Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 1998 Finance One National Sales Conference!

It is a great honor to be here with you tonight. I would have been here sooner, but my helicopter got hijacked by a couple of tourists who wanted to get a good seat for the Super Bowl.

Well, we have a super program of our own planned for this week.

This is the fourth annual gathering of the best of the best at Finance One. Some of you have been here since the beginning of this journey. Others joined us in mid-stride. And all of you contributed to the phenomenal success we achieved in 1997. So take a look around. And be proud of the great company you are in. You will not find a more motivated, talented and dedicated team in any organization!

I know you have traveled a great distance to be here — but probably not by raft or helicopter. You may not even be sure what time zone you are in. Bill still thinks he is in the Caribbean!

So, we promise to keep the program moving along.

First, let me welcome you to San Diego, one of the world's greatest port cities and a perfect place to set sail for success in 1998. San Diego is home to America's Cup legend Dennis Connor. It is the birthplace of the U. S. Navy's most elite fighting force — the Navy Seals. And it is where the best of the National Football League will duke it out two weeks from now.

Tonight, we will kick off the 1998 Sales Conference by talking a bit about why we are here. We will highlight the fantastic results you brought us in 1997. And we will honor some star performers, who deserve special recognition for their accomplishments. We will also introduce this year's conference theme and tell you what's in store for the next four days. Finally, we will ask for your commitment to sharing the Finance One Vision in 1998.

Let me begin by discussing why we are here. Why are we here in San Diego this week?

Those who know me will tell you that everything I do is driven by a purpose. There is a Finnish proverb that says, "The ship, which sails by every wind, comes never into harbor." Without a purpose — a clear direction and reason for being — we leave our future to chance.

So, let me take a moment to tell you about the purpose of this event. First, we are here to honor and celebrate your spectacular achievements. Second, we are here to challenge and encourage you. And third, we are here to work together so that we can continue to upgrade our performance in 1998.

How will we accomplish all that?

Those who have been here before, know that the annual Finance One Sales Conference is much more than an event. It is the result of a year of business planning that sets our strategic direction. It is about developing new, expanded and stronger customer relationships. And it is about increasing the sales and profitability of those relationships.

Some of you may remember our first sales conference three years ago. It was a different world back then. We were a new company — with a pioneering spirit — at the beginning of something great. We did not have a guidebook or a safety net to fall back on. So, with a dedicated team and a lot of passion, we were off to discover an uncharted territory.

A year later, in 1996, we had surveyed the landscape and made some notes. We had developed a better understanding of our strengths, where we needed to improve, and where we wanted to be. We were ready to build our vision. And with your help, we set our sights high and mapped our direction for a very bright future.

Last year, we took that road map and created a sense of shared purpose to help us get there. We sharpened our focus, put in a lot of hard work, and in the end, we realized our vision with record-breaking success!

So, where do we go from here? How do we take these great results and make them even greater? In 1998, it is time to share our vision with those who play key roles in making this dream a reality. Sharing the vision is about opening a dialog that allows us to evaluate our business strategy, to make upgrades based on the input we receive, and to reach a common focus.

Over the next four days, we will learn how sharing the vision will help us achieve greater teamwork. We will have an opportunity to share information and insights across businesses. And we will discover how sharing the vision with customers can help us work with them as true teammates.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what this year's conference is all about!

Let us take a moment to review how we got here. It has been a long road, and we have many successes to celebrate. Let us look at what you helped us accomplish in 1997 — a phenomenal year for Finance One.

To give you an update on each of our three divisions, I am going to turn the program over to those who led the charge this year. As you might have guessed from their outfits, it was not always an easy march to victory in 1997. Our competitors fought hard and there were some tough battles along the way. Yet through it all, they were able to marshal our collective talents and bring home another record year for Finance One. As you saw in tonight's opening video, this team is living proof of all that can be accomplished when we share a common vision.

First up, is a man who was here when the Finance One story began, some five years ago. A lot has happened since then, and he is here to tell you about it. Once again, please welcome on stage — or should I say, on deck — the president of the Consumer Financial Services Division.

(The division presidents spoke about the 1997 financial results of their respective businesses.)

So, how about it? Did we have a fantastic year? Give yourselves a big hand!

