That was a fabulous ending to an amazing THINK 12 conference, wasn’t it? Chris Berman, ESPN Anchor, a live focus group and insights from Brett King, author and strategic advisor, sharing his vision of the future of branching.

Chris Berman shared stories about the early days of ESPN, a David fighting against the Goliath of network television. Just like ESPN, he urged credit unions to dream big and act realistically. ESPN had the vision of being the worldwide leader in sport but they had to struggle skunk attacks in their studio that was basically a garage to become what they are today. The executives asked their employees to reach for the sky. You might get burned once in a while, take your hand back for a minute, regroup and reach for the sky again. As long as the ceiling doesn’t hit you, keep going. Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. While you have to keep one eye on the day-to-day tasks, the other eye has to look to the future.

Dr. Neil Goldman, Senior Partner, Goldman Consulting and Strategy,Brett King, author and strategic advisor, hosted a live focus group with local non-members to discover reasons why they don’t bank with credit unions.

The common thread of the conversation was the lack of education when it comes to credit unions. Panelists felt bombarded by banking advertisements and messages but they don’t have see any commercial messages from credit unions. All of them liked the idea that credit unions were non-profit organizations and the depth of ATM locations but felt that credit unions didn’t communicate these benefits appropriately. Panelists believed that membership is a positive term but they also agreed that the term might be a barrier for the outside public. More importantly, they encouraged all credit unions to collaborate on a national awareness campaign. If you don’t have awareness of credit unions, you will never consider them.

Brett King, author and strategic advisor, wrapped up THINK 12 by discussing the role of branches in the 21st century and how the credit union business has to change.

To illustrate the rapid change in consumer behavior, Brett King walked the audience through a day in the life of a 100,000 member credit union: 300 members will call or email the credit union. 850 members will use an ATM machine. 2,25o will use an app to check their balance. 7,780 members will visit their credit credit union website. 80,000 members will use a plastic card. 100 members will visit a branch: 0.1% of your members visit your branch. He likened the branch to the Apple Store and  apps to transactions. Once you start the relationship in the branch (Apple Store), members won’t return to buy apps, they transact on their mobile devices or computer.

Members and prospects have changed their behavior forever, now credit unions have to change their business model and the way they behave. The great advantage of credit unions compared to banks is that members trust them. The biggest challenge for credit unions is to make the initial connection with customers because credit unions still rely on old behavior. Always remember: Banking is no longer a space where you, it’s a thing you do.

We hope THINK 12 provided you with many big ideas, and we’re confident you will take these ideas to the next level until we meet again in Chicago for THINK 13. We’re looking forward seeing you there and continuing the conversation through Facebook, Twitter and by downloading the THINK 12 eBook.

Brett King, author and strategic advisor, focused in his second appearance at THINK on the role of branches in the 21st century and how the credit union business has to change.

Banking used to be about physical things: checks, branches and marble floors. While customers still like the feeling of big, shiny building as a safety net, average in-branch transactions per month across the United states will plummet 56% between 2006 and 2015. Change is everywhere and even speeding up: In 2000, 59% of all retail payments were done by check in 2000, in 2011 only 3%. Cash usage will be reduced by 17% in the US in the next few years. Still, humans tend to underestimate the rate of change.

To illustrate that, Brett King walked the audience through a day in the life of a 100,000 member credit union:

300 members will call or email the credit union. 850 members will use an ATM machine. 2,25o will use an app to check their balance. 7,780 members will visit their credit credit union website. 80,000 members will use a plastic card. 100 members will visit a branch: 0.1% of your members visit your branch.

What if we create better branches? 

Could credit unions adopt the Apple store model? While people want branches to satisfy their need for security, branch usage goes down. Brett King made the analogy that you buy your Apple product at the physical store but you don’t go to a physical story to buy apps. The same is true for members: They want to start the relationship in a branch but the transactions will move to the virtual space. Banking is no longer a space where you go, it’s a thing you do.

