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Purpose

With Great Power Comes Great Wealth

I grew up as a fan-boy of all things Marvel, and have been delighted with the way the Marvel Universe has panned out for next generations. In particular, Spider-Man has always been a highlight, and I regularly use one of the lines from these comic books: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility. Attributed as a…

Greenwashing the system: which banks are worst?

Worried I’m becoming a tree-hugger as this blog seems to return to how banks put profits before people more and more often. Nevertheless, here are the facts: Banks have invested $3.8 trillion into fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement came into force on 4 November 2016  … Which banks? JP Morgan Chase & Co Worst…

Today is Money Rebellion Day

The climate activists of Extinction Rebellion expanded recently into a Money Rebellion, as I blogged about last Friday. Targetting the banks that pollute the planet – specifically Barclays and HSBC in the UK – they will hold a range of protests today, gluing themselves with locks to the entrance to bank branches and disrupting the…

Are most ESG efforts just PR stunts?

I wrote two years ago about the BS that Blackrock talk about the climate. I mentioned this issue again in my update on the Money Rebellion last week and what really makes me angry is that  financial firms like Blackrock sign up to global agreements to protect the environment, and create a load of PR…

Rebel, Rebel, you tore your notes; hot world, I need your votes

Money Rebellion I’m finding the world a bit surreal – is it just me? Locked down for a year; totalitarian states; governments attacking people; governments killing people; black lives matter; wars rising; tensions rising; demonstrations on the streets; no concerts, entertainment or hospitality … the list goes on. Meantime, there are basic issues that still…

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google … Coinbase?

I was reflecting, which is dangerous. I was reflecting on my antipathy towards bitcoin as, like most bankers, it appeared to be a bit of a scam with no asset behind it. Then I woke up to what the libertarians have been saying to me all along: any currency is a scam. The US dollar…

The world according to Jamie Dimon

I read Jamie Dimon’s shareholder letter with interest this week. His message does not read like a shareholder letter from a banker …   Banks “are facing extensive competition from Silicon Valley, both in the form of fintechs and Big Tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and now Walmart), that is here to stay. As…

The links between purpose, digital and leadership

As mentioned the other day, I’m focused upon purpose-driven banking these days. I guess this theme has come to the fore because of digital transformation, as the two seem to go hand-in-hand, and it sits at the heart of leadership. These themes were reinforced for me when Jim Marous sent me a report from MIT…

Tom Blomfield on what purpose-driven banking means

I’m working on a new book project. You might have spotted the themes in my recent blog entries but, if not, it’s all about purpose. The tagline is: if you don’t stand for something, you fall down, and is focused upon stakeholder capitalism. ESG, CSR and all that stuff and more. So, I’ve been watching for leaders who talk about…

Failure is the best thing for you

One of my most popular blogs, which surprised me, was when I wrote about how redundancy was the best thing that ever happened to me. It’s true. I learned more from failure than I ever learned from success. I learn more from hardship than I ever learn from complacency. It’s not true for everyone. It’s…

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