By Frank J. Diekmann
Postcards crash into reality. A reminder about those who are desperate. What's in the water? And more notes from Europe and the recent World Credit Union Conference in Vienna.
It’s All About You, Of Course
There are moments in time when traveling when the postcard and the romantic ideals and the “just the way I imagined it” actually intersect with reality, and they are to be treasured.
Until… Until, you encounter those people for whom you just have to shake your head and wonder, “What were you thinking?” The night was ideal. At Salzburg Castle, high above the old town, we had sat down to dinner just as a storm had passed leaving a plum and sherbet Monet of a sky as the backdrop canvas. And that’s when a group of Americans showed up at the linen table cloth dinner with, yes, five kids in tow, not one of whom was over 10 and who weren’t quite on the same page as their parents when it came to the appeal of the evening. And after suffering through the four-course meal, let me just say the follow up concert of Mozart’s and Haydn’s music had those kids THRILLED. As for the rest of us, Salzburg Castle also includes a room of medieval devices of torture and there was a general consensus it could have been put to good use.
A Transcendent State
At an historic Catholic Church in Graz, Austria, the young woman who was taking tickets was wearing a Nirvana shirt. Not sure she really got that she was advertising a competitor.
A Large Crowd
WOCCU reported 1,600 people in attendance at its World Credit Union Conference, representing 58 countries.
Because Creditunionly Isn’t the Same
At the World Credit Union Conference, the Wi-Fi was sponsored by, drum roll please, Bankingly.
Thanks, Herr Bubble Buster
Perhaps tired of being asked about it, the leader of a group of traditional Austrian dancers and a singer who helped to open the WOCCU meeting told the crowd: “I will tell you a secret. The people in Austria know almost nothing about the Sound of Music.” (In Salzburg you can, however, take Sound of Music tours. And spoiler alert, stop reading right here if you prefer not to have the myth pierced…but the Von Trapp family escaped Austria not by a hike through the Alps (which are quite far away), but instead by going to the nearby train station, hopping aboard, and traveling to Italy, where the Captain also had citizenship.)
Easy for Me to Say
On behalf of the city of Vienna, Dr. Kurt Sturzenbecher welcomed credit unions to the city on the Danube. “My name is easy to pronounce, just not in other languages,” he said. Later, Sturzenbecher added, “Vienna has 15 million overnight visitors every year. Vienna is an important location of international exchange and one of four capitals of the United Nations. My mother told me often you have to be modest. And I have to be modest as a person, but I don’t have to be modest as a representative of Vienna.”
Making the Drive Home Better
Outgoing WOCCU Chairman Daniel Burns of Canada said in his parting remarks, “I said a year ago we should toss aside some of our humility and I really meant it. We must tell our story. We are the answer for the underbanked and the exploited. Preaching to ourselves is not good enough. Please take this message to your regulators that there is a better way.” Later, Burns added, “Few of us can go home at the end of the day and say we tried to make the world a little better place for our neighbors and our community.”
Remember the People in the Boats
Grzegorz Bierecki, who is well-known to many in the U.S. and international credit union community for having helped re-start the credit union movement in Poland following the fall of communism, was presented with the WOCCU’s Distinguished Service Award at the meeting. Today, Bierecki is not very active in credit unions and is a member of the Polish Senate and the fight in that country to defend democracy.
“My wife has been a credit union widow for last 27 years. My kids grew up at WOCCU conferences,” Bierecki said. “Credit unions offer answers to many of today’s challenges. We have this migration challenge in Europe. People travel across the sea, and it’s not a privilege to leave your house and travel to an unknown place in a little boat. If these people had credit unions, to offer fair credit, to help them to build their lives, they would certainly stay home with their friends and families and nations.”
The Massive Creation of Data
Susan Etlinger keynoted the first day of the meeting and spoke on different ways to think about big data and technology. You can read more here. Among Etlinger’s observations was this: “The first thing to know is what IBM has been saying, which is that 90% of all data was created in the last two years alone. And now that figure is shrinking to 14 months. The reason is all that happens in in just one Internet minute with Facebook, YouTube, online shopping, messaging apps, Snapchat, Google searches, videos, Twitter, e-mail and more.”
Later, Etlinger offered at least a little reassurance to credit unions, which constantly lament and fear that they are lagging in technology. “Every organization says, ‘We’re so far behind.’ Guess what, you’re not. Everyone is behind. And there are no experts. There are just curious people. Don’t let data and technology distract you. It can help you address some of the fundamental challenges you have.”
