Chief growth officer
The numbers were showing a disconnect between the expense for a marketing campaign and the results for Great Plains Bank in Oklahoma City.
Lindsey Ogan, then the bank’s marketing director, wanted to know what was going on. “It just makes me crazy when we spend money and I can’t prove a result from it,” said Ogan.
She ended up visiting all 20 of the bank’s far-flung branches, which made clear what the trouble was. Branch employees were not up to speed on what they needed to know to sell new products and convert new customers, said Ogan, who was promoted to chief growth officer in January 2020.
Her solution was not just a matter of education and training. She recruited a representative from each of the bank’s branches to help lead the charge.
“We knew doing this retail strategy shift would be a massive change,” said Ogan. “And you can’t do that and sustain it over the long term without a doggedly, stubbornly positive person who would keep going despite the resistance to change that every organization faces.”
Ogan said she asked branch managers to select people based on personality and leadership potential, not job title. The 20 representatives — all of them turned out to be women — ranged from a part-time teller to a branch operations manager.
The effort to overhaul the retail strategy yielded success on multiple fronts, including spurring a better-than-expected increase in consumer and business deposits, which rose by $39.3 million in 2019, Ogan said. And it led to a digital training initiative in 2020 that resulted in improved cross-selling and customer service.
The 20 reps, meanwhile, have come to serve as a crucial sounding board for Ogan when the bank mulls other initiatives, such as a recent debit-card conversion. “We realize that anything we do at the corporate level is never going to succeed unless you have that buy-in at the branch level,” said Ogan.
She also jumped on the idea of connecting this group of women and empowering them to become future leaders by providing mentorship and hosting retreats. Over the last two years, the group has been among the most-promoted at Great Plains, despite the added workload of the volunteer role.
Ogan’s own experience as an openly gay woman working for a rural community bank has made her more attuned to those who might otherwise be overlooked. “I definitely feel I have something to contribute to the conversation about diversity in the workplace and challenges faced by those who don’t fit the typical mold of corporate America,” she said.
Ogan is used to throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. As a child, she was always on the lookout for entrepreneurial opportunities. A drummer, she once came up with a cymbal-cleaning service that she pitched to churches.
After high school, she studied entrepreneurship at the University of Oklahoma and landed in banking soon after, which unexpectedly proved to be a fit.
“You kind of learn that, with anything, business strategy is business strategy,” she said.
Nominating executive: Mark Russell, chief executive officer, Great Plains Bank
What he said:: “Lindsey’s entrepreneurial spirit has set her apart since her first day on the job. She has that unique combination of vision, communication skills, and energy that makes her such an effective leader in our organization.”
