1. Present Vision Statement

Visa Inc. is an American-based global payments technology corporation that allows the governments, businesses, and consumers to utilize the digital currency. In other words, Visa Inc. is a financial services company that operate worldwide. As premier company in the payment technology industry, the company thrives to enhance its global network that connects numerous financial institutions with millions of cardholders and merchants daily. The company is also committed to making significant contributions to the communities in which they operate.

  1. Brief History

Visa Inc. has been pioneering payments and being at the core of cashless revolution for over 55 years (Visa Inc. 2017). The company history can be traced back in 1958 after the Bank of America established its initial consumer credit card program for medium to small sized merchants and middle-class consumers in the United States. In 1974, the company had already expanded to the international market, and in 1975, it launched the debit credit. In 1976, the BankAmericard was renamed to Visa. In 2007, regional businesses merged to form a global corporation, Visa Inc. and it went public in 2008. In 2016, the company acquired the Visa Europe. Today, the company has expanded its operations to over 200 countries around the world with its services and products available on devices such as laptops, tablets, cards, and mobile devices (Visa Inc., 2017).

  1. Consumers and competitors

The main consumers involve individual consumers, financial institutions, businesses, merchants, government entities, and strategic partners. The consumers’ products and services include debit cards, credit cards, prepaid cards, and commercial cards. The main competitors include MasterCard, American Express, JCB, and Discover Diners Club. In some countries, the evolving regulatory landscape and the technological and innovation advances are changing the scope of competition. This has resulted to emergent of new entrants and enabling processing competition or local and regional networks such as STAR, Pulse, and NYCE in the United States, EFTPOS in Australia, and Interac in Canada (Visa Inc. 2016).

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  1. Formal organizational structures

The company has an established matrix organizational structure with the management team and the board of directors. The reporting relationships follow a matrix or a grid structure, rather than the hierarchical structure. According to Analoui and Karami (2003, p.193), Matrix structures integrates “both the functional structure and the divisional structure simultaneously.” In this case, the workers in the organization have twofold reporting relationships in which they can report both to the product manager and functional manager. The management team is led by Alfred Kelly, Jr., who is the company’s Chief Executive Officer while the Board of Director is led by Robert W. Matchullat, who is an independent chair. The management team collaborates to steer the company through network and product innovation, sales growth, brand management, and operational activities among others (Visa Inc., 2015).

  1. Profile its top leadership

The company has an inclusive and fearless leadership that is led by Alfred F. Kelly, Jr. who is the Chief Executive Officer and the member of the board of directors. Ryan MClnerney is the president while Kelly Mahon Tullier is the Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary. In the board of directors, the top leaders include independent Chair, Robert W. Matschullat, who is a former Chief Financial Officer and Vice Chairman of The Seagram Company Limited. He is followed by the Lloyd A. Carney, a Chief Executive Officer at Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. Other top leaders include Lynne Biggar, a Chief Marketing and Communications Office and Jim McCarthy a Global Head of Innovation and Strategic Partnerships. The leadership team constitutes a team of individuals who have excellent skills and world-class experienced in corporate management and financial services (Visa Inc., 2015).

  1. Factors in the organization’s general environment and its impact

The main factors in Visa’s general environment include political, economic, social and technological factors.

  1. Political factors

The decisions in the public sector have a significant impact on the Visa’s industry, business, and the communities where they operate. In this case, the company is permitted by law to participate in the political processes to better serve the interest of their employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders. In addition, the positive government attitude in the banking industry and current legislations favor the company.

  1. Economic factors

The major economic factors that have an impact on Visa’s operation include consumer credit and spending, unemployment rates, and saving and investment levels among others. For instance, the gross savings have relatively decreases from 24.786 percent in 2014 to 24.746 percent in 2015 and hence pose a small impact on the company’s operations (The World Bank, 2016).

  1. Socio-cultural factors

These factors include a rapid change in lifestyle that demand for high-class services and products such as credit cards. In addition, increase in population and literacy level has also increased the demand for Visa’s product and hence favoring the business.

  1. Technological factors

Technological advancement has led to the latest development in automatic voice recorder, automated teller machines, global money transfer, and credit card facility. People now prefer to stay in a cashless society, which promotes the business and operations for Visa, Inc.

  1. Task environment

Main factors in Visa’s task environment include competitors, suppliers, and customers.

  1. Competitors

The main competitors include MasterCard, American Express, JCB, and Discover Diners Club. The technological advancement and regulatory changes are favoring the new entrants in the industry and consequently threatening the profitability and performance of Visa’s business.

  1. Consumers

The main customers involve individual consumers, financial institutions, businesses, merchants, government entities, and strategic partners. The cashless society and demand for middle-class products such as credit and debit cards have a positive impact on the profitability of Visa, Inc.

  1. Suppliers

The company has ensured a positive relationship with the suppliers to grow its brand around the globe. The company has established programs such as iSupplier portal and supplier diversity to create a better connection with the suppliers globally (Visa Inc., 2017).

  1. Culture of organization

The company promotes the culture of integrity that aligns with the established values and ethical standards. This culture provides every employee an opportunity to participate in decision-making and fell comfortable to raise concern and ask questions. The company also establishes a work culture that inspires others to act with integrity. Other core responsibilities of the managers are to lead by example, discourage retaliation, and keep an open door. For the company to drive the culture of integrity, it requires every employee to demonstrate ethical behavior, respect, trust, and good business judgment (Visa Inc., 2016). The company also embrace the culture of corporate responsibility by promoting the conducive business environment, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, financial inclusion, and working to enhance lives around the globe.

  1. Organization heroes

According to the report by Jamison et al. (2016), the APIs can be considered as the company’s unsung heroes because they connect devices and apps to allow every user to pin, post, and buy anything from different locations. They work as a link between products and the applications (Jamison et al., 2016). These APIs are connectors that exchange date between application, devices, and products. Their function is consistent with the company’s slogan, “everywhere you want to be.”

  1. The role of organization’s culture

As illustrated above, the Visa’s culture is defined by the actions such as act with integrity, corporate responsibility, continually innovates, inspire others, and value others. As a result, this culture has created a favorable environment for shareholders, employees, community, and other stakeholders to work together towards achieving the organization’s goals. In addition, this has resulted in technology transformation within the company that has driven the growth of the company’s technology capabilities.

  1. Role of innovation

The company has developed a series of innovation centers globally and highlight new capabilities, reflect on the future, and co-create with their clients. This has resulted in a multi-year transformation that has led to significant progress. In 2016, the company opened the innovation centers in Singapore, Miami, and Dubai to enhance the development of new technologies (Visa Inc., 2016).

  1. Commitment to sustainability

The company is committed to minimizing the environmental impact while lowering the costs and increasing efficiencies. The company seeks to restrict paper usage, source the electronics and supplies responsibly, minimize waste on landfills and enhance the culture of sustainability among their employees. The company has established specific initiatives such as reduction of energy through efficient controls and lighting and reduction of water through responsible landscaping and low-flow water fixtures (Visa Inc., 2017).

  1. Threats and opportunities

  1. Opportunities

  • Customer trend to embrace the use of cashless option such as debit cards is increasing every year.
  • The advancement of internet and mobile payment is enhancing online payment through debit and credit cards.

  1. Threats

  • Regulatory issues in some countries are anticipated to minimize the transaction fees on the cashless platform.
  • Innovation and technology have led to the entry of new competitors such as PayPal leading to the highly competitive environment.