HSBC is known to be one of the biggest financial services and banking services provider. Its global businesses provide services to over 39 million consumers across the globe, with the help of a network reached to 66 countries and the territories. Its global expertise and reach have helped many consumers from the small entrepreneurs to big multinationals and unlock their potentials. The HSBC retail banking and the wealth management helps in providing the consumers with the broad range of the financial products and services. The private banks of HSBC offer the private banking services to the wealthy individuals and the Global banking services helps in the financial services to corporates, institutions and the government (HSBC, 2019). Thus, working on the international level, brings more competition and fighting off with them is the difficult part for the companies. Porter five forces helps the company in determining the industrial competition intensity and the external factors. Here is the detailed analysis of the Porter five forces of HSBC holding plc;
Bargaining Power of Buyers
There are more suppliers in the HSBC industry as compare to the firms offering the products or services, which means buyers, have relatively few options to buy from and hence have no such control on the prices. Moreover, the income level in the industry is relatively low, which means buyers want to purchase in low prices and makes the consumer price sensitive. HSBC Holding makes sure to have huge customer base because of more customer loyalty factor and weakens the bargaining power of them. Furthermore, it takes the advantage of the economies of scales for developing the cost advantage and make profits by selling at low prices to buyers (Rodrigo, 2012).
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
Bargaining power of the suppliers is low for some products like supplier of bank capital, who are the depositors and they compare the financial products with other firms to make the decision regarding drawing out capital or wait. In addition, the computer equipment suppliers are many in the market, which means there are numerous suppliers for some products and hence the bargaining power of those suppliers are weak. However, the suppliers of credit cards are few and hence their bargaining power is medium and they most likely to extract the high prices from HSBC (Razid, 2012).
Threats of New Entrants
Threats from the new entrants in the industry are quite weak because of the economies of scales, which are hard to achieve in the banking sector. This provides the advantage to those who produce in large volumes or capacities in terms of cost advantage and makes the production process costlier for new firms. Moreover, the product differentiation needs to be strong in the industry because of many competitors. Consumers always look for the differentiated designs and products. HSBC always focuses on innovation and differentiate the products with the rivals t attract consumers. It smartly takes the benefits from achieving the economies of scales for fighting off the new entrants (Murphy, 2018).
Threats from the Substitute Products
Internet has made the firms and organization more dependent on itself, as the companies can use smaller amount for providing the same services like, banks with minimum capital in low prices. Customers need convenience, ease and low prices along with high efficiencies, and hence can easily switch to other products, which fulfil their needs. The real-time money transfers like Western union, payment like PayPal, etc. provided by the internet in low charges. Thus, threats from the substitute products are high for HSBC holding (Rodrigo, 2012).
Rivalry of Existing Players
The number of the rivals in industry where HSBC holding operates are low, and are big giants, which clearly shows any action taken by any firms will be noticeable in front of everyone. This makes the rival a weaker force in the industry. Very few competitors have the large part of market share. Rivals engage in the competition for gaining the position and to be the market leader of the industry. This makes the competition stronger force. HSBC holding focuses on the differentiated products and strategies to minimize the effects of the rival’s action and retain the customer base along with its market position (Murphy, 2018).
References
HSBC, 2019. Overview. [Online], Available at: https://www.hsbc.com/who-we-are/our-businesses, [Accessed on: 21st April, 2019].
Murphy, E. 2018. HSBC Holdings plc Porter Five Forces Analysis. [Online], Available at: https://www.essay48.com/term-paper/3181-HSBC-Holdings-plc-Porter-Five-Forces, [Accessed on: 21st April, 2019].
Razid, M. 2012. Analysis of Strategic Approaches of HSBC. [Online], Available at: https://www.academia.edu/8607226/Analysis_of_Strategic_Approaches_of_HSBC, [Accessed on: 21st April, 2019].
Rodrigo, 2012. SWOT, Porter and PESTEL analysis of HSBC Holdings Plc. [Online], Available at: https://writepass.com/journal/2012/11/swot-porter-and-pestel-analysis-of-hsbc-holdings-plc/, [Accessed on: 21st April, 2019].