The year 1992 had been most successful for Banc One placing it first among the 25 largest banks in the United States. It had achieved this stellar record through a strategy of nuts-and-bolts banking that included focusing on serving retail and middle-market customers through community banks, investing in technologies that created competitive advantages, and treating bank acquisitions as an ongoing line of business. The newly appointed chairman of Diversified Services at Banc One is responsible for products in the nonbanking areas of securities, insurance, leasing, consumer finance, asset management, and mortgage. But the growth of Diversified Services has fueled apprehension that the fundamental values on which the bank's success had been built were changing. In this context, the chairman is charged with persuading the presidents of the affiliate banks to adopt his nontraditional banking products into their local banks to enlist them in a strategic partnership with Diversified Services.
