Strategic Planning is Like Running a Half-Marathon

Strategic planning for a lot of companies is an annual exercise in thinking big, dreaming of possibilities. Unfortunately, for a lot of these organizations, strategic planning stops there and this annual ritual that when the ritual is done, everyone returns back to business as usual. Let’s stop for a minute to really understand what strategic…

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Strategic Planning is the Easy Part

Working with organizations across the country, I see a familiar process when doing their strategic planning. A typical process I’ve observed is loosely following these steps: Once a year a strategic planning event is scheduled with the Board and a few key executives The event starts with a “state of the industry today” presentation, typically…

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Pay for Performance and Reputation Risk

An increasing trend in the financial services sector is “pay for performance.” This practice shows up in several formats: Commission – rep is paid a percentage of balances acquired Incentive – rep is paid per closed referral Bonus – rep is paid based on goal performance over a set period (per month, quarter, bi-annually, annually)…

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M&A – Don’t ignore the Culture

One of the primary growth strategies for credit unions includes Mergers and Acquisitions. Any decent CFO can aggregate the income statements and balance sheets and forecast the impact on the key ratios to establish the business case. The CTO can identify the projects to convert or combine technology platforms. The COO can consolidate the processes.…

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3X3 Essentials for Business Development

Business Development success is essential regardless of your credit union’s field of membership. BD success requires focusing on three critical measures: growing members, assets, and balances; the first 3 of the 3X3. Generating sustainable growth of members and assets is the key to a credit union’s survival. Even if one of your credit union’s key…

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Branching Strategy, It Starts with the Member

Historically branches are seen as transaction channels. Today, this view of branches has changed and continues to evolve. Members and potential members like the convenience of brick and mortar, they like the demonstration of financial strength and security. Still, the truth is, they rely less on branches for their daily, weekly, and monthly transaction business…

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6 Steps to Transforming Your Credit Union for the Digital Economy

The digital economy is a new world order where their digital profiles and personas are directing consumer behaviors and buying decisions. The digital economy will lead them to products and services, special offers, activities, and events based upon recommended by these profiles and personas. It’s not a matter of if or even when it is…

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7 Steps to Transforming your Credit Union to a Digital Economy

It’s not a matter of if or even when, it is happening now. PNC, Wells Fargo, Key Bank, BofA, and Chase are experimenting with digital transformation now. What does your credit union/bank need to do to stay relevant in a digital economy? Create a digital strategy – This isn’t about SEO, SEM, websites, email, FaceBook,…

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