Looks can be deceiving, but in David E.A. Carson's case, they also are telling.
The 62-year-old president and chief executive officer of People's Bank of Bridgeport, Conn., frequently sports bow ties and light-colored suits - off-beat, retro garb befitting his emphasis on such bygone rules as "customer first" and "serve the community."
Combining such wisdom with a savvy business sense, Mr. Carson brought the $7.2 billion-asset thrift from the brink of disaster in 1991 back to full health and profitability.
Now the onetime insurance executive is helping the savings bank to grow while trying to retain the community bank ethos that he says lies at the heart of its success.
"The basic strategy of the bank is to create financial services that create value for the modern consumer," said Mr. Carson. "We happen to believe if you do that well you'll produce value for the shareholders."
If such talk makes Mr. Carson sound different from the run-of-the mill, earnings-obsessed executive, it's because he is.
He is part community banker - one involved in local activities such as the Special Olympics and Connecticut Ballet and one concerned about his institution's contribution to society.
But he also is a bottom-line-oriented manager who, but for his clothing selection, would feel right at home in a large superregional bank.
Observers said People's Bank has come to reflect both sides of Mr. Carson's personality.
"You can look at them either as a small big bank or as a big small bank - they fit both categories," said Kevin T. Timmons, an analyst at First Albany Corp., Albany, N.Y.
The formula of mixing community banking strategies with those generally used by larger institutions has worked well in several areas for People's, Mr. Timmons said. One example is credit cards.
People's is an aggressive credit card lender for a bank its size, with a portfolio of about $2.5 billion of outstanding balances, experts said.
But its ability to build such a program lies in a mission statement that is community banking through and through: "Our credit card products are designed to let people who can't afford to pay off each month to be able to carry a balance at a relatively low interest rate," Mr. Carson said.
The peculiar demographics of People's credit card business make it very profitable, he said, though it is based on an average interest rate of around 12%, which is nearly one-third lower than the industry average.
"We identified the market for what customers needed, not for what banks needed," Mr. Carson said. "What many banks went into the credit card market for and are having trouble with now is, they saw a marketplace where people were charging 18%-19%-20% interest and thought, 'Gee, we ought to be able to make money at that.' But now those cards are a harder sell."
To date, People's has about 1.7 million credit card accounts, and Mr. Carson is hopeful that the total will grow quickly with the bank's introduction of a card in the United Kingdom.
The overseas card program, begun in April, was born out of market research that indicated the U.K. market is not nearly as saturated as that of the United States.
Such research efforts are given a high priority at People's, Mr. Carson said. The bank has four employees who spend time contacting customers in an effort to position products correctly.
Though the bank prides itself on having the products and services its customers demand, observers said this does not mean that People's is a technological leader.
"Over the years they very successfully have adapted and adopted a lot of the approaches taken by larger and more deep pocketed firms," said Les Dinkin, managing principal at NBW Consulting, which is based in Westport, Conn. "They are very fast followers."
Mr. Carson said the bank follows larger banks out of necessity. "An organization our size could only afford to stay on top if we developed technology incrementally," he said.
He brought up the telephone banking program as an example of the People's approach to technology spending.
In the late 1980s, many banks in the Northeast were convinced that the public was ready to bank from home using PCs, and several institutions began investing in technology to provide such services.
During this period, Mr. Carson said, People's made two determinations. The first was that the bank could not afford to develop a PC home banking program. The second was that, given the number of consumers who owned PCs, he was not sure such a program would be accepted anyway.
Mr. Carson and his staff did sense, however, that consumers were open to banking from home. So People's created a phone banking system that let them use equipment they already owned.
The phone system, which analysts said was ahead of its time in the late 1980s, gave People's "virtually the identical computer interface that we need for the personal computer-based home banking," Mr. Carson said. "When we saw two years ago that it was time to develop a PC link, we were able to develop it in-house."
Based on its research staff's recommendations, People's began offering PC banking last year through proprietary software that consumers can get directly from the bank or download from its World Wide Web site.
To date the bank has signed up 25,000 customers, or about 8% of its checking account holders. Mr. Carson said the acceptance rate is partially due to the demographics of the customer base in affluent Fairfield County.
But it also attests to the bank's effort to give customers what they say they want rather than others might think they want.
It's wrongheaded to "create something that's so wonderful and so expensive and then find customers for it and force them into the tube," Mr. Carson said.
"The software vendors were trying to sell these wonderful budgeting packages, but what we found through our telephone banking program is that people want to get in and out of their home banking quickly. If you don't have to go through a complicated process to check your balance or pay your bills, you're much more likely to use the service."
Despite this commitment to virtual delivery, People's is staying true to its community banking roots by continuing to expand its branch network.
Like many institutions, People's is opening mini-branches in retail stores. The branches in Stop & Shop convenience stores are equipped with terminals that can connect customers via two-way video with experts on various bank products. The branches operate at a fraction the cost of People's full-service retail offices.
The reason People's continues to open new offices - it now has 69 full-service branches and 21 supermarket branches, with another 24 planned by 1998 - is simple: "There are those who are very comfortable doing transactions very directly through a branch," Mr. Carson said. "Then there are customers like me who are very happy to do everything through telephones and ATMs and PCs. We think if you're providing general banking services, you've got to provide both."
Analysts have applauded Mr. Carson's management. Though People's had some tough times during New England's down years in the early 1990s - its stock price hit a low of $1.875 in 1991 - the bank has rarely been stronger than it is today.
Its stock trades in the $29 dollar range, and earnings have risen steadily in recent years. People's reported net income of $20.5 million in the third quarter, the most recent results available at press time.
Observers noted that the bank would make a fine acquisition target but for the fact that most of its stock is held by People's Mutual Holdings, the holding company for People's Bank.
"Unless the holding company decides to sell its stock, it's virtually impossible for an unwanted acquisition attempt to succeed," said Mr. Dinkin.
And because Mr. Carson says People's is committed to remaining independent, Connecticut is likely to retain its most successful savings bank and its resplendent leader.
"All of our success has come as a result of understanding that, if we were going to prosper, we have to focus on what we do better than anybody else," Mr. Carson said.
"We have believed for the last 10 years what we know better than anybody is the Connecticut customer."
