Royal Bank of Canada's Strategy: Navigating Change Drivers in Finance

This report reflects on the current status of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and its competitive positioning in the financial industry, identifying key success factors such as business risk assessment, financial risk assessment, strong client relationships, simplified products, technological advancements, and automated business models. It examines likely change drivers, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), global financial crises, wealth management risks, and housing market risks, and their potential consequences on RBC. The report also discusses the role of business advisors in managing change and the attitudes and abilities required for this role, followed by a personal reflection on the author's skills and areas for improvement to effectively contribute to RBC's continued success in the Canadian financial market. Desklib provides similar solved assignments and study resources for students.

Running Head: CHANGE DRIVERS IN ROYAL BANK OF CANADA
Royal bank of Canada and its competitive positioning in the financial industry
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REFLECTION ON THE CURRENT STATUS OF ROYAL BANK OF CANADA AND ITS
COMPETITIVE POSITIONING IN THE FINANCIAL INDUSTRY
PART 1
Key success factors for firms operating in financial sector-
Business risk assessment
 The financial sector has competitive advantage of market share, market positioning,
brand equity of products and franchise strength. Business expansion plans in urban,
remote and sub-urban locations help in additional competitive advantage of market
penetration Dean and Schwindt (2014, 116).
 High distribution channel and network coverage capability. Integrated IT system help in
timely and speedy service providence Nadina (2011, pp. 707-712).
 The financial services have strong diversification portfolio in terms of customer base,
funding sources, geographical location, financing and leasing. Such folio strengthens
revenue, profit, liquidity and asset quality.
 Strong management support and strategic planning results in good corporate governance
and integrated risk control support Salvioni and Gennari (2015).
Financial risk assessment
 Strong capitalization increases capital leveraging and balancing debt-equity ratio which
help in achieving success effectively.
 Good asset quality add company valuation and market operation is proliferated. The non-
performing receivables help in loss recovery at the time of crisis.

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 Higher profitability reviews the net interest income and margin which results in stable
financial sustainability Marchildon and McDowall (2013).
 The financial sector industries are good in asset liability management and adds more
financial flexibility to the operational services. Financial risks are lowered as a result.
The Royal bank of Canada is a Canadian multinational financial service corporation and is the
largest public bank as per market capitalization. RBC continued its success saga for years in
Canadian financial industry. The success factors are,
 Good rapport and strong client relationship supported by good management team.
 Simplified product and service opportunity helped in leading, gaining market share and
growing volumes in markets.
 When wealth management is considered long-term mutual fund sales help RBC to be the
market leader. In Capital Market considerations also, RBC has highest share in major
categories of equity capital market, debt capital market, M&A and Loan Syndication.
 Upgradation to technological advancements has made RBC more assessable to the clients
and this digital upliftment has helped in building deeper relationship with the clients.
 Simplified and automated business model of ‘state of the art’ has helped in increasing
client experience in no time. The new Mortgage system called Lynx, has simplified end
to end mortgage process Herskovits (2018 pp.102-113).
PART 2
The likely change drivers that will impact on the nature of the success factors are mentioned
below. The likely consequences on RBC are also discussed.

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 The main change driver is Artificial Intelligence (AI). RBC is trying to implement AI
to its financial services and smart investments. This will increase profitability on one
hand but on the other will also increase competitiveness. Increased competitiveness
may hamper financial business of RBC or it may boost up gains. Only time will say.
 Global financial crisis of recent years 2007-2008 has a deep-rooted impact on the
operations of financial institutions and banking services. Many banks are still
recovering from the losses and this has indirect impact on the banks like RBC who
have greatly recovered.
 Wealth management sector is the fastest growing sector and so risks associated are
quite higher and RBC need to widen its other service areas so that overall negative
impact if any, could be balanced.
 The housing market risk factor in the Canadian financial sector are been proliferated
by the short-sellers. The credit assumption of RBC is said to be too optimistic and
change in accounting rules will impact earning Buchanan (2011, pp. 273-288). The
end result will be slow down of overheated housing markets. But RBC’s improved
credit profile will help in stabilizing the situation.
PART 3
The business advisor role in management of change will help in maintaining long term
relationship with clients. RBC has a team of account managers called business advisors who are
available 24*7 to help clients in their banking experiences Geva (2017). They will act as a single
point of contact and will provide personalized services and business information to clients.
The main attitudes and abilities required to successfully fill the role of business advisor are as
follows,

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 Client focused, should always be available in their services
 Should possess an in-depth knowledge of current business and future business trends as
well
 Should have analytical skills that will help in effective business planning for the client
 Developed business networking of their own and could prioritize works as per
requirement
 Have excellent multitasking, mentoring, consultancy and coaching skills
 Have good verbal communication skills and could easily communicate with clients,
businesses and other associates.
 Should be flexible with work hours to meet deadlines and could travel at the time of need
 Should show good business acumen Salvioni and Gennari (2015)
 Should possess good listening and interpretation skills
PART 4
I have almost all the mentioned skills and abilities but need to work on some of them to add
effectiveness to my job role. Major areas of improvement are,
 Multitasking skills are not much improved because when I focus on a particular thing, I
make sure the job is done and then move to the next one. I need to work on it.
 Also, I am a person who likes to maintain work-life balance. The business advisory role
demands flexi work timings and for this no fixed work hour will work. I need to manage
my duties accordingly.
I am an open-minded person and is free to grab new opportunities and ideas. Exploring newer
business ideas will widen my career graph in this sector of financial services. I have increased

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my work flexibility and also have changed the approach of my leadership style. Now I am free to
delegate task as well as free to take any task that best suit me. I and my team will work together
to various client issues so that the accessibility of banking operations of RBC multiplies in
coming years. To fit in the role of business advisor I am ready to change my attitude and work
for delivering my best to the clients so that RBC continues to rule the Canadian financial market
in the long run.
REFERENCES

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Buchanan, D.A. (2011) ‘Good practice, not rocket science – understanding failures to change
after extreme events’, Journal of Change Management, 11 (3), pp. 273-288.
Dean, J.W. and Schwindt, R., 2014. Bank Act revision in Canada: Past and potential effects on
market structure and competition. PSL Quarterly Review, 29(116).
Geva, B., 2017. International Commercial Banking.
Herskovits, B., 2018. ‘Build it and they will come’is a myth: Building a digital activation
strategy. Journal of Digital Banking, 3(2), pp.102-113.
Marchildon, G.P. and McDowall, D., 2013. Canadian Multinationals and International Finance.
Routledge.
Nadina, R.R. (2011) ‘Methods of identification of the need for organizational change as being
opportune’, Annals of the University of Oradea, Economic Science Series, 20 (2), pp. 707-712.
Salvioni, D. and Gennari, F., 2015. Corporate governance, sustainability and capital markets
orientation.