Welcome to the About Perception Podcast from The Garrity Group Public Relations, this is Tom Garrity. Our topic today focuses on two aspects of The 2016 Garrity Perception Survey: Perception of the banking industry and the call for buinsess owners and executives to be more involved in the solving the State’s economic and social issues. According to the 2016 survey, New Mexico residents have a 64% favorability of local banks a 35% favorability towards national banks. In addition, 76% of residents wants business owners and executives to have a more active role to improve New Mexico’s economy and 71% want the business leaders to have a more active role in solving New Mexico’s social problems. Joining me today is someone who knows a thing or two about banking, business leadership and is herself a servant leader in the community, Jennifer Riordan, Vice President with Wells Fargo. I’ve had the opportunity to know Jennifer for decades and her community involvement on a personal and corporate level is beyond admirable. One award that sums up Jennifer is an honor of receiving the Samaritan Counseling Center’s New Mexico Ethics in Business Young Leader Award. Welcome Jennifer… What do you think is driving the disparity of favorability between local and national banks? Two years ago, New Mexicans told us that they prefer shopping local small businesses over the big national stores, then identified Walmart as their favorite local small business. What are some of the ways Wells Fargo is like a local bank? Switching topics, one of the areas asked New Mexico residents about was the amount of involvement business owners and executives should have in helping to improve New Mexico’s Economy. 76% say business leaders need to have a more active role. What is your take on that response? The last topic we will touch on during our time today revolved around the amount of involvement business owners/executives should have in helping solve New Mexico’s social problems. 71% said leadership needs to have a more active role. Are you surprised by this? What are some ways that business owners and executives can get involved in helping to solve New Mexico’s social problems? Thank you for listening to the About Perception podcast on aboutperception.com. For more information about the research we discussed visit garrityperceptionsurvey.com Also, be sure to listen to some of our other perception podcasts, all available through Garritypr.com.

Full Transcript

rTom Garrity, The Garrity Group [00:00:08] Welcome to the About Perception podcast from the Garity Group, Public Relations. This is Tom Garrity. Our topic today focuses on two aspects of the 2016 Garity Perception survey, perception of the banking industry and the call for business owners and executives to be more involved in solving the state’s economic and social issues. According to 2016 survey, New Mexico residents have a 64 percent favorability of local banks and a 35 percent favorability towards national banks. In addition, 76 percent of residents want business owners and executives to have a more active role to improve New Mexico’s economy. And 71 percent want business leaders to have a more active role in solving New Mexico’s social problems. Joining me today is someone who knows a thing or two about banking business leadership and is herself a servant leader in the community. Jennifer Reardon, vice president of Wells Fargo. I’ve had the opportunity to know Jennifer for literally decades, and her community involvement on a personal and corporate level is beyond admirable. One of the awards that sum up Jennifer and I believe anyway, is an honor of receiving the Samaritan counseling centers. New Mexico Ethics in Business Young Leader Award. Welcome to the microphone.

Jennifer Riordan, Wells Fargo Bank [00:01:22] Jennifer Reardon, thank you. Thank you so much. And I love especially that that sets Young in the title.

Tom Garrity, The Garrity Group [00:01:28] Not especially bad, because I think we met when you were like just an infant.

Jennifer Riordan, Wells Fargo Bank [00:01:32] I think that as the years go by that I got so.

Tom Garrity, The Garrity Group [00:01:37] So what are the things that you believe are driving the disparity of favorability between local and national banks?

Jennifer Riordan, Wells Fargo Bank [00:01:44] Thanks. I think that your survey is powerful and that it reflects some of these really important topics and issues that we’re facing in New Mexico and address opportunities for New Mexicans to take care of that, address it collectively and have great impact. So disparaging a disparity among banking institutions, both small and large, I think comes from the understanding of most opportunity to be local bank first with national opportunity. So one thing Wells Fargo prides itself on is our local the Nationals and our national, the locals, our opportunity to be a small bank in the 52 communities that we serve across New Mexico. But we’re in an effort to provide national opportunities at the enterprise level to provide resources that will be needed across New Mexico. So they’ll say we’ll have a different need than Albuquerque and last Cruces. This is going to have a different need than hobs. And so we provide local resources to make sure that we have local banking relationships with our customers. And then, of course, we want the opportunity to provide an opportunity to Crap’s grasp national resources into the marketplace.

