For the analysis of the entrepreneurship’s encouragement in Barclays Bank’s structure, one is to determine the meaning of the relevant concept. One of the most vivid examples of Barclays’s encouragement of entrepreneurship processes is the LifeSkills program designed for providing young people with access to the data necessary for becoming a successful entrepreneur. The program does not focus on business-related projects only – in fact, it represents a general introduction into the working environment and its fundamental laws. Thus, one might learn about such important issues as teamwork, customers’ managing, and leadership models in the framework of the project. Meanwhile, a special emphasis is made particularly on the young people’s encouragement to produce new ideas and innovative plans (“Business Guide to LifeSkills” 7).
Nevertheless, Lifeskills program is just a small external aspect in the context of the general Barclays’s activity aimed at entrepreneurship. The analysis of the Barclays Bank’s Annual Report shows that an entrepreneur is likely to find a lot of advantages in case he starts a business with this bank (“Annual Report” 9). What they promise to innovators is, first of all, a stable payment system that is free from any national boundaries.
Secondly, the bank claims to offer unique loan indexes that are likely to fit both the client’s and the organization’s interests. Moreover, the company has a considerable experience of organizing all sorts of seminars and coaching programs aimed at helping the beginning entrepreneurs get acquainted with the new environment. Finally, Barclays Bank has a powerful research department that performs systematic studies and analysis, and the corporate managers eagerly inform a starting businessman about potential risks and the most favorable conditions.
In addition, the company puts a particular emphasis on the targeting assistance. Hence, a potential entrepreneur is likely to receive a detailed consultation on the business strategizing apart from the financial service required. There is a special department called Barclaycard responsible for assisting clients in business solutions. As a consequence, one is sure to receive a relevant recommendation on all the questions vital for successful entrepreneurship: aim targeting, efficient leadership, risks’ estimation, and productive monitoring.
It is important to note, that the bank services imply the collaboration with both beginning entrepreneurs and those who are already present in the business field but are temporarily experiencing difficulties. It is very important, as the statistic show that the majority of challenges appear further on the way, despite of the common belief that the early stage is the most difficult (Robbins, and Coulter 402). Therefore, Barclays Bank has a well-thought and wise policy that focuses on encouraging entrepreneurs to cooperate with their organization.
It is crucial that a company takes up not only the relevant service charges but also a series of social responsibilities and ethical issues. The ethical responsibilities of any bank primarily include the trust of both its customers and employees as well as high level of consciousness of the ethical outcomes of the activity. In 2012, the Chairman of Barclays, David Walker, stated that the company had faced a cultural challenge connected with a decline of confidence and certitude among its staff and clients (“Salz Review: An Independent Review of Barclays’ Business Practices” 77). However, the Barclays Bank’s Annual Report in 2014 assured that it has successfully managed all the ethical dilemmas. Thus, in the course of two years the organization had surpassed its initial target to raise two billion pounds for financing small business and government.
Moreover, since 2012 Barclays Bank has been making a significant contribution to the social and environmental benefits. The company has recently assigned more than five billion pounds for financing the development of clean energy technologies worldwide (“Annual Report” 16). The mentioned above Lifeskill program is another example of Barclays’s solution of the ethical dilemma. Along with other relevant projects, this program has a powerful assistance in the expansion of the employment market. These examples prove the banks’ concern for the results’ of its activity.
One commonly presumes that an ethical aspect deals with some charity performance on the part of an entrepreneur. In this field, Barclays Bank has shown a high level of the participating intensity. Thus, a company takes an active part in “5 Million Young Futures”, a charity aimed at helping disadvantaged young people receive necessary assistance in the career development.
According to the report, by the end of 2014, the company had invested almost two hundred million pounds for the relevant campaign (“Annual Report” 17). As to the trust-related problems that the company experienced in 2012, the recent research shows that the situation has changed. Hence, according to the results of the latest study, the company’s conduct reputation’s index has risen up to 5.3 – it is 0.2 higher in comparison to the previous data. It means that the majority of Barclays Bank’s clients and employees are sure both of the transparency of its activity and the informational secrecy.
One should necessarily note that the company has successfully managed to solve the ethical questions connected with the ethnic and gender issues. Thus, today, the corporate workforce consists of the employees of different origins and nationalities, and females comprise 20% of the senior management sector. A few decades ago the bank experienced a series of problems in the gender-related field, in fact, it was blamed for discriminating the women’s rights. However, today, one would hardly bring up the scandal again as the problem has been solved successfully.
