In every acquisition, people wonder how much enthusiasm employees will bring to their new corporate home and how much support their new bosses will provide. Kim Culp, president of Eden Prairie-based Century Bank, a commercial bank that grew by almost 70 percent in the last three years, said that challenge is much more important for Bremer than putting its name on new offices. This is really a human resources business. Business customers don t worry about geography, about where your offices are. They re interested in whether you have the intellectual, professional talent to give them the smart service they want and need, Culp said.
Bremer officials don t argue that point.
Employees are key to retaining customers, Meads said. A lot of the relationships customers have are with employees. We re planning ways to incent them to keep customers trying to educate them about our company, our approach to banking. If growth can be a measure of employee enthusiasm, Bremer s record may give the company some optimism. Bremer Twin Cities achieved internal growth of 20 to 30 percent annually during the last part of the 1990s, and the company s Grand Forks bank increased its market share by 39 percent in the last six years.