Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without customers’ permission | Money CNN

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Wells Fargo is accused of opening up accounts and credit cards in customers’ names without their authorization.

The accounts are being opened by Wells Fargo employees under pressure to meet unrealistic sales goals and quotas, according to the civil complaint filed by the Los Angeles City Attorney.

The complaint charges that bank employees opened new accounts for existing customers without their authorization, in order to meet sales quotas. The employees also allegedly transferred money from customers’ authorized accounts to pay fees on the unauthorized accounts.

When fees on unauthorized accounts went unpaid, some customers were placed into collection. Others had negative information placed on their credit reports as a result.

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Getting Rich in America Depends on a Lot More Than a College Degree | Bloomberg Business

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imagesWith graduation season around the corner, more than a few U.S. families are probably wondering just how much that college degree will be worth.

There’s little doubt education is associated with higher income, better financial decision-making and more wealth. However, issues that are harder for an individual to control — what type of family you come from, whether you get an inheritance, or how healthy you are — also play a growing role in determining your net worth, according to a new report by researchers William Emmons and Bryan Noeth at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Education “is important, but it’s not the whole story,” Emmons, a senior economic adviser at the St. Louis Fed, said in an interview.  “You can’t simply send everyone to college and expect to solve all the social problems that we have, including problems in the job market.”

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Until We Meet Again – Third in a Series | Peter Mehit

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imagesI remember one time when I was going to go do ‘stuff’ with my friends. You know what ‘stuff’ is, right? Anyway, as I was going out the door, my mom called out, “Take your brother with you!” The presence of my little brother made sure that we would have to substitute different ‘stuff’ to do, much to the consternation of my buddies.

The fact that I don’t have a little brother shouldn’t take away from the main point of my anecdote; the participants in an activity will determine its outcome. Meetings are no different.

When you’re building your agenda, consider the participants you need to make the meeting work and only invite them. How do you know if they are the right participants? If the agenda topics are related to their ability to perform their job, then they are the right people. If they only have minor involvement, they should not be invited.

Continue reading “Until We Meet Again – Third in a Series | Peter Mehit” →

Don’t Let These Barriers to an End-Client Mentality Ruin Your Consulting Firm | Business Tips

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downloadIn the consulting world, one rule reigns supreme: It’s all about the end client.

If you’re not scrutinizing your client service, satisfaction, and delivery on a daily basis, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to survive and thrive in the business world. Still, catering to your end client can be more difficult than it appears, especially when you’re juggling both buyers and influencers.

As a result, many consulting firms think they’re focusing on client satisfaction when, in reality, they’re just hiding behind rhetoric. It’s amazing to see the huge variations in quality, process, responsiveness, and overall experience among individual consultants.

For example, one consultant I work with excels at collecting feedback and clarifying expectations with all parties involved. He has formal and informal processes in place to gather this information, and he uses it to refine his engagement strategy with a client. On the other hand, I’ve seen consultants make empty promises on savings they can generate and problems they can fix without any input from the vendors involved. Not only does this create friction, but it also shows your client that you don’t value her relationships.

This disconnect between a consultant and a client can take many forms, including:

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Samsung claws back dominance from Apple, yet still struggling | Mashable

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Samsung has clawed back its crown from Apple as the world’s biggest smartphone seller by volume, but it still has a long way to go to reclaim its golden years.

While still on top of the industry, the Korea-based tech giant posted yet another profit decline on Wednesday, its fourth-consecutive quarter of declines. The $4.3 billion it made in the first quarter of 2015 is 39% lower than the same period in 2014.

Samsung has been hit by what Neil Mawston, executive director of Strategy Analytics, called a “pincer movement.” Competition on the high end of the market from Apple and the low end from Chinese upstarts like Huawei have pinched Samsung’s business.

“It’s taken several quarters for Samsung to react to [the competition] and to create products to slow down that attack,” Mawston said. “Samsung probably has another year or two of work to say they’ve recovered.”

To do this, Samsung is banking on its new high-end products — notably the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge — to compete with Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6+ and help get the company back on track.

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Need a Better Way to Confront Problem Employees? | Biz Action

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Understanding how to have a productive confrontation begins with a quick self-assessment. Do you:

Shy away from the problem and hope it will solve itself, or, the other extreme,

Take employees to the proverbial “wood shed” and vent your frustration or anger, without thinking it through carefully in advance?

The former requires living in fantasy land and will get you nowhere. The latter will only make matters worse.

Motivating yourself to become skilled at productive confrontation begins by thinking through the nature and impact of the problem(s) you seek to address. Sometimes they run deeper than you might think.

For example, if an employee fails to give you a report you need in time to prepare you for meeting with a big customer or prospect, what is the impact? If it’s that you hold the meeting without the facts and analysis you need to make a successful presentation, and you lose the customer or prospect, that’s a high price. But it’s not all that’s at stake.

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How to Tactfully Drop a Client | Business News Daily

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Most service-based businesses have encountered a nightmare client. This person makes outrageous demands of your team and expects them to be met yesterday. He or she doesn’t respect the due date on the invoice and refuses to pay you on time. And when it comes to communicating with your company, this client either pesters you 24/7 or can’t be reached at all.

The old cliché may say that the customer is always right, but these difficult clients are usually not worth your time, frustration and, as may be the case, lost income. Although you may be hesitant to drop or “fire” a client, it could very well be in your business’s best interest in the long run.

“For a [business] relationship to have long-term success, both parties have to be in a position to do their very best possible work,” said Matt Dopkiss, co-founder of digital marketing agency Dynamit. “If the frictions overpower the momentum, the relationship will grind to a halt. You usually know it far in advance, but you’re reluctant to admit it. You rationalize, you put in extra effort, you try to stay optimistic — but once the chemistry is gone, it’s over.”

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22 Mistakes Made by Sellers in M&A Transactions | All Business

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Selling a company is often difficult and time consuming. The mergers and acquisitions (M&A) process is one that requires careful planning, competent professionals assisting the target company, and an understanding of the deal dynamics involved in the negotiations. CEOs and companies that have not been engaged in many M&A transactions frequently make mistakes that can result in a less favorable price or terms that would have otherwise been obtainable —or even kill the deal altogether.

The following is a list of common mistakes made by private companies attempting to sell themselves:

1. Not being prepared for the extensive effort and time the deal will take. Successful exits through M&A are not easy. They are time consuming, involve significant due diligence by the buyer, and require both a great deal of advance preparation as well as a substantial resource commitment by the seller. Acquisitions can often take 6 to 12 months or more to complete.

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