A team of five Fuqua MBAs partnered with the second oldest minority-owned bank in the US, M&F Bank, to build a brand awareness strategy with the goal of improving community access to funding through small business loans and foundation investments.

M&F Bank NC is a local community bank with branches throughout North Carolina and a rich heritage in serving the community. While many minority-owned banks have been acquired or pushed out of the market throughout the past few decades, M&F Bank is still minority-owned and holds fast to its mission to enable access to capital, particularly to under-represented and minority demographics and to the larger community as a whole.  At 113 years old, M&F Bank is the 2nd oldest minority-owned bank in the US and ranks as the 8th largest financial institution in the US with over $250M in total assets.

”M&F Bank was a terrific client for our MBA students to partner with, as they came to the table wanting advice and direction for a real business need while also consistently making time for the team through ongoing conversations, data gathering, and problem solving with the team,” noted Faculty Advisor Stephanie Knight, Fuqua ’11 alum. Our students were also excited to engage with the mission-driven organization’s rich history. 

M&F Bank, originally known as Mechanics and Farmers Bank was born from a need for opportunity. At the turn of the 20th century, African Americans were navigating tremendous obstacles in the fight to participate in the economy. For African Americans, there were few opportunities to obtain financing for their business ventures or homes. There were equally few options to safely place money on deposit and earn interest with established banking institutions, so, the black community created their own.  The founders had a dream for their community. The nine businessmen — the pioneers — who became the original incorporators of the bank were successful and active community builders, and by the time M&F was chartered most of them had been involved in the establishment of numerous other institutions and organizations that formed the nucleus of a thriving business and residential district in Durham, anchored by what became known as Black Wall Street.

Setting context for the engagement, Jim Sills, CEO of M&F said “The individuals on our Fuqua team had a range of backgrounds and experience that allowed them to truly understand the challenges we were facing. They were able to apply some of their own professional knowledge and experiences to our problem and offer practical solutions.”

The student team approached the question, “How can we increase brand awareness in our various markets served?”  While the initial hypothesis centered around an emphasis on financial literacy, the student team’s final recommendation emphasized a strategic focus on sponsors and partnerships. The team first worked with M&F Bank to solidify a clear objective for their goal in this space, specifically to generate $5 million in new loans or deposits over the next 12 months.  The students then worked closely with the clients to understand current and past initiatives, analyze gaps to best practices of other players in the space, and synthesize an achievable portfolio of ideas and initiatives for M&F Bank to capture their stated objective.

Alysha Cunningham, Fuqua ’21, shared “I was excited to work on the M&F project because I am passionate about financial wellness and helping individuals achieve their financial goals. M&F was interested in client engagement through the lens of financial literacy and their aspirations align with my passion.  From the interactions with M&F, I learned how unique community banking is compared to mid-size or large banking institutions, as well as the difficulty of protecting a historic brand image while trying to progress and target new clientele.”

In summing up the client experience on this engagement, Jim Sills said “The recommendations made by the Fuqua team were very helpful and became a significant piece of our corporate strategic plan. We were very impressed by the research and the implementable action steps that were suggested to us.  Upon presenting the team’s findings to our Board of Directors and Executive Team, we made the decision to incorporate the work into our strategic plan. One of the things we appreciate about the work is that we were left with an action plan that was feasible for us to implement in order to improve some of our existing practices and procedures.  We feel that our work with this team was one of the best investments our organization made this year.”

Are you interested in having a team of Fuqua MBA students address a business challenge at your company? We are accepting project submissions through October 15. Click here to learn more or contact us at fccp@fuqua.duke.edu. 

A team of five Fuqua MBAs partnered with the second oldest minority-owned bank in the US, M&F Bank, to build a brand awareness strategy with the goal of improving community access to funding through small business loans and foundation investments.

M&F Bank NC is a local community bank with branches throughout North Carolina and a rich heritage in serving the community. While many minority-owned banks have been acquired or pushed out of the market throughout the past few decades, M&F Bank is still minority-owned and holds fast to its mission to enable access to capital, particularly to under-represented and minority demographics and to the larger community as a whole.  At 113 years old, M&F Bank is the 2nd oldest minority-owned bank in the US and ranks as the 8th largest financial institution in the US with over $250M in total assets.

”M&F Bank was a terrific client for our MBA students to partner with, as they came to the table wanting advice and direction for a real business need while also consistently making time for the team through ongoing conversations, data gathering, and problem solving with the team,” noted Faculty Advisor Stephanie Knight, Fuqua ’11 alum. Our students were also excited to engage with the mission-driven organization’s rich history. 

M&F Bank, originally known as Mechanics and Farmers Bank was born from a need for opportunity. At the turn of the 20th century, African Americans were navigating tremendous obstacles in the fight to participate in the economy. For African Americans, there were few opportunities to obtain financing for their business ventures or homes. There were equally few options to safely place money on deposit and earn interest with established banking institutions, so, the black community created their own.  The founders had a dream for their community. The nine businessmen — the pioneers — who became the original incorporators of the bank were successful and active community builders, and by the time M&F was chartered most of them had been involved in the establishment of numerous other institutions and organizations that formed the nucleus of a thriving business and residential district in Durham, anchored by what became known as Black Wall Street.

Setting context for the engagement, Jim Sills, CEO of M&F said “The individuals on our Fuqua team had a range of backgrounds and experience that allowed them to truly understand the challenges we were facing. They were able to apply some of their own professional knowledge and experiences to our problem and offer practical solutions.”

The student team approached the question, “How can we increase brand awareness in our various markets served?”  While the initial hypothesis centered around an emphasis on financial literacy, the student team’s final recommendation emphasized a strategic focus on sponsors and partnerships. The team first worked with M&F Bank to solidify a clear objective for their goal in this space, specifically to generate $5 million in new loans or deposits over the next 12 months.  The students then worked closely with the clients to understand current and past initiatives, analyze gaps to best practices of other players in the space, and synthesize an achievable portfolio of ideas and initiatives for M&F Bank to capture their stated objective.

Alysha Cunningham, Fuqua ’21, shared “I was excited to work on the M&F project because I am passionate about financial wellness and helping individuals achieve their financial goals. M&F was interested in client engagement through the lens of financial literacy and their aspirations align with my passion.  From the interactions with M&F, I learned how unique community banking is compared to mid-size or large banking institutions, as well as the difficulty of protecting a historic brand image while trying to progress and target new clientele.”

In summing up the client experience on this engagement, Jim Sills said “The recommendations made by the Fuqua team were very helpful and became a significant piece of our corporate strategic plan. We were very impressed by the research and the implementable action steps that were suggested to us.  Upon presenting the team’s findings to our Board of Directors and Executive Team, we made the decision to incorporate the work into our strategic plan. One of the things we appreciate about the work is that we were left with an action plan that was feasible for us to implement in order to improve some of our existing practices and procedures.  We feel that our work with this team was one of the best investments our organization made this year.”

Are you interested in having a team of Fuqua MBA students address a business challenge at your company? We are accepting project submissions through October 15. Click here to learn more or contact us at fccp@fuqua.duke.edu.