A Shark on the Danube
Robert Herjavec, one of the stars of TV’s Shark Tank, shared a personal connection with credit unions along with other advice, which you can read more about here.
Here is some of what else he had to say.
- “One thing I’ve learned is you can be fat, thin, bald, tall, short, but none of that matters on TV, because it can all be fixed. The one thing you cannot be on TV is boring. Boring is bad. Boring gets you kicked off TV. The one thing we’ve learned about people pitching to us on the TV, typically small business, is if you are boring, we don’t care. People don’t remember what you say to them; people remember how you make them feel.”
- Herjavec, who is a citizen of Canada and who lives in the U.S., asked how many in the crowd were from Canada, and he heard polite applause. He then asked how many Americans were on hand, and the response was louder and more boisterous. “That’s the difference between America and Canada; we’re very nice in Canada.”
- Along those lines, he added, “When we first started filming the show, the first pitch comes out, they do their thing. I said, ‘It’s not for me, I’m sorry, I’m out.’ And (producer) Mark Burnett says, ‘Robert, you’re a shark; sharks don’t say I’m sorry.’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry, Mark.’ But we are proud to be nice in Canada.”
- Herjavec hasn’t always been a shark; he was once a smaller fish, and he shared this story about the cybersecurity company he owns, Herjavec Group. “In our first year, we had two employees and $400,000 in sales when I thought we would do $5 million. Everybody was happy to talk to us and have us buy them lunch or take them to play golf. Six months go buy and we don’t sell anything. I finally went and saw a customer who said, ‘You’re great, your engineers are great, but you know we’re dealing with IBM and when they make a mistake, I’ll call you.’ And what I realized was nobody leaves ‘good enough’ for ‘potentially better.’ And I realized we weren’t providing enough value. It took us five years to get to $6 million. Now we’re $200 million in sales and expanding outside of Canada."
The Passion Meter
After delivering remarks on succession planning for both CEOs and board members, Dan Strandy, a board member with Seattle-based Verity Credit Union and CEO of Essential Elements Consulting, was asked by a member of the audience, “What instrument can be used to measure passion?” in potential candidates.
“I think it’s our visual and auditory senses,” responded Strandy. “It’s when you meet with someone face to face. But what I’ve done before I meet them face to face is to call a reference provided and when I’m through I will ask if there someone else you can refer me to who also knows about this individual. And if that person isn’t on their reference list, this is a good way to get a measure.”
You can read more about Mr. Strandy’s presentation here. Incidentally, in talking about succession plans, he reminded that those plans go for boards, too.
A Mixed Message
A hotel in Graz, Austria, offered this description of its hotel and rooms: “For big new ideas, enthusiastic dance moves or movie evenings in a relaxing atmosphere…. We also have cozy wooden floors.” That stream of consciousness string of adjectives seems to be a bit at odds with itself. Watching a movie in a relaxing atmosphere while some other guest is practicing their dance moves in the wooden-floored room above you? Not so cozy. Still, Graz is a charming town and you shouldn’t be sitting in your room watching a movie, anyway.
Are You an Inspector? No? Then Cash
CUToday.info and other media frequently report on how much more advanced payments and plastic are in Europe. But the reality conflicts with the press releases when you’re actually on the streets—at least if you’re a tourist. At many restaurants and shops, they will not take a plastic card and want cash (Euros or Francs or even dollars) only. I assumed this was for the very same reason as in the good ole USofA, and that was to avoid the taxes, and one shopkeeper confirmed for me some practices transcend borders and languages. In Austria, the shopkeeper explained, the government isn’t exactly out of the loop on the practice, and requires merchants to also have a register for cash transactions and to issue a receipt. The government sends inspectors to ensure these merchants are keeping track of cash purchases, and if caught not using the register for cash transactions, there is a steep fine.
But while the merchants don’t know who those undercover inspectors are, they do know who they are not: those camera-toting, guide book-carrying hordes.
Vas in in das Vasser?
At numerous towns in Austria there seemed to be something of a competition over which offers the best water. Vienna, for instance, made a point of noting that it’s water is so clean the city doesn’t even treat it before sending it to the tap.
A World of Coverage
CUToday.info had extensive coverage from the meeting, including four CUs from four countries sharing four strategies for growth, can all be found by searching World Credit Union Conference on CUToday.info.
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief at CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info or @FrankCUToday.