FX costs are embedded in the quoted rate of exchange and they can vary widely by client. So two organizations, both buying the same 100K of Euro, can have enormous cost differences. Most financial officers (the job titles vary) responsible for FX in small to mid size American businesses are often ignorant of this variable FX cost because: They don't deal often enough with FX to really dig into the pricing structure to understand it. And, since FX is only a small area of their

Prof. Bill Sahlman is an institution unto himself at the Harvard Business School. Here are a few words of wisdom he's shared with alumni during reunions. Working Definition of Entrepreneurship - THE RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF OPPORTUNITY WITHOUT REGARD TO TANGIBLE RESOURCES CURRENTLY CONTROLLED. THE CONINUOUS DEVELOPMENT OF INTANGIBLE RESOURCES TO PURSUE OPPORTUNITY IN THE FUTURE. A Few Points (there are more) on How to Kill Entrepreneurship - PUNISH FAILURE SEVERELY RELY ON "AC

Companies that regularly use FX can sometimes stop using FX or switch FX providers for no apparent reason. Here are a few reasons why these changes occur: The company had a specific need for FX for a defined period. Once that ends they move back to operate only in USD or whatever their home currency is. The company goes bankrupt. The owner retires and closes down the business. The company is acquired and the new owner has a different FX provider. A new financial person is

Financial institutions offer highly competitive teaser rates to attract prospective new corporate FX clients. Banks may even process the first few FX trades with no profit margin in order to win new business. Caveat Emptor - However, over time that competitive teaser rate will fade and more costly rates of exchange will come into play. Those less competitive exchange rates make it more expensive for a company to buy or sell FX - which in turn erodes the companies' profi

"Spread" is a fancy word for marking up the rate of exchange on a currency transaction. It's the market (or spot) rate plus the extra mark up or margin added onto the transaction. The higher the spread the more REVENUE for the bank, but the more COST for the corporate client. Factors influencing spread include (but are not limited to) who the client is, what the size of the transaction is, the time of the transaction, banks FX pricing strategy, and what is happening more bro

Commercial banks struggle to innovate in part because their Tech budgets, a key to financial innovation, support too many existing applications and processes. Maintaining existing core systems takes precedence over innovation. There's just not much budget left to support new innovations. This budget challenge, layered on top of bank culture and structure (previously reviewed), stifles innovation. Here's a snapshot of the many areas that consume commercial banks' Tech bud

Start your 2026 by jump starting a project you've always wanted to do but don't have the resources in-house to pull off. Here are a number of ways STRATEGIC WOLF and our partners can launch your project on rockets this year. MARKETING - What Marketing issue is bothering you that your in-house team doesn't have the experience or bandwidth to address? Strategic Wolf's Marketing resource has decades of experience in multiple CMO roles and holds an MBA from the top Marketing pr

The answer to this logical but puzzling question is multifaceted. Keep in mind banks come in all sizes and each type of banks has strengths that FinTechs lack. Any combination of these points may explain why banks still dominate the market. FIRST MOVER ADVANTAGE - Banks have been around a lot longer than FinTechs so they had ALL of the market before FinTechs showed up on the scene. It's incredibly hard to displace an entrenched provider regardless of how slick your UI is.

These two examples illustrate the difference in speed-to-market with a simple product enhancement at a FinTech vs. a Bank. FinTech A product manager wants to make a small product enhancement on-the-fly. This isn't a must-fix bug, it's a small but NEW feature that's added to the the existing product. Let's say it's feature X that has four requirements - we'll call them requirements A,B, C, and D. The product manager writes a Use Case describing feature X and requirements A,

Commercial banks lack the ability to truly innovate because of the way they are structured and their culture. BANK STRUCTURE Commercial Banks core function is to lend money and that whole business model is predicated on loans being repaid. Failure to have loans repaid is not an option.  Consider this lesson taught on day one in every bank credit class taught to new loan officers. If a bank loans 100 companies each $1 million with a standard 1% ROA the bank earns $1 million o

Engaging with a MONOPOLY or OLIGOPOLY whether it's a vendor, partner, or strategic supplier is extremely difficult and frustrating. Here are some common negative traits of these organizations: Poor customer service Lack innovation & urgency Expensive Bureaucratic Resistant to change Monopoly or Oligopoly organizations - regardless of industry - manifest these 5 negative traits because they lack real competition and switching costs can often be exorbitant. Their dominant mark

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