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Articles by Alix Patterson
5 Lessons In Credit Union Leadership From A Rooftop Farm
Alix Patterson, Chief Experience Officer, Callahan & Associates I recently came across a LinkedIn post from a company I first learned about years ago in a completely different context. Back then, I was looking for alumni to support my son’s rowing team, and someone directed me to a former teammate who’d launched a rooftop farming business in Washington, DC, in 2014.
6 Lessons For Credit Unions From Craft Breweries
Editor’s Note: Callahan & Associates originally published the following article years ago, but its insights have proven remarkably durable. The themes explored here — service rooted in community, thoughtful product design, and strategic growth — are more relevant than ever.
What Credit Unions Can Learn From Mamdani's Campaign
In the wake of Tuesday’s elections, there’s a lesson for credit unions that transcends politics and policies: purpose-driven communication works when it’s grounded in real life, focused on what matters most, and delivered with authenticity.
4 fabulous onboarding practices
HR leaders at cooperatives big and small share how they welcome new hires, from breaking bread to explaining the credit union difference. Leaders in human resources are among the most open and sharing about what they do and how they do it. Time and again, these leaders demonstrate a willingness to share insights, experiences, and even data.
4 Fabulous Onboarding Practices | Credit Unions
Leaders in human resources are among the most open and sharing about what they do and how they do it. Time and again, these leaders demonstrate a willingness to share insights, experiences, and even data. Callahan & Associates sees that in our Executive Roundtables, in our interviews for CreditUnions.com, and in our recent outreach to solicit responses for our benefits and compensation survey.
How Can Credit Unions Respond To Autonomous Cars? | Credit Unions
One of the best parts of my job is listening to credit union executives talk directly with one another about issues of importance. At the Callahan Risk Roundtables, we spend a lot of time discussing NCUA’s seven areas of risk. Credit unions track, measure, and model credit risk, liquidity risk, and concentration and interest rate risk, and they share best practices and insights from doing so. But the conversation gets really interesting — and sometimes quiet — when it turns to strategic risk.
Credit Union Data Analytics Is A Differentiator | Credit Unions
Blogs Commentary The smart use of data analytics can turn a credit union’s communications strategy from potentially creepy into authentically clever. Analytics has been a major topic for some time among credit union strategists and is only growing in importance. Meanwhile, using analytics ethically has come to the fore globally, with the May 25 go-live date for the General Data Protection Regulation by the European Union.
Are Credit Unions 'All' About Their Members? | Credit Unions
Are credit unions truly member-centric? That's a tougher question to answer than the movement might want to admit. This year, the senior leaders at Callahan & Associates are focusing on a big idea through commentary, speaking engagements, on-site presentations, and more. Our big idea? Pushing credit unions to ask tough questions in 2018. The tough question I’d like to explore is whether credit unions are truly member-centric or are they hiding behind a wall of words.
It Takes A Village To Sustain A Village | Credit Unions
Credit unions posted another record year in 2015 — as detailed here in Callahan's fourth quarter Trendwatch — but hitting new highs in loans, deposits, and membership is not enough. This is a movement. Credit unions have a responsibility that is built into the credit union charter and embedded in the business practices that have made cooperatives an attractive option to for-profit banks and non-bank competitors.
How Credit Unions Made Good In 2020 | Credit Unions
Across the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic created new challenges and underlined existing ones. All the while, credit unions nationwide stepped up to fill and meet the critical needs of those economically and socially impacted by the virus and its affects. Here, we include nearly 20 such products and programs credit unions put in place in 2020 to make good in a challenging year. Click to enlarge.
It's time for credit unions to "chime" in about doing the right thing
The mobile-only bank’s marketing gambit provides lessons in how to make lemonade out of lemons. Credit unions were created to do right by their members. That’s baked into their DNA and in their charters. They succeed by sticking to their mission: providing affordable, fairly priced financial services and service that puts members, and their communities, first. So, why is it so hard for so many credit unions to deliver that message?
Turn that annual report into a living report
Credit unions should harness the power of technology to provide real-time updates on their financial and social impact. Back in 2012, I wrote about the power of the annual report. These comprehensive communications detailing a company’s activities throughout the preceding year present an opportunity to go beyond dry tables and grip-and-grin photos to actually telling the story of a credit union’s impact on its members and their community. They still do that.
Data analytics doesn’t need to be daunting
Is your credit union considering a dive into the world of analytics? You might be readier than you realize. Tapping into data that will help you identify what members need involves nothing more than asking a question and using information already on hand to answer it I’m not downplaying the power of comprehensive data dives executed by teams that know how to pull together information from disparate sources to provide unprecedented actionable business intelligence.
Don’t throw the baby in with the bathwater
When promoting a new product or targeting a new service, marketers tend to rely on group data and surveys to help them think in the aggregate. But the rapid adoption of business analytics is leading to deeper insights about individuals as well as collective groups.
Don’t Throw The Baby In With The Bathwater | Credit Unions
Credit unions are sitting on a goldmine of member data, but don’t throw the baby in with the bathwater. Consider the individual. Bring members into a conversation and ask them what they want from the credit union. This is one way to develop a truly member-centric lens. It’s also a great way to add individual perspective and important nuance to the insights the credit union already has. We know that people in certain age groups tend to have similar needs, such as education, housing, and retirement.
Deposit hungry? Put a little BE on it.
