Individual assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Individual assignment - Essay Example Bhide concurs with this position by stating that financial services firms must prove themselves every day – in terms of profits and competitive advantage – because a strategy might be successful today and ineffective tomorrow. Bhide rubbishes the traditional, subjective concept for this sector by demonstrating that as a result of the volatile nature of financial products and services, they can be copied quickly. He suggests that there is no consistent flow of new opportunities available, so firms should concentrate on doing all they can to reduce their chances of failure. The author suggests that strategy should resemble poker rather than chess, where firms concentrate on strategy and execution instead of putting up massive barriers to rivals. The author cites Warren Buffet, who said that core sustainable competitive advantages are virtually non-existent in the financial services sector (Chermack, 2011:35). Financial services firms have no monopoly on excellent product ideas, so they must secure clients by implanting ideas better than their rivals (Gong, 2013:15). In spite of this, other scholars disagree by arguing that possessing operational efficiency or effectiveness is insufficient for companies and that these strategies lead to some firms outlasting others but offering no real competitive advantage in the industry (Gong, 2013:15). Bhide acknowledges that financial services firms must develop and enforce appraisal systems to avoid irresponsibility. He argues that financial services firms should evaluate their performance and constantly analyse current and potential risks. This idea has been proposed by other scholars, who have argued that firms with novel strategies should have sufficient structures to support the emergence of patterns, but not so much that it increases cost and triggers inflexibility (Hitt and Ireland, 2013:45). It can be argued that novel strategies are not about the lack of authority;