I had a privilege of meeting and interviewing Rick Bastian – the Chairman and CEO of Blackhawk Bank, a 134-year old community bank with eight branches located in Illinois and Wisconsin. Rick joined the bank in May of 2001, bringing over 30 years of banking experience to the organization. His position at Blackhawk represents a return for Rick to the area where he first ran First National Bank & Trust and its successor, Bank One from 1982 through 1993.
I interviewed Rick Bastian to identify how much his management style corresponds with Peter Senge’s concept of learning organization. According to Peter Senge learning organizations are “organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where
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9), which can be referred to as a shared vision. Blackhawk Bank does have a shared vision and according to Rick, all of the bank’s employees should be able to cite it. Company’s vision and values can be easily found on their website and some people, including Rick, have them printed and positioned on their desks or elsewhere in the office. Blackhawk Bank’s vision is “to create exceptional results by creating exceptional experiences...the fun, smart place to bank, invest and work”. From my personal experience as I have an account with Blackhawk Bank, I can say that they are doing a great job in regards of complying with the organization’s vision. For instance, in late September –early October, I went to Ukraine and Croatia without notifying my bank about it. As I made some online payments with my debit card there, upon my arrival to the USA, I received a letter from the bank, stating that in order to protect security and safety of the information, I will be receiving a new debit card as some suspicious activity has been monitored to be originating from my account. It did not create me any inconveniences as I got a new card within a few days and was able to use my old one up until that point and it was mindful of them to make this step just in case something was wrong. It did not cost me anything, made me feel protected, and additionally, I got a completely new debit