Long kiss goodnight

I suspect that there will be many who, like me, have reacted to the announcement of Cheltenham & Gloucester's forthcoming high street demise with sadness and regret.

Despite being a shadow of its former building society self, C&G has remained an institution for which the public, the mortgage industry and former staff have retained much affection. C&G has succeeded in generating personal emotional attachments that have transcended the normal company/customer relationships and seeming far deeper than those achieved by the likes of Abbey, Alliance & Leicester or Bradford & Bingley.

For existing C&G staff - especially those in branches - feelings of sadness and regret are likely to be accompanied by a mixture of apprehension and relief. Job prospecting in today's bleak financial climate will be a worry. But relief that C&G's death by a thousand cuts has ended - and with a payout for many - will be a welcome comfort.

But it could all have been so different. And if ever there was a classic example of "knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing" surely Lloyds TSB's marriage with C&G is the stuff of textbooks.

Back in 1995, when Lloyds Bank acquired C&G, it seemed like a marriage made in heaven - a much respected bank, governed by gentlemen and operating with consummate professionalism, combining with the jewel in the building societies' crown. Sir Brian Pitman, the leading banker of his generation and the doyen of the banking industry pulled off arguably his finest coup in securing the most efficient and cost-effective building society in the country. And more than this - a building society that wherever you touched it exuded professionalism, staff commitment, corporate pride and customer loyalty. C&G had captured the Holy Grail that all companies aspire to and few achieve. The staff loved and believed in C&G, the management and staff enjoyed mutual respect and worked together, taking pride and enjoyment in what they did. C&G genuinely cared for its staff and about its customers - and it showed.

At the time, the rallying cry from Lloyds was: "We want to bottle what you have got, do not let us change you." Ironic words because that Is exactly what they then proceeded to do.

The honeymoon lasted just a few months until later in 1995 when Lloyds Bank merged with TSB.

Heralded as another mighty coup for Sir Brian, the Lloyds TSB merger totally changed the dynamic of the bank forever. The merger brought with it a new breed of bank - sales-focused and target-driven. It also introduced a culture revolving primarily around shareholder value, share of customer wallet and balanced score card control.

The merger also produced tension within the upper echelons of the enlarged bank, as the respective executive teams tussled for position in the race to succeed Sir Brian. Had the helm been passed to the former C&G chief and dynamic visionary Andrew Longhurst, no one can predict how the path of the bank might have altered. Here was a man who made it clear he was not prepared to suffer fools and had no fear of making enemies. And in perhaps the biggest miscalculation of his glittering career, Longhurst underestimated the strength of enmity his buccaneering, take-no-prisoners style of leadership had engendered among his banking peers.