1. Describe and evaluate what Charles Schwab is doing.
2. How might the company’s culture of not buying into hype and not taking excessive risks affect its organizational structural design?
3. What structural implications—good and bad—might Schwab’s intense focus on customer feedback have?
4. Do you think this arrangement would work for other types of organizations? Why or why not?

The Charles Schwab Corporation (Charles Schwab) is a San Francisco-based financial services company. Like many companies in that industry, Charles Schwab struggled during the economic recession.
Founded in 1971 by its namesake as a discount brokerage, the company has now “grown up” into a full-service traditional brokerage firm, with more than 300 offices in some 45 states and in London and Hong Kong. It still offers discount brokerage services, but also financial research, advice, and planning; retirement plans; investment management; and proprietary financial products including mutual funds, mortgages, CDs, and other banking products through its Charles Schwab Bank unit. However, its primary business is still making stock trades for investors who make their own financial decisions. The company has a reputation for being conservative, which helped it avoid the financial meltdown suffered by other investment firms. Founder Charles R. Schwab has a black bowling ball perched on his desk. “It’s a memento of the long-forgotten bubble of 1961, when shares of bowling-pin companies, shoemakers, chalk manufacturers, and lane operators were thought to be can’t-miss plays on the limitless potential of suburbia— and turned out to be duds.” He keeps the ball as a reminder not to “buy into hype or take excessive risks.”