What could be better than a better shopping cart?
A few years back, Stanford University-connected IDEO delivered on the challenge of reinventing the shopping cart in only five days. In this video from ABC’s “Nightline,” you can see how the company’s team applied innovation principles to create a cart not only with wheels that work, but also a removable and re-insertable basket to carry on quick runs away from the main cart, and a built-in checkout system.
Can you imagine what credit unions could do if they applied similar innovation techniques to—say—the mortgage process? Or if the whole industry started applying the studied discipline of ideation?
In fall 2014, we’ll start to find out.
That’s when the first class of credit union industry leaders will participate in CUES’ inaugural Strategic Innovation Institute, hosted at MIT Sloan School of Management and Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Strategic Innovation Institute™ I at MIT Sloan School of Management, will be held Sept. 15–19, 2014, in Cambridge, Mass. The first year of this two-year program will offer an integrated curriculum of strategy, innovation, technology and leadership.
Strategic Innovation Institute™ II will start in September 2015 at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford, Calif. This session will explore how to scale innovation, and will provide attendees with the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned, ideate and design solutions for consumer challenges.
Innovation is one of those words that everybody is talking about today, but can mean different things to different people. It doesn’t always mean delivering something as revolutionary as an iPad. But it might mean providing consumers with a really useful revamped product, like IDEO’s reinvented shopping cart—or a way better way to meet their financial needs. CUES has created the Strategic Innovation Institute to help credit unions get better at this kind of incremental innovation.
According to last week’s press release, “credit union leaders who attend both (the MIT and Stanford) sessions will have the opportunity to broaden strategic thinking about both large- and small-scale innovation; build organizational capacity for continuous innovation; develop strategic organizational leadership skills; and grow their business in ways that align with the traditions and culture of credit unions.”
In the CU industry as a whole right now, many institutions get caught up in waiting for their core processor or their partner to bring them ideas. Learning true discipline in creativity and ideation from renowned experts from MIT and Stanford will allow our industry’s leaders to even more effectively differentiate credit unions from the community banks down the street. I also like to think about the day when many credit unions that are truly skilled at innovation start to collaborate with each other. Think of the possibilities for serving members!
With this offering, CUES is building on its success in offering the three-segment CEO Institute at top-tier schools. But more importantly, the new institute will help us deliver even more solidly on our vision of bettering the lives of credit union members by developing the leaders at the credit unions that serve them.
The title of this article asks, “What could be better than a better shopping cart?” In my mind, the answer is: “more innovation at credit unions—and throughout the collaborative industry in which we work.” I’m excited to see the positive impact of this new institute.