How is your credit union answering these facts?

The fastest growing financial product? $202 billion in pre-paid debit cars in the US in 2011. 1 in 2 members will use the smartphone for banking by 2015. 63% of teens send a text message daily. 31% of teens never use a landline.

Digital natives have changed their behavior forever (as Brett King called them the “De-Banked Generation”), now credit unions have to change their business model and the way they behave. The great advantage of credit unions compared to banks is that members trust them. The biggest challenge for credit unions is to make the initial connection with customers because credit unions still rely on old behavior.

Behavior is at the ‘core’ of new banking: mobile + behavior = context. Because banking is no longer a space where you go, it’s a thing you do.

Dr. Neil Goldman, Senior Partner, Goldman Consulting and Strategy, Brett King, author and strategic advisor, hosted a live focus group with local non-members to discover reasons why they don’t bank with credit unions.

The panelists agreed that they felt uneducated when it comes to credit unions, They feel bombarded by banking advertisements and messages but they don’t have see any commercial messages from credit unions. All of them liked the idea that credit unions were non-profit organizations and the depth of ATM locations but felt that credit unions didn’t communicate these benefits appropriately. The majority of banking was done online, either through a computer or smartphone – it’s a necessity for customers to switch to credit unions.

Local branches are more important than a nationwide network. One panelist mentioned that a local branch is a way to educate your children about finances, that’s the way she grew up and wants her kids to have the same experience. While all of them rarely visit the local branch, they consider it a safety net and important asset.

The panelist were still very early in social media adoption (all of them had Facebook accounts but weren’t Twitter users) and wouldn’t engage with a financial institution on those channels. One panelist felt backstabbed by her bank and closed down all her accounts during the financial crisis. She chose a bank because she liked the local people in her branch, they were being helpful and the products/services of the bank were perfect for her needs. Some felt a bit helpless how to get started when looking for a credit union. Even though they understand now the benefits, they don’t know how to get started. Where would they find the credit union for their needs? An online search doesn’t provided appropriate results. One panelist encouraged to use paid keywords.

Panelists believed that membership is a positive term but they also agreed that the term might be a barrier for the outside public. More importantly, they encouraged all credit unions to collaborate on a national awareness campaign. If you don’t have awareness of credit unions, you will never consider them.

Chris Berman, ESPN Anchor, entertained in his unique way the THINK 12 audience and took them through the history of ESPN and discussed audiences to take your credit unions to the next level and beyond, and what you can expect along the way.

ESPN was conceived by Bill and Scott Rasmussen with support from Ed Egan. Rasmussen’s original idea was to create a cable television network that focused on covering all sporting events in the Connecticut rather than just one team as Egan proposed. They began to seek out support from cable operators and potential investors for the sports channel. The present representatives were skeptical of the concept and stated it would be impractical and too costly to take a crazy risk. Over time, they learned they could use technology to broadcast to all 50 states, which was less expensive than sending the signal across Connecticut via landlines. On September 7, 1979 the 24-hour sports network premiered and the first live game broadcast was not a major sports – it was a slow-pitch softball game, featuring the Kentucky Bourbons vs. the Milwaukee Schlitz – sponsored by Budweiser.

Chris Berman urged credit unions to dream big and act realistically. ESPN had the vision of being the worldwide leader in sport but they had to struggle skunk attacks in their studio that was basically a garage to become what they are today. The executives asked their employees to reach for the sky. You might get burned once in a while, take your hand back for a minute, regroup and reach for the sky again. As long as the ceiling doesn’t hit you, keep going.

Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. While you have to keep one eye on the day-to-day tasks, the other eye has to look to the future.

Day 2 of THINK 2012 delivered important messages to credit unions:

Putting member growth in the fast lane.

Dr. Neil Goldman, Senior Partner, Goldman Consulting and Strategy, discussed fresh research findings that will help credit unions to understand prospective members better and further member growth.

