General Management

It’s critically important to every banker to know what their CEO is thinking about. Those topics find their way into your strategic plans, budgets and daily Tasks. Here are the top five topics on most bank CEO lists as they prepare for the coming year. M&A. The change in administration opened the flood gates for M&A activities at all levels, including among the largest banks in the nation. This opportunity window will not be open…

I’ve written in these pages before about my admiration of Jamie Dimon, his wisdom and his management style. Ever since our first meeting many moons ago I’ve been a follower and a fan. His Annual Letter to the Shareholders is a “must read”, and Chase’s strategic plan which they share from time to time has both data and insights that should guide us all. Tom Brown’s recent interview with Jamie had, as always, numerous perspectives…

Our industry has always suffered from too many meetings. Plus, the meetings weren’t always an effective use of time. COVID meaningfully aggravated this problem because in-person exchanges, planned, impromptu or ad-hoc, were not possible. In fact, now that many of us are back in the office, we still spend much of our time interacting through screens in more meetings. Park National Bank is an unusual bank headquartered in Ohio, just shy of $10B in assets.…