“…This above all, to thine own self be true…”  W. Shakespeare

Within many credit unions, the building and development of an IT strategy can be a challenge. How will changing systems, technologies, compliance requirements, security needs, known risks, unknown risks, personnel, and all the rest of the bits and pieces be governed and managed? How do we fit everything together? How do we know we’re on the right track? Well, the first thing to do is take a deep breath, step back and start from the beginning. What’s the beginning? The values and principles embedded in the CU’s mission, vision and enterprise strategy.

Building an effective IT strategy begins with understanding the credit union’s principles—the values and fundamental assumptions held by the CU. They are the beliefs guiding and putting boundaries around CU decision-making, communication within and outside the enterprise, and stewardship of member assets.

For some credit unions, these principles may be directly spelled out in a CU mission statement, ethics charter or other similar document. For others, they may be “understood,” but not necessarily delineated and documented. Through meetings and discussions, the credit union’s board of directors should formally identify and lay out the principles upon which decisions and actions undertaken by the credit union will be based.

 

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