Environmental Issues

Introduction Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ)
Established in 1975, the Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ) is said to be the first private bank in the country. No individuals, institutions, floating groups or even the government owns shares within the bank. The organizations preliminary capital stood at QR 10,000,000, steadily growing to acquire its current regional status with over QR 500 million as reserves  capital. In the financial year ending December 1999, its total assets were valued at approximately 4.5 billion. For the financial year that ended in June 2006, its capital and reserves shot to QR 3.5 billion with a total assets book of QR 25 billion. The banks competitiveness and overall profitability is said to have been growing steadily from its inception.

Presently, the CBQ offers a wide range of Islamic and commercial banking products and services ranging from retail, investment and corporate services, through a well distributed branch network of 23 banking malls, pavilions and sales services, twenty six deposit machines and slightly over 100 ATMs. The incorporation of modern information communication technology in its operations has enabled the bank to embrace E-commerce and Internet Home Banking. The firms business  personal banking services include loans, deposit products, money transfer, embassy visa fees, utility services, treasury services, structured finance and syndications, business advisory programs, cash management, international banking, merchant acquisition and trade finance services.

This paper shall address various aspects of the Commercial Bank of Qatar that enable the understanding of the organization. Some of the elements include the firms sources of finance, economic and political impacts on the institution, and the effects of globalization, its general organizational culture and the existing corporate social responsibility strategies.

CBQs Organizational Chart
Organizational structure shows the way leadership in organization flows, from the top to the bottom. Structure of an organization is mostly determined by the size, type and management style of the organization. In Commercial Bank of Qatar, the organizational structure is founded on divisional management structure. This kind of organization structure allows the organization to be divided in small management units depending on their functions which operates with some autonomy. This kind of organization structure allows the bank to run its departments more effectively as it is easy to management smaller units separately than the whole organization at once.

The above organizational structure has been in existence from August 2005. It combines maximum adaptability and flexibility with total cohesion. CBQ is currently directed by the groups C.E.O assisted by one deputy. Other than assisting the C.E.O, the deputy is responsible for directing the Al Safa Islamic Division of the bank. The Groups Executive Committee comprises of several general managers with defined job descriptions. The Chief Operating Officer is in charge of the Capital Markets, Marketing, Cards, Consumer Banking and Corporate Banking.

The Chief Finance and Strategy Officer is in charge of several sections namely Operations, Finance, Strategic Planning and Information Technology. The Chief Risk Officer has been mandated the responsibility of overseeing the group risk functions such as the Market risk, Operational Risk and the Credit Risk. The Chief Human Resources officer heads the support functions of Manpower development, Human Resources, Support services and Human Resources. The Executive General Manager and Chief Legal Officer Charge is the head of the Legal and Corporate Affairs department.

My Role (Retail Branch Manger)
The job description for the retail branch manager entails overall management of the branch, driving branch sales targets, ensuring high quality of customer service by monitoring the efficiency and accuracy of internal processes, owning the sales process, and developing branch staff capabilities.

Additional roles include working towards maximizing new business opportunities and strengthening existing relationship, while providing quality in service delivery in an efficient operation that conform to Islamic Sharia requirements. The retail branch manager also conducts risk assessment and suggests appropriate precautionary measures to either avoid or manage the business risks.

The uses of accounts, money, and financial transactions in CBQ
The Commercial Bank of Qatar is said to be among the leading corporate banking institutions in the Gulf region, with highly specialized product teams. Nearly 50 of the commercial and corporate loan books revolve around the contracting and the real estate markets exposure. There are a number of documents used in transactions within the bank, some of them include
Letters of credit filled up by clients who want to credits facilities from the bank.

Application forms filled by new members being recruited to the bank
Guarantee applications these are forms filled by guarantors who guarantee other clients
Demand draft requests the banks send out these forms to clients reminding the client of outstanding payment.

Fund transfer requests these are forms filled by clients requesting the bank to transfer money to other accounts either internally or externally.

Cheques brought by clients to be deported to their accounts, the cheque can be either from our bank or other banks.

Cash deposit slips filled by clients when depositing their cash.

Withdrawal slips signed by the clients after withdrawing their cash from the bank.

Cash Receipt received by the bank upon purchasing various items from its suppliers.

LPO (Local Purchase Orders) Given by the bank to suppliers who are to supply huge amounts of goods or services.

Delivery Notes signed by the bank upon receiving certain goods from its suppliers

Financial indicators
In assessing the financial performance of an organization such as CBQ, we can examine three main financial indicators, these includes

Balance sheet
This is a financial statement form the bank highlighting the banks assets, liabilities as well as shareholders equity. This can be given quarterly or yearly. The named three balance sheet sections will give investors a clear idea as what CBQ owns and owes and also will reveal the amount shareholders have invested in the bank

Trading and profit and loss account
This is a financial record that outlines how the bank has performed in a given period say after one year. The statement gives gross profit and gross loss. The gross profit or loss will then be used to indicate the performance of the bank in terms of revenues.

Share price performance
The manner in which the share of CBQ is performing on the stock market is another indicator of the financial status of the bank. If the bank is recording positive results, it is certain that its shares on the stock market will go up, as more investors will want to invest in the bank, but if the financial performance is poor, less investors will want to invest in bank and the share price will fall.

Key highlights of financial performance (of FY2008)
Operating income increase by 42.5  hitting QR 2.8 billion from QR 1.9billion
Net profit shot by 22.4 to reach QR 1.7 Billion
Net assets went up by 35 to hit QR 61.billion

CBQs Sources of Finance
In general, there are three major sources of finance for any business or corporate entity. These may be categorized as traditional sources, non-ownership capital and ownership capital. This leaves the Commercial Bank of Qatar with the above options in seeking appropriate finance sources. Each source is however selected at a given time depending on the total capital required and the expected use for the funds.

