John Oxford (Required)

Strategic Bank Marketing – In a conservative and commoditized industry that provides the marketplace with little choice due to product parity and regulatory restrictions, how do you make your bank stand out?

From marketing strategy and targeting to brand management, technology and budgeting, participants will develop an understanding of modern bank marketing and take-home fresh ideas and tactics on how to make their bank stand out in a sea of sameness.

Gary Higgins (Elective)

Credit Analysis for Non-Lenders is designed to assist less experienced lenders, and others with little or no formal commercial credit analysis training, to assess credit risk.  Emphasis is given to the importance, methods, and limitations of various risk appraisal tools – including those associated with financial statements, ratios, and cash flows.  Case studies are used to demonstrate how these tools are used and how they relate to specific loan requests.  The lender’s viewpoint is stressed through the use of practical examples and interactive exercises.

Ken B. Cyree (Elective)

Credit Analysis for Lenders is an advanced course designed for the student with commercial lending experience who has a working knowledge of accounting and ratio analysis.  Emphasis will be placed on refining those techniques, which lead to sound commercial lending decisions and becoming a value-added lender.  This includes analysis of ratio trends, working capital, cash flows, developing and using a cash budget, and other important elements in commercial lending operations.

Jack Hubbard (Elective)

Building Business Partnerships—Selling has changed radically since Eve completed the world’s first transaction with Adam. Over the years, the sales approach that seemed to generate the most traction was launched in 1968 when Xerox Corporation created an internal training process that became known as Needs Satisfaction Selling to combat fierce competition in the photocopying industry. This and the Consultative Selling model that began in 1970, worked very well for decades since the seller knew much more about their product than the buyer.

That all changed with the advent of the internet and social media. Today, the buyer has seized greater control of the process and the banker must be more prepared and better ready to execute than ever before. This is the era of Trust-Based Selling where the customer and the banker work collaboratively to develop and find a best-fit solution. Selling is no longer me versus you. In today’s competitive environment it’s you and me versus the problem.

This elective takes a cradle to leadership look at what it takes to build and sustain a business banking Performance Culture. You won’t go home with scripts and there is nothing to memorize. No manipulation or tricks. Todays “go to” bankers are Resource Managers who earn that title through respect, value creation and by providing new ideas that help businesses thrive. When they win, you win, the bank wins, and everyone succeeds.

Ron Sachs (Required)

Public Relations & Crisis Management – Understanding the importance of protecting the brand of any organization is at the heart of this relevant course. Organizations that don’t engage in regular public relations and community service fade in the marketplace and risk losing customer/public/opinion leader support if a real problem ever becomes public.

A brand crisis can victimize any organization – in the public, private and non-profit sectors – and the best way to be prepared for one is to accept this harsh reality. Disciplined strategies to pro-actively promote an organization’s brand is a vital component to positively position the organization. It also serves to insulate the organization against the possibility or likelihood of ‘bad news’ that may happen at any point – or to lessen the potential impact of an actual crisis.

The course will present multiple ways for organizations to ‘buff’ their brands with active media relations efforts. This includes how best to promote strategically beneficial community service and philanthropy as a matter of ongoing priority — and how to develop productive relationships with select news media.

Chris L. Hargrove (Elective)

Mergers and Acquisitions is divided into three parts—the first deals with the financial, regulatory and social aspects of mergers, the second is concerned with the implementation of the process, and the third relates to the integration and personnel aspects of a merger. Financial and economic considerations include the determination of the cash price or stock exchange ratio and comparisons between the two methods. The implementation takes the process from the pricing phase to the determination of terms and conditions. Critical personnel issues such as job reassignments, terminations and consolidations of positions, and the changes in “corporate cultures” are addressed in practical terms. The course also focuses on the challenges of remaining independent.

James C. Thomas, Jr. (Elective)

Negotiate to Win for Bankers – Your effectiveness at most of the things you do – whether its bargaining with customers over rates or structure, supporting credits through the approval process, dealing with staff performance problems, sorting out compliance issues with regulators, or simply managing everyday differences with colleagues, clients, friends, and significant others – will to a large degree be determined by how well you negotiate.

Mix in some of our industry’s big trends – commoditization and oversupply (translation:  increasingly brutal competition), customers who feel more powerful, less loyal, and more inclined to negotiate with bankers than ever before, and a major emphasis on improved earnings – and the conclusion is inescapable:  it’s time to improve your negotiating skills.

This course will teach you the very latest negotiating best practices.  Just as importantly, you’ll gain an in-depth understanding of how and why they work, along with the discipline, focus, and confidence to put them to immediate, profitable use.

Mark Faircloth (Elective)

Recruiting and Retaining the Right Employees—In a series of real-life cases, this course presents specific steps and skills which help managers to be effective in attracting and keeping talented employees.  Bankers will learn how to better understand and apply successful interviewing questions, goal setting steps, team dynamics, group communication and individual coaching to a series of actual bank situations.  Special attention is given to talent sourcing, under-performing employees/departments, individual motivation and career path development.

David M. Kohl (Elective)

Rural and Small Business Lending  examines the domestic and global megatrends that impact credit risk and business development opportunities in your rural and agricultural enterprise businesses. Consumer and population trends, rural and agricultural structure, real estate values and intergenerational business transfer is emphasized. The course examines actual small business enterprise cases including underwriting benchmarks, best management practices, common denominators of problem credit, and credit scoring systems applications, including the ten golden rules for operating small business enterprises.

Dan M. Harbison (Elective)

Sources of Non-Interest Income – Pressure on a bank’s traditional source of profit; the spread between interest income and interest expense has encouraged bank management to look to non-traditional sources of revenue and profit.  Sources of non-interest income focuses on key traditional and non-traditional avenues and addresses the managerial issues involved in entering these areas.

J. Michael Allen (Elective)

Troubled Asset Resolution – In the past few years, bankers have experienced and are experiencing a period of unprecedented economic challenge.  Asset quality and loan performance metrics have improved for most.  But, as competition once again begins to get “frothy,” these improvements will be tested.   Capital preservation and liquidity are more precious to bankers today than ever before in our modern time.  Virtually all markets are affected.  These challenges are of a depth and breadth few have seen—let alone have experience at handling.  While asset quality trends are improving for the industry, many banks continue to battle troubled borrowers and are desirous of avoiding a “repeat of the past.”  Problem loans are a new reality for some.  How will your portfolio respond to continued pressure?  Are your internal management practices and board activities where they need to be?  How has this environment affected your relationship with your regulatory agencies?  This course is designed to provide some assistance, guidance and provoke thought as to how you handle loan performance challenges in your shop and be positioned to effectively manage the next generation of problem loans that might possibly already reside on your balance sheet.