SWOT Chemical Bank

Strength:

Thanks to the Balanced ScoreCard Chemical Bank will be better positioned towards its competitors on the banking market. It allows the firm to have an excellent knowledge of its customers’ base. Indeed we know which slice of the population is more represented in your customer wallet that allows you to focus your efforts on the right targets and deliver them a superior service sooner than the other banks.

The BSC clearly appears to be a competitive advantage that could put Chemical Bank as a leader of the market. This new tools is also a way to increase motivation among the sales force by highlighting the new strategy that has to be implemented.

Weaknesses:

Even if that tool seems to be a good way to know the expectations of the customers some indicators are not really useful and miss some important points of the customers’ main dissatisfactions. As it was specifically designed by New York market it may not be as efficient in other parts of the bank. What works in New York market is not always going to work somewhere else.

Moreover as there is a lack of communication about the BSC in Chemical Bank it shows that this tool is not yet ready to be introduced in the whole organization.

Opportunities:

After the merger of Chemical Bank and the Manufacturers Hanover Corporation the BSC appears to be the best way to change the mental schemes and create a long term united strategy for the new entity as you wanted. Thus, new strategy statements will be simplified by highlighting the needs of new internal processes. A new working axis is about to be created: offering better services to your customers!

Threats:

One the biggest threat for Chemical Bank is the market that becomes more and more competitive (the number of banks is predicted to reach 4000 banks by early in the next century against 14000 banks ten years ago). As a further matter there seems to be a certain scepticism among the senior management regarding the cultural changes.

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