...Corporate Governance at American Express By Ahmet Emre Kuzudisli BUS 707 – Corporate Governance 8130 Boone Blvd Suite 240 Vienna, VA 22182 (571) 721-0934 aemreku@gmail.com Instructor: Dr. Shawn P. Richmond Washington Baptist University, Fall 2014 ABSTRACT This project will serve as a research and report of corporate governance at American Express. The company, founded in 1850, is 124 years and is ranked #67 on Fortune’s list of Best Companies 2014 (Fortune, 2014). There are so many perks of working at American Express such as paid 28 day vacation, Hyatt legal services and educational assistance. After one year employees are able to get 6 weeks of paid vacation following the birth or adoption of a child. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 4 Corporate Background 4 Products/Services 4 Vision/Mission Statement 4 Rank/Industry 4 Jobs/Pay 4 Benefits/Health 4 Board of Directors 4 Analysts 4 Creditors and Credit Rating Agencies 4 Securities and Exchange Commission Reports 4 Risks 5 Corporate Citizenship 5 Conclusion 5 References 6 Introduction This paper will serve as a report on American Express, one of the best companies for employees in 2014. The corporate governance at American Express is highly professional and impressive this is why they are ranked #67th position in all over the world in 2014. This paper will represent how this well-oiled machine works...
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...Costco and American Express terminate a 16 year old business partnership Costco, a wholesale retail giant and American Express, a financial services corporation, recently announced that they would be ending their contract. According to the terms of their agreement, American Express was the sole credit card accepted at Costco. Additionally, American Express and Costco had issued a co-branded TrueEarnings credit card, which could also be used at other stores. After March 31, 2016, customers will no longer be able to use American Express credit cards in Costco. The TrueEarnings credit card will also be discontinued [1]. From a marketing perspective, this could have several consequences for both firms. What are the implications for each company's brand with this decision? American Express’s brand image has been adversely affected with the termination of its contract with Costco. There are several factors that contribute to the same. • Low confidence of Costco in American Express’s brand: The termination of the contract, albeit from a financial perspective, implies that the exclusivity that American Express had commanded has ceased to exist. Costco clearly sees no benefit in being associated with American Express’s brand, which may result in declining confidence among American Express customers, particularly those associated with the TrueEarnings card. • Declining status symbol: An erstwhile force in the credit card industry, American Express currently faces stiff...
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...American Express is the one of the most popular financial company since it started. According to Nelson & Quick (2011), American express (AmEx) was founded in 1850 and started to provide freight forwarding and delivery services around the world and since then it is also known as global financial services company (p. 215). The company is well known for various financial services such as credit card, charge card, and travelers’ check. Maulik Vyas (2011), explained Amex cards hold around 24% of the total dollar volume of credit card transactions within the US. It is the highest of any card issuer so far. American Express has about 65,000 employees around the world to enhance the quality of service. To increase the superiority of humongous amount of employee Amex established American Express Learning center, where employee get training to increase their quality. Analysis American Express set up a learning center for the employee to improve the service of quality which is called American Express Learning Network (AELN). AELN’s customer service training program provided two types of application theories, one is learning theory and another is goal setting theory. The aim of AELN is to train their each employee to provide great customer service to existing customer and future customer. According to Harrison, AELN’s vice president (VP), primary learning for customer care employees, how they are introducing themselves toward customer and how they make sure customer that security...
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...Visit the American Express web site (www.americanexpress.com) to learn more about the different cards that American Express offers. Select three of the macro environmental forces discussed in the chapter. How do the different card options reflect the changes in those forces? • The three macro environmental forces are the following: Demographic Environment: American Express issued their first card back in 1958. They only had one card for everyone. But as time changed, population increased and so did the consumer needs. American Expressed produced different cards to meet consumer needs. American Express offers many different card options for personal and business use, as well as cards geared towards the young, and wealthy. Economic Environment: American Express has adjusted its marketing trends with the changing economy. They generally do not influence any law, it is continuously changing, therefore becoming flexible in order to adapt to the changing environment and customer demands. They have developed cards for personal use, travelling, business purposes and this gives customers a vast choice to choose for their different spending types. Technological Environment: Although there may be competition and rivalry in a market, Globalization means that there is always the threat of substitute products and new competitor. With a wider environment and constant change, the marketer’s need to compensate for changes in culture, politics, economics and technology. American Express has given...
