Please don't forget to make a donation. We need your help in these difficult times. Donate now.

Wells Fargo: history, lines of business, business models and Environmental record

For updates on this article, please visit Wikipedia
Wells Fargo & Company
Type Public (NYSE: WFC)
Industry Banking
Financial services
Founded San Francisco, CA (1852)
Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States
Area served Worldwide
Key people John G. Stumpf
(Chairman, President & CEO)
Products Retail banking
Investment banking
Commercial banking
Mortgages
Consumer finance
Insurance
Payday advance
Revenue decrease $85.210 billion (2010)[1]
Profit increase $12.362 billion (2010)[1]
Total assets increase $1.258 trillion (2010)[1]
Total equity increase $127.889 billion (2010)[1]
Employees 272,200 (2010)[1]
Website WellsFargo.com
Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the US by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization.[2] Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home mortgage servicing, and debit card. In 2007 it was the only bank in the United States to be rated AAA by S&P,[3] though its rating has since been lowered to AA-[4] in light of the financial crisis of 2007–2010.
The firm's primary U.S. operating subsidiary is national bank Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., which designates its main office as Sioux Falls, South Dakota for legal purposes.
Wells Fargo in its present form is a result of an acquisition of California-based Wells Fargo & Company by Minneapolis-based Norwest Corporation in 1998. Although Norwest was technically the surviving entity, the new company renamed itself Wells Fargo, capitalizing on the 150-year history of the nationally-recognized name and its trademark stagecoach. Following the acquisition, the company transferred its headquarters to Wells Fargo's headquarters in San Francisco and merged its operating subsidiary with Wells Fargo's operating subsidiary in Sioux Falls.
In 2010 Wells Fargo had 6,335 retail branches (called stores by Wells Fargo), 12,094 automated teller machines, 281,000 employees and over 70 million customers. Wells Fargo operates stores and ATMs under Wells Fargo's and Wachovia's names.
Wells Fargo is one of the Big Four banks of the United States with Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

Lines of business

Wells Fargo offers a range of financial services in over 80 different business lines.[12] Wells Fargo delineates three different business segments when reporting results: Community Banking, Wholesale Banking, and Wealth, Brokerage and Retirement.

Community banking

The Community Banking segment includes Regional Banking, Diversified Products and the Consumer Deposits groups, as well as Wells Fargo Customer Connection (formerly Wells Fargo Phone Bank, Wachovia Direct Access, the National Business Banking Center and Credit Card Customer Service).
Wells Fargo also has around 2,000 stand alone mortgage branches throughout the country, excluding Galveston, Texas. It also does mortgage wholesale lending through independent mortgage brokers.
Wells Fargo in Laredo, Texas, is located near Mall Del Norte.
 

Wealth, brokerage, and retirement

Wells Fargo offers investment products through its subsidiaries, Wells Fargo Investments, LLC and Wells Fargo Advisors, as well as through national broker/dealer firms. Mutual funds are offered under the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds brand name. The company also serves high net worth individuals through its private bank and family wealth group.


Wells fargo advisors.jpg
Wells Fargo Advisors is the brokerage and wealth management subsidiary of Wells Fargo, located in St. Louis, Missouri. It is the third largest brokerage firm in the United States as of the third quarter of 2010 with $1.1 trillion retail client assets under management.[13]


Wells Fargo Advisors was known as Wachovia Securities until May 1, 2009, when it legally changed names following the Wells Fargo's acquisition of Wachovia Corporation.

Internet services

Wells Fargo launched its personal computer banking service in 1989 and was the first bank to introduce access to banking accounts on the web in May 1995.
Wells Fargo's Business Online Banking gives small business owners all the services available to consumers, plus services designed specifically for businesses.
The new Wells Fargo vSafe service offers online storage of documents.

