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Wamu

Case Summary

Washington Mutual, a financial services company that has built a name for itself for 12 decades by creating innovative ways to supply their customers with the best service possible and create a benchmark for other companies to get inspired of. Due to wanting to be in the same category as Southwest Airlines, WaMu wants to figure out a way to offer a very low cost structure and pass this advantage to its customers. What make this company so unique are its people and its culture. Having established the “attitude” philosophy first introduced by Southwest Airlines, WaMu was able to offer its customers and its employees an experience of a relaxed environment rather than just make their strategy effective. The company hires people with attitude rather than skills, due to the fact that you are able to learn to get the skills but you’re not able to change an attitude of someone. The company’s growth strategy is to keep strong brand culture and continue being innovative.

Question 1.
What type of personality characteristics might fit best into the WaMu’s customer service and innovative culture?
As the book describes, personality is a combination of emotional, thought and behavioral patterns that affect how a person reacts and interacts with others. To be able to study human personality there are two approaches that are able to classify personality traits:
MBIT (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and the Big Five Model.

MBIT consists of more than 100 questions inquiring people on how they usually act or feel in certain situations. The way you respond to these questions puts you at one end or another of four dimensions, such as:
• Social interaction: Extrovert or Introvert
• Preference for gathering data: Sensing or Intuitive
• Preference for decision making: Feeling or Thinking
• Style of making decisions: Perceptive or Judgmental

On the other hand the Big Five Model focuses on the five basic personality dimensions that emphasize all others and...