Getting to Innovation

THREE

Challenge Banks: Generating InnovationChallenge Questions

In the late 1970s, Charles Schwab dramatically altered the competitive landscape of financial brokerage houses by providing investors with discounted investments. His company also was the first to offer online investing in the late 1990s and soon became the market leader in discount brokerage services. This success was not to last, however, and the vagaries of the marketplace and his retirement as CEO (although still board chair) soon led to difficult times in the early 2000s. So, the board asked him to come back and turn around his company. A little more than a year and a half later, the Charles Schwab Company reported record quarterly and annualized earnings in excess of $1.2 trillion ...