Edelweiss- ACCV

Abhishek Malhotra (Section A: 6617007)

Edelweiss is a leading boutique financial services firm that was established in

1996. The company was primarily involved in providing advisory business to
small SMEs and startups. The company has survived the various downturns in
the market and today competes with the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan
Stanley etc. It enjoys a significant market share of 3-5% in the Investment
Banking & Investment Equities business. Although, Edelweiss has had a long
successful run as a B2B financial player with presence across financial verticals,
they are faced with a question of whther and how should they rebrand
themselves and enter into the more lucrative wholesale and retail financial
advisory business. As a step in the direction, they have acquired Anagram
Capital, and Edelweiss seems well poised to explout their new number two
position in the HNI segment and leverage Anagrams large retail customer base.
The key success drivers for Edelweiss to succeed in the new marke are:

External Corporate Branding

Drivers Branding Through PR
Internal Knowledge & Research
Drivers Employee Ownership
Compliance
Ideas and Innovation
Commitment to
excellence

Shifting focus from B2B to more on Wholesale & Retail banking comes with its
own set of risks and challenges:

Alienation of existing B2B customers

Increased costs of user acquisition and and retention.
Lack of brand equity in the retail space

To maintain its corporate reputation, we would recommend Edelweiss to focus on

the following parameters:
a) Unification of Culture & Values: An acquisition comes with its own sets of
challenges and the most difficult part is unification of the employee culture and
values. Anagrams employees need to be informed about the core guiding
principles of the Edelweiss. The company prides itself on its values and as such
these values need to be internalised with the new employees of Anagram.
b) Focus on Employee Training & Development: For a retail company, its
employess are the biggest brand ambasadors. Potential customers will judge
Edelweiss basis their experience with the employees of the company. Hence it is
imperative that Edelweiss invests heavily in grooming & training of employees so
that they can be great brand ambassadors.
c) New Customer Acquisition: Edelweiss should leverage its existing
knowledge & position in the B2B market to effectively service their B2C market
and capture more market share. The company can leverage its position as a
leading research based analytical company and tweak their offering to provide
individual customers more valuable insights thereby allowing them to make well
informed choices.

High Compliance Standards should be positioning as a value addition to

the customers.
Edelweiss can undertake an intensive and highl visibility advertising
campaign, so as to attract new customers, create more awareness of their
foray into the retail space and in general instill customer confidence post
the recent recession.