Credit unions have a problem. So do many members. The problem is deposits, and it can be solved by applying a little behavioral economics (BE). Credit unions need to buttress their lending and address a liquidity crunch that has resulted in the industry loan-to-share ratio jumping from 66.08% in the first quarter of 2013 to 80.65% as of March 31, 2018. In fact, many individual institutions have surpassed 100%.
Deposit Hungry? Put A Little BE On It. | Credit Unions
People don’t behave as pure economic models would predict. Behavioral economics provides insight into true consumer behavior by considering other factors, including psychology, that influence decision-making. Is your credit union up to considering new ways to incent savings behaviors? That’s a tough question. But its exploration might help answer another tough question Callahan has heard repeatedly in conversations with credit unions this year: How can we generate more deposits?
4 ways to turn data analytics into a credit union differentiator
Analytics has been a major topic for some time among credit union strategists and is only growing in importance. Meanwhile, using analytics ethically has come to the fore globally, with the May 25 go-live date for the General Data Protection Regulation by the European Union. The GDPR might not directly impact credit unions that don’t have members in Europe, but it’s a new bar for such things as reporting data breaches and obtaining consent for data use.
New job titles reflect important aspirations
Changing job titles — the titles themselves, not the people holding them — is not really a new thing at credit unions. But there’s a new wave of them that are interesting and promising. These new titles have a distinct focus on the member. They’re aspirational. And they clearly show what the credit union values and is trying to achieve.
Behavioral economics and credit unions make a fine pair
Credit unions live and die around the idea of putting members first. Now, there’s an emerging field of academic study that offers actionable insight on how credit unions can nudge their members into putting themselves first, too. Behavioral economics (BE) tries to understand behavior through multiple lenses such as psychology, judgment, decision-making, and, of course, economics. BE offers approaches that can help the credit union movement help its members address problems like: continue reading »
Behavioral Economics And Credit Unions Make A Fine Pair | Credit Unions
Credit unions live and die around the idea of putting members first. Now, there’s an emerging field of academic study that offers actionable insight on how credit unions can nudge their members into putting themselves first, too. Behavioral economics (BE) tries to understand behavior through multiple lenses such as psychology, judgment, decision-making, and, of course, economics.
The Experience Economy: Properly Frame The Story And There's No Debate | Credit Unions
Credit unions are booking loans and accepting deposits at a pace never seen before. Membership has hit new highs. Things couldn’t be better, perhaps, but they could certainly get worse. Bank and non-financial institution competitors are lining up to take credit union wallet share even as it reaches new peaks in auto lending, mortgages and more.
The Pope Digs Cooperatives | Credit Unions
I’m not Catholic. I don’t believe in everything the church says or approve of its handling of some terrible scandals. Not all my Catholic friends and colleagues do either, of course. But there’s no arguing with the moral weight this new pontiff carries with him, nor with the sobriety of his message in these days of mudslinging personal attacks and hate speech pandering to the lowest common denominator — all abetted by a willing media, mainstream and otherwise — to win attention on the public stage.
The Pope Digs Cooperatives | Credit Unions
I’m not Catholic. I don’t believe in everything the church says or approve of its handling of some really terrible scandals. Not all my Catholic friends and colleagues do either, of course.
Naveo Navigates Its Name Change With A Brilliantly Simple Move | Credit Unions
Ever had one of those forehead-slapping “why didn’t I think of that” moments? The new vertical-swipe debit cards from Naveo Credit Union ($112.6M, Somerville, MA) induced one of those for me. Check it out in this CUToday article posted last week.
Naveo Navigates Its Name Change With A Brilliantly Simple Move | Credit Unions
Ever had one of those forehead-slapping “why didn’t I think of that” moments? The new vertical-swipe debit cards from Naveo Credit Union ($112.6M, Somerville, MA) induced one of those for me. Check it out in this CUToday article posted last week.
The Power Of Storytelling - General Features - News | Credit Unions
Credit unions had a great year in 2014. They surpassed the 100-million-mark in third quarter; posted the highest year-over-year loan growth, 9.9%, since 2005 in second quarter; and originated more consumer loans than ever before, $48.0 billion, during first quarter. Heading into 2015, their mortgage market share is quadruple what it was four years ago, and their auto market share is the highest it’s been since 2009.
The Power Of Storytelling - General Features - News | Credit Unions
Credit unions had a great year in 2014. They surpassed the 100-million-mark in third quarter; posted the highest year-over-year loan growth, 9.9%, since 2005 in second quarter; and originated more consumer loans than ever before, $48.0 billion, during first quarter. Heading into 2015, their mortgage market share is quadruple what it was four years ago, and their auto market share is the highest it’s been since 2009.
The 6 Best Community Impact Stories Of 2014 | Credit Unions
While researching ideas for a speech last month at the CUES Directors’ Conference, I was struck by the varied and exciting ways that credit unions have made an impact in their local communities. No longer content to work with just one member at a time, the credit unions in the case studies featured below are all looking to leverage other resources in the community to make an impact that will be felt for generations to come.
The Core of What We Do | Credit Unions
We have just released our 2015 Market Share Guide to Credit Union Core Processors. Just as it has in previous years, our conclusions about market share riled some providers. In one case, we did mistakenly state how many credit union clients CompuSource has. It’s 337 and we’ve corrected that figure in multiple data tables and across the multiple ways we deliver this much-anticipated guide each year.
Insights On Credit Union Mortgage Lending | Credit Unions
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