Wednesday, February 15, 2017


Background: Pinnacle targets small businesses and their owners (individuals with personal assets greater than $250,000.)

In terms of competitive advantage, Pinnacle has several elements that are worth mentioning.

1.       Pinnacle competes with larger banks that have many more branches than them. To get a leg up, Pinnacle has a courier deposit pick up system. This is a convenience to customers because they don’t have to go to the bank to make deposits.

2.       Pinnacle customers get unlimited usage of any ATM in the world with no surcharge fee. This is different from other banks who charge their customers a fee to use any ATM that’s not owned by their bank.

3.       Pinnacle invest a lot in its customer and attracting and retaining highly skilled employees. The company’s associate retention rate is 96 percent compared to an industry standard of 75 percent. It’s listed as one of Nashville’s best places to work.

These are just a few examples of items that are strengths for Pinnacle. In term of evaluating general managers look at the fact that Pinnacle targets experienced managers who have worked for their competitors. This shows that Pinnacle’s general managers are more qualified than the average general manager and this is a competitive advantage. Most of them also bring inside knowledge of their competitor’s operations.

When you look at VRIO, by offering conveniences like free ATM transactions and courier deposit pick up, Pinnacle has created value for its customers. A competitor can try to duplicate this, but these are just two examples that are part of a culture of innovative customer trends. This culture would be hard for competitors to duplicate because there are probably many small things that contribute to the overall customer experience.

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