Rehearse tomorrow today is a strategic thinking process that helps key players test drive the future so that decisions can be made swiftly, with confidence, when the future suddenly arrives.

Test drives are customized to help key players think through game changers that the credit union may face, such as the continuous redefinition of “banking” and “easy,” swift changes in payment systems, and disruptors like Google and Apple.  In other words, turning “what ifs” into what’s next.

Business model evaluation can be at a high level or a deep dive into the sustainability of the credit union’s business model.

The focus of this component of the Strategic Visioning process is to dissect the business model by asking tough questions, such as:

• What should our clearly defined target markets be?
• What should our value propositions be for each target market that will compel them to do business with us?
• What do we need to be great at that gives us the ability to deliver on these value propositions, every minute of every day?
• How do we need to proactively evolve our economic engines?
• What talent do we need to have in order to remain relevant, sustainable, and differentiated?
• What does our strategic positioning need to be as we become more dependent on outsourced partners?

Strategic planning addresses the question, Where do we want to go?  Often incorporating work done in other components such as strategic discovery and rehearsing tomorrow today, participants are better prepared to decide the best long-term decision filters and strategy.

Participants have the opportunity to engage in deep discussions to reach strategic clarity so that, as initiatives are being decided and human and financial resources are being allocated, they are aligned with the credit union’s strategy.

A strategy can be beautifully written, but if not aligned with desired measures of success, nobody wins.  C. myers has developed tools over the years that have helped stakeholders ask the right questions that lead to relevant measures of success.

This can also include the ability to test the long-term impact to earnings and net worth of decisions under consideration against the backdrop of market interest rates we’ve experienced in the past.

Now that you’ve agreed on your strategic direction, the real work begins.  Give execution a head start by agreeing on appropriate, clear, and actionable steps that include who is going to do what and by when.  The strategic implementation process helps management decide how the credit union is going to get where it wants to go by developing short and intermediate-term initiatives and detailed action plans.

Our clients tell us that our facilitation techniques significantly reduce the pain of this process and result in more thoroughly vetted decisions.

Do you feel you need a cultural shift in order to improve processes and manage the right projects better?

Leadership teams often struggle with implementing a new strategic plan because inefficient or outdated processes may consume a lot of staff time and there are already an abundance of projects, some of which may be off track.

Our Process Improvement and Project Management Services have helped to further secure long-term relevancy, sustainability, and differentiation for many credit unions, large and small.  Learn more.