Therefore, one might conclude that Barclays Bank precisely identifies all the ethical dilemmas and makes significant efforts in order to cope with them.
Some specialists believe that an adequate employee’s empowerment is likely to increase employees’ involvement and, thus, to improve their general performance (Robbins and Coulter 441). Analyzing the corporate policy of Barclays Bank one is able to note that it strictly follows the basic principles of the management motivating strategies. In other words, it takes into account both the equity and expectancy theories that comprise the basis of the human research concept. Thus, the employees of Barclays Bank receive an equal treatment regardless of their ethnic or gender peculiarities. The evidence of this fact is that one of the major concerns of the personnel department is to maintain the gender balance (“Annual Report” 28).
Another important aspect of the corporate policy is the precise structure of the potential professional advancement. Hence, each employee is perfectly aware of the results expected for receiving a potential promotion. One should point out that employees’ engagement is in the top-list of the company’s priorities in the human resources fields. The company encourages its managers to share the new initiatives and innovative approaches during the working process or in the course of the professional events organized in order to provide in-service education. Moreover, competent leadership is stimulated at all the levels – the employees have an opportunity to develop their leadership skills and can easily access all the relevant sources from the guidebooks to the seminars held by top managers from all over the world.
Another fundamental contribution that Barclays Bank makes to the staff empowerment is the bonus system introduced to reward the successful performance of either an executive team or its leaders. The appraisal policy implies both monthly bonuses and occasional financial motivations assigned by the company (“Annual Report” 19). The following approach helps to stimulate the feeling of compensation and appreciation. For this very reason, the latest research shows that the majority of Barclays Bank’s personnel finds the current motivation policy entirely stimulating and rewarding (“Salz Review: An Independent Review of Barclays’ Business Practices” 87). Therefore, Barclays Bank uses all the possible sources to provide the essential employees’ empowerment and to assure its staff of the comfortable and inspiring working environment.
Nowadays, the role of technology in the performance of an entrepreneurship is unquestioned. Technologies enable companies to carry out efficient monitoring, provide a better service, and improve managerial communication (Robbins and Coulter 416). Like any successful organization, Barclays Bank puts a particular emphasis on the employment of the latest technologies to improve the corporate performance.
For example, in order to maintain a close connection with the institutional clients the company has recently launched an innovative technology named “Barclays Live iPad app” that allows monitoring current needs and supplying the necessary feedback. Although the application was introduced in 2014, it has already been downloaded by more than four thousand clients and has received a series of positive reviews.
Another convenient application designed by the Barclays Bank’s group is “Barclaycard Anywhere” – a particular service that allows performing remote payments via the smartphone technologies (“Annual Report” 22). Moreover, the company has a high-qualified Technology Group – a separate department the occupation of which is the selection of the most recent and efficient technologies that appear in the IT market (“Annual Report” 19).
It is ultimately critical that the company is aware of the constantly changing technological environment, so it provides the necessary technical assistance to its clients. Thus, the managers make sure that every customer gets access to the corporate services via ATMs and SignVideo. The company has also worked out several innovative technologies specifically for certain regions. For example, the customers’ service in South Africa has improved significantly with the introduction of “Barclays Mobile Banking” and the launch of an online banking channel, Barclays.net.
In addition, the company has launched “Front Arena” – a convenient electronic platform aimed at facilitating the trading process (“Annual Report” 19). One should point out that the technological development is performed not only for the external application but also within the company’s establishment. Hence, all the employees receive necessary technical education in order to be able to operate the latest programs and applications. The company organizes numerous courses that help the staff improve its IT skills.
Therefore, technologies play a considerable role in Barclays Bank’s strategy – the company shows an excellent awareness of the current technologies’ market and makes a lot of effort to remain updated. One of the best advantages of its policy is that Barclays Bank does not only introduce a lot of innovative technologies to its clients but also helps the latter learn to handle them. Nevertheless, Barclays Bank includes the widening of its technological capabilities on the targeting list. It means that the company realizes the need for constant development.
Works Cited
Annual Report 2014. Web.
Business Guide to LifeSkills 2013. Web.
Salz Review: An Independent Review of Barclays’ Business Practices 2013.
Robbins, Stephan, and Mary Coulter. Management 11th Edition, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2012. Print.