Banking and Financials
Open Options’ unique process and proprietary game theory software have helped guide senior executives in the banking and financial industries since 1996. In the high-profile financial sector, organizations must not only consider competitive reactions to their new initiatives but must carefully evaluate the potential actions of other players such as regulators, legislators and the media. The Open Options Process allows firms in the banking and financial sector to determine and mitigate significant strategic and political risks.
What Does Open Options Do?
- We challenge executives to stretch their thinking and to look at issues differently by explicitly considering the perspectives and motivations of the critical parties involved in the issue
- We provide an effective, structured process to capture organizational knowledge
- We analyze that structured knowledge using proprietary game theory tools to explore the potential competitive strategies and the millions of ways the issue could play out
- We provide a practical action plan to reach the best attainable outcome for our client
- We build deep management consensus and trust on the best path forward
Our Process
Our efficient process consists of five steps:
- Define the Issue
- Harvest Organizational Knowledge
- Determine Players, Options and Preferences
- Reveal Insights with Game Theory Analysis
- Deliver a Trusted Decision and Action Plan
Our Experience
We have worked with some of the largest banking and financial services organizations, on projects spanning the following application areas:
- Generating new revenue growth
- Political and competitive risk mitigation
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Partnerships
- Corporate alignment across divisions
- Regulatory approvals
- Strategic impact of legislative changes
- Corporate Litigation
- Reorganization
- New product introduction
- Responding to a competitor’s new product
- Market entry
- Pricing and price wars
- Disintermediation
- New disruptive technology management
- Annual corporate strategy review
Related Clients
Case Study Descriptions
Below is an abbreviated list of some of our success stories in the banking and financials industries. Please contact us to learn more about our process and to review a relevant case study:
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Mergers & Acquisitions – “Snatched from the Wolf’s Jaws” Show more
A mid-tier company in a consolidating industry faced powerful predators. Likely acquirers included three major competitors and several outside firms, and no smaller firms were available for the Client to buy in order to inhibit acquirers. The solution was a big win for the client, and a surprise to the industry.
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Restructuring – “Divided We Fall” Show more
A financial services company with numerous regional divisions and a strong tradition of local autonomy was deeply divided on how to re-structure the company to remain competitive. The company was divided along regional offices and between those who favored a strong centralized management and those who favored more regional autonomy. The firm was trying to come to an internal agreement on how best to serve large complex customers without losing the smaller customers.
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Expensive Lawsuit – “Stop The Bleeding” Show more
A large financial firm was sued over bankruptcy of one of its client companies. There were complex multi-jurisdictional issues, several classes of plaintiff and defendants, and political aspects. Settlement discussions had been ongoing for several years, without resolution, and legal costs for the Client were $1,000,000 per month, and rising…the bleeding had to stop!
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Threatened by new technology - "Race for Scale" Show more
Threatened by new fintech companies, a European bank wanted to how to best scale their new lower-cost solution. Was it best to go alone and possibly capture the greatest benefit? Or, was it best to start an alliance for greater scale?
What Makes Us Unique
As experts and specialists in solving business issues where multiple players can influence the final outcome, Open Options is unique in several ways:
