Case Summary

So basically, this case is about Beth Daniels who started her own banking company known as
Athena Bancorp in 2016. Before she started the company people were advising against it
because banking is a mature overregulated industry. But she was confident because Beth and
her team thought that loans and deposits would increase threefold in the period of the next 5
years. Her market strategy for the next five years was also a bit too aggressive to grow to 15
branches from the day of the start of her company. To achieve this goal, she has to depend on
employees who are highly dedicated and will be willing to work for long hours. But this has an
adverse effect and their physical, mental and emotional stress on the employees causing them
to lose spirit. Another problem faced by Athena Bancorp according to James Paul the Chief
Human Resources Officer is that they aren’t able to hire enough employees who are motivated
and help complete her 5-year growth target for her company. And in this case, we have a
deeper look at the problems faced by industry run by motivated Human Resource. Another
thing, Beth believed in the customer first philosophy and helped her bank or company grow.
She also thought their high-quality service would bring customer loyalty and include online
services for customers to check balances, pay bills and order checks. Lastly, she felt if she did
not capitalize on the first mover strategy it will mean that another banking company would take
advantage of it. The launch of the it system Trust was and it’s impact on the growth and
profitability of the bank is also another major point in this case which have a major impact on
the success of Athena Bancorp and James suggested to stop the opening of other branches until
the new IT system was up and running.

Issues
Stress on Employees- The pressure on employees was high and were physically, mentally and
emotionally tired from working longer hours. This also affected their spirit and affected their
performance.
Over Ambitious Growth Plan- Though it may seem good Beth had an over ambitious plan of 5
years and did not consider the unexpected risks expected with the business.
Risk of Recession- Though a huge industry every industry has suffered recession once or more in
a country and it had already happened a few years ago in 2008 and could happen again with
some natural pandemic or man-made situations.
Recommendations
Replan The Launch Of TRUST- By preponing the launch of TRUST Athena Bancorp can boost their
clientele and increase their growth. This will also mean that the stress on employees would be
reduced so and their performance of them will increase and affect the overall performance of
the company in a positive way.
Hiring More Employees- Hiring more employees to reduce the physical and mental stress and
divide the workload with more employees would be an effective idea for Athena Bancorp.
Making Achievable Targets- CEO Beth Daniels had an overambitious nature so that will have to
change to having more achievable targets to increase the stability of the company .