NEW YORK–Credit unions that plan to continue to operate in the 21st century have no choice but to live in the digital world and to have a digital strategy.
For the next three days here, credit unions will be discussing, learning and debating strategies for doing just that.
CO-OP Financial Services kicked off its THINK 17 Conference here with a message around “intrapreneurship” and the need to focus on a “digital mindset as a foundation” of everything to be discussed during THINK, which runs through Thursday night.
“If you take one thing away from THINK 17, it’s that digital transformation is everyone’s business. Thinking digital is how smart businesses thrive and survive today. This is more than the application of technology as the solution to every challenge,” said CO-OP’s Samantha Paxson in kicking off the meeting. “It’s also about the flip side, knowing the limits of technology. It means seeing in 360 degrees and taking a holistic approach to solving challenge.”
As an example, Paxson pointed to Amazon, which she said has been digital from its inception but which has worked to keep alive an “experimental pioneering spirit.” It’s a company, she said, that’s focused on the “right now,” or as CEO Jeff Bezos refers to it, as “Day 1.”
Paxson quoted Bezos as explaining that “Day 2 is stasis. It’s followed by irrelevance. That is followed by excruciating painful decline, and that is followed by death. And that is why it is always Day One. I’m interested in the question of how do you fend off Day 2. What are the techniques and tactics? How do you keep the vitality of Day 1, even inside a large organization.”
For Bezos, the guiding principles are:
- Customer obsession
- Resist managing to proxies, such as process
- Embrace external trends
- High velocity decision-making
The key thing in those principles, noted Paxson, is that “Nowhere in there are the words ‘technology’ or ‘digital.’ And this is from a digital first company. That’s a big thing to remember. The digital mindset can work for any company, and that includes credit unions.”
Finally, Paxson said “intrpreneurship” means “initiating innovation and change,” which she said is where credit unions are right now. “You aren’t afraid to take a chance. You can add value. You see failure as only a part of intrapreneurship,” Paxson said.
CUToday.info will have full coverage of the THINK conference.