By Mary Auestad Arnold
Sustainable competitive advantage, once the Holy Grail, is no longer possible. Long-term success requires constant change, or what Rita Gunther McGrath (in photo, below right) calls "transient advantage." She gave us the new playbook for this shifting advantage this morning during her opening keynote at CEO/Executive Team Network in San Diego.
While each of the playbook’s seven "chapters" may yet inspire its own blog post, I'm going to start at the end with “entrepreneurial career management,” because it complements so well the CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec challenge and the finalists’ presentations we saw during the conference this afternoon.
A professor at New York's Columbia Business School, McGrath explained that entrepreneurial career management is about “people today, especially younger people, being much more responsible for creating their careers.”
As an example, she talked about a young man who got what he calls a "DIY" (do-it-yourself) MBA. Instead of investing time and money earning a traditional MBA, he worked with four different companies, completing a substantial six-month project for each. He didn’t get paid, but he didn’t spend money on tuition either. And he came away with a “substantial body of achievement to show” future employers, McGrath explained.
How do you attract top young talent like this to your credit union? Show them what they’ll learn, what substantial skills they’ll gain, she suggested.
Also consider supporting them in programs like the CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec challenge. I heard over and over today not just about the finalists’ projects, but what they learned in the process of leading them and taking part in the challenge.
From honing their idea, to engaging fellow employees, to public speaking, the finalists have been building skills for nearly six months. Several of them mentioned internal mentors. In addition, the finalists each received professional coaching sessions from NTCUE sponsor DDJ Myers, a CUES Supplier member and partner based in Phoenix.
I could tell from their well-prepared presentations and poised responses to the judges’ questions that our five finalists have learned a lot! You can still see the CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec presentations and vote for your favorite by 5 p.m. PT Tuesday, Nov. 5. Then tune in Wednesday morning at 8:15 PT when we’ll announce the 2013 CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec.
Updated at 12:45 p.m. CT on Wednesday, Nov. 6: We are so pleased to announce Amanda Brenneman as this year's Next Top Credit Union Exec. Business development manager for $460 million Maps Credit Union, Salem, Ore., Brenneman will have the opportunity to build even more skills as a participant in CUES’ CEO Institute in 2014 and 2015, the competition's top prize.
Mary Auestad Arnold is VP/publications and digitial media.
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