Forte Financial Blog

Crittenden to leave AmEx for Citi

Yesterday Citigroup announced that Gary Crittenden, currently CFO of AmEx, will be joining Citi as its CFO effective March 12th.

Crittenden is often lauded as one of the most successful and effective CFOs around. He will be challenged in this new role, as Citi struggles to achieve the earnings of its rivals in a tough interest rate environment. But he brings to the job proven execution skills, strategic management acumen, and shareholder relationship savvy.

There is much talk of Crittenden as a potentail successor to Charles Prince as CEO of Citi. Analysts' reaction to the announcement are for the most part positive, although many caution that he is not yet ready for the CEO position.

We were surprised by Mr. Crittenden's decision to, as we see it, "leave a Cadillac for a Kia,"  --Meredith Whitney, of CIBC World Markets (quoted in the WSJ)

I for one will be closely watching his actions at Citi and will report back here with my observations.

Read more:

Wall Street Journal
New York Times
CFO.com

Do you have the management support you need? What do Tiger and Lance have that you lack?

Increasingly CFOs are utilizing coaches to improve performance and meet the demands of c-suite jobs. Tiger Woods has one, Lance Armstrong has one, do you need a coach?

"Over the last five years, we have probably seen more people come in for coaching who are in finance or information services parts of the business," says Bill McCarthy, a coach with LeaderSource, an executive coaching firm recently acquired by executive search company Korn/Ferry International. The reason: the technical expertise that helps a CFO or CIO rise to the top is just one part of the skill set needed to succeed in a C-suite position.

Read more about finance executives and coaches at CFO.com:

Tiger, Lance, and You
An executive coach may be your ticket to peak performance.
Theresa Sullivan Barger
CFO.com
February 22, 2007

Company Culture & Strategy

Today Tom Peters blog observes that company culture is critical to strategic execution. When your company's underlying values, behavioral norms, and informal reward systems undermine the strategic direction the strategy is bound to fail.

If your strategy is to create synergies and economies of scale, while the culture is one where people work autonomously and in silos, the strategy could be impossible to achieve. And it only gets more complicated in a world where mergers, acquisitions, and alliances shape the corporate landscape. We know all too well that even with a respectful courtship, the expected benefits of merging two corporate cultures often fail to materialize. If only companies could simply snap together like plastic building blocks!

Read more at Tom Peter's blog

Consumer Payment Patterns - New Research

Pew Research has just published a study on consumer bill payment. It explores the types of payments (utility, loan, etc.), the payment method (cash, check, debit, credit), and explores budgeting, money and marriage, bill payment by income level, etc.

This report should be required reading for B2C billers and retail bankers.

Bill-paying is a different experience now than it was a generation ago. A sizable minority of adults pay by click. And a sizable majority pay each month for one or more of the big three Information Age staples that didn't exist or were in their infancy a few decades back -- cell phones, internet service and cable and satellite television.

What Americans Pay For - and How
'Information Age' Bills Keep Piling Up

Pew Research Center
February 7, 2007

Identity Theft Losses Declining

Losses from identity fraud are down 11.5 percent since last year according to a new study by Javelin Strategy and Research.

“Businesses are doing a better job screening, and consumers are doing better at locking up information and monitoring their accounts,” said James Van Dyke, founder and president of Pleasanton, California-based Javelin, in an interview. “The dollar amount is dropping,” he added, “but $49 billion is still a lot of money.”

According to the study, 8.4 million adult Americans, or one in 27, learned last year that criminals committed fraud with personal data such as credit card or Social Security numbers. That’s down from 8.9 million in 2005 and 10.1 million in 2003.

Reuters Article
Javelin Strategy & Research blog