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...Table of Contents 1.0 Marketing Strategy 1.1 Objectives 1.2 Target & Segmentation 1.3 Positioning 2.0 Strategies 3.0 Marketing Mix 3.1 Product 3.2 Pricing 3.3 Distribution 3.4 Marketing Communications 3.5 Customer Service 4.0 Recommendations 5.0 Plan of Action 6.0 Bibliography 1.0 Marketing Strategy Westpac: THE ASIA PACIFIC INVASION Westpac have been servicing the Pacific Rim since 1901 with rapid support for its growth strategy of servicing Australian and New Zealand customers with links to Asia, and Asian customers with business interests in Australia and New Zealand. With Capital Market Sales and Foreign Exchange capabilities established in Singapore in 2004, Westpac Group Asia was extended to include Corporate and Institutional Banking in 2005, and most recently, Syndicated and Leverage Finance and Asset Finance. Westpac Singapore and Hong Kong offices have a strong focus on private banking for affluent customers with ties to Australia and New Zealand. While most of these Westpac Institutional Bank operations are headquartered in Singapore to cover the continent, the geographic footprint has continued to expand, incorporating Shanghai and Hong Kong Branches in China and Representative Offices in Mumbai, Jakarta and Beijing. (Westpac Group, 2011, Westpac History, 07-06-2011, URL: ) While Westpac began to seriously look at the Asian market by 2005, it was only through the form of corporate banking and as they have positioned themselves...
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...Introduction It is crucial for a contemporary organization to have a marketing department that understands their crucial role in being able to market their product successfully and therefore profitably. The two major organizations discussed will be Lipton and American Express. Here, there will be a discussion of the two contrasting products; a 500ml bottle of Lipton Peach Ice tea and an American Express Platinum Credit Card. These two products will be compared and contrasted to one another in terms of product description, classification and segmentation. Product Description When a marketer sells a product, they must take into consideration the three levels of a product; the core, the actual and augmented. Kotler et al. (2007) describes the ‘core product’ as core benefits which act as problem solving services that consumers are buying when they attain a product. The ‘actual product’ is a combination of the product’s features, styling, quality, branding and packaging. And lastly, the augmented product is the additional consumer services and benefits which are included to increase competitiveness. With Lipton Peach Ice Tea, the core product is that it is a drink; a benefit to quench thirst. It also has a core benefit of social acceptance, as there may be a perception that those who drink Lipton Peach Ice Tea are ‘cool’. Also, the ice tea is convenient as it is easily bought and managed. The actual product features of the Lipton Peach Ice Tea are that it is a refreshing...
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...Visit the American Express Web site (www.americanexpress.com) to learn more about the different cards that American Express offers. Discuss the target market and positioning strategies for each. * How has American Express been able to maintain a competitive advantage throughout the many years of existence? * How has American Express been able to help consumers shift their attitude toward usage of the card? Is American Express taking a proactive approach to managing its marketing environment? How? Halfway down the homepage of the American Express website, there are four credits cards offered. The ones that are offered include personal cards, small business cards, corporate cards, and prepaid cards (American Express, 2015). There is actually a short quiz you can take with only three questions. I took it in less than 10 seconds and it told me that the Blue Cash Everyday Card as well as the TrueEarnings Card from Costco would be my best fit. In my wallet, you will actually find the Blue Cash Everyday Card. There are three featured personal cards available, but when you click on “View All Cards” there are a lot more with company partners and features. The quiz asks about preferred benefits, what form you’d like the rewards, and your total annual income. Until this assignment, I did not know there was a difference between a charge card and a credit card. Whatever card a consumer chooses would depend on their spending habits, what they prefer as their rewards, and which...
