By Kris Van Beek, CCE
The first one to sign up for CUES’ inaugural Strategic Innovation Institute, held last week at MIT, I walked into class last Monday looking for an “innovation support group.” By the time the institute was over, I had found the support group I envisioned, plus learned progressive concepts, frameworks, and strategies for advancing innovation that were validated by case studies both in and out of the credit union industry. For example, at one point, my Strategic Innovation Institute classmates and I were asked to consider the role of budgeting in supporting innovation. To get a discussion rolling, we were asked what percentage of our organizational budgets was devoted to innovation. At my credit union, USAlliance Federal Credit Union, in Rye, N.Y., we don’t budget for innovation per se, but it’s still part of our DNA. With an original field of membership of IBM employees, every major project we’ve undertaken in the last three years—whether that was mobile banking, integrating interfaces or making incremental improvements to our product offerings—has had innovation at the top of the priority list. Notably, institute instructors also called on us to talk about the magic of innovation. And that isn’t part of budgeting. It lies with your people. This idea was driven home by discussion of a case study about $1.7 billion Affinity Plus Credit Union, St. Paul, Minn., back when Kyle Markland was CEO. Markland empowered his employees to do all kinds of things—like set CD rates on the fly—and achieved great results. The case study underscored the idea that while we credit union leaders live in a very regulated industry and have all kinds of benchmarks and metrics to achieve, making a decision isn’t always black and white. There’s a human element, an emotional element. At USAlliance FCU, that human element is definitely what provides the magic for members. Overall, we strive for a “straight through processing” approach. That is, we or our members enter information once and it flows seamlessly into our systems, providing real-time results. For example a loan approval in our shop can all be done with automation, without staff. However, when there is an exception, our USAlliance FCU folks step in and assess the soft attributes of the situation, such as loans with unusual circumstances. Staff can make a difference by innovating a solution that works for both members and the institution—whereas the megabank down the street may not even be ready to try. The magic is in the employees being empowered to make a difference for the member! I’m excited to get back to USAlliance FCU and apply what I’m learned. I also can't wait to see everyone again at next year’s program at Stanford!
CUES member Kris Van Beek, CCE, is president/CEO of $900 million USAlliance Federal Credit Union, Rye, N.Y. John Best of BIG talked with Van Beek about “Day 4” of Strategic Innovation Institute in this series of podcasts. Attendees who attend and complete all assignments from Strategic Innovation Institute I at MIT and Strategic Innovation Institute II at Stanford will be eligible for the Certified Innovation Executive designation, CIE. Van Beek previously attended CUES’ CEO Institute. CUES appreciates the support of Strategic Innovation Institute underwriting sponsors CO-OP Financial Services. CUNA Mutual Group, and MasterCard.
