‘Business intelligence’ is successful when it helps you add profitable members. By Scott McClymonds 
Peter Drucker said the purpose of a business is to get a customer. My version of that is to get a profitable customer. Any meaningful improvement starts with understanding your members and markets, especially your ideal ones. Since profitable members are the lifeblood of your credit union, the changes or improvements you should prioritize are the ones that will do the best job of attracting and keeping them. This process starts with understanding your members and markets better than anyone else. Some people call this business intelligence, analytics, or big data; I prefer to describe it as the process of acquiring and retaining ideal, profitable members. Why? Business intelligence, analytics, big data, and other common buzzwords don’t do a good job of describing the desired end result of acquiring profitable members, and they fail to address the many issues a business must navigate to make business intelligence profitable. People using these terms typically approach gaining profitable members as a technical exercise rather than making analytics the fuel uniting the myriad parts of the organization, such as leadership, strategy, culture, people, process, systems. Many make gaining profitable members a quantitative effort only, rather than the basis for creating an awesome brand and delivering a great member experience. In other words, the value of business intelligence is only maximized when leaders ensure it is ingrained into the culture, strategy, decision-making, and everyday operations of the business. Ideally, a strong analytics initiative is led by a creative, entrepreneurially minded strategist who can quickly understand the business of your CU and provide sound advice, taking into consideration the member and market analytics within the current context of the organization. That approach leads to building your strategies, tactics, marketing, and innovation around the relevant intelligence. Why don't we see more of this? Why is it that many leaders view business intelligence as only a marketing function? In my experience, it’s because very few people in the world can make customer and market intelligence tell meaningful, strategic stories about real human beings and the best ways to serve them. Finding someone who has the business, technical, and analytical skills to make this work for you is difficult and often expensive. Sometimes CFOs and their team members can make the crossover. Sometimes there’s a financial analyst with a strong interest in marketing, and that can be a winner. Rarely do I find someone come out of college with a marketing degree who can fill this role. Truthfully, this is why firms like mine exist. It can be easier, cheaper, and more effective to hire experts who can act as strategic partners than it is to bring a person in only to lose them when they find out how much they’re worth. As a business intelligence leader and strategist, I have always gone by the rule of thumb that a third of the people will dismiss member and market intelligence immediately. Another third will get excited about the benefits, but the crush of daily business prohibits them from moving forward. The final third embrace it, make time for it, and use it to gain a profitable competitive advantage. Which will you be? The future of your credit union depends on how much value you can create for your members, and to a large extent that relates to what you do with analytics. I urge you to make an informed and thoughtful choice. Scott McClymonds and CEO Velocity are world-class experts at helping credit unions acquire and retain profitable members. Reach him at 479.263.0774. Also by McClymonds, read “Formula for Success,” about four critical marketing elements to dramatically increase your profits, and “6 Ways to Uncover Profits” by looking to your employees. Learn how to put the strategy in marketing at CUES School of Strategic Marketing I, July 18-20, and CUES School of Strategic Marketing II, July 21-22 in Seattle. Save $400 when you register before June 3!
