Think Outside The Moat
Think outside the box. It’s an overused cliché. Instead of thinking outside the box, credit unions and banks need to think outside the moat.
A recent article in the Credit Union Journal featured a session I conducted at CUNA’s Operations, Sales & Services Council’s Conference. The session—Jumping the Shark: Has Your Credit Union Reached Its Defining Moment—focused on signs that your credit is heading toward mediocrity or irrelevancy.
One illustration I used was to think of a castle and moat. What exactly do I mean by the castle and moat theory? The credit union is the castle while the executives are the kings and queens looking out at all the members.
The challenge for credit union leaders is that we must get out of the castle, cross the moat, turn around and look at the castle from the view of the moat. Why? Because that is how members are looking at your credit union.
In other words, we must think outside the moat.
Too many times decisions are made from the credit union’s perspective, not the member’s perspective. We raise fees incrementally so the credit union can earn extra income. We push product selling so much we lose sight of service. I’m not saying income and sales are not important—they are vital to your financial institution’s success and we must keep them in mind.
However, we can’t lose sight of consumers.