By Alex Watson
Out the conference room window behind Birmingham veteran banker Thomas A. Broughton III, a building is rising across Shades Creek Parkway between Homewood and Mountain Brook
.The building, almost finished and glistening in the late afternoon sun, will be the new headquarters home for Birmingham’s ServisFirst Bank. The bank’s headquarters staff is bursting at the seams in the current building, the result of growth that has surprised even the most optimistic of the bank’s founders.
Led by Broughton as president and CEO, ServisFirst Bank opened its doors for business May 2, 2005. With $35 million raised in opening capital, ServisFirst Bank set the record for highest capital ever raised by a start-up bank in the state of Alabama.
It was an auspicious beginning for the new bank whose founders had a vision to establish a bank that combined the most sophisticated banking resources with the industries top service-driven, experienced bankers.
That devilishly simple combination was no easy case to crack, but Broughton believed that within that strategy lay the key to success.
“The ‘big banks’ had the resources but often failed to obtain the top-notch staff, while the smaller community banks’ staff could offer the personal attention clients desired but would often lack the latest sophisticated product offerings,” Broughton has said. With ServisFirst, Broughton, a serial banking entrepreneur who 20 years before had started First Commercial Bank, saw a need in the banking industry and found a way to meet it.
Today, ServisFirst, which was named the largest and fastest growing new chartered bank in the U.S. in 2005, serves customers in Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery and Dothan. At its founding, the bank put together what Broughton calls an aggressive growth plan that the institution has already exceeded. “Originally, we thought we would be at $750 million in assets in five years. We are at $1.2 billion after 3.5 years,” Broughton says.
“Our banking philosophies and client-centered atmosphere set us apart from traditional mass-market retail banks. We focus on providing exceptional service, thus the name ServisFirst. Our service is not the only thing that differentiates us from our competitors— unlike other banks, ServisFirst Bank is here today and will be here tomorrow. You won’t have to worry about ServisFirst Bank changing names or merging.
We’re here to stay and this is our commitment to our customers,” Broughton says. Changes in the banking industry, some of them of the seachange variety, have created opportunities for ServisFirst, Broughton says. “Nobody foresaw the meltdown in the big banks.
Main Street is fine, but Wall Street is in trouble. We have assembled the absolute best management team in the state to grow strategically and take advantage of opportunities in the smartest way possible,” Broughton says.
People are always the key to success in any business, Broughton believes. “We look for bankers that are pioneers with deep customer relationships. They want to build something. Our people are excited about building a business, and a lot of people bank with us because that excitement is contagious.
“The easiest thing to do in the banking business is to call up an architect and a builder and build a branch.” (Broughton calls branches a perceived need not an actual one—“bank branches will become the payphones of the banking industry”). “The hardest thing is finding good people. We invest in people not places,” Broughton says.
Growth will come, Broughton says, as it has come since the bank’s founding—strategically. “Our plan is to only expand opportunistically by involving the best and most talented bankers in a market. We think there is tremendous growth to be found in the markets we already serve. Our goal is to grow shareholder value 20 percent a year.”
Broughton describes the ServisFirst customer as the “millionaire next door.”
“They are the typical small business owner in America, running the business often with spouse. They are at work at 5 a.m., working hard and long hours. They like working closely with a professional on their confidential banking business. Our customers are people who value a relationship more than convenience. The typical mass-market retail customer values convenience; business or professional people value relationships. That is our customer,” Broughton says.
The approximately 850 shareholders of ServisFirst have become tremendous advocates for helping to find that customer, Broughton says. “Our shareholders give us about 80 percent of the referrals we get for new business.”
The formula for success in banking or any business is really quite simple, Broughton says. “We all say we do the same things, but very few of us really do it. The key is to have a simple formula and execute it well. We don’t try to be all things to all people until we have a solution that is better than anyone else’s. If it is not better, we will not do it. We want customers to love us so they’ll stay with us and tell others. Good growth is viral.”