Tom Garrity, The Garrity Group [00:02:49] That’s great. You know, and it’s interesting, when I look at the statewide reach of Wells Fargo, I always seems to be wherever it is that I am, as well as in New Mexico.

Tom Garrity, The Garrity Group [00:02:57] There’s Wells Fargo. And, you know, two years ago, you know, New Mexicans told us in our perceptions survey they prefer shopping local small businesses over the big national stores. And then they went ahead and identified that Wal-Mart was their favorite local small business. What are some of the ways that Wells Fargo is like a local small business? 

Jennifer Riordan, Wells Fargo Bank [00:03:18] That’s a great question. We are proud to be like a local small business and that we provide access to our customers to be able to gain knowledge, opportunity to be successful in their own small business and in their own shopping experience and their own banking experience. So one of the things we are really proud about is we know that we’re an instrument. As the communities we serve. So we have opportunity for our banking store managers to make the best investment of community relations dollars, the best support of our customers needs right there in the store. So we empower them with that opportunity to do what’s best for the customers by allowing them to make the best choices for the customer. So we’re really proud of that. We also do local investing of our charitable giving. So we do over a million dollars in charitable giving across the state of New Mexico. And often it’s in markets what we’re doing. Sometimes five hundred and one thousand dollar investments make really big impacts for those communities that need it. And of course, we’re doing larger investments that have statewide reach, like investing in the U.N. and Cancer Center and doing some work with New Mexico State University and University, New Mexico that have state libraries. So really proud of that opportunity to provide local access for our customers and our team members to be able to do great big work in our communities. 

Tom Garrity, The Garrity Group [00:04:28] Well, in fact, I’m going to switch it up just a little bit. You know, the when we talked about it because it was such a great lead-in, when we talk about the amount of involvement business owners and executives should have in helping to solve New Mexico’s social problems, 71 percent of New Mexico residents said leadership in general just needs to have a more active role in solving New Mexico’s social problems. How are some ways that small business and even the corporate community can get involved to really make that positive favorable impact? 

Jennifer Riordan, Wells Fargo Bank [00:05:03] Excellent question. And I think we all own it. I think if we can work collectively. Together, we’ll have a huge impact on the communities that we serve across New Mexico to make that number stronger, even stronger than 71 percent. I think a hundred percent of our leadership should be engaged in all the communities that we serve across New Mexico, one from this perspective of volunteerism and also from a perspective of leadership, whether chambers of commerce, with their economic development divisions, so that we can begin to make New Mexico the place that we already love and know is amazing and let others know how easy it is to so they can grow and beat and grow opportunities for us to keep our students here from an education perspective and then grow it into jobs that exist because we’ve made it an amazing place and that we all on that. And we have to be passionate about making New Mexico amazing.

Jennifer Riordan, Wells Fargo Bank [00:05:49] And that means taking a leadership role. It means stepping up when asked to take a service role in our communities. It means when we’re asked to help support an initiative, either on the political side or on a business side, that we own that and we should do that and try to be collective and collaborative and how we do it. 

Tom Garrity, The Garrity Group [00:06:06] That’s great. One of the other areas that we surveyed New Mexico residents about was the amount of involvement business owners and executives should have in improving New Mexico’s economy.

Tom Garrity, The Garrity Group [00:06:16] I mean, we’ve all seen firsthand how the recession is just seeming to linger here. At least that’s my perspective. But 76 percent of New Mexico residents say that business leaders need to have a more active role in really helping New Mexico get out of this recession. It really is a community effort reflecting on your previous comment.

