COMMUNICATION: BUSINESS WRITING:
Focuses on organization, clarity and focal points of business writing. Uses
National School’s assignments and crafting an effective executive summary.

MANAGER AS COUNSELOR:
Participants explore their role relative to developing staff, to identify the basic needs, motivations, and expectations of their employees. Counseling, feedback, fairness and respect are reviewed as opportunities and techniques to strengthen the team relationship.

LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP:
Leadership concepts, principles, values and moral conflicts of organizational management explored through character study in classical literature and contemporary films.

CAREER MANAGEMENT PROCESS:
Attendees explore their own work values and managerial styles to understand how to best maximize their own strengths, those of their employees and peers, and to understand and operate in the community bank culture.

DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT:
Video vignettes and small team discussions demonstrate approved techniques for dealing with conflict arising from diverse cultural issues and the legal and profitability ramifications of inappropriate choices by management.

INTRA-SESSION ASSIGNMENT & TELECONFERENCE:
Analysis of management style and interactive skills using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

PRODUCTS, SERVICES & ADVOCACY

CONSUMER COMPLIANCE:
Strategic overview of the compliance function in a community bank: components of an effective regulatory program; strategies for coping with an agency compliance examination; alerts for upcoming and high focus compliance issues, as well as compliance best practices.

MONEY AND CAPITAL MARKETS

MONEY AND CAPITAL MARKETS I:
Explores economic goals, policy and theory; intermediation; money, banking and the Federal Reserve System; and the tools and techniques used to forecast the economic environment and to shape appropriate bank financial strategy.

INTRA-SESSION ASSIGNMENT & TELECONFERENCE:
A forecast of GDP for the next 18 months with analysis and justification of select economic indicators.

FINANCE/ASSET & LIABILITY MANAGEMENT

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OF COMMUNITY BANKS I:
Explores bank financial statements; bank capital; working with your Uniform Bank/Thrift Performance Report and interest rates and bank management.

INTRA-SESSION ASSIGNMENT & TELECONFERENCE:
Using the student’s own bank’s UBPR/UTPR, he or she analyzes the balance sheet, conducts a risk and profitability analysis, peer group analysis, and makes observations and recommendations.

MARKETING

PRE-SESSION OVERVIEW:
On-line overview of key terms, concepts, and practices of bank marketing to lay the groundwork for in-class work.

STRATEGIC MARKETING I:
Integration of marketing into the bank’s strategic plan, as well as new product strategy and development; personal selling; market segmentation; and positioning.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY:
Regulators and Bank Executives discuss the current economic environment, pending regulatory and legislative issues, and the future of the community bank industry.

TELECONFERENCE:
Via interviews of senior officers, the student analyzes the bank’s strategic planning process and its impact on corporate culture and profitability.

3 Elective workshops in commercial banking, technology and lending

SESSION 2

LEADERSHIP

COMMUNICATION: PRESENTATION SKILLS: Participants organize material for formal presentations, learn tips on creating and using visual aids, using
nonverbal communication effectively, and overcoming nervousness.

TEAM DYNAMICS: Interactive exercises to demonstrate the ability to work through teams of talented but disparate professionals, recognizing differences, delegating tasks and responsibilities, and achieving team and inter-team goals.

CONSENSUS-BUILDING: Focuses on the critical skills of effective communication, resource utilization and deriving the maximum benefit of
the collective skills and experience within a work team.

PRODUCTS, SERVICES & ADVOCACY

COMMERCIAL LENDING IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES:
An emphasis on integration of alignment between risk management and sales efforts, and the operational and strategic issues related to commercial lending.

TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT:
Technology best practices in retail delivery, payment systems, commercial banking and mortgage lending needs, project management, and core system provider solutions.

OPPORTUNITIES IN COMMERCIAL BANKING:
Seven keys to developing profitable commercial lines of business at a community bank – the resources and research needed, the staffing, the product possibilities, the marketing and the required support.

ADVOCACY – INFLUENCING PUBLIC POLICY:
The impact of political and regulatory advocacy are explained, including grass-roots activism, national and local lobbying opportunities.

