With First Security Corp. growing rapidly and becoming a difficult organization to run, its chairman said, last year's project VISION was necessary to keep the financial institution independent and give its customers what they want.
Scott Nelson, chairman, president and chief executive officer of First Security Bank of Utah and executive vice president of First Security Corp., gave the assessment during a speech to the Wasatch Front Economic Forum in Little America Thursday.With the bank acquiring other banks and expanding in several other areas, Nelson said VISION "was the right thing to do." He said if organizations don't make changes, "you will find your customers doing business down the street."
When VISION was announced last July, Nelson said the news media treated the program as a reduction in force and centered on the number of people who would be laid off. He said the action was neither a reduction in force nor a cost-cutting measure, but a "process redesign" to keep the bank a strong independent financial institution in the six Western states it serves.
In its Dec. 14 news release when the bank announced what changes would be implemented, Nelson said every word was carefully thought out so people wouldn't be misled about what was taking place. The press release noted that 1,600 of the 6,800 employees would lose their jobs and it looked bad because it was just before Christmas.
Nelson said the employees wanted to know as quickly as possible what changes would be implemented and nobody was laid off in December as reported by the news media. He said when people left the company their jobs weren't filled and a hiring freeze also helped in reducing the number of employees.
About 500 of the employees volunteered to take early retirement, and those not retiring received a generous severance package. The people who lost their jobs knew 12 months in advance when they would be laid off, he said.
When VISION was announced, Nelson said 7,000 ideas were presented and some of those were quickly thrown out. Of the 4,800 remaining ideas, each was carefully considered and the management team selected 2,800 to be implemented. On Dec. 15, 1995, most of the ideas became effective, but some won't take effect until a new computer system is in place.
During the meeting, 88-year-old Jewell J. Rasmussen, professor emeritus in the department of economics at the University of Utah, was honored for recently completing a history of Utah's first century of taxation and public debt.
R. Steven Romney of Wallace Associates Companies, was elected president, succeeding Jan Crispin-Little, the U. Bureau of Economic and Business Research.
Other officers are Dale C. Hatch, Utah State Board of Regents, executive vice president; Natalie Gochnour, Utah Office of Planning and Budget, vice president; J. Paul Morley, Federal Reserve Bank, treasurer; and Deana L. Froerer, regional economist for KeyCorp, secretary.