Tom Garrity, The Garrity Group [00:06:35] It is a community effort. And I think the one thing that all of us can own is how we can support our local businesses and our small businesses to be successful. So a lot of things could be about financial literacy, which we’re really proud at Wells Fargo, to be able to offer free financial literacy training for small business, for seniors, for our military, and then for kids and teachers to provide in the classroom from all ages from really cradle to grave. And so one of the best things about that is that we can help support and build up and lift up our community through education and through financial literacy. So we’re really proud of that. We’d ask others to do the same thing. Getting out into our communities and volunteer, find the thing in your community that is most important and go out and help to try and solve the problem and find a solution or work together for the better impact of making our economy stronger and better. So here in Mexico, we know that a lot of our businesses are small businesses. So shop local. And I mean really local. Wal-Mart is wonderful and has a place in our community. But I certainly think that we could be working for local businesses and small businesses who don’t know who they are. Go to Acción w the loan fund. Azem, who they’re investing in to help build up a small business in New Mexico and providing a resource. Go to your local bank. Ask with our banking. That’s our small business owner and support them. Those are ways in which we can build our economy and find ways to strengthen what we’re doing in New Mexico.

Tom Garrity, The Garrity Group [00:07:55] And I think that one of the ways to is great. A great response, too, by the way, one of things I think we should do is really share our pride and about why we like living in Albuquerque, why we like living in New Mexico, because so many times it seems as if we have this, you know, inferiority complex. Well, we’re not Texas. We’re not Colorado, we’re not Arizona. You know, California is gosh, look, they have beaches and stuff like that. And I think sometimes we just forget about the beauty and the majesty that we have. What are one or two reasons why you are glad that you are here in the Land of Enchantment?

Jennifer Riordan, Wells Fargo Bank [00:08:27] So twenty two years ago in August, my husband and I moved here from Vermont from the middle of New England. Dead winter, dead, dead cold winters. We had a lovely summer, of course, the beautiful, majestic fall. But then we had mud season. So we moved to New Mexico. Sight unseen. Had never been here before. And the majesty and the wonder of this amazing community. For me, it’s the people. It’s absolutely the people who are so welcoming, so kind, so supportive. And it’s that, of course, mountains and sunsets. I mean, we can’t have a better culture climate here, but the diversity of our people and the amazing opportunity to go to Arkoma, Pueblo an hour away and experience a native community to be able to go down the street and have New Mexico cuisine to talk to someone who has been experience the POW, for example, that was just here. These are all things that happen in our community that are right outside of our backdoor hiking lulus trail, golfing in the afternoon, skiing in the morning, and all these things that we can do here that you can’t do anywhere else in the whole entire world. And we don’t have any natural disasters.

Tom Garrity, The Garrity Group [00:09:30] So it’s pretty impressive. I mean, of course, why wouldn’t you live here? Why wouldn’t you live here?

Jennifer Riordan, Wells Fargo Bank [00:09:34] So I’d say the amazing things that are Connection Visitors Bureau are doing across the state, particularly Albuquerque, to highlight that amazing opportunity to come here, experienced New Mexico. Change your perspective about what we’re doing in our community. We encourage everyone to do that. And I do think that we have to get out of our own way. I absolutely think we’ve got to run away. Take time to tell what you’re passionate. I think that’s a very important point and utilize those passions to get others to be excited about New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Tom Garrity, The Garrity Group [00:10:04] Jennifer Reardon. Thank you very much for your time today. Thank you. As a US, I really love the opportunity and thank you for sharing that perspective, perspective and decisions of others. I think it’s really helpful to see this and be able to talk about why and how we can help change it.

Jennifer Riordan, Wells Fargo Bank [00:10:19] Well, thank you very much for listening to the About Preception podcast on about perception dot com. For more information about the research we discussed, visit Garrity Perceptions Survey dot com. Also, you sure you listen to some of our other preception podcasts all available through Garrity, Paul.

Published May 23, 2016