LEADERSHIP CORNER
Bank executive Lau values face to face meetings

Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

Constance H. Lau

Position: President, chief executive, American Savings Bank

Age: 50

Personal profile

Experience: Financial vice president, treasurer, HEI Power Corp.; treasurer, Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc.; attorney, Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, San Francisco.

Self portrait: "I believe in mentoring everyone. ... It's important to be out constantly where I can interact personally with employees and I can catch up on what's going on in their lives. Even riding up and down in the elevator is a great opportunity to see a lot of folks. I also stop by branches, sometimes on weekends, whenever I'm nearby for a dentist's appointment for one of my kids or a soccer game. I also attend as many orientation sessions for new employees and training sessions as I can just so I can talk with employees and give them a quick update on what's happening at American and a chance to ask me questions, any question."

Favorite book: "Whatever book my son wants me to read with him — currently 'The River' by Gary Paulsen. Eric just turned 11 and is in fifth grade."

Favorite Web site: "My son's teacher's Web site, where I can look up his homework assignments."

Most remembered mentor: "My first boss, who taught me it's not how hard you work or how long you work, but how effective you are at getting the job done. And how important it is to make time for the things that count, like family. He was also the kind of boss who did his homework so well that he was almost always right and you could trust that if you followed his direction that your work would never be wasted. I resolved back then to try to be like him — very effective at getting the job done and with time for my family."

Best part of the job: "Seeing people have fun realizing their potential."

Worst part of the job: "Creating an environment in which employees feel comfortable speaking their minds, even if their comments are critical. Many organizations are designed as traditional command and control organizations. Today's newer and empowered organizations, and today's rapidly changing environment, require employees to take a much more active role in constructively reinventing the company on a continual basis."

Trademark expression: "Focus on where you can add value."

Best decision as a leader: "Technology's no good if employees can't use it. This year we doubled our capital expenditure budget, mostly for technology, and we rolled out programs for employees to encourage them to use technology. For example, American subsidizes high-speed RoadRunner access for employees at $20 a month and we reimburse employees for up to $1,000 of computer-related purchases. ... You can even buy a digital camera or a laptop for your child or grandchild. But my belief is that if we can get technology into the home, then employees will use it in the workplace."

What I worry about most: "Keeping everything on track when you're moving so fast. We adopted a wonderful strategic plan last summer to expand from a retail thrift serving mostly consumers to a full-service community bank serving both consumers and businesses. It's an aggressive plan that requires huge change, transformational change. We've asked a lot from our employees to make the jump, and it's paramount to me to think and rethink and rethink again our implementation plans so that when we ask employees to change, we've done our best as managers to ensure that they'll be successful. Our employees have been very willing to change, and it's important to me not to let them down. So I worry that we've not thought of everything."

Most difficult challenge: "Finding time for everything."

Leadership tip: "Seek to inspire people. Seek unplanned opportunities to interact with employees informally and get to know them as people, what's important to them and how to help them achieve it."

Taking on...

New opportunities

"In late 2000, I saw a great opportunity in commercial real estate lending because other lenders were cutting back or leaving the market entirely because the Hawai'i economy hadn't been good for over a decade.

"But some of the worst loans the company had made in the past were commercial real estate loans and there was very little appetite to do more of that kind of lending.

"However, I was convinced there was great opportunity and I knew that if we did it right, it would work so I convinced our board to let us give it a try.

"We hired in very experienced commercial real estate lenders, developed the infrastructure (systems, policies, procedures and staff) to handle the business and started marketing to customers in July 2001.

"In only six months we booked over $60 million in new commercial real estate loans whereas we had previously been averaging only $10 million to 11 million a year.

"Getting into commercial real estate lending has been a home run for us and borrowers now have another local bank in town to provide them financing.

"So, just because you haven't been successful at something in the past doesn't mean you can't be successful in the future, if you do it right."