What to make of Citigroup's strategy

May 12, 2008

Fairly or not, there are some who are less then awestruck by Vikram Pandit's much-anticipated new "strategy" for Citigroup. I wouldn't call it a strategy. It's more a of a survival blueprint for the next few years. The news that it will sell $500 billion in assets certainly is not a surprise. I was, however, a little surprised by the idea that it will grow revenue 9 percent a year, mainly via costs cuts. Some people were expecting a new plan to create real market opportunities. To say a revenue plan essentially boils down to layoffs and whatnot is less than stirring. So, the bottom line is that management still is searching for that secret sauce that eluded Pandit's predecessors. Maybe it doesn't exist. We'll see.

For more on Citigroup:
- here's the AP article