The rallying cry of the information age - "knowledge is power" - is nice as far as it goes, but it also glosses over a key point: Information empowers you only if you do something with it.
Which cuts to the core of Gary J. Matus' crucial new job at BankAmerica Corp.
In December he succeeded retiring chairman Richard M. Rosenberg as head of a new marketing group that employs 180 and controls not only the advertising purse strings but also a massive data base of customer information, all product development, and the bank's huge automated teller machine network.
This kind of consolidated marketing control is unusual in banking. BofA's aim is this: use the company's central data base of information on the 11 million households it serves to improve marketing, product development, and electronic banking.
The catch is that improvements proposed by Mr. Matus, 48, an executive vice president, could be implemented only if the heads of the units affected agreed.
That meant go-aheads from people like Liam E. McGee in California retail; Jerry L. Bowman in small-business banking; and Mr. Matus' boss, Luke S. Helms, vice chairman and domestic retail chief.
In a company as big and bureaucratic as BankAmerica, some people wonder if Mr. Matus will be able to fulfill his mission.
"This gentleman's job is one of the most important (in the company) in terms of growing revenues," said James S. Greene, a San Francisco-based bank consultant with Andersen Consulting. "Can Gary tell them, these are the products to sell, and the branches to open and close? My bet is that the answer is no.
"It will be interesting to see if BofA has the intestinal fortitude to change."
Mr. Matus insisted that he will be able to get his colleagues to make changes suggested by customer data, since doing so will be in their best interest. "I believe that people like Liam McGee or Lord Luke (Helms) would not make decisions without collaborative concurrence from the groups that report in to me," he said. "I think that would be misusing the good resources of the bank in making decisions."
Mr. Matus added that the mere creation of his unit is a big step toward breaking down the "silo" mentality that separates people at the bank and keeps them from working together as well as they should.
BofA is undoubtedly among the leaders in customer data base technology. Its data store has existed in various forms since 1984. Mr. Greene said few if any banks have more sophisticated technology for their customer data bases.
Mr. Matus said that BofA has gone way beyond the traditional use of customer information for increasing cross-sales. It is now making big strides in predicting what products customers will buy next, and approaching them at the appropriate time.
He also said BofA is finding some surprising new patterns in customer usage of branches and ATMs that could help it improve its distribution network.
"We've been mining the data base longer and probably more thoroughly than anyone," Mr. Matus said.
Mr. Matus also said that his eclectic background should be a big help in his new job. He worked for three years as a consumer products manager at Colgate Palmolive in the 1970s before taking senior posts in banking, including head of Wells Fargo & Co.'s California banking division, and head of BofA's commercial lending unit for media, entertainment, and gaming companies.
In 1994, he was given control of niche marketing at BofA, and oversaw a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign aimed at Hispanics.
