Vernon Hill - Business Philosophy

Business Philosophy

Fortune Magazine describes Hill as a “...flamboyant, tradition-stomping American billionaire…the P.T. Barnum of banking”.

Hill has often advocated a business development strategy based on organic growth rather than acquisition, and by generating customer loyalty through service rather than price. Speaking to a 2010 House of Commons Treasury Select Committee on competition and choice in the banking sector, Hill said:

“My opinion is that great retailers never grow by acquisition…If you see yourself as a retailer delivering an unusual service, acquisitions are the easiest way to kill your model… is slower, but you get what you want at the end. You get a group of people running your model, not somebody else’s model….”

Hill is a critic of the shadow banking system, believing it to largely responsible for the 2007-2012 global financial crisis.

“We have two American banking systems. We have the normal banking system, with 8,000 banks serving consumers and businesses throughout America. Then we developed a shadow banking system…the money market funds, the investment banks, the credit default swaps. The current crisis is really a crisis of this shadow banking system….I think when are making a loan to, say, a restaurant, the overwhelming majority of banks aren’t playing games. As long as the guy’s paying, it’s a loan that pays back over time. Then we moved into all this exotic stuff — credit default swaps, CDOs. Believe me, no one at Goldman Sachs understands what they have on their books, because these kids are sitting at their computers dreaming this stuff up….”

Hill is often quoted as viewing his banks to be in the retail business rather than the banking business.

“You don't have to think about what time a Home Depot, a McDonald's or a Starbucks is open,” Hill says. “They're open. You just go. My theory was, if you advertise that open on Sunday, the consumer will automatically believe you're open all the time. That message is more important than the savings."

In its 2007 20-20-20 Club, Forbes Magazine lists Hill as one of seven CEOs (along with Warren Buffet and Larry Ellison) of publicly traded companies with tenures of over 20 years to deliver an annual shareholder return in excess of 20%. Commerce produced a 23% annual compounded shareholder return over that time.