Two Keys to Strategic Planning: Market and Mission

By Charles E. Fagan, III, Credit Union Executives Society

If you build it, they might come. If you build it with them, they’ll already be there.

I once saw a quote like this in the office of CUES member Larry Biernacki Jr., president/CEO of $868 million Arkansas Federal Credit Union. It says a lot about the value of market-driven strategic planning. When your members help to drive your credit union’s strategy, you start your planning process by being more in tune with those you serve and what you should do to serve them. Then, because you’re already aware of the marketplace, you’ll be in a better position to respond when the market changes.

Last month, attendees of CUES Symposium: A CEO/Chairman Exchange heard about market-driven strategic planning from John Oliver, president of Laurel Management Systems, Palm Springs, Calif., and CUES’ partner in CU Planner: A Strategic Planning Process. Oliver’s key point echoes the saying in Biernacki’s office: Market-driven strategic planning is essential for ensuring future relevance.

During his presentation, Oliver showed a slide of a business man with his head in the sand, and emphasized that CU leaders can’t make good strategic decisions without having a good look around. This idea precludes top-down planning that starts with the board and senior managers and trickles down through the staff to the front line and members. Instead, it points the way to starting with deep understanding of the operating environment based on input from front-line staff, building the plan on that, and then sending it up the chain of command.

Like CUES, many credit unions have experience with top-down strategic processes. Like me, many of you are new CEOs. Are you also leading a strategic planning process your first year out? I recommend you consider changing to a market-driven process.

Doing so is a collaborative effort. At CUES, all of our almost 40 employees will be involved in helping us compile information about our marketplace.

If your organization is larger, you may want to have a team that’s a subset of your staff. Be sure that team is cross functional, highly representative of all areas of your organization, and includes not only front-line people who have direct contact with the market, but also the people in your organization who you’re hoping to develop. This is a win-win for the organization and the individuals involved.

The market information generated by this team in the first step of the process will be used to set objectives at a strategic level. As we get our process underway at CUES, we will do a strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats analysis and get everyone thinking beyond their day-to-day pocket of the world.

Our process will likely include throwing things on the wall and getting feedback on them. Out of 100 ideas on the board, in the end there will be two or three that make a lot of sense. The team needs to take those two or three and vet them more deeply. It’s important not to invest heavily in a particular idea until you get market feedback on it. Then come key questions. Can you outsource it? Can you build it? Do you need a partner to do it?

I’ve talked a lot about market. But having a good mission is another key to successful strategic planning. After all, if you don’t know who you are, how can you make plans?

I believe the fact that CUES already has a nice clean mission statement will help us. It’s to educate and develop credit union CEOs, directors and future leaders. If you are thinking about working on your mission statement in preparation for doing market-driven strategic planning, take a look at this coverage from last month’s CUES Symposium, “How to Develop a Compelling Mission Statement.”

With our mission statement in hand, CUES knows we’re not going to be out there trying to offer pet insurance; we know we’re about educating and developing boards and future leaders for the credit union movement. I wish you well with your mission statement development and market-driven strategic planning. I’d love to hear how it’s going; just email me.