Zappos Vs. American Express

The banking industry is highly competitive. The financial services industry has been around for hundreds of years. Wells Fargo has many competitors itself. In this paper, I will be doing a comparison of Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) and one of its biggest competitors, Bank of America Corporation (BAC). By analyzing looking at the financial ratios, one can see whether the company is successful or not. In the following, I will try to analyze and make a comparison of Wells Fargo’s and Bank of America’s recent performance in growth, income, and efficiency. Using a these criteria, I will determine which bank is the better buy according my analysis. My analysis of WFC & BAC’s performances

Training and Development is imperative to the organization’s progress. Training helps addressing employee weaknesses and builds a reliable and skilled workforce. This will improve the employees’ performance and boost their self confidence, and innovation. By acquiring the needed knowledge and skills, employees can perform more efficiently and increase the overall productivity of the organization.

Before analyzing the staffing and other related issues, we discuss the strategy and competitive dimensions of Zappos.

The number of employees that heard speeches in the past was doubled when this was made available. This helped keep employees up to date on goals that the company was trying to accomplish and helped them communicate problems and find solutions much easier.

Creating a strong and robust training program for the employees is essential to the success of the company. Training must be available for all employees through various delivery methods in order to meet the different learning styles and employee availability. In-person training will be provided with a certified facilitator along with a human resource representative. Materials will be provided in the form of training booklet available in print and electronic format. On-demand videos will be made available through the company portal. All training materials must be a part of new-employee orientation. Print media and on-demand videos must be maintained and updated in order to provide a refresher course to current employees.

The organization operates under a theory that maintains that "true excellence can be best achieved by focusing on areas of established strength and enhancing them, rather than concentrating only on repairing areas of weakness."3 The company offers job opportunities in every division; the retail stores, distribution centers, and corporate offices. Possible career opportunities in the retail stores include assets protection management, which works to implement programs designed to maximize safety, effectiveness, and efficiency; store leadership, which includes those who work to create a "fast-paced, energetic environment that delivers a consistent experience for both team members and guests"; and human resources, which works to support the mission of staffing, development, retention, and brand management. Corporate career opportunities include strategy; which works to consider guests' comments and suggestions and propose business strategies that will improve the business, and supply chain and logistics; which works to provide what the customer wants, when they want it, and at the lowest possible cost.1 The Target website has an entire section devoted to careers, and even a special section where college students and recent graduates can learn about what the organization has to offer in terms of employment.

* Advise, coach and mentor employees on our development infrastructure and promote the advantages of development plans for all staff

This method will help them find and appreciate possibilities together for pursuing enduring resolutions that will positively impact communities, future generations and the company. It will also ensure that both the company and the communities will always understand each other 's interests, issues, needs and concerns. Also, they support programs and institutions that contribute to building an educated and engaged workforce7. This enriches the individual’s skills and also provides skilled workforce for the company as they will be operating in a knowledge and skill rich environment.

Structured and programmed training venues are designed to equip the employee, supervisor, and manager with the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to startup, maintain, and improve services and products provided to general public on a global scale. Formal training is generally the focus of most organizations when discussing the return on investment in the form of revenue generation or in the case of governments, efficiency in utilizing citizens taxes in a responsible manner.

The existing competitors of American Express include Discover Financial Services, Visa, Inc., and MasterCard Worldwide. Unlike American Express and Discover, Visa, and MasterCard are not financers, which means these companies are intermediaries and “they don’t directly finance credit card transactions” (Thangavelu, 2015). That being said, Discover is more in American Express’ strategic group because they both issue cards and work within the same strategic group, so American Express and Discover compete more directly.

Unfortunately, many online retailers have begun to catch up with many of these core competencies. The concepts of next-day delivery and “above and beyond” customer service are no longer the “WOW” factors that they may have been five years ago. However, the relationships that make up “Powered by Zappos” are tough to beat and give the company a competitive advantage through its supply web. At the time of this case, Zappos still holds the niche of being an online shoe expert, but companies

Zappos.com, established in 1999, has rapidly become a strong competitor in online apparel and footwear sales. With the original corporate vison of offering the absolute best selection in shoes; the vision has evolved over the past several years to include the goal of being the retailer that “provides the absolute best service online -- not just in shoes, but in any category” (Zappos, 2014). The online retailer stocks millions of reasonably priced footwear products; carrying thousands of hard to find brand named shoes, handbags, apparel and accessories via the company website and 7,000 affiliate partners. In recognizing their rapid success, Zappos credits it to their commitment to the customer, stating,

Employees are encouraged to share with each other on the lessons learned from project and events through debriefing sessions.Company also reward employees through several different variable-pay programs. Employees have these stock as part of their benefit. This helps to retain employees and motivate employees to work harder. Moreover, company also provides educational forums so that staff can discuss and learn about different topics that interest them.

It also conducts Career development practice to help employees to showcase their skills, providing career guidance and career development activities.

Training and development provide employees the skills and knowledge to keep up with the company’s changes and growth. It can also help to develop and improve the corporate culture, its efficiency and its effectiveness; and helps in creating the learning culture within the company.