Quick to the Frontier: Canada's Royal Bank

Robert W. Sexty is a professor of commerce and business administration
at Memorial University of Newfoundland and author of Canadian Business:
Issues and Stakeholders.

The words “frontier” and “culture” are keys to describing this
history of the Royal Bank of Canada. The Royal Bank is portrayed as a
“progressive conservative” organization that brings banking services
to the outposts of Canadian development, an institution on the leading
edge of banking procedures and technology, and as a major participant in
banking for the global village.

McDowall, a professor of Canadian history at Carleton University and
author of the corporate histories of Algoma Steel and Brazilian
Traction, uses the concept of corporate culture in an attempt to
distinguish his account from other bank histories. Corporate culture is
defined as “the core values, beliefs, and traditions that propel a
business.” Although the concept is introduced as a fundamental
ingredient in the bank’s story, there are only three entries under
corporate culture in the index.

The book was commissioned to commemorate the Royal Bank’s 125th
anniversary in 1994. The author, who claims that bank officials did not
interfere with the project, was provided with support for two years,
assisted by two research assistants, and given unlimited access to a
substantial corporate archive. His chronological history of the bank
includes such topics as amalgamations, international banking, and bank
employment. A dozen or so vignettes scattered throughout the book focus
on various details and anecdotes of bank life: embezzlement, bank
robbers, Stephen Leacock’s association with the bank (“My Financial
Career”), and a history of the Monthly Letter. McDowall’s book
succeeds in conveying the impression that the Royal Bank has always
moved forward to another frontier of some type and that its culture has
evolved at the same time—an image that no doubt the bank itself is
pleased to have readers believe.