Wholesale

The Wholesale Banking segment contains products sold to large and middle market commercial companies, as well as to consumers on a wholesale basis. This includes lending, treasury management, mutual funds, asset-based lending, commercial real estate,corporate and institutional trust services, and investment banking through Wells Fargo Securities. The company also owns Barington Associates, a middle market investment bank. Wells Fargo historically has avoided large corporate loans as stand-alone products, instead requiring that borrowers purchase other products along with loans—which the bank sees as a loss leader. One area that is very profitable to Wells, however, is asset-based lending: lending to large companies using assets as collateral that are not normally used in other loans. This can be compared to subprime lending, but on a corporate level. The main business unit associated with this activity is Wells Fargo Capital Finance. Wells Fargo also owns Eastdil Secured, which is described as a "real estate investment bank" but is essentially one of the largest commercial real estate brokers for very large transactions (such as the purchase and sale of large Class-A office buildings in central business districts throughout the United States).

Business model


Wells Fargo Footprint.png
A map of states and cities where Wells Fargo operates retail banks.
 
 
The present business model of Wells Fargo is summed up in its vision statement: "We want to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially."[14]
Wells Fargo's goal is to encourage its customers to buy all their financial products through Wells Fargo: "We want to earn 100 percent of our customers' business. The more products customers have with Wells Fargo the better deal they get, the more loyal they are, and the longer they stay with the company, improving retention. Eighty percent of our revenue growth comes from selling more products to existing customers. Our goal: sell at least eight products to every customer."[15]
This is a concept known as "cross-selling," or as Wells Fargo refers to it, "needs-based selling," which is popular in the financial services industry. While earlier companies, such as Prudential, pioneered the concept of selling a variety of products, they acted merely as holding companies and each product was sold through its own distribution channel. However, predecessor Norwest pioneered selling all its products through all its channels, with discounts given to those who purchase a larger variety.
The average "cross-sell ratio" for a financial institution is two (based on an average American consumer owning sixteen different financial products from eight different institutions). Wells Fargo stated they had a cross-sell ratio of 5.5 (2007 data) products per Community Banking household (almost one in five have more than eight), 6.1 (2007 data) for Wholesale Banking customers, and the average middle-market commercial banking customer has more than seven products, which is among the highest in the country.[16]

Global presence

Wells Fargo provides comprehensive personal banking services throughout the world. With Main Office in Hong Kong & London[17]
Wells Fargo has a presence in India as well. Wells Fargo India Solutions (WFIS) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wells Fargo. WFIS is an extended arm of the organization created to support the needs for expansion in technology and business processes. Set up in September 2006 in Hyderabad, India, it is already operating out of two facilities in the city and has people strength of over 1500. Its two Offices are located at Raheja MindSpace, Hitech City, and Divyashree, Raidurg respectively.

History

Main article: History of Wells Fargo
The current Wells Fargo is a result of a 1998 merger between Minneapolis-based Norwest Corporation and the original Wells Fargo.[18] Although Norwest was the nominal survivor, the new company kept the Wells Fargo name to capitalize on the long history of the nationally-recognized Wells Fargo name and its trademark stagecoach (the company's previous slogan, "The Next Stage," is a nod to the company's wagons-west motif). After the acquisition, the parent company moved its headquarters to San Francisco. The company's new Slogan, "Together we'll go Far" also references the stagecoach motif, its customers and the company name.

In-store branches

An in-store branch in a Pavilions supermarket in Anaheim Hills
There are many mini branches located inside of other buildings, which are almost exclusively grocery stores, that usually contain ATMs, basic teller services, and, space permitting, an office for private meetings with customers.[19]


Wachovia acquisition superseding plans by Citigroup

On October 3, 2008, Wachovia agreed to be bought by Wells Fargo for about $14.8B in an all-stock transaction. This news came four days after the FDIC made moves to have Citigroup buy Wachovia for $2.1B. Citigroup protested Wachovia's agreement to sell itself to Wells Fargo and threatened legal action over the matter. However the deal with Wells Fargo overwhelmingly won shareholder approval since it valued Wachovia at about 7 times what Citigroup offered. To further ensure shareholder approval, Wachovia issued Wells Fargo with preferred stock holding 39.9% of the voting power in the company.[20]
On October 4, 2008, a New York state judge issued a temporary injunction blocking the transaction from going forward while the situation was sorted out.[21] Citigroup alleged that they had an exclusivity agreement with Wachovia that barred Wachovia from negotiating with other potential buyers. The injunction was overturned late in the evening on October 5, 2008, by New York state appeals court.[22] Citigroup and Wells Fargo then entered into negotiations brokered by the FDIC to reach an amicable solution to the impasse. Those negotiations failed. Sources say that Citigroup was unwilling to take on more risk than the $42B that would have been the cap under the previous FDIC-backed deal (with the FDIC incurring all losses over $42B). Citigroup did not block the merger, but indicated they would seek damages of $60B for breach of an alleged exclusivity agreement with Wachovia.[23]

