C'mon Wells Fargo!
The scope of the Wells Fargo credit card scandal is bad enough – 2 million false deposit and credit card accounts opened without customers’ knowledge; over 5,000 employees fired.
But what’s even more disturbing is how the first steps to address the scandal seem to be a very familiar band-aid. Three items jump out as indicators that perhaps much deeper work needs to happen in the culture:
First, in responding to the scope of the firings of 5,300 employees, the Wall Street Journal reported that, Wells Fargo, “the nation’s largest by market value, would not comment on the ‘levels of leadership’ involved in the firings, but bank spokeswoman Mary Eshet said ‘both managers and team members were affected.’ She said the firings should be seen in the context of the bank’s size—it had 268,000 employees at the end of June—and that they happened over five years.” Does the fact that the actions happened over 5 years make it better?? What is the extent of the self-deception going to how high a level to allow this to happen for five years?
Second, in a full page ad published on September 9, 2016 as an apology to customers and stakeholders, Wells Fargo said that one of its improvements is to redouble communications and training to reinforce commitment to doing the right thing “for you, our customers.” Does anyone think that these 5,300 employees truly forgot what the right thing to do was? What about addressing the underlining fears and pressures that led these employees to commit these fraudulent actions in the first place? What about revamping sales incentives so good employees are less tempted to cheat in order to succeed?
And lastly, why was it that no senior leader at Wells Fargo was willing to put his or her name on the signature line of this mea culpa. Who s really taking responsibility for this actions.
“Stuff” happens all the time in organizations big and small. The true test of a healthy and ethical culture is not whether something wrong happens, it’s in they respond.
Senior Director at Resiliti
8yTo me the most audacious aspect of this is that it appears these multi-millionaire sophisticated bankers think there is really nothing wrong underlying this mess. This is underscored by a CNBC article I just read that quotes their CFO as saying that the people who committed the misdeeds and were fired were "under-performers." That kind of truly callous statement takes incredible cluelessness or incredible gall - not sure which is worse. Hopefully they will see the light by the time of the Congressional hearings as opposed to doubling down on this affront.
Proactive Solutions to Non-Traditional Corporate Challenges
8yFor most Wells Fargo branches, particularly those located in the suburbs or small communities the culture of compliance and adherence to banking regulations is almost nonexistent.
The fact that it happened over five years is a disgrace!
Enterprise Architecture, Security, Privacy and Data Engineering
8yThe dark side of quota driven sales culture. I guess when you have that culture the only thing you care about are the numbers, it is a textbook case of end justifying the means. I feel like there is a bit of the Stanford Prison Experiment model in this situation where ethically and morally bankrupt corporations create the circumstances making people do things that they wouldn't normally do if the circumstances were different.
Proactive Solutions to Non-Traditional Corporate Challenges
8yWhat is amazing was the sheer audacity of the scheme. There simply was no way they expected that their actions would stay hidden. As the scheme progressed, bank customers started receiving bad credit reviews for accounts they never knew they had. In turn they began complaining to the bank and regulators. Even Charles Ponzu would be embarrassed.