Prepared by the students of strategy implementation at the MBA program of IE Business School, this presentation analyzes ING’s erstwhile position in the Asia Pacific market, and tries to solve the challenge faced by Jacques Kemp, the then CEO of ING Asia Pacific, about consolidating a highly fragmented business in the region. His dilemma - how to communicate the need to change an existing highly autonomus and financially succesful organization?

1. ING Insurance Asia/Pacific
Creating a “One-Firm” Firm
Case Analysis and Recommendation
Presented by:
Group G
• Anurag Jaiswal
• Alessio Tixi
• Geoff Gibson
• Leidy Suarez
• Patrick Oliveira
• Eliza Ng
• Matthias Wetzel

2. ING Global
 A global financial services firm of Dutch origin.
 One of the 20 largest financial institutions globally
 Operates in more than 50 countries with more than 120,000
Employees
 Organized along six major business lines grouped into Banking
and Insurance:
Banking Insurance
 Retail Banking  Insurance Europe
 Wholesale Banking  Insurance Americas
 ING Direct  Insurance Asia/Pac
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

3. Insurance Industry in Asia
 The insurance industry expected to expand dramatically
 Rapid economic growth
 Rising incomes
 Popularity of insurance products
 Insufficient state or company pensions
 High insurance premiums
 High rate of savings in Asia
 Regulations play an important role. However, it is expected that
the markets will become more open.
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

4. ING Asia/Pacific
 Among top-five foreign service
Seoul
providers in Asia/Pacific.
Tokyo
Shenzhen Taipei  Divided into clusters of mature,
semi-mature and emerging markets.
Hong Kong
Mumbai
Bangkok
Manila  Hong Kong Regional Monitoring
Center for Asia/Pacific
Kuala
Lumpur Singapore
 Different countries offer various
products.
 Recently acquired AETNA Insurance
– which was four –times larger than
ING in Asia
Sydney
Auckland
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

5. Jacques Kemp’s Vision
“Our goal in Asia/Pacific is to grow faster than
the other regions of ING and faster than the
competition. We want to achieve unified
diversity without adding too much complexity
to the daily operations. The idea is to become
a professional soccer team which has a
strategy rather than just running disorganized
towards the goal.”
CHALLENGE: Very difficult to communicate the need to change
an existing highly autonomus and financially succesful
organization
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

6. Issue Analysis
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

7. Why Change? - The Challenges
Issues Root Cause
 No common goals  Strategy formulation is done at
 No aligned strategies business unit (country) level
 Different job descriptions and
 Each business unit defines its own job
responsibilities and different
responsibilities and evaluation criteria
performance evaluation criteria
 Different reporting formats among
 Different standards across business
business units
units
 Difficult auditing
 No information sharing or knowledge
 Independent strategies and processes
management amongst business units
 Independent marketing strategies for
 Lack of internal corporate
each business unit.
communication and regional
 No “common language” acrosss
marketing or branding
business units
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

8. Organization Chart Prior to April 2003
Chairman
Executive 1
Executive 2
Regional Issue #1: How to improve the steering
CEO ability of the executive committee?
Issue #2: How to make sure single BUs
General General exercise their autonomy within a shared
EC Member EC Member framework/ goal congruence?
Manager Manager
Chief of Staff
Taiwan Korea Australia
Executive
Regional office
Issue #3: How to improve cross
Hong Kong Indonesia Ma;aysia functional interaction, standardize job
professionals
descriptions and evaluation methods?
How to create a truly shared company
culture and protocol
Japan China Thailand India
Philippines
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

9. Our
Recommendations
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

10. Our Recommendations
Root Cause Fix
 Strategy formulation is done at Goal congruence
business unit (country) level Aligned strategy (“wheels“)
 Each business unit defines its own Definition of standardized but flexible
job responsibilities and evaluation goal templates
criteria Monitoring
 Different standards across business Standardization process to be moved to
units EC level
Creation of shared-service center
 Independent strategies and
Creation of Intranet for sharing best
processes
practices, guidelines
 Independent marketing strategies for “One Firm” Branding
each business unit. Standardization  Regional Function
 No “common language” across Manager
business units Customization  Country Manager
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

11. Marketing and Branding - A Special Case
Why is it important?
 To build trust and credibility with customers through one ING brand
 To create an element that employees can connect with and build unity
 To share marketing best-practices
Issues
 Local marketing campaigns don’t reflect existing corporate identity
standards.
 Local businesses know best their home market and don’t want
interference
Recommendation
 Regional marketing manager creates overall marketing plan for the
region
 Local offices customize plan to specific market
 Local plan requires final approval of regional marketing manager
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm 11

12. Support Functions – Matrix Structure
A balance between standardization and customization
Business units
Hong
Australia China India Japan Korea Malaysia
Kong
IT
Support Functions
HR
Marketing
Legal
Compliance
Finance
Communication
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

13. Matrix Structure – An Example
A balance between standardization and customization
Executive Country Manager
Committee India
•Operational Decisions
•Customization
•Strategic Decisions
•Standardization Marketing
Regional Marketing
Manager
Manager
India
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

14. Country Monitoring - An Example
Country: India
Country Goals:  Achieve 10% market share
 Grow 5% more in Life Insurance than market
 Increase brand awareness
 Achieve 10% profit
Achievements:  Increased market position to top 3
 Growth of 7% compared to market
 Profit of 12%
Criteria Rating Key issues for improvement
Portfolio / Sales - Decreasing MS in Life insurance
Marketing / Branding - Perceived as too small brand
Communication/ Knowlegde sharing - No contribution to intranet
Organization (Reporting, Alignment) - Late reporting
Financial
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

15. Goal Setting and Performance Evaluation
Role-based goal-definition template
Defined at Executive Committee level, involving the Country Managers
Regional Goal 1 Weight
Mandatory goals –
common across Regional Goal 2 Weight
region for the Regional Goal 3 Weight
same role
Regional Goal 4 Weight
Business Unit Goal 1 Weight
Flexible goals – to Business Unit Goal 2 Weight
be selected by
Country Manager Business Unit Goal 3 Weight
Business Unit Goal 4 Weight
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

16. Communication
 Intranet (best practices, guidelines)
Knowledge sharing {  Shared service center
Monthly newsletters
Semi-annual support/functional team meetings
Townhall meetings (CEO informs about quarterly results)
Year book with pictures from employee events
Communication of extraordinary results
 Reinforce Corporate Culture (people should feel part of ING)
 Incentivize the sharing of best practices
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

17. Timeline of Execution
Design Establish Take
Communication Define Jobs &
Business Unit Performance Feedback &
on Restructure Responsibilities
Targets Evaluations Measure
Communication Communication Communication
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

18. Risks and Mitigation
Risk Mitigation Plan
 Too much standardization may lead  Standardize support areas, customize
to lost opportunities in local markets products and customer relations
 Loss of entrepreneurial environment  Incentive pay for new business ideas
 Involve Country Managers in regional
 No buy-in from Country Managers
decision making
 Setup a separate corporate
 Change not communicated properly
communications department and
can generate insecurity
define communications strategy
 Lack of support and training for the  Hire change-management trainers and
change management process conduct workshops
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

19. Performance Key Drivers Leads to Results
Starting with ultimate
Business Unit
mission eventually
objectives not
aligning all business
aligned with
units with strategies
Corporate
leads to performance
Strategies
& results
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm

20. Thank You!
Questions?
ING Asia Pacific – Creating a “One-Firm” Firm