Bank customers still have negative emotions toward banks (even more pronounced for credit union members). According to Net Promoter scores, there are more detractors than promoters when it comes to banks. This score is reversed for credit union members. Still, despite negativity, most bank customers don’t move.

Dr. Neil Goldman offered a 10-step program to put member growth in the fast lane, explore it here.

Give people what they want, when they want it.

Alexis Maybank, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Gilt Groupe discussed in her “By Invitation only: How we built Gilt and changed the way how millions shopped.” the changing consumers and what credit unions can learn from the lifestyle start-up.

Gilt Groupe offers luxury items and services aligned with a luxury customer lifestyle and discount mindset. The site features 400, 000 daily visitors, 5 million+ members and 1.5 million monthly shoppers. Gilt Groupe curates their offerings and sell offer everything on their site. It’s an emotional discovery process. Gilt Groupe tries to be the most aspirational shopping experience.

Predictive Commerce

Businesses need to focus on capturing data to get to know their customers better, based on three pillars: Customization,Personalization and CRM.

A store in your pocket

Customers want to communicate with a brand on their terms, through their preferred channels. By now, the majority of consumers use mobile as their main device.

Social Media: Go to the conversation

Gilt Groupe brings services and sales to the conversation, connecting in real-time with their consumers and gives them lost to talk about and share. Don’t disrupt the conversation, just be a friendly service and people will flock to you.

Surprise and delight

Focus on what you can do online that you can’t do offline. You can’t build sites or platforms and hope people will come. Experiment, launch, iterate. Rinse and repeat. You can’t build trust through advertising, you have to build it through the consumer/user experience.

Congratulations, Paul Yang, well deserved. And a big thank you to all participants. Keep the ideas coming.

Doug Rauch and Jeff Norris together with Caroline Lane, SVP Business Development and Marketing, CO-OP, and Jeff Russell, CEO/President, TMG Financial Services discussed how creativity and agility can reinvent your credit union. 

Being agile when everything is on the line is critical.

It’s important to stay consistent with your vision but be flexible with your tactics. The panelists agreed that the vision for credit unions is there but they often don’t take enough risks and stick to proven but now less effective tactics. Credit Unions need to embrace the financial crisis and deliver diverse, customized experiences. Why would you try to emulate the opposite of the giant, faceless Wall Street giant? Be yourself, be authentic.

Technology can never replace human-to-human interaction but technology can be used to humanize the credit union-member relationship. Technology as a facilitator to enhance the relationship with members. When you deploy technology, your primary goal should be offer value to members (Netflix and Amazon with their recommendation engine) and not used as data-mining opportunity with no value for members.

“If you’re not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” – Jim Rohn

Everybody wants to embrace risk. However, how can credit unions integrate risj into their business model? You can’t just trick yourself that there is a non-risky path to take. Everything you do is risky. Ironically, people get people promoted in credit unions to manage risk. Once they are on the executive level, it’s a major culture change for them to switch from risk-averse to risk-taking. Doug Rauch mentioned that specific industries will never take certains risks: Trader Joe’s would never risk the safety of food, credit unions shouldn’t risk their assets. Risk-taking has to be calculated and focused, in Trader Joe’s case service, marketing and delivery. What risks should credit unions take?

Community + Locality

How can credit unions try to address new communities on social platforms and tap into the trend that everything is local now? This local and communal feeling translates directly into trust. Credit Unions should share their local initiatives and marketing tactics with the movement. At the heart of the credit union industry is collaboration and cooperation – an important skill in the 21st century.

How to market to women

Human-centered design: Create solutions for people by studying and observing them. Don’t just ask them what they want, study them and ask them questions. Women are constantly distracted, anything that requires a lot of study and a long attention span will fail. Making it easier for people to get things done: Don’t look at your credit union site as a pure marketing tool, see it through the eyes of consumers. Explore the needs of your members and prospects. In general, the Emotional Quotient is more important for women than the IQ, connecting emotionally with your credit union.

