Core Competency of Portfolio Recovery Associates

Change Management

Portfolio Recovery Associates, a financial and business services company has many assets that make up the business. The services even include location services, which entails skip-tracing, collateral recovery for automobile lenders, law enforcement, insurance companies and other clientele. Bankruptcy debts are also acquired and serviced within PRA as well as government services like fee and tax revenue administration, plus revenue discovery/recovery services and audit services. The main core competency of this company is the acquisition of defaulted accounts. I believe that the other services are in place so that every single tool to help the consumer resolve the debt is there. This also means that when PRA purchases any defaulted account, it belongs to them. For example, the Las Vegas center focuses on the location services which may include hiring contractors to work with the company for vehicle repossessions. Once the vehicle or property is recovered, each department is notified in a certain manner. The loan that was acquired by the consumer is now defaulted and sent to collections. PRA, in some cases, will acquire the title of the vehicle, so that if the consumer may still have the vehicle, they can retrieve it once the account has been resolved. This separates Portfolio Recovery Associates from its competitors because other collection agencies will continue to sell the defaulted accounts to other agencies to have revenue in order to stay in business. Consumers can feel more comfortable knowing that the accounts will remain within PRA until it has been resolved. This contributes to the success of PRA because of the flexibility of the arrangements that consumers can be qualified for to help them rectify their accounts at a comfortable and affordable rate based on their budget. Each company has strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. For PRA, a strength would be its ability to purchase and own the defaulted accounts. This benefits them greatly because they are not collecting on the accounts on behalf of anyone else, they will be the ones to receive full payments to close the accounts. The downside of this is that this can be enough to instill intent to pursue legal action by the consumer because they may feel harassed by the company due to the number of times that the person may be contacted about the account. That is not necessarily a weakness. An actual weakness in PRA is the employee, meaning that the employee could misrepresent the company and begin a negative reputation about the company. PRA leaders take the time to interview each employee and conduct background checks as well as drug testing. But it’s up to the employee to present themselves in a professional manner to the consumer and to their peers in the workplace. Opportunities within PRA are in place to complement the core of the business. For example, the other services provided, like the bankruptcy and legal services help the consumer resolve accounts as well through their operations. If a consumer has filed bankruptcy and included a defaulted account with PRA within the bankruptcy, PRA will be notified through either the skip-tracing services and or the consumer themselves. If the bankruptcy is dismissed, then the account is sent back to collections and it will have to be resolved by the consumer. If the bankruptcy is discharged, then the consumer is no longer held responsible for the account and PRA is notified to stop further collection activity on the account. Threats to PRA would be in the form of a lawsuit or any law that would prohibit any contact or collection activity. With the TCPA requiring the collector to ask for cell phone consent to place phone numbers into the automatic dialer system, this has impacted and somewhat limited contact between consumer and collector. However, it has not stopped the other means of communication to capture the attention of the consumers. Often times, the corporate office will send out letters that have flexible options to close accounts to the consumers’ homes, which in turn, will interest the consumer and they will contact PRA to inquire about the letter and services.

I believe that PRA is using its’ strengths and core competencies to offset the weaknesses and threats. If any employee should misrepresent or have any unprofessional manner, they are reprimanded and/or terminated. I do think that they can be more advanced if they were able to communicate via text messaging. Many consumers request for contact to be within a text and they will be able to reply in a quicker manner than receiving phone calls. I think that if PRA were to increase their advancement in technology, they would be able to set new standards and new ways to appeal to consumers about their delinquent accounts.