Jeff Judy and Associates - Articles For Bankers

REPRINTS, HANDOUTS, WHITE PAPERS

Educating the industry and the general public, through print media, is an ongoing mission for me.

My writing appears regularly in trade journals, association and school newsletters, and the general business media. You can find my articles and interviews in publications such as:

National and Regional Journals and Newsletters: ICBA Independent Banker, Northwestern Financial Review, ICBA Directors' Newsletter, ICBA Certification Newsletter, etc.
State Association Journals: Ohio Record, Hoosier Banker, Banking Traditions (Alabama),Issues & Answers (Washington), etc.
School/Association Newsletters and On-line Libraries: Pacific Coast Banking School, Barret School of Banking, Bank Holding Company Association, Ezine Articles Directory, etc.
General/Business Media: Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Finance & Commerce

You can sample reprints from publications like these below.

In addition, I have created special documents for direct distribution to individuals in banking, such as:

My White Papers on topics such as the competitive advantage of "tight" culture, or the role of credit policy in guiding your credit business. These are made available upon request to managers who want to explore these issues in more detail.
A series of handouts supervisors can use with their employees to get a better return on investment from training events.

You can also visit my Press Releases page to see some of the topics I have shared with the general media.

Sample Reprints

As I described above, my articles appear in newsletters, trade association journals, and the general media on a regular basis. Here are a few examples of my work in recent years:

I identified "Three Critical Training Components to Better Bank Boards" in this article for the journal of the Washington Bankers Association, Issues & Answers
"Top Lending Practices": The best run community banks understand that they need a strategic plan for their credit business. We call that plan, "the credit policy," and this article from ICBA Independent Banker highlights some of the ways these successful banks develop and implement effective credit policies.
"Bank? Or Amusement Park?": This article in the Bank Holding Company Association newsletter shared some ideas about how to get your bank off the roller coaster that takes you from the highs of easy profits to the next industry crisis. I offered some tips for building the discipline to achieve a "smoother ride."
"Avoiding a Tool-Driven Culture" was published as a Special Convention Feature in February, 2008. It appeared in a supplement to ICBA Independent Banker for the Techworld trade show, as part of the March annual convention (where I also led several workshops).
In an article titled “On the Hunt”, ICBA's Independent Banker magazine featured my comments about attracting and retaining commercial loan officers.
I revisited the role of credit policy for the Community Bankers Association of Alabama in their journal Banking Traditions, with my article "Credit Polity or Business Plan?"

My White Papers

Some key topics demand more in-depth treatment, and for these topics I prepare White Papers of greater length. These White Papers help bank management review major factors in achieving success in banking, among them:

Credit Policy: credit policy is your business plan for your credit business, as well as part of the documentation that anchors a healthy credit culture. If you're not sure what role your policy should play, or why your policy is not as effective as it should be, if you are groping for next steps to achieve better outcomes around credit policy, you may want to request my White Paper, "Is Your Credit Policy Working for You?" You can download a preview, in the form of the executive summary of table of contents, and you can visit my Policy White Paper page for more information.
Culture: culture is not a "soft" concept, or a luxury, but the major determinant of your responsiveness to changing conditions. You can read more about why culture matters here, and an in-depth White Paper, "Build Your Culture, Build Your Business", is available upon request. Or download a preview of the Culture White Paper, again, executive summary and table of contents.

How To Get More Out Of Your Training Investment

In all the training and conference presentations I do, I make sure I give banks their money's worth, the money they have invested to send participants to these events.

But I also want to make sure that banks take their money's worth! There is only so much I can do. Prepared, engaged, supported participants produce a much better return on the training investments for their employers.

If you are a supervisor who is sending some of your staff to a training event, I encourage you to download and share some of the following documents:

"Five Ways to Feel Good While Wasting Time and Money" Are you getting a return on your investment of your time and money to attend conferences? It's all too easy to look busy, enjoy yourself . . . and bring nothing back with you. Reprinted from my article in the "What Counts" newsletter published by Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle.

"How to Go to Banking School" If you are sending your staff to a banking school this summer, this article shares "Nine Notions for Bringing a Competitive Advantage Back to your Bank When You Return to your Desk." This handout is frequently distributed at banking schools to help banks maximize the ROI they enjoy from developing more knowledgeable, more effective employees.

"The Seven Wonders of the Banking World" I spend a lot, and I mean a lot, of time in the classroom. I wonder why certain participants are there, because I regularly encounter seminar participants whose preconceptions, habits, attitudes, or preparation for learning are lacking. That’s an issue for the banks that pay to send them, so I have described the seven most common things I wonder about these kinds of participants. Use this document to better prepare your staff when you send them to training.

You may download and distribute the above items to your staff for free, providing you do not modify the documents, or charge a fee or sell the documents to anyone.

My article of free reprints, and my e-zine archives, will continue to grow as I continue to advocate sound banking practices in the trade and general media.