Predecessors

Wells Fargo operates under Charter #1, the first national bank charter issued in the United States. This charter was issued to First National Bank of Philadelphia on June 20, 1863 by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.[24] Traditionally, acquiring banks assume the earliest issued charter number. Thus, the first charter passed from First National Bank of Philadelphia to Wells Fargo through one of its many acquisitions.
Selected predecessor companies

2008 financial crisis

On October 28, 2008, Wells Fargo and Company was the recipient of $25B of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act Federal bail-out in the form of a preferred stock purchase.[25][26] Tests by the Federal government revealed that Wells Fargo needs an additional 13.7 billion dollars in order to remain well capitalized if the economy were to deteriorate further under stress test scenarios. On May 11, 2009 Wells Fargo announced an additional stock offering which was completed on May 13, 2009 raising $8.6 billion in capital. The remaining $4.9 billion in capital is planned to be raised through earnings. On Dec. 23, 2009, Wells Fargo redeemed the $25 billion of series D preferred stock issued to the U.S. Treasury under the Troubled Asset Relief Program’s Capital Purchase Program. As part of the redemption of the preferred stock, Wells Fargo also paid accrued dividends of $131.9 million, bringing the total dividends paid to the U.S. Treasury and U.S. taxpayers to $1.441 billion since the preferred stock was issued in October 2008.[27]

Achievements

In 2010, The Barbara Saville Women's Shelter named Wells Fargo "business of the year."[28]

Key dates

Wells Fargo bank in Chinatown, Houston
 
 
  • 1852: Henry Wells and William G. Fargo (Mayor of Buffalo, NY from 1862–63 and again from 1864–65), the two founders of American Express, form Wells Fargo & Company to provide express and banking services to California.
  • 1860: Wells Fargo gains control of Butterfield Overland Mail Company, leading to operation of the western portion of the Pony Express.
  • 1866: 'Grand consolidation' unites Wells Fargo, Holladay, and Overland Mail stage lines under the Wells Fargo name.
  • 1904: A.P. Giannini creates the Bank of Italy in San Francisco.
  • 1905: Wells Fargo separates its banking and express operations; Wells Fargo's bank is merged with the Nevada National Bank to form the Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank.
  • 1918: As a wartime measure, the U.S. government nationalizes Wells Fargo's express franchise into a federal agency known as the U.S. Railway Express Agency (REA). The government takes control of the express company. The bank begins rebuilding but with a focus on commercial markets. After the war, REA is privatized and continues service
  • 1923: Wells Fargo Nevada merges with the Union Trust Company to form the Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Company.
  • 1928: Giannini forms Transamerica Corporation as a holding company for his banking and other interests.
  • 1929: Northwest Bancorporation, or Banco, is formed as a banking association.
  • 1954: Wells shortens its name to Wells Fargo Bank.
  • 1957: Transamerica spins off its banking operations, including 23 banks in 11 western states, as Firstamerica Corporation.
  • 1960: Wells Fargo merges with American Trust Company to form the Wells Fargo Bank American Trust Company.
  • 1961: First America changes its name to Western Bancorporation.
  • 1962: Wells again shortens its name to Wells Fargo Bank.
  • 1968: Wells converts to a federal banking charter, becoming Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
  • 1969: Wells Fargo & Company holding company is formed, with Wells Fargo Bank as its main subsidiary.
  • 1981: Western Bancorporation changes its name to First Interstate Bancorp.
  • 1982: Banco acquires consumer finance firm Dial Finance which is renamed Norwest Financial Service the following year.
  • 1983: Banco is renamed Norwest Corporation.
  • 1983: Largest U.S. bank heist to date takes place at a Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut.
  • 1986: Wells Fargo acquires Crocker National Corporation from Midland Bank.
  • 1987: Wells Fargo acquires the personal trust business of Bank of America.
  • 1988: Wells Fargo acquires Barclays Bank of California from Barclays plc.
  • 1995: Wells Fargo becomes the first major financial services firm to offer Internet banking.
  • 1996: Wells Fargo acquires First Interstate for $17.3 billion.
  • 1998: Wells Fargo Bank merges with Norwest Corp. of Minneapolis. Norwest changes its name to Wells Fargo and moves to San Francisco.
  • 1999: Wells Fargo Bank merges with National Bank of Alaska
  • 2000: Wells Fargo acquires First Security Corporation.
  • 2001: Wells Fargo acquires H.D. Vest Financial Services.
  • 2007: Wells Fargo acquires CIT Construction.
  • 2007: Wells Fargo acquires Placer Sierra Bank.
  • 2007: Wells Fargo acquires Greater Bay Bancorp.
  • 2008: Wells Fargo acquires United Bancorporation of Wyoming
  • 2008: Wells Fargo acquires Century Bank.
  • 2008: Wells Fargo acquires Wachovia Corporation.
  • 2009: Wells Fargo acquires North Coast Surety Insurance Services

