CASE ANALYSIS: MARK TWAIN BANCSHARES, INC. (HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL 9 385 178, 1984)
The leadership of Mark Twain Bancshares assumed, upon formation of the company, that the targeted segment of the financial services market the so called middle market would respond favorably to personal attention, a refined ambience, convenience, and prompt services, and that the members of the segment would be willing to pay for such characteristics in a financial services deliverer. Thus, in this context, one of the values of the company has been a commitment to the creation of a tailored local leadership for each operating unit of the company.
The company created such tailored local leaderships through the creation of boards of directors for each operating unit that are drawn largely from the market segment served by the operating unit. As Missouri, at the time setting of the case, was a no branch bank state, separate boards were a legal requirement anyway. Having stated that the company created tailored local leaderships for each operating unit, however, does not mean that each operating unit manager was able to exercise a high level of managerial autonomy. In fact, the boards of directors of each operating unit played major roles in the determination of operating unit strategies and, in some instances, operating procedures.
Neither did the several operating unit boards of directors act with unrestricted autonomy with respect to their perspective operating units. Major strategic goals and values were established by the corporate board of directors, which itself played an active part in the functioning of the boards of directors of the operating units. In effect, the boards of directors of the operating units tailored the corporate policies and values to meet the specific needs and desires of the clienteles of the operating units.
Mark Twain B...