Staying ahead of the pack

How collaboration can help credit unions with strategy.

How does your credit union plan for the future? Do you actively watch and interpret the shifts in our industry, society and economy? Do you incorporate any of this into your strategic planning? Without visiting a fortune teller, how can you forecast upcoming trends?

Predicting the Future

Over the past two years, MEMBERS Development Company, a network of nearly 70 leading credit unions, has been working on doing just that. The process is one that can help any credit union better prepare for the future.

Step one is to identify early indicators of possible future trends or “signals.” For example, specialty retailers selling goods not available elsewhere in a given community, like hobby shops or specialty booksellers, might have noticed that fewer customers were coming to their brick-and-mortar locations in the early 2000s.

 

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