Usaa: Strategic Challenges, Cooperative Opportunities and Some Info About The Company

USAA is a well-managed and highly rated financial company. USAA grows popular each and every day, but they have the opportunities for exponential growth. They built their reputation for providing services to military and their dependents. USAA should expand their memberships to everyone. USAA is strong enough to support these people and if they can acquire more members then they have the possibility for expansions. USAA can provide support to military personal overseas. USAA does not have sales fees on mutual funds or advisement fees on USAA financial advisor. They can charge these fees to increase their revenue. USAA has a strong reputation which they can use to possibly acquire more members. Some companies lower rates or give you other benefits when members get other people to join. Since the development of new technology, USAA has the opportunity to try different pricing strategy in the new market. USAA could provide these prices to help loyal customers as well as attract new and upcoming customers. USAA has several market opportunities. USAA mainly markets to more military families. They need to market to everyone especially to people who are seeking retirement. USAA is only located in 9 cities across America and three are located in Texas. They need to expand into more cities across the US especially if the city has a strong military support. These cities include Honolulu, Tacoma, Anchorage, Charleston, and Monterey. Even though they don’t have facilities there, they should provide online service for those cities until they get facilities over there. USAA is not a publicly traded company. They have a chance to become publicly traded company where people can invest in USAA.

Cooperative (Merger and Acquisition) Opportunities

A merger or acquisition of other financial services companies “…may allow them to buy umbrella policies which may further reduce costs for their members…” USAA should partner with financial firms and other insurance companies that do provide insurance that USAA does not.

Strategic Challenges

Long ago USAA had an idea to redesign the structure of the company. They tried to integrate new ways of providing the best possible service for their members. They wanted to provide members with any advice on any major life decisions and events. These events were buying a house, getting married, having kids, and military events weather joining or leaving the military. USAA wanted to integrate new and easy systems to provide easy access for its members, but had complications. USAA had trouble integrating these ideas into their new company, so USAA decided to redesign their company. Even though the redesign did help grow the company as a whole, it also produces challenges for business units. Business units wanted to make to make changes or add new products but could not because the redesign created a member focus group. This caused tension and USAA eventually created governance. Another challenge was issues with cybersecurity. It was easy to access accounts and info. Other challenges include: high days of inventory and attrition rates, terrible forecasting, new entrants in the new market, lack of new investment technologies, and gaps in product range. These challenges allowed competitors to compete or even pass USAA.

Provide Options for Future Strategy Implementation

• USAA needs to integrate new investment technologies if the company is to expand.
• One strategy I recommend is to provide service to everyone. Being able to insure everyone will help increase revenue.
• USAA needs to look at hiring employees that are already trained in their field so they can lower the attrition rate.
• USAA need to cash in on internal feedback. They need know what their members are thinking about their products so they can make any necessary changes to satisfy their needs.
• Increase protection for cyber threats for its members.