The growth of Finance One Corporation, the consumer finance, indirect lending and mortgage subsidiary of the nation's fifth-largest bank holding company, BANK ONE CORPORATION*, has been spectacular — average annual earnings increases of more than 25% over the past three years. Traditional bankers just shake their heads. How do they do that? Year after year.

The answer is disarmingly simple. The keys to success are often around you but difficult to see. Sometimes, it requires "looking" in a whole new way.

Don Winkler, Chairman and CEO at Finance One, calls it "breakthrough thinking" — the ability to see infinite possibilities in everyday dealings. A dyslexic who believes his backward view of the world has been an advantage in business, Winkler has made counterintuitive problem-solving part of the culture at Finance One, not just a weekend retreat, and there is solid evidence he is succeeding.

Finance One has $40 billion in assets and more than 7,400 employees doing business in 400 cities in 40 states. It is the second-largest bank-owned finance company in America — and it is still growing.

As one of BANK ONE's five national lines of business, Finance One last year managed 24% of the Corporation's loan portfolio, contributed 12% of its overall revenues, and did so with only 7% of its total staff.

"We have talented people all the way down in Finance One and they know how to break through the status quo," Winkler says. "They do it all the time."

The key, he says, is how you think about your business. "We give all employees the permission to ask questions: 'What really drives results?' 'Where are the most profitable opportunities?' 'What sales activity has the greatest potential?'"

One example: Winkler and his Finance One team wondered what happened to loan applicants the Bank One branches turned down. Rather than refuse customers with less-than-perfect credit, the banks now refer these leads to Banc One Financial Services, Inc., a $3.2 billion Finance One unit that writes non-prime real estate secured loans. "We found a way to serve the customer, give them a program to get out of the debt tunnel, and refer them back to the bank after their credit is repaired," explains Winkler.

When BANK ONE acquired credit card issuer First USA Corp. in 1997, Finance One began calling the card company's turndowns, too. Today, the finance company gets about 40% of its retail origination business through internal referrals — without spending an extra dime on marketing.

The same breakthrough thinking is evident in Finance One's other businesses — Banc One Credit Company (primarily indirect auto loans and leases and dealer financial services), Tax-Related Products, Education Finance, Banc One Mortgage Corporation, Brokered Home Equity, and Home Improvement.

In Education Finance's market, for instance, Finance One has responded to recent federal rate regulation that has cut lender profits on government-backed student loans. The breakthrough:

Develop new partnerships, even with those who used to be your competitors. Recent examples are deals with USA Group and Sallie Mae involving Bank One's MedLoan products and with Servus Financial on Bank One's new private loan program, "Education One".

After BANK ONE had acquired 70 individual banks in 13 states, Winkler and his management team were handed the job of consolidating the indirect auto financing businesses from those banks into one national franchise. The result was a single entity with more efficient, standardized loan policies, common systems, and people focused on achieving greater economies of scale and better, lower cost customer service.

Today, Finance One's Banc One Credit Company unit has 2,400 employees and 58 sales locations in 40 states serving the financing needs of more than 10,000 auto dealers. Another breakthrough: Reversing the normal business flow by helping its auto dealer customers sell more cars.

Finance One is driving business to dealers through a direct auto loan/lease marketing campaign to First USA credit card customers and through an Internet service called "Wheels by Bank One," which lists new and used car inventories on local dealer lots. Recently, Wheels went live in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and York, PA, bringing the program to a total of eight markets so far.

Talk about adding value to the relationships with your auto dealer customers. "If you look at an opportunity from all sides, it's not hard to find something in it for everyone," Winkler concludes. "You just need a little imagination."

*The numbers in this article reflect the anticipated fourth-quarter close of the merger between BANC ONE CORPORATION and First Chicago NBD Corporation.

Reprinted from Credit Magazine with permission from the American Financial Services Association.