Thinkabout two environments you have experienced. The first environment is one that did not confront the brutal facts, where the people (and the truth) were not heard . Thesecond environment is one that did confront the brutal facts, wherepeople had a tremendous opportunity to be heard . Whataccounts for the difference between the two environments? If you do not havethis life experience you are not off the hook—you will need to interview aleader who has these experiences and report on that. What does the contrastteach us about how to construct an environment where the truth is heard? Usingstrong Biblical support, explain how you relate this to your ChristianWorldview? Does your Christian Worldview help you develop this environment? Howdoes this relate to the ethical components of the Meese and Ortmeier text? These replies are from a previous discussion boards #1 from Ryan Collins n today’s society, technology is advancing as fast as the population is growing.  The constant change in society dictates the organizations structure and path to either success or failure.  Leadership is vital in the initiation and process of moving an organization forward in keeping up with competition or even being the leader in the respective market.  To answer the question if Collins was incorrect regarding Wells Fargo is debatable due to the circumstances of the behind the scene aspects, which were not public knowledge until publicized.  As Paul stated in Titus 1:7 (NIV) “Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless not overbearing, not quick tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.” This passage is relevant to the Wells Fargo leadership and initial perspective of Jim Collins.  In the initial research of Collins, the apparent facts to including the Dow along with the profits reported, I believe Collins was on point pertaining to the initial research and facts present. The perspective of Collins on the reporting of Wells Fargo’s successes after 2001 derives from his statement of “build enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will” (Wexler, Wycoff, & Fischer, 2007, p. 6). Looking at the imperative events which took place during the early 2000’s changed the banking aspect and societies approaches on life in general.  The devastating event of terrorism on September 11 may have been the trigger event.  This event  may have encouraging the spike in Wells Fargo’s success due to diversion of the public to enact the lack of integrity triggering uncommon business practices which came back to haunt Wells Fargo.   Even if Collins misinterpreted the success of Wells Fargo, the discrepancy was hidden, and the facts apparent to Collins allowed for Wells Fargo to be a part of the 11 successful companies.  According to Collins (2001), the hedgehog concept derives a cycle from good to great insinuating success to the doom loop which is the downfall of an organi ...

1. Thinkabout two environments you have experienced.
The first environment is one that
did not confront
the brutal facts, where the people (and the truth)
were not heard
.
Thesecond environment is one that
did confront
the brutal facts, wherepeople had a tremendous
opportunity to be heard
.
Whataccounts for the difference between the two environments?
If you do not havethis life experience you are not off the
hook—you will need to interview aleader who has these
experiences and report on that. What does the contrastteach us
about how to construct an environment where the truth is heard?
Usingstrong Biblical support, explain how you relate this to
your ChristianWorldview? Does your Christian Worldview help
you develop this environment? Howdoes this relate to the
ethical components of the Meese and Ortmeier text?
These replies are from a previous discussion boards
#1 from Ryan Collins
n today’s society, technology is advancing as fast as the
population is growing. The constant change in society dictates

2. the organizations structure and path to either success or failure.
Leadership is vital in the initiation and process of moving an
organization forward in keeping up with competition or even
being the leader in the respective market. To answer the
question if Collins was incorrect regarding Wells Fargo is
debatable due to the circumstances of the behind the scene
aspects, which were not public knowledge until publicized.
As Paul stated in Titus 1:7 (NIV) “Since an overseer manages
God’s household, he must be blameless not overbearing, not
quick tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not
pursuing dishonest gain.” This passage is relevant to the Wells
Fargo leadership and initial perspective of Jim Collins. In the
initial research of Collins, the apparent facts to including the
Dow along with the profits reported, I believe Collins was on
point pertaining to the initial research and facts present. The
perspective of Collins on the reporting of Wells Fargo’s
successes after 2001 derives from his statement of “build
enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal
humility and professional will” (Wexler, Wycoff, & Fischer,
2007, p. 6).
Looking at the imperative events which took place during the
early 2000’s changed the banking aspect and societies
approaches on life in general. The devastating event of
terrorism on September 11 may have been the trigger event.
This event may have encouraging the spike in Wells Fargo’s
success due to diversion of the public to enact the lack of
integrity triggering uncommon business practices which came
back to haunt Wells Fargo. Even if Collins misinterpreted the
success of Wells Fargo, the discrepancy was hidden, and the
facts apparent to Collins allowed for Wells Fargo to be a part of
the 11 successful companies.
According to Collins (2001), the hedgehog concept derives a
cycle from good to great insinuating success to the doom loop