Historical data

Asset & Liability
Asset/Liability Ratio
Net Income
[29]


Wells Fargo Bank was the fifth largest bank at the end of 2008 as an individual bank. (Not including subsidiaries)

Environmental record

Wells Fargo ranked #1 among banks and insurance companies – and #13 overall – in Newsweek magazine’s inaugural “Green Rankings” of the country’s 500-largest companies.
So far, Wells Fargo has provided more than $6 billion in financing for environmentally beneficial business opportunities, including supporting 185 commercial-scale solar photovoltaic projects and 27 utility-scale wind projects nationwide.
As a member of Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Leaders program, Wells Fargo aims to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas emissions from its U.S. operations by 20% below 2008 levels by 2018.
Wells Fargo has launched what it believes to be the first blog among its industry peers to report on its environmental stewardship and to solicit feedback and ideas from its stakeholders.[30]
"We want to be as open and clear as possible about our environmental efforts – both our accomplishments and challenges – and share our experiences, ideas and thoughts as we work to integrate environmental responsibility into everything we do,” said Mary Wenzel, director of Environmental Affairs. “We also want to hear and learn from our customers. By working together, we can do even more to protect and preserve natural resources for future generations."

Recent controversies

Unbalanced scales.svg
 A concern has been raised that this article's Criticism section may be compromising the article's neutral point of view of the subject. Possible resolutions may be to integrate the material in the section into the article as a whole, or to rewrite the contents of the section. Please see the discussion on the talk page. (November 2010)
A Wells Fargo branch in Logan, Utah
 
 
Wells Fargo has been the target of activist actions because they are one of the largest investors into the GEO Group.[31] The GEO Group operates private prisons and immigrant detention facilities which have been criticized for serious abuses of detainees.[32][33]
In December 2005, the parachurch group Focus on the Family ended its banking relationship with Wells Fargo.[34] This was due to Wells Fargo's support of the gay rights movement when the company announced that it was matching contributions to GLAAD. Wells Fargo continued the program and received widespread support in the face of the boycott, which had no other high-profile participants.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed suit against Wells Fargo on July 31, 2009, alleging that the bank steers African Americans and Latinos into high-cost subprime loans. A Wells Fargo spokesman responded that "The policies, systems, and controls we have in place – including in Illinois – ensure race is not a factor..."[35]
Wells Fargo is the defendant in a class action suit for its failure to live up to its contractual obligations under President Obama's Home Affordable Modification Program.[36]
In August 2010, Wells Fargo was fined by U.S. District Judge William Alsup for overdraft practices designed to "gouge" consumers and "profiteer" at their expense, and for misleading consumers about how the bank processed transactions and assessed overdraft fees.[37][38][39]

