The Balloon Over Your Bank
At its height, press reports and cable news commentary about the Chinese spy balloon floating over Montana and elsewhere approached the plot of a mediocre spy or science fiction movie. So much was unknown and…
Is the Consulting Business “an Industrywide Mess”?
A few weeks ago saw the publication of a highly critical book about McKinsey titled, When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm. Now Bloomberg has…
Failing Due Diligence
Last time we wrote about the importance of due diligence and how some Private Equity firms (with FTX) and banks (Chase with a student-oriented company, Frank) failed to protect themselves and…
Doing Effective Due Diligence
This week and next we’ll focus on issues related to due diligence. As M&A activities are likely to increase in 2023, excellence in due diligence is critical for sellers but in particular for acquirers. Yet, there are at least…
The Titanium Economy and Banking
The Titanium Economy, a book written by three current and former McKinsey consultants, focuses on describing existing and proposed activities that, to paraphrase the book’s subtitle, will allow industrial businesses to…
Elon Buys a Bank
The regulatory approval was easier than anyone thought. After all, FTX and crypto savant Samuel Bankman-Fried could buy Farmington State Bank, a three-employee bank in Whitman County, Washington. Of course…
Targeting Layoffs
Daily media reports detail personnel cuts at previously high flying fintechs like Chime, Varo, Upstart, Stripe, Blend, and Brex, among others. Most notably, Twitter has announced cuts in the 50% range and Amazon is…
When McKinsey Comes to Town
I’m not sure why I found this new book (by New York Times reporters Walt Bogadanich and Michael Forsythe) both depressing and not very surprising. Certainly, while the evidence of McKinsey’s wrongdoing is not…
The Cost Cutters Are Back
Of course, the best approach to cost cutting is to minimize expenditures upfront, meaning don’t make excessive hires in the first place. There may still be one bank I know that follows that philosophy. Instead…
The Political/Woke Minefield
A few weeks ago, Rashida Tlaib, the progressive congressperson from Michigan, zoomed into a hearing in the hopes of grilling the CEOs of some of the major banks. She began by asking Jaime Dimon if his bank…