Your Strategy Needs a Strategy

CHAPTER 6

RENEWAL

Be Viable

American Express: Renewing Advantage

When the financial crisis hit world markets in 2008, American Express, currently the world’s biggest card issuer, with $950 billion in billed business, faced very difficult circumstances.¹ Defaults on credit card payments rose sharply, consumer spending plummeted, and the funding markets dried up. In previous recessions, Amex’s wealthy clientele had kept spending—but not this time.²

The circumstances called for a drastic response, and Ken Chenault, Amex’s CEO, took swift action. He launched an aggressive cost-cutting and restructuring program to focus the organization and to impart a sense of urgency. Chenault explained to us: “First we had to deal with the cost issue. The environment ...