ING in Asia and Pacific Region

1228 Words3 Pages

Introduction

ING is an insurance and banking products company that provides their services to North / South America, Europe, and the Asia / Pacific region. When Jacques Kemp assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Asia / Pacific region he observed that each country within that region acted as a separate company and there were no consistent measures to compare countries. He sought advice from consulting companies to change their business strategy but still felt that no one seemed to grasp the full scope of their industry specific challenges. This paper explains how I would implement changes to ING’s business strategy if I were to take the position of CEO.

The Disconnected Asia / Pacific

When Kemp took the helm of ING the Asia/Pacific region each country functioned as separate businesses with each country having its own operations methods. While each country was doing well, country managers noticed that there was a lack of continuity between the business units and it was difficult for the region to implement performance pay standards since there was not a consistent way to measure achievements of each business unit in comparison to other units. Country managers were seeking consistent procedures, improved communication from the corporate office and more delegated authority (Schotter, 2006, p. 5). Since there was a lack of communication between offices, it was found that product literature did not always reflect the corporate standard (Schotter, 2006, p. 5).

Consultants Proposals

Kemp sought assistance from management consultants to pursue the best approach to change their business model. He received proposals from three different consultant groups to help form a business strategy to better the region. While...

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...sive amounts of communication via face-to-face meetings, intranet training tools to better understand the organization by product lines and regular e mail newsletters all agents as well as employees should better understand the corporate mission to ultimately increase sales and become the “go-to” insurance company for the Asia / Pacific region.

References

Kellington, J. (2008). Standards Evolve To Make Insurance Industry Players Better, Stronger,

Faster. National Underwriter / P&C. 112, (18), 18-20.

Klein, K. (2008, June). A Practical Guide to Branding. Bloomberg Business Week.

Retrieved from

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2008/sb2008069_694225.htm

Robbins, S.P. & Coulter, M. (2007). Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice

Hall.

Schotter, A. (2006). ING Insurance Asia/Pacific. Ontario, Canada: Ivey Publishing.

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