- Paragraph 1: What was your original perception, what happened to change it, where do you stand regarding the firm now, and could anything happen to make you return to your original perception of the firm?
- Paragraph 2: How can this experience help you create a brand image for your own OD firm?
- My original perception of Wells Fargo was sort of the “people’s bank.” Many people had it, it had a lot of international services, and it seemed accessible and welcomed a wide variety of customers, all the way down to college students building credit.
However, scandal after scandal came out. They were found to have been manipulating lower-income and lower-education populations for their own gain, heavily contributing to themes in the economic collapse of 2008. I live in Baltimore, and one that really hit home was that Wells Fargo would sponsor and pay community leaders, like pastors at black churches, to encourage their congregations to take out Wells Fargo subprime loans and use other services irresponsibly, like credit, because the “Lord would provide” the means to figure out the debt.
They were also found to be, nationally, levying sneaky fees and signing up customers for various services and programs without their consent. The sales culture was extremely pushy and high pressure. Ex-CEO John Stumpf was fined 17.5 million for his role in condoning this culture.I don’t think I would ever really return to this perception of Wells Fargo, because there are simply so many options to go with and I really don’t need/have any interest in using Wells Fargo intentionally. I don’t really find myself in the position where I have to use their wire transfer service (used by many immigrants in the US to send money to home countries, for example) or any other services. I know they have been fined and fired their CEO and overhauled many programs and their business culture, but one wonders how much white-collar crime is actually prosecuted. Can you really put a price on the lives it affects?
2. This is pretty straightforward – don’t be sneaky and try to unethically squeeze money from people. It will come back to bite you. The hit to reputation will end up costing far more in the long run, especially to a local OD consulting business. Reputation is everything, and the negative is not easily undone.