Business First Bancshares Moves Its Quarterly Earnings Slides Into a Forty-Storey Tower Built Overnight on Its Lobby Floor
The Louisiana lender has responded to its strongest quarter by erecting a vertical presentation hall, forcing staff to climb to their own results.
Business First Bancshares has marked its strongest quarter by building a forty-storey presentation tower on the floor of its headquarters lobby, the company said on Tuesday. Staff were required to climb the structure one floor per slide to view the third-quarter profitability figures, which were displayed at the summit on a screen the size of a tennis court.
The bank's chief financial officer, Gerald Mouton, said the decision reflected the scale of the results. «Profitability has peaked, and a peak must be ascended,» he told reporters from the forty-first floor, where he had arrived before anyone else. Mouton confirmed that the ascent takes roughly two hours for an average employee and that the bank has installed a single lift, reserved exclusively for the slides.
Facilities managers spent the weekend removing two hundred and sixty desks to make room for the tower's concrete base, and the tellers' queue now winds through a stairwell that descends into the parking garage. Customers wishing to open an account have been advised to take the stairs as well. Human resources has added a climbing fitness module to all performance reviews, and the bank's loyalty programme now awards points for each floor reached.
Asked what would happen when the next quarter is released, the bank said construction of a second tower was already under review, and that the lobby would be enlarged to accommodate it.
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