Wells Fargo corporate buildings

One Wells Fargo CenterCharlotte, North Carolina, will succeed as Headquarters for East Coast Operations of Wells Fargo[40][41] -
Wells Fargo Center in Los Angeles
Wells Fargo Center in Minneapolis
Wells Fargo Center in Denver
Wells Fargo Center in Albuquerque

See also

San Francisco Bay Area portal
Companies portal

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Rakesh R.S. Garia (2010-04-13). "FY2009 Annual Report". wellsfargo.com. WellsFargo. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=WFC+Balance+Sheet&annual. Retrieved 2010-04-13. 
  2. ^ "Wells Fargo & Company: NYSE:WFC quotes & news - Google Finance". Google.com. http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:WFC. Retrieved 2010-12-16. 
  3. ^ Browser Warning
  4. ^ "S&P Downgrades Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, Other Banks". BusinessWeek. 2009-06-17. http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jun2009/pi20090617_892748_page_2.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-29. 
  5. ^ Winkler, Rolfe (September 15, 2009). "Break Up the Big Banks". Reuters. http://blogs.reuters.com/rolfe-winkler/2009/09/15/break-up-the-big-banks/. Retrieved 17 December 2009. 
  6. ^ Tully, Shawn (February 27, 2009). "Will the banks survive?". Fortune Magazine/CNN Money. http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/27/news/economy/tully_banks.fortune/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote. Retrieved 17 December 2009. 
  7. ^ "Citigroup posts 4th straight loss; Merrill loss widens". USA Today. Associated Press. 2008-10-16. http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/earnings/2008-10-16-citigroup_N.htm. Retrieved 17 December 2009. 
  8. ^ Winkler, Rolfe (August 21, 2009). "Big banks still hold regulators hostage". Reuters, via Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/08/21/afx6803343.html. Retrieved 17 December 2009. 
  9. ^ Temple, James; The Associated Press (November 18, 2008). "Bay Area job losses likely in Citigroup layoffs". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/17/BURD146AIA.DTL. Retrieved 17 December 2009. 
  10. ^ Dash, Eric (August 23, 2007). "4 Major Banks Tap Fed for Financing". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/business/23discount.html. Retrieved 17 December 2009. 
  11. ^ Pender, Kathleen (November 25, 2008). "Citigroup gets a monetary lifeline from feds". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/24/BUST14B71M.DTL. Retrieved 17 December 2009. 
  12. ^ Oman,Mark. "UBS Global Financial Services Conference." [PDF] Investor Presentation. San Francisco: Wells Fargo & Co., 11 May 2005. pp. 17, 23. Retrieved 7 November 2005.
  13. ^ "Wells Fargo Today". Wells Fargo and Company. https://www.wellsfargo.com/downloads/pdf/about/wellsfargotoday.pdf. Retrieved 2010-12-14. 
  14. ^ "Our vision: Where we’re going." Vision and Values.'.' Retrieved 28 November 2010.
  15. ^ "How We Measure Success." Vision and Values.'.' Retrieved 26 October 2005.
  16. '^ "Financial Review: Overview." Wells Fargo Annual Report 2004. [PDF] San Francisco: Wells Fargo & Co., 2005. p. 35. Retrieved 27 October 2005.
  17. ^ https://www.wellsfargo.com/inatl/consumer_services/personal_banking
  18. ^ Browser Warning
  19. ^ https://www.wellsfargo.com/locator/atm/home Click "Wells Fargo In-Store Branches" for a pop-up with this information
  20. ^ Wells Fargo agrees to buy Wachovia, Citi objects
  21. ^ Citi: Wells Fargo blocked from buying Wachovia
  22. ^ Court tilts Wachovia fight toward Wells Fargo
  23. ^ Wells Fargo plans to buy Wachovia; Citi ends talks
  24. ^ http://blog.wellsfargo.com/wachovia/2010/06/the_end_of_one_era_and_continu.html
  25. ^ [1][dead link]
  26. ^ Landler, Mark and Dash, Eric (October 14, 2008). "Drama Behind a $250 Billion Banking Deal". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/business/economy/15bailout.html. Retrieved 2009-02-04. 
  27. ^ https://www.wellsfargo.com/press/2009/20091223_tarp_repayment
  28. ^ "Women's Shelter Names Wells Fargo Business of the Year". MarketWatch. 2010-04-15. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/womens-shelter-names-wells-fargo-business-of-the-year-2010-04-15?reflink=MW_news_stmp. Retrieved 2010-06-12. 
  29. ^ Money Economics Top 10 Banks Project
  30. ^ "Wells Fargo Environmental Forum". Blog.wellsfargo.com. http://blog.wellsfargo.com/environment/index.html. Retrieved 2010-06-12. 
  31. ^ "Wells Fargo Attacked in Unincorporated Area of Santa Cruz". Indybay. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/09/28/18541764.php. 
  32. ^ Turnbull, Lornet (2008-07-16). "Report charges abuse of immigrant detainees at Tacoma center". Seattle Times. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008053884_detention16m.html. Retrieved 2008-12-04. 
  33. ^ "Detention Center Study" (PDF). Seattle University School of Law. http://www.hatefreezone.org/downloads/Detention%20Center%20Study.pdf. Retrieved 2008-12-04. [dead link]
  34. ^ "Focus on the Family Severs Ties with Wells Fargo". Focus on the Family. December 1, 2005. Retrieved March 27, 2006.
  35. ^ "Illinois Files Bias Suit Against Wells Fargo", Reuters, July 31, 2009]
  36. ^ [2], Courthouse News
  37. ^ Gelles, Jeff (2010-08-15). "Consumer 10.0: How Wells Fargo held up debit-card customers". The Philadelphia Inquirer. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20100815_Consumer_10_0__How_Wells_Fargo_held_up_debit-card_customers.html. 
  38. ^ Numerian (2010-08-12). "The checking account scam—How Wells Fargo gouged its customers". The Agonist. http://agonist.org/numerian/20100812/the_checking_account_scam_how_wells_fargo_gouged_its_customers. Retrieved Aug. 15, 2010. 
  39. ^ "Wells Fargo loses consumer case over overdraft fees". Los Angeles Times. 2010-08-10. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/10/business/la-fi-wells-20100810. 
  40. ^ a b Downey, John (26 February 2009). "Duke moves HQs to Wachovia tower - Charlotte Business Journal". Charlotte.bizjournals.com. http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2009/02/23/daily43.html. Retrieved 2010-06-12. 
  41. ^ http://www.gastongazette.com/news/wachovia-26014-wells-fargo.html

