Samantha Paxson, CO-OP Financial Services
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—CO-OP Financial Services launched its THINK 15 Conference here Wednesday with a message of “Seize the Now,” with presentations and content built around four themes: Betterment, Ubitech, “Helpfull,” and Local Love.
Those four trends came out of research done by TrendWatch and commissioned by CO-OP.
In introductory remarks to the meeting, CO-OP’s Chief Marketing Officer, Samantha Paxson, noted much of the discussion in the research and at the conference is around the idea of “convergence.”
“We are in the right place at the right time,” said Paxson. “This is a moment of convergence, a great opportunity to seize the now.”
In exploring the four themes that are the basis of the meeting, Paxson explained:
- Betterment. This is “building the business by helping consumers achieve life goals/desires.” This includes items such as Fit Bit and online learning.
- Ubitech. This is exploring the technologies that are transforming consumers’ daily lives. “This is technology that is always on and always right at our fingertips,” said Paxson. This is the ubiquity of the Internet, Paxson said, with consumers expecting borderless experiences.
- Helpfull. “That’s helpful, with two levels of waiting,” Paxson explained. “There is no patience. When people tap an application, they expect it to load in two seconds. They want a faster way from here to there. The idea is not new, but the expectations are. These expectations can all be met by organizations that shift their thinking. This is a convergence between operations and mission-driven goals.”
- Local Love. “This is prospering by being a mission-driven company. Yes, local still matters. It’s a mega-trend that is relevant to credit unions. A real commitment to consumers can win the love of consumers. With this one it’s very obvious how credit unions fit in. Maintaining and strengthening our connections to what’s local is very much what we’re about, very much in our DNA. Our CUs can be identified by localities and cities, but credit unions were founded on the bonds of community. And when you hear the word community, I want you to think big. It can exist well beyond the confines of community. We can now think about that root, being local, and growing globally.”
Paxson explained that trends “emerge when change unlocks new ways to serve age-old human needs and desires. We keep hearing connection, convenience and community every year at THINK. That’s why we say ‘Seize the Now.’ But this is also about what do we do with what we know.”
All of this change typically also leads to fear in people, and fear creates two different types of responses, Paxson said:
- The runner. This is the person who is in constant reorganization, who constantly wants to change things up. This person fears appears not to know the very latest developments, and that can lead to reactive decisions.
- The Hider. “This person is in denial about what’s happening. They think everything is just trending. They don’t want to know, and when disruption occurs, as it inevitably does, they are not prepared,” said Paxson. “The hider is the opposite of the runner, but they are both driven by the same thing: fear.”
Despite all that change, said Paxson, credit unions do not need to “run or hide. We are in the right place at the right time. We are guided by authentic core values.”
Authenticity was a frequent theme during the meeting’s opening morning. Paxson touched on it as well.
“Let’s face it; credit unions will never be trendy. We’re more than that. We are more authentically better than that,” she said. “We’re not in one day and out the next. We are on trend. We are a movement. We are a movement that has the know-how to make the most of this convergence. Trends are converging right now where we are right now, which is why we are promoting this idea of ‘Seize the Now.’ The world seems to be catching up to where we’ve been all along.”