[Originally published in the Winter 2013-2014 issue of Esquire magazine.] Even if all your holiday shopping is over, let me do you a favor and give you some advice. The next time you buy a TV for the holidays, a computer for your office, an iPad for whatever,...
[Originally published February 24, 2014, in Capital.] If you want to see how some companies here seem blind to reality, take a look at the discounting business. There are plenty of examples. Indeed, it was just about two years ago when I was told by an industry...
[Originally published in the Autumn 2013 issue of Esquire magazine.] If you want to see why governments should not run companies, just take a look and see how they sell one. We’re talking CFR Marfa and, as usual, the farce was at least entertaining. You had the...
[Originally published in the November 2013 issue of Elle magazine.] Some time ago, I was ruining my day trying to accomplish something simple at my bank when the manager, a very nice guy, came up to talk to me. As we concluded our conversation, he recommended I open a...
[Originally published in the Summer 2013 issue of Esquire magazine.] It’s not easy to make bankers look good these days. We’re still not finished cleaning up from the global mess they created just a few years ago. But if anyone can make even bankers look good, it’s...
[Originally published April 29, 2013, in Capital.] Because predictions are best left to economists and fools, once in a while I think it’s my turn. So here it is: Exceptional (well, maybe just good) customer service will increasingly become recognized as the...
[Originally published March 25, 2013, in Capital,] Years ago, when I worked at a very large bank, I was in a meeting. The CEO was there, the President, the CMO, several vice chairmen, and a few others, including me. The director of advertising was showing us a very...
[Originally published March 14, 2013, in Dilema Veche.] "I am a sick man.... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased." Every time I read another story about how the ultimate dream of predictive analytics is almost within reach,...
[Originally published Feb. 14, 2013, in Dilema Veche.] A long time ago, one of my best friends went to prison. He was caught doing something illegal involving money and politics in the state of Maryland. Of course, that was normal back then. Just take a look at the...
[Originally published Jan. 28, 2013, in Capital.] A new restaurant opened recently in my residential neighborhood. It’s not a bad-looking restaurant. In fact, it’s rather fancy. It took months to build and I’m sure it cost a lot of money. And though it’s just around...
[Originally published Aug. 12, 2012, in Capital.] I’m finally convinced that businesses here have wasted a perfectly good crisis. What a shame. I walked into a toy store recently. The lights were glaring. The colors were too bright. It looked like a warehouse. The one...
[Originally published in August 2012 issue of Lafferty Cards & Payments Insights.] There is a traffic circle (or “round-about” if you’re from England) along one of the main roads in Bucharest that is, unfortunately, a perfect metaphor for many of the new products...
[Originally published July 14, 2012, in Capital.] Politics in a democracy is like business in a free market. The winners in the end are the ones who know what they are doing. It sounds simple. It’s not. So as the time is now right in Romania for a new political party,...
[Originally published June 27, 2012, in Capital.] Bankers are funny people. For example, who didn’t have a good laugh recently when Jamie Dimon appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs in Washington? He’s Chairman and CEO of...
[Originally published May 28, 2012, in Capital.] If you want a quick lesson on how not to do business, look at the news media here. There is no better example in Romania. I’m not suggesting that all the news companies here are failing. I’m only saying that, on the...
[Originally published May 4, 2012, in Capital.] Sixteen years ago, while making an eye-opening transition from reporting about banks to working inside one, I was rushing to the CEO’s office to deliver a speech when my boss stopped me in the hallway. Had I remembered...
[The Baltimore Sun] Twenty minutes. In just 20 minutes — less than the length of a long coffee break — legislators in Annapolis had heard enough from the state’s top insurance regulator regarding his disturbing concerns about the state’s top health insurer. Blue Cross...
[The Baltimore Sun] Top administration officials asked bank and thrift examiners yesterday to extend the benefit of the doubt and use common sense when working with the financial institutions that are essential for fueling an economic recovery. While gently chiding...
[The Baltimore Sun] Everything about it is immense. The numbers. The task. The risk. The financial disasters that gave it birth. It is a nearly $2 billion pile of repossessed properties, scuttled projects, bad loans, empty buildings and abandoned hopes. And everyone —...
[The Baltimore Sun] He never knew the Mounties were watching. The bald, bearded man in the tweed jacket followed his weekly circuit through Windsor, Ontario. He stopped at the National Bank of Canada, walked two blocks to the Royal Bank of Canada and then caught a bus...