By Frank J. Diekmann
Can you guess what will soon likely be the world’s largest financial institution? Did you know the world record for Biggest Collection of Egomaniacs has recently been broken?
Here’s a quick update on those two questions, plus everything else you might have missed were you not on hand for the Association of Credit Union Internal Auditors’ meeting in San Antonio, and CUNA’s America’s Credit Union Conference in Las Vegas.
Not So Fantastic for Plastic
Mark Sievewright, the former president of Fiserv’s Credit Union Division who now leads his own firm, shared these observations with the ACUIA meeting:
- “I was asked to speak about the future of the plastic card. I said that’s easy–It doesn’t have one. Long-term, we’re going to be paying for things that will not be driven by the plastic card. What if we move all this effort we put into chip and we pay in different way, with the palm of your hand.”
- “The second most added feature by credit unions is authentication by fingerprint. Number-one is quick-balance checks. What if the redefinition of member service included new ways to interact with your members that the financial system didn’t invent.” * (New entrants) want to destroy your business model, but they can’t. (China’s) Jack Ma said Ant Financial by 2025 will be the world’s biggest financial and bank, through Alibaba and Alipay. It’s not just the Chinese. This business spans the globe. He told Walmart, if you want 10,000 new customers you have to open a warehouse, hire people, and build stores. I just have to add two servers.”
New World Record for Egomaniacs
Guy Kawasaki is well-recognized for his role in marketing during two different stints with Apple as it emerged as one of the globe’s iconic brands. CUToday.info has full coverage of his presentation here, but among the thoughts and observations he shared with CUNA’s America’s Credit Union Conference that weren’t included in that reporting were these:
- Standing in front of a photo of employees in Apple’s Macintosh division in the 1980s in which Steve Jobs is seen kneeling front and center, Kawasaki said, “Here is a photo of Apple’s staff from 30 years ago. At the time, it was the biggest collection of egomaniacs in history. That record was recently broken by Facebook.”
- Getting ready to make a presentation? According to Kawasaki, when putting together a PowerPoint (ironically, he did not mention Apple’s Keynote), you should adhere to the 10/20/30 rule. That is, no more than 10 slides, no longer than 20 minutes, and use at least 30-point font. “Keep cutting until it fits,” he recommended.
- Kawasaki made clear he is a disgruntled Bank of America customer. “I bought a house recently. BofA turned me down for a mortgage because I don’t have any credit history and I don’t have any debt.”
How’s That Again?
During CUNA’s ACUC, two people with the trade group both said, “Winning is growing.” Left ignored was the fact half of all credit unions are barely profitable or losing money, hence the mergers announced with nearly every sunrise. So where was the attention to those credit unions at the meeting? I supposed that's why CUToday.info has had such overwhelming response to this.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1: Read This
Mel Robbins, the CNN legal analyst gave a talk to credit unions that had nothing to do with the law or media. Instead, she discussed the life-changing fame that has come to her for her book on The Five Second Rule. No, it has nothing to do with how quickly you can grab something off the floor and still eat it. You can read more about that here, but what the rule basically comes down to is: if you find yourself in a situation where you know what to do but are hesitant, count down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then make a decision.
“Slowly but surely my life started to change, five second decisions at a time,” said Robbins, whose TED Talk, “How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over,” has been viewed more than 10-million times. The TED Talk can be found here.
One reason people screw themselves over, according to Robbins, is they listen to that voice in their head, which they probably shouldn’t do.
“If I could put a speaker on your head that broadcast the thoughts in your head you wouldn’t be here, you’d be put in an insane asylum,” she joked—although she was probably seriously right.
Later, she added, “When you hear about courage you think about the big stuff. What you need right now is a little bit of courage. It’s also something small. It’s also the ability to do anything that’s difficult, uncertain or new.”
Speaking to credit unions specifically, Robbins said, “I truly believe you have the capability to disrupt the financial services industry because of your values, your model.”
What Awareness Initiative Has Learned
During the CUNA meeting, credit unions were given an update on the where the Credit Union Awareness Initiative stands. That effort is planning to do something about the ongoing gap in consumer knowledge of credit unions by creating a national brand awareness platform, and by early 2018, a pilot should be in the market. You can read more about that here.
Graeme Trayner, the vice president of the brands and communications practice at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, which has been retained to oversee much of the research, shared that during a focus group one person shared a story not too many CUs will be crazy to hear, but it’s informative. That person said that when he goes to dinner with friends, and they are getting out their upscale or rewards credit cards such as the Chase Sapphire card, he is “embarrassed” to pull out his credit union card, because it’s perceived as being for lower-income people.
Two other observations that Trayner shared:
- Credit unions put a lot of stock in “community,” and while the word “movement is special, “From a ‘community’ perspective, community is a very crowded concept. Exxon-Mobile and Walmart talk about community. When Millennials think of community, they think of Instagram and AirBnB.”
- Later, Trayner added, “I think, lastly, what we need to get across is how we can help Americans meet their aspirations and getting ahead. This isn’t banking for poor people. This is banking for clever, savvy consumers.”
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator-in-Chief at CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info and @FrankCUToday.