Are You Agile at Adapting to Change?

Charles Darwin is famous for the idea of “survival of the fittest.” But, notably, it’s not the strongest species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It’s the one that’s most adaptable to change. Today, the credit union movement operates in an age of rapidly evolving technology, increasing consumer expectations and new financial industry regulations and challengers. Darwin’s theory may be historic, but it’s as true as ever for our industry today. To thrive in today’s environment, credit unions face three key challenges:

1. understand the needs of people they serve better;
2. keep up with the shifting preferences of the people and families they serve.
3. manage disruption effectively. (Today, Uber is the largest cab company and owns no cabs. AirBnB provides accommodations and owns no properties. Lending Club is a fast-growing lender and has no branches.)

As one solution, credit unions can adopt the same “agile methodology” we use to move forward. Agile methodology calls for early engagement—reaching out to your customers and piloting new initiatives based on their input and feedback. It’s based on the idea of rapid development, greater flexibility and faster integration. At CUNA Mutual Group, we’ve used the agile methodology to enhance several core capabilities. These include:

1. Making it easy to do business with you. As an example, we and the credit unions we serve want member loan insurance claims processing to be efficient and effective.
2. Promoting mutual growth with innovative solutions to your biggest challenges. Along with other CUSOs, we’re helping credit unions deliver on new ideas. (In our case, we develop these internally or in partnership with fintech companies or by purchasing existing solutions.)
3. Leveraging data and analytics to maximize the member experience. Whether it’s sales or loan data or social media likes, tracking is the name of the game today. It helps organizations shape the future for their customers. We leverage a robust database of credit union names and other external data sources to support our credit union customers.

Are you ready to collaborate with other credit unions and industry suppliers to solve our industry’s largest challenges? The future may depend on it. Brian Flynn is VP/national sales at CUESolutions provider CUNA Mutual Group, Madison, Wis. Learn more about CUESolutions by emailing Kari Sweeney, CUES’ supplier relations manager.