References

Text document with red question mark.svg
 This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations.
Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (January 2010)

External links

Chrysler Releases ‘Man Van’ as Mommy-Mobiles Lose Sales to SUVs

February 08, 2011
By Tim Higgins and Alan Ohnsman
Source: Bloomberg Business Week
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Chrysler Group LLC wants to attract more men to its minivans as women eschew the segment’s unsexy image in favor of sport-utility vehicles.

Chrysler’s Dodge Grand Caravan R/T, which the company refers to internally as the “Man Van” because of styling and features geared to appeal to men, will be on display tomorrow at the Chicago Auto Show. The vehicle will arrive in showrooms in the second quarter. Chrysler hasn’t announced its price.

“It’s an experiment,” Ralph Gilles, Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler’s head designer, said in an interview. “Is it possible to make the minivan appeal to a guy who needs the minivan but who used to have the sports car?”

Chrysler, the U.S. automaker operated by Fiat SpA, is refreshing its entire minivan line with upgraded interiors and a new engine. The man van is slated to have a black interior with red accent stitching, a performance-tuned suspension and a sound system with nine speakers and a 506-watt amplifier.

Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. both released redesigned versions of their minivans last year and are working to broaden their appeal as U.S. sales in the segment slid to 460,154 last year from 1.37 million in 2000, according to researcher Autodata Corp.

“They’re trying because the minivan market is basically a flat market,” said Art Spinella, who studies new vehicle buyers as president of CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Oregon. “It’s pretty much reached its saturation point.”

