How Effective can Financial Performance Analysis be?

With heightened competition, market concentration and regulation, British Telecom (BT) has employed a number of tactics to maintain profitability, market share and overall financial performance. As leaders of info-communications and worldwide ventures, BT have been contracting part of their operations, services and transferring responsibility to specialist branches, thereby achieving economic efficiency.

Manoj Kumar, a supply chain consultant claimed, "Most of the outsourcing that's happening has been triggered by cost, and if you want to minimize cost, it's mainly going offshore" (www.industryweek.com). For example, in India the IT workforce is estimated to rise to 2.2 million worker by 2008 from a mere 280,000 today (McKinsey Report, Ethicalcorp Magazine, www.ethicalcorp.com). BT have been fortunate to benefit from economies of scale in terms of purchasing, financial, marketing, technical and managerial improvements.

Reducing costs simultaneously reduce risks helping to free financial resources. Instead of tying up resources in non-core areas they can be contracted at operational expenses. Contracting part of BTs services has been a viable choice rather than building functions from scratch. In doing so, BT have increased their customer base and re-attracted customers who left in the first place due to inherent inefficiencies. BT have benefited from 25% increase in its most recent financial quarter (www.cbronline.com/article_news).

Likewise, many banking services from Barclays to HSBC as well as I.T. companies including Microsoft have followed the same suit indicating a rising market trend. In 2005, BT derived 91% of its revenue in the UK by providing communication solutions for homes and business helped by rising demand for broadband internet services. Financial statistics reveal: profits up by 32% in 2005 - a clear indication of improved market performance. In the Global market BT have experienced immense growth and promises to continue