Usa World Bank

Problem Solution: USA World Bank

USA World Bank is a major player in the banking industry with a presence domestically and abroad. The bank enjoys success in the consumer arena, as well and the small business arena. USA World Bank has been able to sustain this growth primarily by introducing one new product annually to the marketplace. As the banking company decides which product to launch this year, they are faced with the added pressure of recent performance. According to Brian Allen, President of New Product Development for USA Word Bank, "Our new products have pretty much tanked in the past couple of years. We're under a lot of pressure to deliver something that will be profitable and increase market share," (University of Phoenix, 2007). USA World Bank has to the review the proposed product offering, and based on statistical analysis; decide which one will be most beneficial to the organization.

USA Word Bank only launches one new product per year. This selection process is relatively non-standard, as each group has their own means or gathering the data to support their recommended product offering. Brian Allen has the ultimate authority as to which new product is recommended to the Board of Directors. However, he bases his decision heavily on the recommendation of Mary Monroe, Vice President of New Product Development. The Board of Directors has the final approval of which product USA Word Bank goes to market with.

For this year's product recommendation, there are two groups competing to have their product selected and presented to the Board of Directors: New Product Development and Marketing Development. The New Product Development group is headed by Mary Monroe, and has proposed a consumer credit card. The Marketing Development group is headed by Jim Wilson has proposed a credit card for small businesses.

Each group has done their own independent analysis of the statistical data to support the recommendation of their product. The New Product Development group hired a consulting firm, Best Market Research, to conduct market analysis for feasibility of this product, while the Marketing Development group conducted regional focus groups to gather their data. After review of the two proposed new products, Mary Monroe gave a recommendation to Brian Allen of a new consumer credit card, at the objection of Jim Wilson.

At the board presentation, newly appointed board member Dr. Bea Hansen noted her concerns about the statistical data presented, and the collection methods. Alexis Andrews, Chairman of the Board of USA World Bank adjourned the meeting and has given the senior management team 1 week to clarify the data that they have collected, and their corresponding analysis.

This challenge in front of the New Product Development group offers several opportunities that address both the immediate future as well as the long term. The immediate opportunity for the New Product Development group is to reassess all of the data that was collected and the collection methods. This will determine an accurate picture of what this data truly represents. Working in a collaborative effort with the Marketing Development group, this gives USA World Bank the opportunity to review why only one product goes to market each year, when clearly there are two separate revenue streams that will be directly impacted by this decision. The long term opportunity is to develop a standard method of collecting and analyzing data company-wide, and ensure that the results are reviewed independently as to avoid any personal bias in the decision making process.

There are multiple stakeholders in this scenario, each with their own perspectives, priorities and responsibilities: New Product Development group, Marketing Development group, Board of Directors, consumers, and small businesses.

The New Product Development group has responsibility to annually "develop and launch a product that will have significant impact on earnings," (University of Phoenix, 2007). The group has not had much success in recent years in the products that have been launched, so they have a vested interest in making sure that the product launched will prove profitable.

The Marketing Development group has responsibility for "building business for the bank," (University of Phoenix, 2007). This group has a positive track record of performing to that objective and has "increased USA World Bank's small business segment by 40 percent," (University of Phoenix, 2007) in the last three years. This groups concern is that if their customer base is not accounted for in the new product developed, the small businesses will start to take their businesses to other banks that do.

The Board of Directors has the responsibility to set to overall strategy and direction of USA World Bank. They are also accountable to the stockholders of the company, ensuring the USA World Bank has investors to keep the company afloat. The Board's concern is making sure that the product selected to be released to the market this year has a high probability of success. There is also pressure from stockholders and Wall Street to be successful.

The consumers and small businesses both are directly affected by the decisions that are made by the Board of Directors and the management team at USA World Bank. If a decision is made to the advantage of one group, it will potentially have an adverse impact on the other. USA World Bank needs to be certain of the impact their decision will have on each of these groups, as it will definitely have an impact on revenues.

There are several problems that have been identified in the USA World Bank scenario. These problems, if addressed correctly, will prove beneficial to the company and consumers alike. There are problems that USA World Bank needs to address relative to new product development. The immediate problem is the analysis of the present data collected from the consulting agency hired by Mary Monroe. For the long term, the banking giant needs to develop a formal data collection methodology that will allow consistency across the board. USA World Bank also needs to determine benchmarks to data analysis, which will allow better and timelier decision making.

USA World Bank must set a clear strategy with specific, measurable targets in order to continue growing the business. To continue to realize the successful growth and expansion into new markets, USA World Bank must work towards the following goals short and long term goals:

* Short Term goals to be completed within one week

o Complete reviewing the data of both proposed new products to ensure that an accurate assessment can be performed for the next Board meeting

o Investigate if