Judas Priest

A recent commercial for Honda’s Odyssey shows a man leaving a grocery store at night to find his minivan encircled in flames and temporarily transforming into a black panther as Judas Priest’s “The Hellion” plays. Inside the van, giant speakers blare and television screens show a rock concert and a fire- breathing monster.

“I’m pretty sure we’re the first to use Judas Priest to promote a minivan,” said Tom Peyton, Honda’s U.S. senior manager for national advertising.

With the 2011 Odyssey, the Tokyo-based company is addressing customers’ qualms with minivans by giving the exterior more contemporary styling and providing a sportier ride and handling, he said.

The companies are trying to shed minivans’ “mommy-mobile” image and broaden its appeal as customers are attracted to car- based sport-utility vehicles often referred to as crossovers, said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with Lexington, Massachusetts- based IHS Automotive.

‘Vehicle for Women’

The minivan still is seen as a “vehicle for women and as soon as you don’t need it anymore you get rid of it,” Lindland said. “At least if you take the baby seats out of a crossover, it’s just becomes a regular crossover. It has more wardrobes than a minivan.”

Sales of SUVs such as General Motor Co.’s Chevrolet Traverse, Ford Motor Co.’s Explorer and Toyota’s Highlander climbed 19 percent to about 3.51 million, according to Autodata. Minivan sales rose 11 percent last year, according to the Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey-based researcher.

Chrysler’s Town & Country was the volume leader last year, with deliveries rising 33 percent to 112,275, topping the Honda Odyssey’s 8 percent gain to 108,182. The Dodge version of the minivan rose 14 percent to 103,323, according to Autodata.

Honda’s Odyssey in 2008 dethroned Chrysler’s Dodge as the top-selling minivan brand, defeating the U.S. automaker that invented the segment with the Caravan and the Plymouth Voyager.

Toyota Sienna

Shawn Beauchamp, a contracting officer with the U.S. Air Force, recently bought a new Toyota Sienna minivan after looking at SUVs. The Sienna’s functionality and gas mileage won out for the family with three children. He even likes the way it looks.

“It’s lowered, it’s got rims,” said Beauchamp, 40, who lives in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. “It is very attractive to a man. It’s a sporty-looking minivan.”

Still, his wife will be driving the van because he doesn’t want to give up his Ram truck, he said.

“I need space so I can throw topsoil or whatever in the back of my pickup,” he said.

Single and looking. Email me.

Dodge, known for aggressive, male-oriented marketing, may be the perfect brand to break through to men, Gilles said. The minivan has a utilitarian nature that appeals to men and interior cargo space similar to that of a pickup, making it useful for camping and hunting trips, said Chrysler executives, including Todd Breneiser, a lead product planner.

Before Gilles, 41, took charge of Chrysler’s design and its Dodge brand, the designer spent his free time souping up his minivan and racing it on weekends.

Klaus Busse, Chrysler’s head of interior design, took inspiration from that and added larger wheels and a racing stripe to his minivan in 2008. It changed the driving experience for him and motivated him to make the minivan cool, he said.

“It was amazing how many thumbs up I got,” he said.

Investigation report: No electronic flaws found on Toyotas

Runaway Toyotas Cleared by U.S. of Electronic Flaws
February 08, 2011
By Angela Greiling Keane
Source: Bloomberg Business Week
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Unintended acceleration in Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles was rooted in mechanical flaws rather than electronic defects, a U.S. investigation found.

NASA, the U.S. space agency, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today said a 10-month probe of defects that led to recalls of more than 8 million vehicles worldwide found no electronic causes. Safety advocates and some lawmakers had pointed to electrical faults as a reason for the reports about the world’s largest automaker.

Quality affordable jewelry
The U.S. report, released today in Washington, found no causes for the unintended acceleration incidents other than sticking accelerator pedals and floor mats that jammed the pedals down. Those were the causes Toyota, based in Toyota City, Japan, had identified.

“For people that may have been concerned about the brand, this is probably going to make them feel better about Toyota products,” said Jim Hall, principal of 2953 Analytics Inc., an automotive consulting firm in Birmingham, Michigan.

