Are there any Christmas films more iconic than Frank Capra’s 1946 classic, It’s a Wonderful Life? One cannot go through the month of December without at least a passing glance at this movie starring Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, the community focused, self-sacrificing president of the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan. (Read Drs. Paul Kengor and David Ayers on Capra, Stewart, and It’s a Wonderful Life. And watch Kengor’s April 2025 conference talk on “Frank Capra and the American Classic.”)
Stewart’s character is intimately familiar with the financial needs of his working-class friends and neighbors, places the needs of his customers first, especially during a crisis, and reaps the personal and financial benefits of his local market knowledge and customer service.
The type of corporate social responsibility (CSR) exemplified by George Bailey is not fiction, however. Before George Bailey there was Amadeo Giannini, an early 20th century banker. The CSR embodied by George Bailey—and by Amadeo Giannini in real life—is not Christmas-season philanthropy, but market-based, customer-centered actions that generate both profits and positive social impact.
Amadeo “A.P.” Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in October 1904 in San Francisco. Today Americans know Giannini’s bank by another name, Bank of America. At the turn of the 20th century, however, banking was typically open only to wealthy individuals. Working families or those of modest means did not have access to the banking services Americans take for granted today. A.P. Giannini saw an unmet market need, to serve immigrants and working-class families excluded by traditional banks. Much like George Bailey, Giannini used his market knowledge to design banking products around everyday financial needs, welcomed small depositors, and accommodated modest borrowers.
When a run on the building and loan occurred just as George and his new bride were leaving on their honeymoon, the Baileys returned to the bank and used their own money to calm the fears of their neighbors. The exchange between George and his customers highlights the community-focused approach of the Bailey Building & Loan. The socially responsible action of George Bailey built a trust that benefited the bank and its customers. For A.P. Giannini, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a similar, but very real crisis. The powerful quake devastated much of the city and halted commerce and banking for nearly everyone. A.P. Giannini, however, reopened his bank immediately after the earthquake, honoring withdrawal requests and issuing rebuilding loans when other banks had closed. These short term, socially responsible actions built the same type of community trust, loyalty, and financial success for A.P. Giannini as they did for George Bailey.
Business has a social responsibility to be profitable. Profitability is what society expects from business organizations as profits are the fuel that allows a firm to best serve its customers. The Bailey Brothers Building & Loan was in business to make a profit; yet so was the bank run by Bailey’s main competitor, Mr. Potter. The difference being that Potter saw profits as exclusively an end to be achieved, whereas Bailey saw them as a signal that customer requirements were being met. A.P. Giannini and George Bailey saw profits in the same way. The Bank of Italy was a highly profitable institution. According to Biography of a Bank: The Story of Bank of America, Giannini’s service to his customers increased bank deposits from $8,780 in 1904 to $700,000 within a year. A.P. Giannini viewed profit as necessary for sustainability, not just as an end, and as a market signal that customer needs were being met in a superior way. This is an important corrective to the modern idea that CSR requires a firm to eschew profitability.
A.P. Giannini was George Bailey before there was a George Bailey. As one of the most successful businessmen of his era, Giannini’s bank served California’s poor and immigrant population at a time when larger commercial banks did not cater to small savers. The bank was a profit-making entity, effectively responding to the needs of the market but also serving a larger social purpose by providing savings options and loans to underserved customers. This approach to CSR demonstrated how market-based profit and loss signals could be used to identify specific social objectives to pursue, creating a mutual benefit for society and business.
At the end of It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey is toasted as “the richest man in town,” not for the profits generated by the building and loan, but for the positive impact he had on his community and the responsible way in which he served his customers, actions leading to business success. The social responsibilities of business, like those exemplified by Bailey and Giannini, emerge not from Christmas season campaigns or moral declarations, but from actions designed to serve real customer needs profitably over time. In this way, both profit maximization and social objectives can be achieved, enabling business and society to have a wonderful life.