All told, Finance One reached a new peak in 1997, with over $366 million in pre-tax earnings — a 34 percent increase over 1996! We are the country's largest bank-owned finance company and the fifth-ranked overall. Our $28 billion in managed assets are about one-fourth of BANC ONE’S total business ... and that does not even include the newest Finance One division — Banc One Mortgage Corporation. They could not be here tonight because they are having their own sales conference in Scottsdale. But you will meet the president of the mortgage company on Wednesday.

The numbers we just talked about are at the end of the process ... the tangible results of a clear and powerful vision. A vision opens our imagination, and empowers us. A vision gives us energy and courage. A vision makes us unique, and brings meaning to our work.

Unlike finite goals and objectives, a vision opens our world to infinite possibilities.

What happened when Fred Smith got a "C" on a term paper suggesting an overnight, nationwide delivery system? Instead of giving up, he passed that vision to his employees and made Federal Express one of the ten best places to work in America.

Consider how these visions changed our lives: Henry Ford's vision was to "provide safe, reliable transportation for the common man." Tom Watson, Sr.'s vision for IBM was "to be the biggest and most respected company in the world."

And how about Microsoft ... "a computer on every desk and in every home."

At Finance One, our vision is: "To be the most profitable and most innovative finance company in America with subsidiaries operating nationwide that are acknowledged within their markets to be the best providers of services that help customers achieve their goals."

Notice how it says nothing about sales targets, revenue or competitive ranking. It is all about direction — providing a clear picture of where we want to be, without dictating how to get there. But the real power of vision is when it is shared.

Look at what happened when our Finance One Seals pulled the raft in their own directions — and then what happened when they worked together. It may seem like a simple lesson, but it does demonstrate an important point: People are most successful when they are inspired by a sense of shared purpose.

The Finance One’s purpose is an action statement that drives us toward realizing our vision. It challenges us: "To expand BANC ONE’S ability to create value and solve problems for our customers, in a way that levels the playing field with non-bank rivals, opens new markets and creates breakthrough results, so that employees enjoy personal growth and shareholders enjoy enriched returns."

Our purpose paints a compelling picture of our future. And inspires us to get there. Everyone has a role and shared purpose in achieving our vision. Just like the crew of a sailboat, we must respond quickly to changes and opportunities. We need the tools to navigate in open waters, the confidence to ride out stormy weather, and the commitment to work together.

Over the next four days, we will harness the power that comes from achieving a common vision and purpose. We will explore new ways to share the vision with each other. We will learn about the vision and purpose of each division, so that we can share and collaborate across businesses. And we will learn about our customers' unique needs and values, so that we can work together to build solutions.

To help you do that, each day will provide new tools and insights in the areas of skills, knowledge and desire — producing a powerful belief in yourself. As you will quickly see, these attributes are absolutely key to the process of sharing.

Let me show you with this picture. It represents the basic building blocks of a strong belief system. The first circle focuses on skills and sharing the vision with each other. When a team works together and applies its collective skills toward a common purpose, there is no limit to what they can achieve.

Think about what makes the Finance One team unique: our vision ... our purpose ... our collective abilities. How about our breakthrough language?

On Monday, we will show you how to work even better as a team. The Navy Seals will demonstrate the skills, sharing and cooperation that have made them an exceptional model of teamwork — the best of the best. Senn-Delaney has worked with the Finance One leadership on team building. During Monday's breakouts Senn-Delaney will lead you through some team-building exercises.

The next circle is knowledge and how it relates to sharing the vision across businesses. At Finance One, our products and customers vary widely. Yet we all follow a common management process — the Big Five — that allows us to communicate and collaborate across business units. The Cohen Brown approach covered on Tuesday gives us a common platform for sharing across businesses. It provides a consistent approach to managing the customer relationship.

The final circle is desire — the driving force from within that gives us the will and strength to perform the impossible. Look up desire in the dictionary and you will find words like "hunger," "craving" and "urgency." Desire motivated inventors like Thomas Edison to follow dreams despite thousands of failures. Desire gave Florence Chadwick the courage to swim the English Channel in the face of agonizing cramps and total exhaustion.

What motivates us to excel?

Wednesday's program is about the desire that comes from sharing the vision with customers. Forming a valued relationship with customers can be incredibly motivating. Imagine if we treated our most valued customers as though we were part of the same organization. Not just at the end of the process, but sharing a common vision right up front. And literally working together, on the same side of the table, to develop the solutions.

