GREENSBORO, N.C.–Jay Murray, CEO of Vizo Financial Corporate CU, said he will exit the organization in June, after being with the corporate for nearly 30 years.
Murray said he is looking forward to spending time with his wife and daughters, traveling and pursuing some of my interests in education, music and some other hobbies.
But he has also shared his insights, experiences and thoughts on what lies ahead in a Q&A with CUToday.info, including his view on the hard questions that will need to be asked by credit unions moving forward.
CUToday.info: How did you come to be involved in credit unions?
Murray: Before I graduated high school, I went to work for a savings-and-loan organization. I spent about eight and half years there until the S&L crisis occurred. I started training to be a financial planner, but I was not sure that was going to work out, as I was young with a small network of people to call on.
I happened to meet up with a friend who suggested I contact Ed Fox, then CEO of Mid-Atlantic Corporate Federal Credit Union, and his neighbor at the time. So, I contacted Ed and told him my story. Ed was looking to create a new account manager position at the Corporate. He asked if I was interested, and I said yes. And that is how it all began!
CUToday.info: What have you learned during your career in driving growth?
Murray: Over the years, I have learned that building relationships is the most critical part of driving growth. It is the foundational act that builds trust, confidence and the chance to introduce the “why” of what we are trying to do.
As a corporate credit union, our members are capital holders. They have a vested interest in all that we do. By building these relationships, we work to help all sizes of credit unions succeed.
CUToday.info: What have you learned during your career about managing people and has that evolved?
Murray: My management style has evolved. I have been in some form of management since I was 19 years old. In the early days, most financial services work was very transaction-oriented. Completing tasks, moving volumes of work and training people to execute specific operations was the requirement for the first half of my career. In the latter half of my career, and as the technology age came upon us, building teams and instilling people-oriented knowledge in workers has been critical.
Work has become less transactional. We now offer “self-service” websites and automation tools to handle parts of our operation and provide a more consultative role. Leading teams of people to become multi-faceted, knowledgeable workers, who now act as consultants and problem-solvers, is critical if we want to remain relevant as an organization.
CUToday.info: What is your view on the future for corporate CUs?
Murray: There are currently 11 corporate credit unions in the United States. As the number of credit unions continues to decline, I expect to see more consolidation of the corporate credit unions.
As larger credit unions continue to grow, corporate credit unions will need to meet the needs of these credit unions by continuing to work cooperatively to provide larger lines of credit and continue to consolidate and aggregate services to create scale and affordable payment services.
CUToday.info: What is your view on the future of credit unions?
Murray: The future can be bright, but only if credit unions seriously embrace cooperative principle six, which is “Cooperation among Cooperatives.” Credit unions serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative principles by working with other cooperatives through local, state, regional, national and international structures.
When I say “seriously embrace” this principle, I am alluding to its true meaning, not just words, but action. Just talking about cooperation versus putting actionable strategies to grow the credit union movement are two different things. We must talk in terms of the collective “we” type of thinking and not just about our own individual credit unions.
If the entire movement is to grow and prosper, we need credit unions all over the country to strategize and plan on how their cities and counties will increase the growth of membership across all credit unions. What problems need to be solved? How could our combined balance sheets work as a force for economic change? How do we help more small businesses, both start-ups and current, grow and create more jobs?
These are hard questions with no easy answers. Our business as credit unions has become commoditized. We must reach back to the words of Edward Filene who said, “Progress is the constant replacing of the best there is with something still better.” We must ask ourselves, what are we doing to really make this credit union movement better?