A Movement or an Industry?

by. Jim McCormack

Back in late 2001, I wrote a Key Notes CEO column on whether credit unions are an industry or a movement. As my time as CEO winds down, I feel its important to revisit that topic as my feelings have not wavered and we have new credit union leaders that may not understand this important difference.

Almost daily, I hear our credit union cause referred to as an “industry.” I’m not quite sure where this trend developed — it seems to have started somewhere in the early to mid ‘90s with dot-com entrepreneurs moving into credit unions who decided to upgrade our (and more particularly, their) image. When I look up the definition of “industry” in the dictionary, it reads: Large-scale production: organized economic activity connected with the production, manufacture, or construction of a particular product or range of products.

I suppose that somewhat applies to us — credit unions provide products such as share accounts, share draft accounts, CDs, mortgage and auto loans, ATM access and credit cards just to name a few. More importantly, however, take a look at our roots — I quote one of the founders of the credit union causes, Alphonse Desjardins, the brilliant Canadian, “The credit union … is the expression in the field of economics of a great social ideal.” That basic thought does not give me the image of an industry.

We have indeed changed significantly since the days of Alphonse Desjardins, Edward Filene and Roy Bergengren –changes in our delivery systems, our managerial techniques, and of course, technology. Indeed, these changes in our cooperative world were never envisioned by our founding fathers and mothers. However, this does not change our basic philosophy — we are a movement and must continue to be a movement. I found the definition of “movement” as: Effort by many to achieve something: a collective effort by a large number of people to try to achieve something, especially a political or social reform.

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