EDITOR'S NOTE: FOR THE CULTURE VULTURES

There's hardly a banker today who doesn't talk about creating a culture that leads to more sales. But it's a lot easier said than done. Indeed, most banks still talk about their sales culture in the future tense.

It's an endeavor that has many elements: hiring, training, and retaining the right people, making branches more inviting, and oVering incentives and rewards to staV, to name just a few. It also involves information technology; systems are an important tool in segmenting customers and identifying the most proWtable ones, as well as in determining product proWtability.

In this issue, we explore some of these questions through several bank case studies. Jeffrey Zack Managing editor