business plan financial
strategy+business: FINANCIAL SERVICES
How to grow your business and spot opportunities that capitalize on your customers' growing investment needs
- Taking a Calmer View
The financial sector's prospects in the wake of crisis may be better than you think. - Reining In the Overpaid (and Underperforming) Chief Executive
Corporate governance expert Nell Minow explains the relationship between outlandish severance packages and the risky financial instruments linked to subprime mortgages. - Signals for the Coming Year
Change may be certain, but for a business decision maker, some changes have more impact than others. Here are eight trends that will make the greatest difference in 2008. - Growing a New Niche in Retail Banking
How some top performers are adapting to target the lucrative mass affluent market. - Retail Banking's Secret Weapon
Even as financial-services organizations are reemphasizing the local branch, they continue to overlook the performance impact of successful branch managers. A recent study reveals how banks can recruit, retain, and develop the branch managers who will be sales leaders. - How to Be a Demographic Realist
To prepare for the implications of aging populations, individuals, organizations, and society as a whole must confront assumptions that are no longer valid. - Getting a Return on Financial-Services Marketing
Financial services companies spend enormous sums on marketing -- more than $10 billion annually. But unlike consumer packaged goods purveyors, they lack clear outcome data to rigorously assess their ROI. The result is haphazard spending and an inability to evaluate the performance of marketing efforts. Analytical methods like breakeven analyses and consumer funnels can help services companies ground their marketing decisions in data rather than speculation. - Moving Beyond Cost-Cutting
In the race to globalize and add market share, most leading banks have introduced significant complexity to their operations through expanded product portfolios, international acquisitions, and diversification into new lines of business. These complications make costs difficult to control, but banks stand to benefit dramatically from the same operational streamlining procedures that have recently transformed productivity in the manufacturing sector. - Health Meets Wealth
The health care market is in a state of flux. Soon consumers will have the option to choose health care plans closely aligned or connected to their financial services plans. Some health care companies already offer options to customize and invest for future health care needs using health savings accounts and health reimbursement accounts. Companies that adopt new service models and incorporate the sophistication of financial planning into their health care offerings stand to profit from the changing environment. Although a hybridized industry is still years away, players who sit out the early stages of the health wealth convergence stand to be left behind. - Barclay's Global Acceleration
Four years ago, Barclays Bank had fragmented operations that relied too heavily on the United Kingdom market. To turn the business around, Barclays' deployed a companywide initiative to unify and globalize the business by setting a vision, adopting a universal banking model, and focusing on customer relations. Today the bank enjoys the best performance numbers in its 300-year history. Barclays' chief executive explains how an ambitious plan to improve performance brought about organizational change.