Brian Lyons, a spokesman for Toyota’s U.S. sales unit in Torrance, California, declined to immediately comment on the findings.


Quality Issues

The review may ease questions about quality at Toyota, the only major carmaker to post a decline in U.S. sales last year as the overall market gained 11 percent, because the mechanical causes -- both related to the accelerator pedal -- had already been identified and vehicles recalled to fix them.

Toyota sales fell 0.4 percent to 1.76 million vehicles as the company paid $48.8 million in fines to U.S. regulators over the way some of the recalls, the largest by an automaker, were conducted.

Interbrand, a London-based market research firm, estimated this month that the cumulative impact of the recalls cut the value of Toyota’s brand image by 16 percent, to $25.7 billion. It remains the most highly valued Japanese brand.

NASA, at the request of NHTSA, which regulates auto safety, began a review in March of electronic throttle control systems in Toyota cars and trucks. The company underwent a series of U.S. congressional hearings, which included testimony from President Akio Toyoda on how the flaws occurred.

“Our conclusion, that Toyota’s problems were mechanical, not electrical, comes after one of the most exhaustive, thorough and intensive research efforts ever undertaken,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in prepared remarks.

Unintended Acceleration

NHTSA received 9,698 vehicle owner reports of unintended acceleration from 2000 to 2010, with 3,054, or 31 percent, of them about Toyotas, NASA said in the report. Complaints involving Toyotas didn’t increase after the company introduced electronic throttle control, starting with its 2002 model year Camry.

NASA studied whether electromagnetic interference may have caused unintended acceleration, which may be linked to 89 deaths in 71 crashes since 2000, according to the auto-safety agency. NASA investigators used Chrysler Group LLC’s test facility in Auburn Hills, Michigan, for its vehicle testing work, and bombarded vehicles with electromagnetic radiation, the Transportation Department said.

Mechanical components were tested at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Toyota’s American depositary receipts, each equal to two ordinary shares, rose $2.87, or 3.4 percent, at 1:36 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Toyota said yesterday that in the 12 months ending March 31, it may earn less than a third of its record 2008 net income following a year in which it dealt with record recalls around the world.

Net income may more than double to 490 billion yen ($5.95 billion), compared with a previous forecast of 350 billion yen, the Toyota City, Japan-based company said. That’s less than a third of the record 1.7 trillion yen it made in the year ended March 2008.

--With assistance from Makiko Kitamura in Tokyo, Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles and Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan. Editors: Bernard Kohn, Andrea Snyder

What is the future of MBA ?

Source: answers.com
The following was written by Wharton College Pennsylvania. This should help.
Why an MBA
The MBA is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. It is a degree designed to give you the ability to develop your career to its fullest potential, at an accelerated pace. What will you get out of an MBA? Aside from a powerful life experience, the MBA degree should supply three main value propositions: Skills, Networks, and Brand.
Skills
These include the "hard skills" of economics, finance, marketing, operations, management, and accounting, as well as the "soft skills " of leadership, teamwork, ethics, and communication that are so critical for effective management. MBA students acquire these skills inside and outside the classroom. Since MBA programs attract people from very diverse industries and cultures, a program should be able to leverage these differences and translate them into learning opportunities.
Networks
An MBA degree program offers access to a network of MBA students, alumni, faculty, and business and community leaders. This network can be very useful when beginning a job search, developing a career path, building business relationships in your current career, or pursuing expertise outside your current field. For example, entrepreneurs need access to capital, business partners, vendors, and clients. Arts-related businesses need access to funding and strategic management in order to position themselves to be relevant in the marketplace. Global businesses need access to local business cultures as they expand their enterprises to new territories.
Brand
The MBA degree is a recognized brand that signifies management and leadership training. The particular school and type of MBA program you attend also have brand associations that can help open doors based on the school's reputation. The strength of a school's brand is based on the program's history, its ability to provide students with technical skills and opportunities for personal growth, and the reach of its alumni and industry network. A powerful brand can give you the flexibility to make changes throughout your career.
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)