As emcee of the Community Bankers Association of Georgia annual conference, I interviewed Ray Davis, former CEO of Umpqua Bank. Ray is iconic for taking Umpqua, a small $140 million institution located in rural Oregon, and transforming it into a $20 billion juggernaut. As I frequently talk about the success of Umpqua when I speak […]
Category Archives: Banking
VR at DBSI Booth at Symitar Conference
I was in San Diego, one the most beautiful cities to visit in the U.S. with incredible weather, and because I was the closing keynote speaker at the annual Symitar Educational Conference and TechConnect, I had most of the day free. This gave me an opportunity to cruise the exhibit area where dozens of vendors […]
Branch of the Future? I Hope Not!
I was in Atlanta, Georgia, for a series of business meetings, and happened to be at a trendy restaurant near the Federal Reserve Bank in Midtown. My breakfast meeting was ending, and as we were discussing the state of branch transformation in financial institutions, my guest suggested I check out the new Bank of America […]
Reverse Brainstorm To Great Insight
In July, I teach two weeks at the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Colorado (GSBC). One of my students once showed me a great video called “7 Ways to Maximize Misery.” The idea is to get people to focus on happiness by showing how absurd it is to embrace being miserable. I […]
How to Not Get Run Over By a Tank – From Tradition to ExoMorphosis
I was recently talking with David Frankil, President of the NJ Credit Union League. We were chatting about a keynote which I’ll be doing for him in March at the CU Reality Check. I was talking about innovation and my drive to get financial executives to “think about how they think.” Since financial institutions are […]