Internal capital
The major sources of finance for the Commercial Bank of Qatar have been internal resources comprising of company assets and returns. Individual owners of the bank can put in more money to increase their share capital in the business. However, this source may not be the best when a lot of money is required for example to expand the business through opening more branches. But, in cases where short term finance is required on short time frame, this source could prove crucial.

External borrowing
The bank can also increase its finances through borrowing from external sources these sources can be the government, or other lending institutions. The major aspect to consider is the interest rate such borrowing will attract and the duration or repayment. If the terms are favorable then the bank can borrow, however, this gives the bank pressure of repayment and if possible, this source of obtaining finance should be avoided.

Share capital
The Commercial Bank of Qatar may also raise additional funds through issuing new shares to its customers and also through initial public offers (IPOs). As of 2005, the issue price stood at QR 120share, consisting of a share premium of QR 110.0  share  a nominal value of QR 10  share. The formula for issuing additional shares should be calculated on the amount of capital being sought. This type of financial source increases the amount of shareholders but is the best for long term financial obligation. More so, shareholders only receive dividends if the bank makes profit thus, the bank does not face the challenge of repayment or interest.

In general, sources of finance may either be long term or short term depending on several factors e.g. maturity date. CBQs long-term sources include equity sharecapital share, preference share, retained earnings and asset securitization. Short term sources include but are not limited to fixed deposits, foreign-currency bonds, euro-issues, lease financing etc.

Economic and political impacts and globalization
In the world where financial services have turned to be highly affected by globalization and financial policies of major global institutions, CBQ is not exempted from the impact of these world financial bodies. The biggest impact comes from the policies formulated by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund regarding financial operations of Qatar and in particular the CBQ. For instance, if the WB and IMF refuses to loan or Aid CBQ when it request such services from the two bodies, then CBQ will have to cut down on its lending. Similarly, policies taken by WB and IMF towards Qatar such as structural adjustment could indirectly or directly affect CBQ.

With increased global movement of people, businesses and money, globalization has directly affected the way CBQ is doing its business. The Bank has opened more branches, innovated more products to carter for diverse customers, implemented new technologies to compete well on the global market and adhered to global regulations on transfer of money. These are just some of the ways CBQ has responded towards globalization.  The exchange rate between Qatar currency and other major world currencies such as the dollar and euro greatly affects the bank. This is because the way the exchange rate affects business transactions particularly import and export. For instance low dollar exchange rate will result in high demand of dollars in Qatar and increased export as it will be more exports Thus as a financial services provider this effect on business transaction is passed to the bank.

CBQs Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is basically a combination of all defined beliefs, values, assumptions, myths, principles, norms and legends that influence the organizations mode of doing business. The Commercial Bank of Qatar has strong culture that has been built over the years. The core culture of the Bank is respect to all and dignity. This entails respecting all workers and treating each person with dignity, such is the culture of the CBQ that is outlined it is core values. Unique workplace cultures at the Commercial Bank of Qatar e.g. treatment of employees with respect and dignity encourages the firms employees to take pride in their organizations ethical standards. This has also created a positive work environment and encouraged communication avoiding employee related problems that could crop up. CBQ being one of the top banks has created a good organizational climate in accordance to its values of respect and dignity. The working atmosphere created in the bank is encouraging and employees have positive feelings about the CBQ.

Solving problems
Without clear ethical standards and fair treatment, it could result in internal politics where employees may form groups and division amongst themselves, and compete for supremacy in relation to who is fair or just. This will definitely result in wrangles and poor performance and attention is diverted from company objectives to pretty politics. Ethical measures within the organization are also intended for rooting out the culture of impunity and other malpractices such as embezzlement of company finances, nepotism and favoritism in recruitments and promotions, feigning sickness in order to get unnecessary sick-offs and unjustified work leaves, theft of company assets.

It is important that the organization formulate mechanisms and structures of solving problems without blaming others. This can be achieved by creating a culture of responsibility and accountability where people take responsible for their mistakes and learn to correct such mistakes without shifting blame. Managers can also formulate ways of rewarding good performance and punishing bad mistakes, in an open way, such policies enhances sense of duty and instills discipline.

Corporate Social Responsibility
The roles played by the Commercial Bank of Qatar in order to ensure corporate social responsibility are quite numerous. In order to ensure Qatars industrial development, the bank has sponsored various government projects in various fields. CBQ is actively engaged in community based activities such as educational improvement, environmental management, sponsorship of healthcare services, infrastructural development, etc. CBQ uses its corporate social responsibility structure as a strategy to maintain its corporate image by making the community served (i.e. the ordinary Qatari citizens) to have a sense of ownership for the bank. This strategy is intended for customer retention and attraction of prospects thus giving it a competitive edge over its competitors.

Conclusion
Organizational culture and workplace ethics plays an important role in corporate management as it enables the management to effectively address various challenges facing the organization such as diversity management, and coming up with optimal solutions to existing problems. Understanding of the organizational culture ensures that the decisions made do not discriminate individual employees but address the needs and general expectations of the staff to acceptable levels. In addition, understanding the organizational culture of a given entity may also be used in addressing change since the workplace culture may enable the workers or employees to approach challenges from varying angles. This is attributed to the interactions of employees andor individuals with different socio-cultural backgrounds, educational backgrounds and work or life experiences.