MONEY AND CAPITAL MARKETS

MONEY AND CAPITAL MARKETS II:
Explores stabilization; macroeconomic models policy; flow of funds accounting; interest rates in financial markets; and international exchange.

INTRA-SESSION ASSIGNMENT & TELECONFERENCE:
A comparative analysis of projected to actual GDP; a second forecast; an exploration the cyclical behavior of the yield curve; and a recommendation for change in the bank’s balance sheet to produce maximum margin.

FINANCE/ASSET & LIABILITY MANAGEMENT

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OF COMMUNITY BANKS II:
Building on Session I, exploring profitability; margins; spreads; operating efficiencies; money market securities/bonds/equities; risk management – liquidity and interest rate; bond yields and swaps.

INTRA-SESSION ASSIGNMENT & TELECONFERENCE:
Using the Internet resources of the FDIC and the OTS, the student produces the weighted average cost of funds for their bank, the impact of the bank’s interest rate risk policy and the risk/reward value of callable advances and callable agency securities.

MARKETING

STRATEGIC MARKETING II:
Building on Session I, examines market research, branding and the development of the bank’s marketing plan from design to implementation.

INTRA-SESSION ASSIGNMENT & TELECONFERENCE:
Using in-bank surveys, students analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their banks’ sales and service cultures. Marketing plans are produced to address and incorporate the findings of the surveys and analyses.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR THE COMMUNITY BANKER:
Reviews the elements of the design, business analysis, implementation, integration, and communication of the bank’s strategic plan, including Balanced Scorecard and Six Sigma options.

INTRA-SESSION ASSIGNMENT & TELECONFERENCE:
Integrating all of the disciplines studied, each student prepares a SWOT analysis of the sponsoring bank and a complete strategic plan, addressing a specific request to add or expand the small business services lines of business.

2 Elective workshops in commercial banking, technology or lending.

SESSION 3

LEADERSHIP

ETHICAL ISSUES FOR THE SENIOR MANAGER:
Get practical tools to identify the real issue in a problem and to understand the impact of alternative solutions, applying accepted ethical standards of the individual and society.

MANAGEMENT AND MOTIVATION:
Assists managers in gaining a more objective understanding of their behavior, as well as those of their direct reports and peers through the use of self-assessment profiles and tools.

EXECUTIVE PRESENTATIONS:
Students deliver a formal presentation of elements of their intra-session strategic plan and handle a brief Q&A session. A panel of 4-6 bank presidents and senior bank officers rate each student.

THE EXECUTIVE AND THE FAMILY:
Explores the impact corporate life has had on the American family, both traditional and nontraditional, and coping strategies to deal with these challenges

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: BOARD MANAGEMENT IN TURBULENT TIMES:
Reviews the core competencies of a bank director, the relationship between management & the board and the regulatory impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on corporate governance.

PRODUCTS, SERVICES & ADVOCACY

REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE UPDATE:
Insights are shared on upcoming legislative and regulatory issues that will have bottomline impact on community bank business and profitability over the next year. Involvement focuses students in the shaping of public policy and advocacy.

3 Hot topic workshops: enterprise risk management; critical thinking; mergers, acquisitions and de-acquisitions.

MONEY AND CAPITAL MARKETS

ECONOMIC UPDATE:
Updates on the current economic environment, national, regional and local factors affecting the economy, the recent pronouncements of the Federal Reserve System and an economic forecast.

MARKETING

PUBLIC RELATIONS & COMMUNITY OUTREACH:
Techniques for working with the press, creating press releases, managing crises and bad news, and opportunities for community involvement and promotion.

STRATEGIC PLANNING & FINANCE/ASSET & LIABILITY MANAGEMENT

BANK SIMULATION:
A PC-based strategic and financial simulation is the capstone exercise. Student teams make strategic decisions including:
investment and funding of the bank’s portfolio, scope of the lending and deposit portfolios, marketing budget, number of employees hired and lines of business to emphasize or deemphasize. They experience realistic conditions including economic interruptions, crises, presentations, new product roll-outs, and the Annual meeting including a takeover bid for a competitor bank.