[caption id="attachment_9669" align="alignright" width="120" caption="WSFS President and CEO Mark Turner"]
With WSFS Bank poised to become the oldest and largest full-service bank headquartered in Delaware, President and CEO Mark A. Turner sat down with DFM News and discussed the responsibilities that go along with that standing.Below are excerpts from that interview:
On WSFS’s standing among Delaware banks:
We believe the mantle has been passed to us. And that mantle comes with great opportunity to grow our franchise. It means, literally, a once-every-hundred-years opportunity. [Wilmington Trust] has been our big brother for the last 100 years and they have had that responsibility, but now it’s our responsibility. We have to grow within the state to be within five years the largest bank in the state. Not just the largest bank headquartered in the state, but the largest bank in the state. And we intend to take up the responsibilities that go along with that.
On exhibiting increased leadership:
I don’t believe we will ever have the size or community impact that DuPont or MBNA once had. Both of those organizations are legends. But I don’t think the state should be dependent on the success or economic largesse of any one corporation the way it was with DuPont for many years, with MBNA for many years. We really need more granular and diffuse leadership. We intend our leadership to be in banking…. That’s our primary responsibility.
On key state issues:
We’ll have to play more with other major corporations, with political leaders, to have a say in how the state develops…. Education reform is huge.… If we get it right, that will sow the seeds for the next generation. We need to develop much more as an entrepreneurial economy. We cannot depend on a DuPont or an MBNA anymore to make the state go. Those models cannot be sustaining. Our business model is geared toward small and middle-market businesses, private businesses, many of them family-owned, with up to $100 million in revenue. If we can get a lot more of those businesses going in our state, the Delaware economy will be much more robust and much more sustainable.
On serving the community:
We are now the state bank, so people will be looking to us where before they were looking to big brother. Whether it’s for volunteerism or contributions, we know we have to step up to that responsibility. We are known in the community for the number of our people who volunteer [and] for our monetary contributions to make not-for-profits grow. As we grow, we’ll do more of both—more volunteering and more contributions.I
On the WSFS leadership:
“We Stand For Service” [WSFS’s marketing slogan] says nothing about profit, shareholder value, or any of those platitudes…. But performance for our shareholders is a byproduct of being a good bank in serving our community. One of the most important things I learned from Skip Schoenhals [former WSFS CEO, now board chair] is “servant leadership.” Our job as leaders is to serve the people we work with, even though we may be higher on the organizational chart. It’s our job to serve them so they can serve the customers and the community. Servant leadership is something you can get people to rally around. It’s different from iconic leadership, or cultish leadership, which, even at their most benevolent, is not sustainable, because they rest their authority and power in one person, and not in sharing leadership with the rest of the organization.
On local and regional banks:
Big banks and community banks serve two different markets. Banks get in trouble when they don’t understand the market they serve. Big banks are great for individuals or businesses who want product and a rate and don’t need the personal service and local market knowledge we can provide. [Business owners who] know that an extra level of service comes with a little extra price—that’s the customer we serve. We’re the only bank in Delaware that for 179 years knows Delaware. And the only bank that can be that responsive to Delawareans’ and Delaware businesses’ needs. This is not a knock against other banks. But that level of local knowledge and responsiveness can’t be served out of Pittsburgh, out of Charlotte, or San Francisco or Toronto. It’s just not part of their business model.
On WSFS plans for growth:
We are expanding in nearby southeastern Pennsylvania. The southern part of Chester and Delaware counties look very much like New Castle County, and also at the current time are experiencing some banking disruption…. We see great opportunities there, and in northeastern Maryland—Cecil and Harford counties.