Virtusa recently helped a large bank that is facing disruption to its core business from Asian super-competitors, Tencent and Alibaba. This battle, despite the geography, is a case study for Western incumbents in service industries as they strategize on a pre-emptive move or a response to US technology giants (e.g., Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google), who are on an eventual trajectory to disrupt their respective industries.
In this case, our client watched with concern as Alibaba and Tencent established partnerships, invested in local companies, and built government relationships throughout its market. Our client worried that, as had happened in China, the local marketplace was about to be upended as these super-competitors, whose roots were outside banking, were positioning themselves to rollout their broader ecosystems, including payments and banking services, to domestic consumers.
This paper describes how we customized a traditional strategy tool, the Wargame, to help our client develop a strategic response to the threat of digital disruption. Through our approach, we mobilized a small army of employees into action, making them well-versed in the upcoming competition, and capable of responding swiftly and precisely to potential competitor action.