What can business executives and students learn from community banks?
A lot, apparently, if a recent spate of books devoted to the subject is any indication.
At least three books on community banking - including one work of fiction - have been published in the last three months, all of which attempt to offer larger lessons about business principles and ethics.
One of the books, "Too Stupid to Quit: Banking and Business Lessons Learned the Hard Way," by Richard "Dick" Jackson, is even being used in a business course offered at Mr. Jackson's alma mater, Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va.
Mr. Jackson, a longtime Georgia banker, started writing his book after he retired from day-to-day banking - he is now the non-executive chairman of an Internet bank - and started reflecting on his professional life.
Paul Johnson, a former bank chief executive officer, said he decided to write "Good Guys Finish First: Reflections of a CEO and How to Start a De Novo Community Bank" after hearing from college students who assumed that all CEOs were devious.
And Robert W. Fleming, a St. Louis economic development consultant, started writing the novel "A Brave New Economy" seven months ago hoping to bring to life a new business plan.
One thing the three books have in common: They probably would not have been published if it were not for the Internet. "Good Guys Finish First" and "Too Stupid to Quit" are available only through online retailers like Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com, and copies are produced only when an order is placed. "A Brave New Economy" does not even come on paper; it is available only as an e-book through www.braveneweconomy.com.
Mr. Jackson does not expect his 256-page book to show up on best-seller lists, but he is hoping bankers and business leaders will look to it for guidance in running their companies.
"Too Stupid to Quit" chronicles Mr. Jackson's career, during which he ran First Georgia Bank and Georgia Federal Bank, both of which were acquired by what is now Wachovia Corp. He talks about his "unconventional" management style, his training programs, and the marketing techniques he claims to have implemented long before his competitors.
"I think everyone will find the management concepts interesting and it will also make people look at banking differently," Mr. Jackson said.
Mr. Johnson says the first part of "Good Guys Finish First" will be of interest to anyone involved in the business world, particularly graduate students. It is dedicated to showing that despite the stereotype that has developed in response to corporate scandals, CEOs can be good people, he said.
This theme is worked into Mr. Johnson's account of how he took over Colonial Bank and Trust Co., a small, struggling company in Elmhurst, Ill., and built it into First Colonial Bancshares Corp., a $1.9 billion-asset holding company with four subsidiaries. (It sold itself to what is now U.S. Bancorp in 1995.)
The second half, which offers advice about starting a bank from scratch, is based on interviews with a dozen CEOs and several consultants and analysts.
"A Brave New Economy" is about the fictional First National Bank of Granger Falls and its struggles to reverse its sagging fortunes. It agrees to become the guinea pig for a nationwide marketing program that involves co-branding with a magazine and a weekly cable television series.
"Business plans always seem so boring, but when you write a story, you get to the heart of it," Mr. Fleming said.
A former journalist who has never been involved in banking, he said he chose to write about community banks because they are found in every community and play key roles in economic development.
Kathryn Blough, a spokeswoman for the American Association of Publishers, said the Internet has caused on-demand printing and self-publishing to explode in recent years.
Online services let almost anyone release a book, even if a writer cannot find a mainstream publisher, she said. Though only "a small segment of all books" are being published through online services, the services are growing in popularity, she said.
Other than in the aftermath of the savings and loan crisis, community banking has never proved to be a compelling topic for books. A search on Amazon.com produces no books about community banking published through traditional means in the last few years.
A spokeswoman from Brookings Institute Press, which published "Too Big To Fail: The Hazards of Bank Bailouts" by Gary H. Stern and Ron J. Feldman this year, said her company has not published any other books recently on banking - let alone community banking.
Still, the three authors managed to get their books publicized using their own resources. When Mr. Fleming released his book last month, he sent an e-mail to dozens of news media outlets hoping to get an article or two written about it.
When "Good Guys Finish First" was released, Mr. Johnson made sure it was put on the shelves of several business school libraries.
And Mr. Jackson is hoping his book's title and its camouflage cover will draw in an audience that typically would not read about community banking.
And as for the title's origin, Mr. Jackson says it, like many aspects of his book, goes back to his service in Vietnam.
"I was talking to a Navy doctor about what I would do when I get out, and I asked him if he thought I could be successful in business," he said. "He said that I would be, because I'm too stupid to quit."
