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Category Archive for 'banking'

I used to skydive. If you haven’t tried it, I recommend it. It’s fun. So when my son told me he and his friends were going skydiving I was O.K. with it. I checked out the airport and club behind his back just to make sure it was fine. After all I am his dad. [...]

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Frontline associates are often the most frequent point of human contact provided by an organization. I’m talking about folks like the teller at your bank and the undergrad working the alumni association telethon. They’re the tip of the spear, yet they are also among the least empowered in the organization. Their roles are viewed as [...]

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Regular readers of SPURspectives know that Spur Communications provides marketing services for financial services and community benefit organizations. We are routinely asked to help with brand development. So, we spend a lot of time asking why — Why do you exist? Why do you matter? Why should someone care? As you can imagine, our nonprofit [...]

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The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is an unprecedented tragedy. The extent of damage to the ecosystem, economy and lives of countless people is staggering. But it has also been enlightening. Our always on connectivity, social networks and the instantaneous spread of news by citizen journalists has shown this crisis to be [...]

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Frequent readers of SPURspectives know that I often write about issues related to investment or philanthropy — two seemingly disparate, yet related subjects. Spur Communications contends that investing and philanthropy are related from a marketing standpoint by sharing similar psychological motivators. Inspiring someone to invest in ensuring they have a better future is a short [...]

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The previous post on SPURspectives opened a conversation about three ways to repair the current economic downturn proposing greater cooperation, improved social norms and shared values between the financial services sector and their clients. Granted, this is a very high altitude look at a broad idea. But I think it is important to have a [...]

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To say that the recession has had a negative impact on retirement savings is a serious understatement. Rather than debate the legality, morality or responsibility to shareholders and other arguments related to the cause of the problem, I would like to open a conversation about how to fix the destruction. A lot of people are [...]

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The implosion of Wall Street has seen a dramatic and steady exodus of investors and their funds over the last two years. While Wall Street pays the price for pushing the envelope too far, independent financial advisors all across the country are beginning to experience a very different result. This is proving to be the [...]

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Social media is just making its way to the financial services sector. A recent research report by American Century Investments found only 14% of financial advisory firms reporting that social media is producing tangible value for their firms. That’s pretty damning evidence until you see that only 19% reported using social media daily or more [...]

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A few weeks ago I wrote a series of posts that explored using nonprofit planning tools as a new lens for examining the financial services sector. This post is about a firm that did just that. The Bendigo and Adelaide Bank in Australia has created an online social community site for their customers and everyone [...]

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