By Ray Birch
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—From a new brand to getting everyone in the right seats to providing answers to how the new organization will deliver for credit unions—the evolution of the new PSCU/Co-op Solutions combination is happening and at a quick pace, according to Brian Scott.
The EVP and chief growth officer for PSCU/Co-op spoke with CUToday.info about the progress that’s being made by the two CUSOs as they move forward with a merger that became official on Jan. 1. He also offered some insights into what’s ahead.
“The response that we got at America’s Credit Unions’ GAC (in early March) was overwhelmingly positive,” Scott said. “I think a lot of people had the perspective that it's about time (for the merger), it's the right thing for the industry and it's the right thing to do to help credit unions thrive.”
What Can’t be Forgotten
Scott said that during conversations with CU leaders there has been an underlying message of, “Make sure you don't forget about service in this process. Make sure the culture of the organization stays in place.”
“That is the number-one area our executive leadership team spends time on—maintaining service and creating a great culture for the combined organization,” said Scott, who came to the merged organization from PSCU. “Those two areas are super important and we've created what we're calling an IMO—Integration Management Office. The purpose of that office is to focus on the combination so everybody else in the organization can focus on day-to-day business—delivering great service and maintaining all the products and services that we support today for credit unions.”
That Integration Management Office is comprised of about 100 people whose job is focusing on making sure the integration goes smoothly, explained Scott. The CUSO has also retained McKinsey & Co. to consult on the merger.
Sorting Through the Products
“As we look forward to some of the next steps, obviously, both companies had similar solutions, similar product sets,” Scott pointed out. “We're going through now and trying to figure out how do we synthesize those and take the best of the best of those solutions and expand them so they work across all of our credit unions. That's a lot of the work that's happening now.”
Brian Scott
The new organization also faces the task of getting staff into their best roles.
“We're still less than 100 days into this,” Scott said. “We've got a new executive leadership team that reports directly to (PSCU/Co-op CEO) Chuck Fagan.”
Fagan had been CEO of PSCU, which was the larger of the two CUSOs.
Leadership Teams in Place
“These teams have all selected their leadership teams underneath them,” Scott continued. “A lot already has been done. The work now is to get the people underneath the leadership teams into the right seats. We expect that to happen by the end of June.”
Scott said that next week at the organization’s Member Forum in San Antonio, several meeting sessions will address what is progressing in key company areas. It will be the first official event of the combined CUSO.
CUToday.info will have coverage from the meeting.
About the New Brand
There is also another question the company said it will soon answer.
“I get asked all the time, ‘What are you doing with your brand?’ PSCU/Co-op Solutions is probably too long of a name for a brand,” Scott said. “We'll be unveiling a new brand in the next 30 or 45 days that will represent the combined organization.”
Turning to other key questions asked of the new organization during America’s CUs’ GAC, Scott said issues have included:
Support for Small CUs & The Industry
“How is the combination going to help small credit unions thrive? And how are we, as one combined organization, supporting the credit union industry?” Scott shared of the questions he heard. “How are we going to make it better for credit unions—so they all thrive, grow and be successful in the marketplace? There was also the question about how will we use the money that credit unions have most wisely—which is the driving force behind why the two organizations came together.
In response to those questions, Scott said, “When you think about PSCU and Co-op as two separate companies, we were both investing in a lot of the same things,” continued Scott. “We were both investing in cybersecurity. We were both investing in separate digital card issuance solutions. If we get together as one company we only have to make those investments once. We can do more with the money that we have from credit unions and invest it better so credit unions can be more successful.”
What’s Been Easiest, Most Difficult?
“Certain things have been easy and certain things have been hard. The cultures of the two companies, how they have come together, that has been way easier than I expected,” Scott said. “In our first board meeting, within hours you could not tell who was a legacy PSCU board member and who was a legacy Co-op board member. The board came together right away. And, you show up to a company meeting in the last 30 days and it is not easy to tell who was a PSCU employee who was Co-op.”
There have been some things that have not gone as smoothly, Scott acknowledged.
“Things we didn't know about each other and things we didn’t know about different products, different services, different technologies. There's a learning curve there,” he said.
The Next Big Thing
Scott noted that among all the member credit unions at the now combined company, there are many that do a variety of things to be successful.
“We're looking at how do we take those best-of-breed ideas so they can touch so many more credit unions—share those effectively across all of our clients,” he said. “That will be one of the next big things coming out of this merger.”