Leave it to Beaver
Posted by George Hofheimer on July 1st, 2008
From the first day of kindergarten we are taught to get along with others and work together. In the normal course of events, though, most kindergartners act more like Mike Myers in the famous Philip the Hyper Hypo Kid skit on SNL than Beaver Cleaver.
Of the many challenges and opportunities facing credit unions, none is more daunting than the topic of getting along with others and working together (a.k.a. “large-scale collaboration”). We’ve tried to break down these challenges in a recent research publication. I would be curious to hear people’s thoughts on a few things:
- Are credit unions more like Philip (kinetically going out on their own) or the “Beav” (extremely cooperative) when it comes to collaboration? Which is more appropriate for today’s realities?
- What do you see as the benefits and costs of large-scale collaboration?
- Do you have good stories to share on credit union collaboration that aren’t widely known?
Filene is already conducting more research on the topic of large-scale credit union collaboration because we think it’s a pretty darn important topic for credit unions to consider in these changing and challenging times.
(Editor’s note from Brent: On a related – but completely unrelated – note: Eddie Haskell is speaking at an upcoming CUNA event. That’s all.)
George Hofheimer is Chief Research Officer for the Filene Research Institute, a think tank that investigates vital issues affecting credit unions and consumer finance. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin with his wife Carrie and two boys Huck and Milo. He is a washed up marathoner and an over-ambitious soccer player.
To answer your first question: I don’t want this to sound self-serving, but the membership in CUNA Councils has continued to grow and grow over the past few years. And the core of the Councils is the collaboration between credit union professionals – exchanging ideas, networking, giving advice and solutions – something that is unprecedented in the banking industry, but continuing to rise among credit union executives.
So the answer is yes. Otherwise I wouldn’t have a job.
We’ve been collaborating with FORUM Credit Union for the past two years. As a result, both organizations have the best MRM system that rivals the industry leaders. Yet, both organizations are using the technology in different ways. We knew that working together and the result speaks to that.
I don’t believe the issue is so much about the collaborative process. It’s much to do about the execution of the collaborative result(s).
In regards to large scale collaboration, I think it begs the question….how large is large?
In so many ways the Canadian credit union is characterized by large scale cooperation, even between progressive, profitable credit unions competing in the same market.
After 10+ years I continue to be surprised by the spirit of cooperation that pervades joint credit union ventures in Canada. We are aided by our common participation in provincial “central” credit unions; in this respect the cooperation is “systemic”. But even when credit unions don’t have to cooperate… they still do.
There remain potentially divisive tensions and pressures, to be sure; but I can nevertheless think of a number of active marketing, research and (especially) technological initiatives that allow even relatively small credit unions to compete with not only larger credit unions (who participate in the same initiatives!) but with financial institutions literally 200 times their size.
One large-scale example: the “MemberDirect” web platform developed and supported by Credit Union Central of BC has been used by credit unions of all sizes across Canada to offer comparable (and, in some cases, superior) online banking services to their members when compared to the gargantuan five “chartered banks” that have historically dominated the Canadian banking landscape.
Add on top of that the numerous ad hoc joint ventures between individual credit unions – particuarly around technology – and I believe the spirit of large-scale, strategic cooperation – though often strained – survives in the credit union movement in BC and Canada.
Plus – and this helps a lot – I think a lot of us kind of like each other.
YOU”RE THE DEVIL!
That’s a great skit on SNL – and you make a tremendous point. We all spazz out claiming our own thing – how short your personal leash is will determine your run rate…
Personally, I see lots of collaberation in my local market among our CU’s. How cool is this: all CEO’s of CU’s in my market meet once a month for breakfast and to share info on success and failure of various efforts. We all realize that in our market of 500,000 + there are less than 30% credit union members. It’s more attractive to work togehter to persue 70% of growth than to fight internally over the 30%.
Just like a plant, our roots need constant new soil to grow effectively!