Business knowledge within retail banking : a french case study[Etude des savoir-faire métiers dans le secteur bancaire : le cas d'une grande banque française]

The analysis of firm competencies is an important element of successful strategy. Within this framework it first deals with the ability to identify those competencies that are central to the firm's strategy that is its core competencies. The resource-based view of the firm holds that the competitive advantage is based on the combination of certain key resources. From this point of view, a sustainable competitive advantage can be obtained if the firm effectively deploys these resources in its product-markets. Thus, managers have to answer some questions: what are the competencies available in my organization? Among these competencies, what are the most important to my business? How to develop or acquire these competencies? In all cases, the current responses for these questions are far from obvious and go beyond the simple intuitive perception of what the firm's business is. Defining the business from a simple product-market analysis is not enough to identify and appreciate core competencies of the corporation. In the case of retail banking for example, what are the competencies necessary to overcome the competition? What are those needed to develop new products or services? What are the competencies at the base of the processes germane to healthy relationships, such as trust, satisfaction and commitment? What are the competencies involved in the business processes that support retail banking such as loans origination and servicing, risk analysis? What are the competencies required to perform the relationships between front-office and back-office? What type of competence do the middle managers need to support business processes? It is precisely this kind of issue that we are going to illustrate through this case study conducted in the year 2006 in one of the biggest European retail banking company. Beforehand, we introduce some elements about the French banking environment and the company we studied. Then, we will present our methodological framework. We shall then present the results of our approach and their theoretical implications.