On Wednesday, we will meet two of the best in the business of relationship marketing. Don Peppers and Dr. Martha Rogers of Marketing 1:1 will be here to help us develop one-to-one relationships with our most important customers. John B. McCoy and Rich Lehmann think this is so important that they will also be here for the company breakouts. In these sessions we will hear some revealing insights direct from our customers.

Now, what does that add up to? On their own, skills, knowledge and desire are like pieces of a puzzle that has not been completed. Put them together and they give us a belief in ourselves to accomplish something great.

It was belief that drove Susan B. Anthony to spend her entire life promoting women's rights. And it was belief that kept Lewis and Clark moving forward, even when their destination was nowhere in sight.

On Thursday, motivational speaker Mike Vance will conclude the conference with a program that connects the skills, knowledge and desire elements of sharing the vision. Having read Mike's book, I know you will leave the session with a belief in yourself that will inspire you to act, long after the conference is over.

Before we wrap up tonight's program, we would like to recognize a group of individuals, who have taken a strong belief system and produced outstanding sales results. You may be sitting next to one of them or you may have noticed their special name tags during the reception. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 1997 President's Awards!

(President’s and Chairman Award winners were introduced.)

Congratulations! You earned it! Let’s give these winners another round of applause while they return to their seats of honor.

As you can see, belief in yourself and sharing a common vision can be extremely rewarding. But there is something else this group shares — something that transforms a dream into reality. A promise to be your best in every circumstance ... a guarantee of victory. That trait is commitment.

Tonight, we have talked about our accomplishments at Finance One, and we have set the stage for even greater success in 1998. We have discussed the importance of direction and purpose. And we have outlined the significance of sharing the vision at many different levels. As we get ready for the week ahead, I ask you to consider carefully what makes the leaders, inventors, and dreamers we look up to accomplish great things. In every case, their success began with a personal decision — a rock solid commitment to excellence. For Finance One to be successful in 1998, we need each of you to make that kind of commitment to one thing: sharing the vision.

This week, we will make that commitment together by following a three-step process. You will read about the process each day in the Daily Vision newsletter. And tomorrow you will meet with your team leaders to go over it step-by-step.

Let me take a moment now to walk you through the process.

The first step is to list your Big Five goals for 1998. As you arrived today, you were given a goal worksheet in your participant’s guide. Take some time to reflect on what you want to achieve this year. Write those ideas down on your goal worksheet and then rank them — one through five. Your most important commitment is what you would focus on if you could accomplish just one of those five.

The next step is to think about what you learn this week and how to apply it toward achieving that goal. Each morning you will receive a daily commitment worksheet. Throughout the day use the worksheet to list the five most important messages you heard. At the end of the day, write down how these lessons have inspired you to reach your number one goal.

The third and final step will come on Thursday morning. That is when you will get together again with your team leader to put your commitment in writing. Using the commitment contract at the back of your participants' binder, you will write down your number one business commitment for 1998. You will also list those activities or behavior changes that resulted from each day of the conference. And finally, you will commit to sharing the vision with one person, to help you achieve your goal in 1998.

So, are we committed to this process?

Throughout history, commitment has been represented in many forms: a wedding ring, a cross, a family crest. In sports, commitment to being the best is recognized by symbols like an Olympic medal, the Stanley Cup, a Super Bowl ring. There are many, less obvious symbols of commitment, too.

By the time Michelangelo finished his masterpiece on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he was nearly blind from the paint that dripped in his eyes. But even today, his magnificent work remains an enduring symbol of the profound commitment he made.

Before we leave on Thursday, we will turn-in our written commitments in exchange for something that will serve as a reminder of the pledges we have made — a symbol that our chips are in the game.

I want to leave you tonight with one of the most powerful symbols of commitment I have come to know.

The Navy Seals that you will hear from tomorrow literally put their lives on the line for the commitment they have made — not as individuals, but as a part of an inseparable unit. From day one of their grueling "hell week," they are taught the importance of teamwork. Together, they withstand freezing water, minimal sleep, and exhausting conditions. They quickly learn that commitment to each other is the only way they will make it.

After six months of training, members of this special forces group are assigned to a team. They are awarded a coin with their name on it. It serves as a constant reminder of the commitment they have made. We have several members of the Navy Seals with us tonight.

Lt. Chaby, gentlemen ... join me in honoring this elite group!

(Lt. Chaby presentation to Don Winkler:

Well, I guess the drinks are on me!