Retail financial services techniques

That said some industries appear to value the use of strategy tools and techniques more than others. The top performance scores for both firm and function combined were recorded in the Basic Chemicals (0.80), the Confectionery (0.78), the Computer Hardware (0.76), the Media Entertainment (0.75), IT Solutions (0.73), and Construction (0.71) industry sectors. The lowest combined performance scores were reported in the Publishing (0.43), Transport Equipment (0.56) and Aerospace (0.57) sectors. In the middle performance rank came Power Water (0.62), Retail Financial Services, Telecommunications and Tourism Leisure (all scoring 0.63), Retail Distribution (0.65), Oil Gas (0.66) and, finally. Healthcare (0.69). 

Beyond this most respondents were reasonably satisfied with the performance of their tools and techniques, reporting satisfaction scores in the 0.50 to 0.70 ranges consistently. There were, however, some industry sectors that were relatively less satisfied within this general appreciation of the benefits of implementing tools and techniques in this functional area. Thus, at the firm level Retail Financial Services only reported a performance satisfaction score of 0.35 and Power Water scored only 0.46. At the function level the Publishing sector was least satisfied with a performance score of 0.43, most of the other sectors appeared, however, to be reasonably satisfied with the performance of the tools and techniques used for performance improvement at the functional level. 

Table 9.9 outlines the findings from a series of questions focused on the extent to which tool and technique inadequacy or internal barriers where responsible for failures of implementation. At the group level only the Process/Combined (with 61%) and the Project/Combined (with 57%) groups blamed tool inadequacy more than internal barriers for failures of implementation. All of the other groupings tended to blame internal barriers rather than tool and technique inadequacy as the primary cause of failure. At the industry sector level there was a wider differentiation. Those most blaming tool and technique inadequacy included Telecommunications (88%), Oil Gas (76%), Basic Chemicals (64%) and Computer Hardware (59%). Those most blaming internal barriers included Aerospace (78%), Retail Distribution (75%), Tourism Leisure (71%), Retail Financial Services (68%), Publishing (67%), IT Solutions (57%) and Confectionery (55%). 

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