USF FCU’s strategic planning process promotes alignment

$1 billion USF Federal Credit Union in Tampa, Florida, has taken a novel approach to collaboration by developing a unique, best-in-class practice for strategic planning. Rick Will, Ph.D., professor emeritus at the University of South Florida Muma College of Business and chair of the board, first developed the CU’s practice in 2013 and has been refining it ever since.

The process begins by asking all volunteers, via questionnaire, for input on the current credit union’s mission, vision, values and core competencies. The survey asks each volunteer for input on the traditional questions about strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the organization as well as about what they see as critical success factors. These questions include ones like “What does success looks like to our credit union?” and “What strategies are essential in achieving success for the credit union?”

Once each volunteer has answered the survey questions, Will and another volunteer conduct interviews for clarification and confirm the validity of the information with each volunteer. Will then creates a Harvard-style case study including the summarized volunteer input and additional information for discussion and distributes the document to all volunteers.

“I create a discussion case that has materials mostly from NCUA (the National Credit Union Administration); the latest information from NAFCU (the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions), which has a comparative analysis about credit unions our size or in our region; and the latest economic update from CUNA (the Credit Union National Association),” says the CUES member. I make sure that the volunteers have all of that information. And then I ask them to review the mission, vision, values and core competencies.”

 

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