Citigroup Case Analysis
The purpose of this paper is to debate the pros and cons of Citigroup's entry into the Chinese financial market and their ability to adapt to this foreign culture. Team B debated both sides of the case with strong arguments for and against Citigroup's ability to adapt. The paper will present both sides and conclude with Team B's final agreement on Citigroup's success or failure to adapt in the Chinese financial market.
Historical Operations
Citibank has operated in China for more than a century and has a long history of goodwill in the country. The company began operating in China in 1902, and by 1930 was one of the country's largest and most important banks. Citibank had branches in nine cities, but the emergence of the Communist revolution meant that those branches were subsequently closed. Citibank reopened an office in Shenzen in 1984 and slowly began to rebuild its base and reopen its ties with the Chinese government.
Adaptability and Failure to Overcome Environmental Factors
Citibank has been in the Chinese landscape and financial geography, essentially since the beginning of foreign investment and financial dealings in China. Since China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO), many other financial institutions have been given the opportunity to compete in the Chinese market and the foothold Citibank established was squandered by the company and all but lost. As we will prove, Citibank failed to leverage their first to compete position in access, services, licensing, human resource issues, and branch networking.
Licensing
Before China's WTO membership, Citibank was licensed only to provide corporate banking services to foreign invested enterprises (Pearce & Robinson, 2004, p. 30-2). Since the WTO inducti ...