Amex suffers from a lack of innovation, with an attitude of wait and see. Amex is not and will never be a market leader as the are too timid to take a risk, and when presented with a opportunity will turn away if will require any innovation or investment.
The company is chock full of 'lifers' with 20 years or more in the same job. They offer no value to the company and are part of the drag on being able to make any significant change to catch up with the previous market changes.
There is pervasive fear of it’s customer and merchant base. Nothing can be done, no changes can be made as there is constant fear of the customer. In lieu of an approach of customer satisfaction, there is an effort to keep the status quo, and not make any change for fear that some customer may not like it.
Jr. and Sr. management live in fear of the layer above them. The result is that there is zero upwards communication of issues and problems faced at the lower levels. When problems are encountered that require input from the next level to solve them the solution is to push back on the line level to come up with a solution, not draw any attention to the issue as the leader may be made to look bad, and god knows you can not have that!
