Annotation Financial services businesses are leading the way towards the global economy, yet they are in a state of turbulence. Where financial services are today, other industries such as electronics, computers, telecommunications, & air transport will be in the near future. This book describes why this is happening & how companies are tackling the challenge of this volatile environment. The first part describes the causes of this volatility through new government regulations, shifts in customer behavior, the impact of new technology, & more aggressive global competition. The second part of the book contains case study material from international companies including managing the portfolio of a global financial services organization & corporate development for an international bank. Driving Strategic Change in Financial Services is an essential tool for understanding the global climate in financial services & for mastering the task of developing an international company. Executives, policy-makers, & managers in banking & other markets such as electronic commerce will find valuable insights & useful case material. Features.

Creating Value in Financial Services is a compilation of state-of-the-art views of leading academics and practitioners on how financial service firms can succeed in today's competitive environment. The book is based on two conferences held at New York University: the first, `Creating Value in Financial Services', held in March 1997, and the second, `Operations and Productivity in Financial Services', in April 1998. The book is essentially designed to be a compendium of leading edge thinking and practice in the management of financial services firms. There is no book today that has this focus. It contains ideas that can apply to other service industries. Topics addressed are increasingly important worldwide as the financial services industries consolidate and search for innovative new directions and ways to create value in a fiercely competitive environment.

Open innovation means gathering new ideas from sources beyond organizational boundaries. It occurs when solutions to address clients’ needs are developed in collaboration and the resulting products and services are distributed through a flexible network of partners. Daniel Fasnacht’s book, the first of its kind, discusses open business models in the context of the financial services industry. He elaborates the drivers for strategic change such as increasingly sophisticated clients or demanding shareholders among other trends, including the recent global financial crisis, and explains why the transition from a closed model of operation to open innovation is vital. Various case studies illustrate how to integrate the client into the firm's innovation process and emphasize the importance of smart client segmentation and a holistic advisory model to serve clients around the globe. Leaders must develop a set of new management practices to be able to invest in multiple strategic directions. They are responsible for giving clients a remarkable experience and for creating social relationship capital based upon an open innovation culture. Open Innovation in the Financial Services provides a much-needed framework for helping to understand industry dynamics in banking and to make the most of organizational energy by using open innovation to sustain profitable growth. The book comes at the right time and offers a new mindset for business – not only for expansion strategies in general, but especially during turbulent times.

A practical approach to business transformation Fit for Growth* is a unique approach to business transformation that explicitly connects growth strategy with cost management and organization restructuring. Drawing on 70-plus years of strategy consulting experience and in-depth research, the experts at PwC’s Strategy& lay out a winning framework that helps CEOs and senior executives transform their organizations for sustainable, profitable growth. This approach gives structure to strategy while promoting lasting change. Examples from Strategy&’s hundreds of clients illustrate successful transformation on the ground, and illuminate how senior and middle managers are able to take ownership and even thrive during difficult periods of transition. Throughout the Fit for Growth process, the focus is on maintaining consistent high-value performance while enabling fundamental change. Strategy& has helped major clients around the globe achieve significant and sustained results with its research-backed approach to restructuring and cost reduction. This book provides practical guidance for leveraging that expertise to make the choices that allow companies to: Achieve growth while reducing costs Manage transformation and transition productively Create lasting competitive advantage Deliver reliable, high-value performance Sustainable success is founded on efficiency and high performance. Companies are always looking to do more with less, but their efforts often work against them in the long run. Total business transformation requires total buy-in, and it entails a series of decisions that must not be made lightly. The Fit for Growth approach provides a clear strategy and practical framework for growth-oriented change, with expert guidance on getting it right. *Fit for Growth is a registered service mark of PwC Strategy& Inc. in the United States

How institutions and individuals can address complex social, financial, and environmental problems on a systemic level—and invest in a more secure future. Investment today has evolved from the basic, conventional approach of the past. Investors have come to recognize the importance of sustainable investment and are more frequently considering environmental and social factors in their decisions. Yet the complexity of the times forces us to recognize and transition to a third stage of investment practice: system-level investing. In this paradigm-shifting book, William Burckart and Steve Lydenberg show how system-level investors support and enhance the health and stability of the social, financial, and environmental systems on which they depend for long-term returns. They preserve and strengthen these fundamental systems while still generating competitive or otherwise acceptable performance. This book is for those investors who believe in that transition. They may be institutions, large or small, concerned about the long-term stability of the environment and society. They may be individual investors who want their children and grandchildren to inherit a just and sustainable world. Whoever they may be, Burckart and Lydenberg show them the what, why, and how of system-level investment in this book: what it means to manage system-level risks and rewards, why it is imperative to do so now, and how to integrate this new way of thinking into their current practice. “Burckart and Lydenberg are the Wayne Gretzkys of investing: Showing us not where investing is, but where it’s going.” —Jon Lukomnik, Managing Partner, Sinclair Capital; Senior Fellow, High Meadows Institute