The Competency of Being Proficient in Identifying and Creating an Evolving and Sustainable Business Model
February 27, 2019
In a past edition of our c. notes, we discuss the Key Competencies of a Strategic C-Suite Team. While in the c. notes we demonstrate 7 key competencies, in this blog we focus on the first competency – proficient at identifying and creating an evolving and sustainable business model.
Visualizing and articulating the long-term view is necessary, regardless of how fast things are changing. The speed of advancements, complexities, and interdependencies require decision-makers to be much more forward thinking to remain truly relevant.
Gone are the days of solely focusing on short-term financial goals. Strategic executives embrace the fact that thinking strategically is a constant pursuit and not limited to one planning session each year. They also take measures of success to a new level, and recognize that what the credit union decides to strive for in the short term can help or hinder in the long term.
So, they go big first. They actively wrestle with, and answer, tough questions such as:
What is our true value proposition?
Is our value proposition sufficiently compelling to attract enough of our target markets to do most of their business with us?
- How do we demonstrate that we live by our value proposition at every interaction?
- We know we are in fierce competition for our target markets’ attention. How do we effectively get our message to our target markets in a world of constant barrages of advertising and marketing messages?
- Where do we want and need to take our business over the long term? Why?
- What changes do we need to make to our business model to be successful?
- How do we align where we need to go in the long term with what we believe we need to do in the short term?
- What, if anything, are we willing to sacrifice in the short term to achieve our long-term strategic objectives?
The answers to these critical questions should then drive what needs to be done in the short term to arrive at the desired future. This approach is very different from stopping at 1-year goals for traditional measures such as ROA, net worth, membership, and asset growth.
All along the way, strategic executives are assessing internal and external risks, weighing those risks, and ultimately aggregating key information from across the organization with what the institution needs to accomplish to remain relevant.
Read to learn more about the other 6 Key Competencies of a Strategic C-Suite Team.