBS in providing better and accurate services to
the customer.
Efficiency: Development Bank of Singapore is one of the financial organisations among
very few organisations that have implemented the Infocomm technology (Dbs.com.sg 2018).
This has helped in increasing the efficiency of ATM in the country and also resulted in the
customer satisfaction.

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Development Bank of Singapore
The Key Opportunities for DBS Bank:
Business expansion: Development Bank of Singapore can expand its business outside
Asia. European and American countries can be very useful for their business as they have a good
economic stability and a higher GDP (Dbs.com.sg 2018).
Adapting to the E-Banking: Development Bank of Singapore should try and adapt to the
E-banking strategy, which will help them to compete against the Fintech companies. The E-
banking has also increased the customer satisfaction level that has helped the financial
institutions (Shim 2013).
Threats of DBS bank are:
The increased competition between the foreign banks in Asian countries and mainly in
Singapore has affected the Development Bank of Singapore. Fintech companies are a major
threat as it has already acquired a huge number of customer bases. Economic downfall or
recession or any change in government regulations may have a negative impact on the business
operation of DBS (Dbs.com.sg 2018)

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Development Bank of Singapore
Task 2:
Stakeholders are those individuals who have interest in the company’s business process
and who can be affected or affect the business organisation. Stakeholders can be of two types,
either internal stakeholders or external stakeholders. Internal stakeholders are the people who are
committed to serving the organisation for example board members, volunteer, staff or donors.
They are already committed to the business organisation. External stakeholders are those people
who are impacted by the organisational processes. Clients, community, constituents, partners are
some of the examples of external stakeholders.
Key Stakeholders of Development Bank of Singapore:
Employees: Employees are one of the main stakeholders of the organization, as they
carry out all the business process in the organization. The employee of a bank like DBS should
be highly skilled and knowledgeable about every rules and regulation of the company
(Dbs.com.sg 2018). The employee of the organization should have a strong bond with the
customer, as the customer-employee relation is very necessary for Singapore's competitive
market.
Board members: Board members are important stakeholders for DBS as they set all the
policies of the organisation. All the operations of the organisation are highly dependent on the
board members policies (Moosazadeh et al. 2016). The board members set those policies by
considering all the different legal rules and regulations, market demand, competitive rivalry,
threats of new entrances and other different factors.
Clients: Clients or customers are the external stakeholders and satisfying these clients
and keeping these clients into their organisation is the main of the financial institution. The board

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Development Bank of Singapore
of directors also set policies considering what the clients want from their organisation. Clients
are the main stakeholder of DBS.
Partners: Partners or subsidiary companies are the external stakeholders of the DBS.
Partners are highly affected by the actions of the organisation (Dbs.com.sg 2018).
Shareholders: Shareholders are the key internal stakeholders of DBS. They invest in the
organisation by buying shares of the organisation and expect a huge amount of return on
investment.
Shareholders matrix
The importance of shareholders for the sustainable business process is important and
these stakeholders are important to hold the business up. Consumers don't segment in the
fatalities if any of the existing company practices them, so they also don't segment in the
incomes. But shareholders do. The incomes and losses practiced by the company are theirs
unaided. Anyone who needs to share in company’s profits is comfortable to buy dividends. But
they want to be equipped to take the sufferers, too. The classifying and identify those people and
impotent for the organization (Hill and Menon 2014). Local government, customers, employees,
local community, funding bodies all these sections are under the stakeholders’ genre. The
internal market signifies the office employee and shareholder who invest money for the process.
Supplier market is another shareholder and they involved with the shareholder case of the bank
and that keep informed process (Moosazadeh et al. 2016). The high power end signifies the
customer market and referral market where the maximum revenue can be earned. The minimal
efforts are the process where the situation is being influenced by another aspect. In that case,
influencer markets and recruitment is the key process to deal the situation. The last one is the key

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Development Bank of Singapore
player and that provide the high power and high interest in shareholders. Customer expectation
from the bank and the increase of competition set the parameter in that case and that will be
effective for the business acceleration and for the movement of power intense shareholder matrix
in business.
Issues affecting Stakeholders:
Insufficient revenue: Despite having the hype about the banking sectors profitability,
financial institutions and banks are not getting sufficient amount of return on investment or
equity. The shareholders are not getting their expected return on investment and they are losing
faith from DBS (Dbs.com.sg 2018). This is due to the introduction of the net banking and the
Fintech companies. DBS should work on their organisational strategy and bring policies that are
more flexible (Shim 2013).
Consumer expectations: As discussed earlier, consumers are the key stakeholders of an
organisation and for the Development Bank of Singapore. Consumer’s satisfaction should be the
main motto of any organisation with such high competitive industry. The consumer’s expectation
from the organisation is increasing day by day. This is affecting DBS banking policies.
Sustaining the consumer is becoming a challenge for DBS due to their increased level of
expectation (Albert and Merunka 2013).
Increasing competition: DBS is facing a huge competition from the new banks and
financial institution but apart from that, DBS is also facing tough competition from the Fintech
companies. Fintech companies are the start-up companies that use software to provide financial
services to the customer. This affecting all the major stakeholders of the company as the
organisation is failing to match up with the competition from the Fintech companies (Dbs.com.sg

