Wells Fargo & Company

Managing innovation is a critical source of competitive advantage; for today’s companies, innovation does not just mean keeping up with technological change. To meet 21st-century challenges, Wells Fargo & Company established a partnership with Wharton’s Mack Institute for Innovation Management to explore strategies for transformation.

Wells Fargo worked with a cross-functional student team that came up with forward-looking and research-based approaches to accelerate change. Wells Fargo engaged the student team on a number of projects including:

1. Reaching Millennials in a more meaningful way
2. Identifying innovation opportunities in branch banking
3. Proposing new approaches for automobile financing

“Overall, the Wharton team was an excellent, well-organized, cohesive student team,” said Pankaj Parekh, Wells Fargo’s vice president for digital banking. “The quality of their output was very professional. Our engagement validated some of our internal hypotheses and generated new and innovative ideas for meeting the needs of our customers.”

Because Mack Institute student teams are interdisciplinary and guided by Wharton faculty, they deliver comprehensive solutions and address existing challenges in organizational ecosystems by converting research and ideas into action.