From Azaleas to Zydeco: My 4,600-Mile Journey through the South

They Glue Lug Nuts on Wheels

They Glue Lug Nuts on Wheels Recently Charlotte has had two things going for it—banking and NASCAR. Banking is relatively new. In 1980, only one North Carolina bank was included in the top twenty-five banking companies in the United States, and that bank wasn’t headquartered in Charlotte. Twentyfive years later, Charlotte was the headquarters for two of the country’s largest banks, Bank of America and Wachovia. More than a regional force, Charlotte became a national banking center. It was no longer a way station between DC and Atlanta or anywhere else for that matter. It was a destination. At one time, one of every five jobs in Charlotte was financerelated . As the center of America’s modern banking industry and with NASCAR’s popularity, Charlotte became a big-time, “sho-nuff” city. By the time I visited, the banking landscape in Charlotte was decidedly different. Wachovia had gone broke and been acquired in a government -engineered takeover by Wells Fargo, a California-based bank. Though still technically present in Charlotte, Wachovia’s headquarters had been moved to California. All remaining operations were being consolidated elsewhere or converted to the Wells Fargo branches. Bank of America, while still the largest bank in the United States, was around only because it had received billions of dollars in government aid and loan guarantees to stay afloat after it had been deemed “too big to fail.” Talking to bankers about Charlotte didn’t have much appeal. I figured that they wouldn’t be too keen about discussing how they had gone to the 75 head of the government aid line so they would ride out the bad times they caused. The correctness of my decision hit me the first night in Charlotte. At dinner, I overheard a group of bankers discussing the day’s events. Now, I want to make it clear that I wasn’t eavesdropping—not that I’m above doing so—but by the volume of their voices, this party of five bankers clearly wanted everyone in the restaurant to be a part of the conversation. What a conversation—no talking football, basketball, or even NASCAR. I’d have been glad if they’d discussed interest rates, credit swaps, or even the latest rumors about office affairs. It was a classic large organization discussion about internal processes. The discussion spoke volumes about why large corporations don’t really create jobs in our modern economy. Large corporations don’t excel at much except corpspeak . Here are some direct quotes: “That matter was escalated to senior management” or “We are very solution-oriented as project managers” or “I’m going to use my facilitation skill-set to answer that.” No profanity, no ribald jokes, no snappy repartee. There was, however, a detailed discussion about how to deal with “derailing behavior in a meeting”—whatever that is. One fellow, obviously a senior one, advised his managers to confront the derailer by saying, “What I hear you saying is”—then telling the managers to repeat back to the derailer what the derailer had just said. Then the manager was advised to confront the derailer directly by saying, “You’ve been asked to take ownership of that problem,” and then finally the manager should close by asking the derailer, “Will you do that?” And these people actually get paid a salary. No wonder their banks were broke. I wanted to stay around long enough to hear how to deal with people who had been given home loans with monthly note payments in excess of half their take-home pay: “What I hear you saying is that you can’t make your payment, but you don’t want me to take ownership of your house.” Just then, as they ordered, one banker said, “I’m going to have the steak. We’re already $2 million over budget. What can the cost of the steak hurt?” I almost choked on my salad. I’d heard enough and decided to see a little different part of Charlotte. Now to NASCAR, the real reason to be in Charlotte. NASCAR is to Charlotte like country music is to Nashville: It’s everywhere. There 76 are three NASCAR regional offices in the greater Charlotte area. One of the major NASCAR venues, the Charlotte Raceway, is some twentyfive miles up the freeway in Concord. The $100 million NASCAR Hall of Fame is located in downtown Charlotte. Virtually...