Coach Quig, the swivel and the future

by. Anthony Demangone

As you read this, I’ll be on my way to speak to a NAFCU member credit union’s board of directors.

I love speaking to boards, partly for selfish reasons.  In order to speak coherently, you have to prepare. And to prepare, you must carve out some white space to think.  And that’s a rare commodity these days.

Inevitably, someone asks “the” question during a presentation.  It comes in different shades, but at the core, the question is always the same.

What does the future hold for credit unions?  How should we prepare?

It is a wonderful question, but extremely tough to answer.

Things change at such a rapid pace, that any prediction more than a few years out seems like a shot in the dark.  Just think about the following:

• There isn’t a day that I don’t use a “Google” product.  From searches to G-mail, and from Picasa to Feedburner, Google is a dominant force.  It started in 1998. The stock was first listed in 2004.  It now has more market capitalization than General Electric.  And Johnson & Johnson.  And Coca-Cola.
• Facebook started in 2004.
• Twitter? 2006.

Twenty years ago, none of these companies existed. So where will technology take us twenty years from today?  How will people use financial services?

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