Wells Fargo inspiration

Yesterday morning I attended the Birmingham Business Journal 2012 Economic Forecast event where I picked up a copy of a Forbes article featuring Wells Fargo and her President/CEO Mr. John G. Stumpf.  Several financial indicators including revenue and profitability make Wells a fine company to study the nature of success.  The inspiration of my writing this blog is the age old Vision and Value of Wells Fargo booklet that is written by their CEO in everyday language and distributed to each employee.

I believe this simple 40 page outline of their values, strategy, and future outlook helps all of their associates (to the extent of the ability) embody spirit of Wells Fargo.  The following points are the key attributes that have made an impression upon me:

- simple growth strategy broken into a three tiered plan.  First cross sell existing customers, second to gain customers from the competitors, and lastly through customer acquisition

- history and purpose a rich knowledge of their history extends a deep sense of their purpose.  The President himself leads his company to future success after being raised in the history of the company

- know thy self and they customer Wells Fargo knows how many products they have to offer each customer and conversely how many products their average customers is actually consuming.  From their they make goals to incrementally increase the average unit per consumer

- investment vs. expense Wells does not see their associates as liabilities but as assets that are truly the center of their success

- cross selling The bank invest its energy into the higher return engagement of selling more products to a single customer rather attempting to grow by adding more customers to few services.  The quality of their work with existing customers attracts new consumers over time

My favorite quote of the book is "A good strategy perfectly executed will beat a great strategy poorly executed every time"

Their are many other points listed in the Vision and Values manuscript, however the points discussed are the ones that have shaped my view of management at present.


written by:
Martin A. Briggs
- KMBriggs, LLC