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Development Bank of Singapore
2018). DBS should implement e-banking in their organisation so that the problem can be
minimised to a great extent. DBS should bring more policies that are profitable for both the
consumers as well as for the companies.
Task 3:
Ethical and Corporate Social Responsibility Issues:
Corporate social responsibility is a type of approach that the business organisation adopts
that contributes to the sustainable development by giving social, economic and environmental
benefits to all the stakeholders of the business organisation. Corporate social responsibility is an
important factor that will help DBS to expand their business. Some of the problems faced by
DBS in last 5 years are listed below:
Decision-making issues: Development Bank of Singapore is the largest bank in Asia in
terms of Assets. They are the most experienced banking institution in Singapore. The bank was
established by the Singaporean bank to handle all the financial and monetary transactions and
related activities from the Economic Development Board (Newell, Pham and Ooi 2015). The
bank has a strong customer base. However, in last five years, the bank has made some horrible
issues regarding the policies of the organisation. The organisation has lost a lot of key employees
as well as lost many customers (Dbs.com.sg 2018). Ethical-decision making should focus on
preserving the customer and employee rights keeping in mind all business related operations are
fair and justified.
Fundamental issues: The most essential or fundamental ethical issue that DBS has faced
in last 5 years is related to integrity and trust. Development Bank of Singapore has faced many
problems related to fraudulence. The company has suffered a loss of nearly $50 million in last 5

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Development Bank of Singapore
years (Dbs.com.sg 2018). It has also suffered the trust issues of the shareholders and the
consumer as the consumers and the shareholders were affected badly due to fraudulence.
Governance issues: A business organisation is said to follow the environmental, federal
and safety regulations and monetary rules and regulations (Rich 2014). Development Bank of
Singapore has been reported many times for not following the proper rules and regulations. This
has also affected the brand image of the organisation and the customers were shifted to another
banking organisation.
The Main Ethical and CSR stances Taken by DBS:
Infocomm technology: Development Bank of Singapore is one of the very few banks that
have implemented this technology. Infocomm technology helped the organization to make the
ATM machines more efficient, which reduces the risk of fraud. It helped in the transaction that is
more efficient also reduces the time of a transaction. It has also increased the customer
satisfaction.
Board of directors: Development Bank of Singapore has changed its entire board of
directors and replaced by the new board of director to make effective planning and decisions
(Dbs.com.sg 2018). The organisation also organised a panel that takes time to time report of the
organisational functions.
TASK 4:
The strategy that an organisation made during the making of the business plan of the
organisation is known to be intended strategy. Intended strategies are those that the company
intended to execute. Emergent strategies are those that are unplanned and that arises with time
due to unexpected challenges and opportunities (Serrat 2017). Emergent strategies are mainly

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Development Bank of Singapore
formed due to the changes in government policies or due to any external challenge that happens
in the industry. Emergent strategies mainly lead to the disastrous results. Development Bank of
Singapore was formed in 1968, and that time the organisation had made some strategies that
have changed and a new strategy is now applied by the organisation (Dbs.com.sg 2018). This is
due to the change in consumer preference, government policies, advancement in technology,
increased competition, opportunities in the market. The emergent strategy changes time to time
according to the situation.
Emergent Strategies of Development Bank of Singapore
Singapore government established the Development Bank of Singapore to handle all the
financial and monetary transactions. The intended strategy was to handle and operate only in the
Singaporean industry but later the organization got an opportunity to expand its business outside
Singapore also. DBS is now one of the most valued financial banks in Asia and it is the largest in
terms of assets in Asia (Rich 2014).
DBS’s strategy was to provide financial services and they did not want to introduce
digital banking into their business operation but in 2009, the current Chief Operating Officer of
DBS spearhead the bank’s transformation (Dbs.com.sg 2018). They were one of the worst
banking institutions in the market but they changed the scenario and recently DBS is awarded as
the best digital bank in Singapore.
DBS intended strategy at the beginning of the organisation was to provide quality
services to the people and to make flexible policies so that the customer can be benefited by their
policies but with time, the competitive environment made the organisation to apply different

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Development Bank of Singapore
strategies (Dbs.com.sg 2018). Now they are more into the growth of their organisation, they do
not make flexible policies for their customers.
Advantages of the Balance of Intended and Emergent Approaches
DBS never thought of adopting digital banking but with time, they are forced to include
in its banking strategy. This will help their customer and also to the organization in reducing
time consumption.
Their strategy was to provide banking services only in the Singaporean market but with
time, they expanded their business in Asia. This will help them in increasing their market outside
Asia also (Serrat 2017). These will increase the customer base and will also help them in
increasing the goodwill of the organisation.
Disadvantages of the Balance of Intended and Emergent Approaches
Digital banking will increase the risk of theft and fraud.
The increased competition in Asia and the introduction Fintech companies is highly
affecting DBS (Dbs.com.sg 2018).
Conclusion
Therefore it can be concluded Development Bank of Singapore has some strength,
weakness, opportunity and strength that is impacted on people having their business in the bank.
The associated people like shareholder, stockholders are taking care of every single situation and
that is the key process of balanced approaches. There are some strategies have been taken by
DBS and that influences other opportunities in business too.

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Development Bank of Singapore
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