Contemporary Management Technique Research Paper - High Quality Paper Required - 15 Hours at the Max
RUNNING HEAD: INDIVIDUAL LEARNING PROJECT 1
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INDIVIDUAL LEARNING PROJECT 1
Liberty University
New Horizon Credit Union
Company Description
The organization selected for analysis and evaluation is New Horizon Credit Union. New Horizon Credit Union is headquartered in Mobile, Alabama with several branches offices located in several counties in Alabama. New Horizon Credit Union was founded in 1950, when it was known as Scott Southern Division Employees Credit Union and later became Scott Credit Union. Credit Unions are “self-help cooperative financial organizations geared to attaining the economic and social goals of members and wider local communities” (McKillop and Wilson, 2011).
Lisa Corvo, President/CEO, focuses on helping members be financially secure and maintains world-class employee experiences. New Horizon Credit Union is actively committed to community involvement. One of the biggest commitments President/CEO is involved with is high school scholarship program. Each year the credit union awards five $1,000.00 scholarships to deserving high school seniors. The credit union has been recognized with the League of Southeastern Credit Union’s Dora Maxwell Award for its community involvement.
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis
In order for a firm to understand the business environment, it is necessary to have a strategic planning process in place. This process is “among the most important tools to facilitate such understanding is the SWOT analysis” (Phadermrod, Crowder, & Wills, 2019). It allows a company like New Horizon Credit Union to gain a better insight of their internal and external business environment when making strategic plans and decisions by analyzing and positioning an organization’s resources and environments. Listed below is a SWOT analysis for New Horizon Credit Union:
Table 1
New Horizon Credit Union SWOT Analysis
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INTERNAL |
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STRENGTHS
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WEAKNESSES |
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· Dedication of staff and volunteers · Members have a strong trust and believe in New Horizon Credit Union · When compared to banks, it is more cost effective to be a member of New Horizon Credit Union · Locations conveniently located
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· Requirements to be a member · Employee Turn-Over · Lack of Market Differentiation as it relate to financial services · Lack of a business/Market Development Section
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POSITIVE |
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OPPORTUNITIES
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THREATS NEGATIVE |
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· Growing Cards Payments Channel in US · Growing Economy in US · Positive Outlook for US Insurance Industry · Recent Launches · Rotating Customer Base in the local installation · College population in nearby universities |
· Changing Regulations · Natural Calamities · Fluctuations in interest rates · Cyber Crimes · More exposed to economic issues (recession) than bigger organizations due to limited size
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EXTERNAL |
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USAA, 2018
Brief discussion of Table 1
· One of New Horizon’s greatest strengths is they provide an abundance of products to their members at great rates. The customer satisfaction is greater than credit unions, which normally rank the highest.
· In the area of weaknesses, New Horizon experienced the most difficulty with their employee turnover. Even with the deflation and the currency of the job markets exceptional talent, it’s more complicated to maintain with the prevailing premium and benefits offered.
· As far as opportunities, the cyber display presents a withstanding entrepreneurship and the organization has not oppressed as much as they could.
· With the area of threats, the fluctuations in interest rates are the current downfall. Members, as well as their families, shop around for better interest rates.
New Horizon Credit Union Balanced Scorecard
The balance scorecard is a “critical planning procedural tool used by New Horizon to balance financial burdens, customer involvement, process concerns, and innovation concerns with the objective of establishing appropriate strategies in favor of a more reassuring market position”, (Soderberg, et. al, 2011). The balanced scorecard displays a compound of focused key portions, humans and knowledge, internal, consumers, and financial indicators with the developing metrics to portion all areas of performance. In this case of New Horizon Credit Union, an interview and analysis with Sheria Mitchell and Dr. Chrishan Watson provided enough data to produce the balanced scorecard as displayed in Table 2 below.
Table 2
New Horizon Credit Union Balanced Scorecard
Discussion of Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
Blocher et al., 2019, defined critical success factors as “measures of the aspects of the firm’s performance that are essential to its competitive advantage and therefore to its success”. This information is displayed in Table 2 and discussed in detail below:
Financial Perspective: In order to understand funding, investment, and expenses at New Horizon Credit Union, it is important to have timely and financial monitoring. New Horizon’s mission is to ensure the accuracy of all their financial activities.
Customer Perspective: New Horizon Credit Union prides itself with customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. It is important to deliver services where all customers are satisfied and will return for additional services and refer new customers.
Internal Process Perspective: In order for New Horizon to maintain its corporate standings, they must analyze its internal processes and business perspectives. If New Horizon is out of compliance with this perspective, it could not only affect gross margin and revenue but it could affect the quality of services provided to customers.
Learning Growth Perspective: New Horizon Credit Union strives to provide its employee with professional development on a regular basis. They believe that in order for employees to succeed in this business, it is important to ensure their employees receive training on federal compliance as it relates to financial regulations at the state and federal levels. They also encourage furthering their educational and health training.
Summary
The purpose of this paper was to provide a brief explanation of New Horizon Credit Union’s company analysis through the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis and Critical Success Factors (CSF) of the institution. With the information provided, any future problems can be determined in advance. In addition, these analyses can reveal the current financial status, the future of the credit union’s strengths, environment and weaknesses.
References
Arumugam, V., Chang, H., Ooi, K., and Teh, P. (2009). "Self-assessment of TQM practices: a case analysis", The TQM Journal, 21(1), 46 – 58. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/journals.htm?articleid=1766744&show=abstract#sthash.TkDGZoZ7.dpuf
Beard, D. F. (2009.). Successful applications of the balanced scorecard in higher education. Journal of Education for Business, 84(5), 275-282. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA199801168&v=2.1&u=vic_liberty&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=0a844270d80075c057b128b38e50a6e7
Blocher, E., Stout, D. S., Juras, P.E., & Cokins, G. (2019). Cost Management: A Strategic Emphasis (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
McKillop, D. and Wilson, J. O. (2011), Credit Unions: A Theoretical and Empirical Overview. Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments, 20: 79-123. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0416.2011.00166.x
Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R. M., & Wills, G. B. (2019). Importance-performance analysis based SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management, 44, 194-203. doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2016.03.009
Soderberg, M., Kalagnanam, S., Sheehan, N., and Vaidyanathan, G. (2011) "When is a balanced scorecard a balanced scorecard?, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 60(7) 688-708