Good Guys Finish First

About the Book

C. PAUL JOHNSON put together a $2 billion banking group in Chicago in the 80´s and sold it in 1995 to what is now U.S.Bancorp. It was a 17-bank, 36-location organization. All were community banks, each with a president and local board. It was what he calls “real community banking.”

His book, GOOD GUYS FINISH FIRST: REFLECTIONS OF A CEO AND HOW TO START A DE NOVO COMMUNITY BANK, aims to dispel the common belief, strengthened by recent indictments, that a CEO succeeds by being devious and ruthless. In fact, Johnson was urged to write the book by the dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, since retired, Donald Jacobs, who envisioned such a book as a worthy addition to a business school library.

The book records Johnson’s work as founding CEO of the hugely successful First Colonial Bankshares organization and tells how to start a de novo community bank. It is bound to strike a chord in the banking and investment worlds. For it Johnson interviewed 15 community bank CEO´s in five states, seven investment bankers, three banking commissioners, and several Chicago FDIC staff members. He also discusses outsourcing of services, compensation, and ways to measure a bank’s worth.

In a foreword former FDIC Chairman William M. Isaac is “glad [Johnson] has decided to share his recipe for success.” Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt says the book “will be a rich resource for today’s students.” California Congressman Mike Thompson calls this “a good book by a good man” and says it “should be required reading for business students, bankers or anyone who may be losing faith in our institutions.” Joseph P. “Joe” Allen, an astronaut friend of Johnson turned highly successful business executive, calls the book “a must” for people thinking about starting a business. There is nothing like this book on the market.

About the Author

Jim Bowman covered religion for The Chicago Daily News, 1968-78. Before that he was a Jesuit priest. He has been an independent writer since The News folded in 1978. He has written six books, including Priests at Work: How Catholic Pastors Apply Church Law in Difficult Cases, which appeared in 1994 as Bending the Rules: What American Priests Tell American Catholics, and numerous articles, reviews, and essays. He lives in the Chicago area. He and his wife have six grown children.