Focus on the frontline staff

They are often the most important and personal connection with your members. Wouldn’t it be worth a massive investment to make the frontline experience for members delightful and enchanting?

Takeaways:

- To embrace risk within the credit union and board, fail forward.

- How do we create engagement with a new generation of customers?

- Try to find ways to cooperate with other people to be able to focus on your members’ needs.

- Find the key critical element that matters to your members and excel in that element. Great companies don’t excel at everything, they are good at 1-2 things.

Doug Rauch, former President of Trader Joe’s, discussed with the THINK audience how creative thinking can yield better solutions to everyday problems facing your credit union.

Trader Joe’s is named after its founder, Joe Coulombe. The chain began as a Greater Los Angeles area chain of “Pronto Market” convenience stores. The original Pronto Markets were similar to 7-Eleven stores, so similar Coulombe felt the competition with 7-Eleven would be ruinous. He is said to have developed the idea of the Trader Joe South Seas motif while on vacation in the Caribbean. The biggest difference compared to competitors was that Trader Joe’s created a culture of sustainable innovation. This changes everything because it allowed the brand to regard creativity as process, not an event. Creativity should be an integral part of your credit union, not just part of a division or job title.

While it’s important to be creative and produce original ideas of value; it’s even more important to be innovative: taking those original ideas of value to the marketplace. Remember these AT&T commercials?

Great ideas. Too bad, AT&T never executed them.

As credit unions, you need to rewrite the rules. Just like Apple did with the iPhone, Zappos with customer service; credit unions will not succeed by following the rules. Trader Joe’s sells groceries just like other stores. Their biggest difference is HOW they do it: Integrity of design, employees are ‘crew members’, hiring the right people that have a passion for the brand experiene. Think about hiring outsiders with fresh, diverse ideas, people that consider creativity a team sport. Hire people for their ability to connect, not for how quickly they complete a task. Why not make your credit union more personal? Allow employees to express their creativity?

The real big picture according to Doug Rauch

• A culture of trust and care is the secret weapon you have. If you want to change your credit union, change your culture.
• Consider your credit union a customer experience company.
• Transcend the Transactional. Look beyond the deal.
• Connections with people make the real difference.

Dr. Jeff Norris,  Mission Planning and Execution Systems Manager, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, delighted the audience with his speech about being agile in the 21st century.

After he dazzled the audience with this amazing clip of Nasa’s latest venture,

Dr. Jeff Norris explained there are three pillar to implement mission critical agility: Vision, Risk and Commitment.

Vision

The first part dealt with vision, starting off with an anecdote on Monks jolted by electric currents happening sometimes towards the end of 18th century, followed by a run-down of the very interesting history of Alexander Graham Bell, whose invention of the telephone thrashed any outlooks that the then successful Western Union telegraphing company had. Moral of the story: Failing to see the value in visions can kill your business. (Even worse, Western Union was apparently offered to buy a fully functional telephone with related patents, for what can only be described as peanuts, and flat out refused it).

Risk

Dr. Jeff Norris illustrated the importance of risk with the example of getting to the moon, and how to actually achieve that. The defining moment of managing the feat was to propose that there cannot be a single spacecraft that would manage lifting off earth, landing on the moon, getting up again and re-entering Earth, but that the whole thing would have to be composed of several parts that would play a role during the different phases of the mission.

This idea was originally proposed by John Houbolt and first opposed and later accepted by Werner von Braun.

The main point: This massive change in concept enabled the NASA to land on the moon. The question needs to be asked not only about the cost of changing something but also the cost of not changing something. Sometimes we believe the road to success is doing the simple thing.

“Do the simplest thing (…) that could possibly work.” – Ward Cunningham.

Commitment

When you’re making a tough decision, you often eliminate all the options until you make up your mind. How long can you stay uncommitted, considering the vast amount of options available? It’s often more important to know when to make a decision than what decision you finally make. The better way is to leave as many options as possible open?

“Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods.” Alexander Graham Bell