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...Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. An American hotel and leisure company headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut It owns, operates, franchises and manages hotels, resorts, spas, residences, and vacation ownership properties under its nine owned brands. * Westin * Sharton * Four Points by Sharoton * The Luxury Collection * W Hotel * St. Regis * Le Meridian * Aloaf, a vision by W Hotel * Elements by Westin Started out as starwoods lodging, formed by real estates of starwoods capitial to take advantage of the tax break. Starwoods lodging owned a numbers of hotels around north America In 1994 the Westin hotel company was bought over, from japan Aiko company In 1998 Starwoods buy over the Sharton, Four points by Sharton and The Luxury collection from ITT 1995 Starwoods launched the W Hotel 2005 Sept Starwoods launched The Loaf, based on W Hotel, cater to business travelers In 2005, Starwood purchased the Le Méridien brand Starwood began selling a number of its company-owned hotels, instead focusing on becoming a management company and franchiserfor its current and future hotel brands Starwood also has customer contact centers (CCC) all over the world. A new CCC was just opened in Wichita, KS. This makes it 10 CCC worldwide.( Austin, Texas; Fall River, Massachusetts; Lancaster, California; St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada; Cork, Ireland; Singapore; Tokyo, Japan; Guangzhou, China; and Gurgaon, India) WESTIN Starwood's largest...
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...Introduction: American Express 3 II. Overview of Organization: Background 3 III. Organizational Design 4 IV. Scope of Operation 5 Vision 5 Values 5 Operating principles 6 Board of directors 7 V. Current Operation State 8 VI. Desired State of American Express 10 VII. Developments 12 Risk and informational management 12 Strategic planning group 13 Human resources 13 Technology 13 VIII. Program Design and Development 14 Objectives of the program 14 Incorporate site visits by management 14 Training and seminars 14 American Express will Focus on the Development of Employees 16 Incorporate Site Visits by Management 16 Training and Seminars 17 Steps to continue the essence of customer service 18 Assessment 19 Employee feedback 19 Data analysis 20 Creating training manual 20 The use of technology 21 IX. Recommendations 22 Performance appraisals 23 Motivating Employees 24 Training employees 25 Continuous improvement 27 X. Conclusion 28 XI. References 29 I. Introduction American Express hired our consulting team to create effective training and development program to sustain the company’s success and growth. One of the departments American Express would like to concentrate on is the Customer Service Call Center. Currently American Express does not have formalized organization-wide training and development process. This paper will summarize American Express’ organizational...
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...Introduction The American Express Company (American Express) was established in the year 1965 as an international finance and travel business company. The main products and services of the company include credit cards and travel related cards and services which are provided to various consumers all over the world. American Express Company has an operating subsidiary called American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc., (TRC). Both these companies are bank holding companies. The four basic segments in which the company offers services to its clients include U.S. Card Services, International Card Services, Global Commercial Services and Global Network and Merchant Services. The various products of the company include credit card products, consumer and business travel services, stored value products like traveler’s cheques, prepaid cards, network services, expense management products and services, marketing information products, fee services, fraud prevention services, customized products for clients. At the end of the year 2010, the company has acquired Accertify Inc., a company which provides services to traders regarding online frauds and not present card transactions. The paper discusses in detail the various products and services provided by the company Global Network and Merchant Services The Global Network and Merchant Services (GNMS) division functions an international all-purpose and common objective charge and credit card network for the cards issued under...
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...4. Assess the external threats affecting American Express and the opportunities available to the corporation. Give your opinion on how the corporation should deal with the most serious threats and opportunities. One of the external threats affecting American Express is due to technology trends. For instance, prior to technology, American was the most dominated credit card company in the credit cards sector. However, Penetration of alternative payment platforms has been gaining popularity in the recent years. These alternative payment platforms include aggregators such as PayPal, wireless payment technologies, including using mobile telephone networks to carry out transactions. According American Express Company (2014), “the system has changed to system sinked to payment cards, and bank transfer models increasing penetration with other alternative payment platforms could check growth for the company.” Therefore, the portability provided by Smartphones and tablets and evolving consumer behavior with social networking, is rapidly changing the way people interact with each other and transact business all around the world. Another major threat that might affect Amex is due to political factor. For instance, according to Ireland and Hoskisson (2013), “Congress passed Dodd-Frank, which the US President Barack Obama signed into law in July 2010”. Therefore, Dodd-Frank could limit Amex’s income earned through interchange fees. As a result of these new laws, customers may be incentivized...
