Jim Wills, one of the inspirations behind St George Bank's "happy dragon", died at his home in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, late last month. Wills was 84.
Wills served for eight years as chief executive of St George Building Society, from 1976 to 1984 - years of rapid growth and geographic expansion for an organisation still breaking out of its roots in the southern suburbs of Sydney. The strategy and branding laid down during those years helped set up St George for conversion from a mutual to a bank in the early 1990s, and provided the framework on which his successors could build what is now the fifth-largest bank in Australia.
Born in Newcastle, England in 1921, and named James Duncan Wills, he migrated to Australia with his family the following year. Raised in Newcastle, New South Wales, Wills served in the Australian army during the Second World War, achieving the rank of Lieutenant. Wills served with the 127thAustralia Brigade Workshop stationed in Papua New Guinea.
Wills joined the then St George and Cronulla Group Terminating Building Society in 1946 as a cashier (or teller) in an organisation with fewer than a dozen staff.
He progressed through the ranks of the organisation, in those days a mutual owned by its members, dedicated to helping the "battler" finance their own home in the city's rapidly developing suburbs.
By 1970, Wills was secretary of St George Building Society, a job that made him the effective second in charge of the organisation, and with responsibilities that included supervision of the modest marketing function.
Wills took the helm as managing director of St George in 1976 (replacing Jack Ward) until his retirement in 1984. He then served on the board until 1993, by which time he'd moved from Sydney to the NSW north coast.
Fred Shield, who replaced Wills' successor (Nigel Solomon) as managing director of St George Bank in 1988, recalls that Wills had an extraordinary flair for marketing, public relations and staff relations.
As secretary and then general manager, Wills encouraged the development of the "happy dragon" as the cornerstone of the building society's marketing and promotions. First used in a comic strip style advertisement created by St George's advertising agency of the day, the happy dragon soon mushroomed into a vibrant persona that served the building society (and later bank) for more than two decades.
Wills played a hand in the choice of the second public face of the St George brand, the selection of entertainer Julie Anthony to star alongside the happy dragon in television commercials.
St George and its advertising agency had decided on a musical theme for a new advertising campaign, in what was probably their most ambitious attempt to make the most of the new medium of colour television. Wills and some other executives attended a production of the musical Irene in 1974, where Wills and colleagues decided that the show's lead was the person to star in their advertisements.
Wills opted for home-spun marketing as well. St George staff, often including Wills, would climb into the seven-foot green dragon suit at fetes and fairs, though Wills preferred to dress up in the red and white clobber of the Knight of St George.
An informal rule developed that each staff member should don the dragon suit at least once each year, and that no senior manager, including the managing director, was exempt. Wills' successors, Solomon, Shield and Jim Sweeney carried on the tradition. The bank's most recent chiefs, recruited from outside the ranks of St George, retired the happy dragon a few years ago.
Wills led St George through the most tumultuous episode in its history -the infamous "run" in 1979.
Radio host John Laws one morning broadcast a rumour that the solvency of St George was in doubt, and advised listeners to withdraw their funds while they had the chance.
Fred Shield recalls that the rumours started on the Monday or the Tuesday, and, fanned by Laws broadcast and subsequent media reports, customers crowded into St George branches seeking to withdraw their savings.
Wills responded by organising for St George branches to remain open each evening until every customer seeking a withdrawal had the chance to do so. The task was made easier as, in those days, withdrawals were made by cheque, and thus the issue of organising a sufficient supply of banknotes didn't arise.
Wills also organised for the New South Wales premier, Neville Wran, and the relevant minister to travel to the bank's main branch in Hurstville on the Thursday, where Wran famously used a loud hailer to assure the queue of customers, and the media, that the state government supervised the operations of the building society and that the government was satisfied as to the soundness of the organisation.
David Horton, the registrar of building societies in New South Wales at the time, recalls Wills working the society's staff with the help of then training manager Margaret Sweeney "locked in a big scrum, holding staff together while a surging mass of people wanted their money back."
The run petered out on the Friday, and, with extensive newspaper advertising over the weekend to reinforce the message, St George's management persuaded most customers who'd withdrawn funds to return their cheques, with no loss of interest.
Wills resented the building society's treatment during this episode by its banker, ANZ, which obliged St George to pay very high rates of interest on the funds to cover the spike in short-term borrowings the building society required to cover the customer withdrawals.
Wills appears to have been a reluctant supporter of the conversion of St George from a building society to a bank, a step taken in 1992 (though recollections differ on this point). Seven years earlier, he was antagonistic to the decision of the New South Wales Building Society to convert (changing its name to Advance Bank). Wills blocked attempts by Advance to remain as a member of the building society association.
Wills served as president of the Building Society Institute of New South Wales and the Australian Association of Permanent Building Societies.
In 1983, Wills was made a member of the Order of Australia.