Recruited at the height of the dotcom boom to help build a Web site for wealthy private clients, McQuillen was a hair's-breadth away from being fired after the bubble burst. But he hung on, convincing a colleague that he could help with new branch projects. Now, although still regarded as a maverick, he has freedom to take on projects across the bank. Customers seem impressed: "I don't understand [why] other banks have yet to do this," says a corporate client in Zurich. And companies such as ABN Amro, Capital One, Safeco, and Telecom New Zealand are interested in learning about the immersion process themselves.
McQuillen just grins and shakes his head. What he does, he says, is really pretty simple. "I'd like to make it sound like we're using rigorous science, but we make it up as we go along and stick with the things that work.
"You can do this stuff in two or three days--you don't have to spend half a million dollars on research. Just go and observe."
Ian Wylie is a Fast Company contributing writer in London.
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