APPENDIX
Case Study: Will a Bank’s New Technology Help or Hurt Morale?
by Leonard A. Schlesinger
“If we grow too fast, we’ll break from the strain.”
“If we stop growing, we’ll be eaten for lunch by our competitors.”
Beth Daniels, the CEO of Michigan’s Vanir Bancorp, sat silent as her chief human resources officer and chief financial officer traded jabs. The trio had founded their community bank three years earlier with the mission of serving small-business owners, particularly those on the lower end of the credit spectrum. After getting a startup off the ground in a mature, heavily regulated industry, they were a tight-knit, battle-tested team. But the current meeting was turning into a civil war.
James Donnold, the CFO, had just presented an ...
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