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...Questions Q1. Visit the American Express Web site (www.americanexpress.com) to learn more about the different cards that American Express offers. Discuss the target market and positioning strategies for each. Ans. American Express offers its customers with four broad categories of cards : * Personal cards * Small Business Cards * Corporate Cards * Prepaid Cards Personal Cards These cards cater to almost all the segment from teenagers to retired personnel. This category has vast variety of 21 different cards catering to different individual needs. These card cater to people who like to shop , travel , dine in at restaurants.The card target to teenagres to housewives to business corporates. The cards are positioned as per the requirements for eg Starwood Prefferd card gives point for people to redeem at flights and hotel Small Business Cards The business card offers features as Membership reward points, Travel rewards and flexible payment options. The card has features that provide special reward points on usage at advertising in select media, purchases for shipping, purchases for gas station. It positions with the business requirement of a company. Corporate Cards These are customised cards with specific features to meet the needs of the manager , frequent business travelers and executives. The card has features like online tracking tool which held to manage expenses track spending history and manage the resources.The cards helps to manage cost, maximise...
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...to assist the nonprofit organization in raising fund or to benefit the society by supporting a cause. P.R. Varadarajan and A. Menon (1988) have seen Cause Related Marketing in the early stages but absolutely in a projective way. They defined Cause Related Marketing as the process of formulating and implementing marketing activities that are characterized by an offer from the firm to contribute a specified amount to a designated cause when customers engage in revenue-providing exchanges that satisfy organizational and individual objectives. Kevin Keller and Philip Kotler (2006), in agreement with Varadarajan and Menon Cause related Marketing is that marketing activity that links the firm’s contributions to a designated cause to customers’ engaging directly or indirectly in revenue producing transactions with the firm. On the other hand, "Cause marketing is the action through which a company, a nonprofit organization, or a similar entity markets an image, a product, a service, or a message for mutual benefit of the entity and the cause," writes Marconi in the first chapter of the book Cause Marketing. Barone, Miyazaki and Taylor (2000) noted that there are actually two approaches to cause related marketing. The direct approach, described above by Varadarajan and Menon, links the size of donation to sales of particular products. An example of this is Bashundara Tissue, recently the commenced a new baby diaper and baby tissue, at eve of the launch, they enunciate to donate tk. 1...
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...American Express Marketing Shay Torok BSA/310 Rassoul Alizadeh 10/28/2013 American Express Marketing Shay Torok BSA/310 Rassoul Alizadeh 10/28/2013 Early Years American Express was founded in 1850 by Henry Wells and William Fargo, the founders of Wells Fargo Co. The company was first used as an express mail business in upstate New York. Quickly, American Express, also known as AmEx, began monopolizing the shipping industry and eventually moved its location to the Financial District of Manhattan. In 1882, AmEx began offering financial services such as money orders. October of 1958, AmEx started distributing charge cards, today known as credit cards. From that day forward, AmEx became a financial guru and head of the industry. Today, AmEx is the world’s largest card issuer by volume and one of the most well-known name within the financial services community. Types of Research To get where they are today, American Express would need to have excelled in marketing strategies. The main component of these marketing strategies are research. There are two main types of market research; qualitative and quantitative. Let’s take a look at qualitative research first. Qualitative research consists of gathering detailed information by interviewing individuals or utilizing focus groups and the questions asked are usually open-ended. “Open-ended interviews are composed of questions that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. This type of interview gives you a lot of...
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...Financial Analysis Chad Burrell Dr. William Cheng Financial Management June 14, 2013 Company Overview The company I choose to research is American Express CO., AXP, A.E. American Express strives to make it easier for consumers and businesses to purchase the things that they need for goods and services. Their vision is to make their brand the most respected card in the world. They have been able to accomplish this by allowing $888 billion in annual purchase volume, having 102.4 million cards in circulation, achieved $31.6 billion in annual revenue, and operate in over 130 countries. They operate with the following principles: * Offer superior value to customers-by providing products, services, benefits, and rewards better value than competitors * Operate with best in class economics-managing business to be efficient and maintain quality of service * Support American Express brand-by providing world class service that customers expect A. E. card holders on average spend four times more those of MasterCard and 3.5 times more than Visa while maintaining the highest card quality. They earn most of the revenue from spending rather than from fees and revolving balances. This separates their type customers from competitors. As a result A. E. decided to expand their current market of customer and go after those that normally don’t use their card, these would be the higher risk customers. In 2012 A. E. partnered with Wal-Mart with a program called...
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