3. which is the downfall of an organization relevant to leadership
or practices (p.16). The internal structure of Wells Fargo was
an imminent result for the Hedgehog Concept to go awry due to
the lack of integrity and core values demonstrated by the
leadership. The Hedgehog Concept went awry, as soon as the
organization strayed from the mission statement enabling
scandals and the destruction of organizations reputation to
include the lack of trust from clients/customers. In reference to
the Hedgehog Concept, Collins stated “It is an understanding of
what you can be the best at. The distinction is absolutely
crucial” (Wexler, Wycoff, & Fischer, 2007, p. 15), which is the
total opposite result of the path Wells Fargo leadership ran the
operations.
The downward fall of Wells Fargo derived from internal
criminal aspects deriving from the top down. The leaderships
lack of knowledge or worse case knowledge of criminal intents
within one’s organization lead to the failure to the organization.
The deviation of mission statement and goals of the leadership
led to the decline of profit per employee. The loss of profit as a
top bank in the respective arena along with the loss of
confidence to the investors of the bank is a perfect equation for
failure contradicting the reporting.
#2 from Shockley
In September 2016, Wells Fargo’s scandalous practices came to
be known. It was revealed that bank employees were opening
bank accounts, transferring money, and signing up for different
services in customers’ names without the customers consenting
to these activities. These extra accounts were generating fees
payable to the bank. It is alleged that these illegal and unethical
activities were done due to aggressive, impossible to meet sales
quotas placed on employees. Employees were also trained to use
fake email addresses and phone numbers when customers failed

4. to provide one. There was a culture permeating Wells Fargo that
if an employee was not cheating then he would not meet the
numbers required to remain employed at the company (Cavico &
Mutjaba, 2017, p. 4).
Jim Collins’ research focused on the numbers, so he was
not wrong, but he did misinterpret the root of the numbers.
When he did his examination, he saw a company that utilized
the Hedgehog Concept and started producing exemplary
numbers. “Then the Wells Fargo team asked itself, ‘What can
we potentially do better than any other company?’ The brutal
fact was that Wells Fargo would never be the best global bank
in the world – and so the leadership team pulled the plug on the
vast majority of the bank’s international operations” (Collins,
2001). This action appears to be the perfect example of the
Hedgehog Concept. The company abandoned something it knew
it would never be able to become the best at. The company then
focused on “profit per employee” which they appeared to be the
best at until their fraudulent activities surfaced.
Profit per employee practices can be a recipe for disaster
without attentive leadership. “Without proper safeguards,
incentive-based compensation arrangements in financial
institutions may encourage excessive risk-taking by employees,
leading to serious financial loss for financial
institutions…These compensation arrangements were based on
short-term revenue, and thereby incentivized employees to
expose the financial institution to more risk” (Mims, 2017, p.
429). The executive leadership at Wells Fargo pushed
employees to meet sales quotas and open numerous, superfluous
accounts for customers or be subject to disciplinary action. This
produced a cutthroat environment that eventually led to
unethical activities on the part of the employee (Cavico &
Mutjaba, 2017, p. 5). Culture of an organization is developed at
the top of the organization and is implemented by the bottom.
The leadership of Wells Fargo failed in two main ways. “The

5. astute and agile leader should not be blind-sided by any
weaknesses or improprieties in the company or organization,
such as in the case of Wells Fargo, employees acting in an
illegal and immoral manner to meet the unrealistic sales goals
set by the bank…Moreover, the leader must be proactive, not a
mere reactor, which sadly, appears to be the case with Wells
Fargo” (Cavico & Mutjaba, 2017, p. 16). Had Wells Fargo’s
leadership noticed the sales goals it was setting on its
employees was turning into a weakness, it could have been
proactive in preventing any unethical or immoral practices that
would harm its customers.
Leaders with a Christian worldview should refrain from
participating or allowing their employees to participate in any
unethical business practice. It is important to always remember
God will provide enough for those who believe in Him and trust
Him. “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things
at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every
good word (2 Corinthians 9:8).