2 minutes
From the editor
Maybe it’s my farm background, but one of the concepts I best remember from my week at Cornell University for CUES’CEO Institute II is “don’t just pave over cow paths.” The topic was process improvement, and what the instructor was getting at is that we often try to enhance an existing practice by simply laying something new over the top of it, rather than optimizing it. In the process, we get what amounts to nicely blacktopped, but very hilly and meandering roadways.
Jackson Hataway, Ph.D., echoes this thought in our cover story, “Bringing the Board Online,” when he writes, “Even in CUs where strategic planning and governance materials have moved from reams of paper in binders to iPad apps or other digitized formats, these formats are often used in essentially the same way as the binders—static information presented as if it is ‘on paper.’ … As a result, the operations and membership of credit unions continue to move down the digital expectation path—but boards and governance remain stuck in an analog environment.”
To optimize governance and planning processes, Hataway, a consultant with Strategic Arts & Sciences, Kansas City, Kans., encourages credit unions to develop “live pipelines of information that call attention to key metrics and enable directors to make better decisions.” Separating these vital data points from all the information many boards currently receive, and putting the metrics into context, he says, will help boards—and their credit unions—more quickly align with member needs. Read more of Hataway’s thoughts in his article.
Members need—or, at least, want—it all when it comes to payments, writes Mark Sievewright, president of the Credit Union Solutions division of CUES Supplier member Fiserv, Brookfield, Wis. In the article, he urges credit unions to focus on real-time, mobile and social payments. “To stay at the center of members’ financial lives, credit unions must provide the ability to conduct any transaction—on any channel—at the speed your members expect in the digital age.”
Members may also expect your CU’s presence on a number of social media platforms. In “Move Over Facebook?” you’ll hear from credit union marketers who are assessing the advantages and challenges of new opportunities like Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest. Check out their insights in this article.
Mary Auestad Arnold
Editor and Publisher
