Strategic Analysis of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank: Detailed Report

This report provides a comprehensive strategic analysis of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), examining its current strategic position, core issues, and challenges. The analysis delves into the bank's operations, including personal, Islamic, business, and investment banking divisions. Key strategic issues, such as customer acquisition through multiple channels, the impact of technological disruptions, security and authentication concerns, and the optimization of mobile experiences, are thoroughly discussed. The report offers recommendations for addressing these challenges, including improvements in digital customer experience, enhanced data analytics capabilities, cost reduction strategies, upgrades to core operating systems, and improved business processes, along with security enhancements. The report also reflects on CEO leadership behaviors, decision-making processes, and risk management strategies, supported by relevant theoretical frameworks. The analysis covers the strategic issues faced by ADCB bank and how they are addressed.

Running head: STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF ABU DHABI COMMERCIAL BANK
Strategic Analysis of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank
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1STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF ABU DHABI COMMERCIAL BANK
Executive Summary:
Strategic issues generally refers to the fundamental policy question or the critical
challenges that are responsible for having a huge impact upon the mandates, values, missions,
resources, structures, stakeholders, management, processes or product or service level. In this
report the organization ADCB or the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank has been selected in order to
conduct an analysis of the strategic issues faced by the organization. Firstly the report has been
associated with the identification and analysis of the core strategic issues that are faced by the
organization by considering the strategic position of the organization. This has been followed by
the development of recommendations for eth needs of the organization related to the challenges
that are faced. Followed by this in the second section of the report a reflection and comment
upon the leadership behavior, the decision making process and risk management skills has been
provided. Lastly a research has been conducted along with the application of the theoretical
concepts upon the focal strategic issues has been provided.

2STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF ABU DHABI COMMERCIAL BANK
Table of Contents
Part 1:...................................................................................................................................3
Introduction of the organization:.........................................................................................3
Discussion:...........................................................................................................................3
Personal Banking:............................................................................................................4
Islamic Banking:..............................................................................................................4
Business banking:............................................................................................................4
Investment Banking:........................................................................................................5
Strategic Issue Analysis:......................................................................................................5
Usage of multiple Channels so as to reach the new customers:......................................5
The continued rise of the Technology Disruption:..........................................................6
Security and Authentication:...........................................................................................6
Optimization of the Mobile experience:..........................................................................7
Recommendations for the strategic issues:..........................................................................8
Improvements in the Digital experience of the Customers:............................................8
Enhancement of the data analytics capability:.................................................................8
Reduction of the operational costs:..................................................................................9
Updating and replacing the Core Operating System Components:...............................10
Improved business Processes:........................................................................................10
Enhance of the Security and the Authentication:..........................................................11

3STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF ABU DHABI COMMERCIAL BANK
Part 2:.................................................................................................................................11
CEO leadership Paper........................................................................................................11
Reflection and comment................................................................................................11
Leadership behaviors;....................................................................................................11
The decision making process:........................................................................................12
The risk management strategies:...................................................................................13
Research and application of theoretical frameworks strategic issue.................................14
References:........................................................................................................................17

4STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF ABU DHABI COMMERCIAL BANK
Part 1:
Introduction of the organization:
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank or the ADCB bank is one of the major bank of the UAE
which is associated with providing different kind of services as well as innovative products for
the customers. This is named so after the merger of the Khaleej bank with the Emirate
Commercial Bank and the Federal Commercial Bank in the year of 1985. This organization is
one of the public shareholding organization which is having a limited liability. The bank is also
associated with ensuring the fact that the customers are getting satisfied which is the major
objective of this organization. Besides this the bank tends to provide good services to its
customers (adcb.com, 2019). The main mission of this bank is not to forget about the fact that the
customers are always having a choice in case if they are not satisfied. The banks is associated
with treating each and every customer as a particular individual which initially results in
delivering a quality service to each and every customer. The bank is consisting of 47 branches all
across UAE and two branches in India. This bank is also having offshore operations in the
Cayman Island as well. About 65% of the Stake is owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Council
which is a state control body in the ADCB bank. This bank was established in the year of 1985
as the Khaleej Bank which is presently considered to be the third largest bank asset in the UAE.
Discussion:
ADCB bank is consisting of four major divisions which is associated with operating the
whole business and the divisions mainly includes the personal banking, Islamic banking,
Business banking and lastly the Investment banking. The four divisions has been discussed
below:

5STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF ABU DHABI COMMERCIAL BANK
Personal Banking:
This particular section of the bank is generally seen to be responsible for the various kind
of services such as the accounts, debits and the credit cards. Besides this this section is also
associated with regulating all the procedures related to loans bank assurances facilities and many
more (adcb.com, 2019). The division is also responsible for fulfilling all the basic requirements
of the bank and is associated with dealing with the general public issues as well.
Islamic Banking:
This is the particular division which is generally associated with providing different kind
of services in accordance to the Islamic banking regulations and is associated with offering
products as the Bai’ al-inah, Bai muajjal, Bai’ bithaman ajil, Mudarabah, Sukuk, Murabahah,
Musawamah, Ijarah, Bai salam, Qard hassan/ Qardul Hassan, Takaful, Hibah, Wadiah, Wakalah
(adcb.com, 2019). Islamic banking along with the finance is generally seen to be dependent the
principles that the Sharia is having, which is generally associated with defining the several ideas
related to marketing.
Business banking:
This particular section is generally responsible for providing of services such as the
management of cash, finance options for the entrepreneurial ventures that the businesses are
having (adcb.com, 2019). This section of the business is also responsible for dealing with the
corporate customers as well along with providing of treasury and services related to investments
as well as the trade services for the business.

6STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF ABU DHABI COMMERCIAL BANK
Investment Banking:
This section is associated with looking for opportunities related to the investments that
are to be done by the bank and is also associated with providing consultancy in the merger or
acquisition deals of the business (adcb.com, 2019). This section is also associated with offering
various kind of takeover, along with alliances, restructuring of the businesses, as well as the
divestment opportunities present for them. This division is particularly associated with helping
the organization in launching of the IPO as well as the stocks at proper time and is responsible
for regulating its procedures.
Strategic Issue Analysis:
Usage of multiple Channels so as to reach the new customers:
The pressure related to acquisition of the new customers has increased a lot in the
industry and the banks are seen to have more innovative in the process of acquisition of the new
strategies. One of the area which has been projected towards yielding of a significant return on
the investments made upon multichannel marketing (van der Steen 2017). Usage of the
combination of the traditional digital and the social channels is one of the major strategic
challenges that is faced by the ADCB bank. Unable to use the traditional along with the digital
and social channels have made the bank to fail in expanding their market reach as well being
incapable of getting their message delivered to the new customers which they have hope to
attract. Before indulging themselves in full scale multi-channel marketing efforts they lacked in
conducting a deep data analysis of the targeted customers along with failing in identifying the
best way of reaching out to the customers by making use of different channels (Adhikari 2018).
Along with all this the bank had also failed in proper allocation of the marketing which initially

7STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF ABU DHABI COMMERCIAL BANK
turned out to be one of the main reason behind the failure in obtaining the best return from the
investments.
The continued rise of the Technology Disruption:
Experts present in the ADCB bank are not associated with the anticipation of the new
financial technologies so as to take up the substantial market shares from the banking industry as
a whole. However it is associated with posing a significant strategic challenge towards the
industry which in turn associated with is giving its recent containment and growth face a lot of
struggle (Child and Lu 2018). The organization has also failed in the adaptation of the proper
software and technologies which helps in serving in the displacement of some of the most
profitable offerings that are made by the traditional banking and this includes the financial
advising, alternative to loans, processing of the payments, and money transfer. In addition to this
the disruptive technologies also consists of certain disruptive innovations such as the crypto-
currency which is associated with threatening the underpinning of the banking industry (Wheelen
et al. 2017). Lack of adaptation of the technology initially made the organization become less
innovative and made them face a lot of challenge in the status quo which might be associated
with becoming a groundswell for the customer’s adaptation which initially made the bank get
thrived into further peril.
Security and Authentication:
The security and authentication that the ADCB bank is having is associated with building
on the mobile experience and the online banking facility that is provided by the bank and the
major reason behind this is that the security and the authentication would be associated becoming
one of the significant strategic challenge that is likely to be faced (Sommerfeldt and Yang 2017).
The reason behind this is that the consumers have been associated with continuing with the

8STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF ABU DHABI COMMERCIAL BANK
adaptation of the mobile ecosystem for meeting the banking needs. Lack of taking a closer look
in the process of confirming the identities of the customers who were associated with accessing
the accounts remotely made the bank as well as the customers face a lot of challenge. There
existed the potential risk of security breach and identity theft and besides this the protection and
the security of the banking information is also considered to the paramount so as to instilling the
trust in the consumers mind (Begley, Purnanandam and Zheng 2017). ADCB bank lacked a
proper and devise strategic plan in order to ensure the safety of the financial data of the
customers.
Mobile payments:
The payments by usage of the mobile is seen to be becoming much more pervasive all
throughout the consumer economy (Kant 2017). Various application like the Gpay have been
associated with paving the way for the bank in this particular arena and due to the fact that the
customers are getting this type of services offered to them on their phones is initially making
them much more comfortable with the security of this method of payment.
Optimization of the Mobile experience:
The traditional banking system of ADCB bank is seen to have leaned upon the physical
branch locations and these branches have turned out to be the primary touch point of engagement
with the customers. However the increased usage of the smart phone along with associated
application have made the customers get much more inclined towards the complete baking
services which would be made online in order to get access to their accounts whenever they need
(Schmid 2018). But the ADCB bank had failed in providing a mobile-friendly banking

9STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF ABU DHABI COMMERCIAL BANK
experience to its customers along with the coupled applications and this in turn turned out to be
making eth customers incapable of getting an aid from the financial services, the consumers
financial life would be considered to be a strategically paramount for the banks in the retention
of the current customers along with the attraction of new customers as well (Joshi and Parihar
2017).
Recommendations for the strategic issues:
Some of the recommendations for eliminating the strategic issues have been listed below:
Improvements in the Digital experience of the Customers:
The banks of today’s world are entirely committed to their customer experiences and due
to the fact that the increased rate of taking decisions by the customers depending upon the ease
with which they are capable of interacting with the financial institutions. Besides this the
competition around the customers experience is also associated with providing a rise to the new
roles as well as titles within the banking industry (Schmidt, Drews and Schirmer 2017). The
ADCB bank has been associated with expanding their process related to CX project especially as
it is related to the digital as well as the mobile experience and this has been associated with
setting out a major challenge. Despite of this initiative there stills exists the difficulty in gaining
the resources needed for pursuing the new projects. Additionally the application of the resources
towards making improvements in customer experiences there still would be existing the need of
determining the ways related to how the success would be measured (Kudryavtseva, Skhvediani
and Bondarev 2018). There exist a wide variety of methods that can be used and this includes the
measurements around the satisfaction, retention, loyalty and engagement along with some form
of revenue metric.

10STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF ABU DHABI COMMERCIAL BANK
Enhancement of the data analytics capability:
Insights of the customers along with the data analytics is considered to be a virtual
foundation of each and every retail banking trends in the years coming. Starting from the
removal of friction from the journey of the customers to the improvements in the delivering of
the multichannel and exploration of the usage of the open APIs, data acts as the fuel which is
associated with empowering all this initiatives (Niemand et al. 2017). Despite of the existence of
the vast amount of data that are available for the bank it has been noticed that they are having a
lot of difficulties in the determination of the appropriate data which would be having an impact
as well as the ways of harnessing the full potential of the collected insights. Some of the major
reasons behind the falling short of the potential has been listed below:
Competing priorities: There exists a lot of priorities which might be changing over a short
period of time.
IT Complexities: Due to the existence of multilayer systems along with the data, the bank is
rarely associated with the usage of the full breadth and depth of the data at the time of their
disposal
Lack of Coordinated vision: This might be associated with resulting in the sub-optimal
allocation of the human as well as the technical resources along with the limited interactions and
exchanging of the ideas (Maixé-Altés 2019).
Data Analytics is very much critical for the success of the bank and the risk related to
falling behind in leveraging the insights of the consumers has never seen to be greater and the
major reason behind this is that the expectations of the customers are increasing day by day. So

11STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF ABU DHABI COMMERCIAL BANK
ADCB should necessarily be associated with the enhancing their data analytics capability so as
to tackle the various strategic issues that are faced.
Reduction of the operational costs:
ADCB has been associated with spending a lot of time as well as effort upon cutting
down the cost of the operations wherever possible and this efforts have sometime seen to be have
been done without understanding the impacts that this would be having upon the experience of
the customers (Schmitt 2016). Sometimes this is also done by without fixing the underlying
flaws in the processes. Installation of the new digital banking technology would be helping a lot
and this is to be done along with close examination and streamlining of the routine process which
are to be automated. Principles of industrialization is also to be applied along with management
of the efficiency of the processes and the operations. Without proper review and revamping of
the underlying process any kind of digital banking initiative would be falling short in full
optimization.
Updating and replacing the Core Operating System Components:
The organization ADCB bank must be associated with organizing themselves around the
customer data along with leveraging this data by making use of the cloud to mobile devices and
mobile applications (Vovchenko et al. 2018). One of the most important way of achieving this is
complete ripping out of the old system and by replacing them with the core banking systems
which are capable of supporting the bank as well as its customers.
Improved business Processes:
Discussed earlier that the installation of the new banking technology would be done so as
to improve the operations of the front as well as the back office and this would be leading to