Encouraging Disruption

I wrote a post called "Encouraging Disruption" for the Filene Research Institute blog last week. If you haven't checked it out yet, see it here: http://filene.org/blog/post/encouraging-disruption.

Turning the Page

In November 2003, my wife (girlfriend at the time) was in her final year of graduate school at Wake Forest University. We had been dating for five years by that point, but for the previous year and a half she and our English bulldog, Leota, had been living in Winston-Salem, NC, while I lived and worked north of Richmond, Virginia. Living so far apart was taking its financial and emotional toll, so I constantly kept my eyes open for career opportunities that would allow us to remedy our situation.

I found and responded to an ad in the Winston-Salem Journal for a Director of Public Relations position at Members Credit Union in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This was an interesting choice for me. Working in the financial services sector had never been appealing to me. In fact, even though the dot-com crash destroyed the job market for college students as unfortunate as I was to graduate in 2001, I simply refused to meet with recruiters from large banks, investment firms, and the like. I knew very little about credit unions, even though I had been a longtime member at Indiana's Centra Credit Union. I knew even less about Members Credit Union, Winston-Salem, public relations, and even North Carolina.

I didn't get the job.

Members Credit Union hired another applicant instead of me, but offered to make me her assistant. I accepted, and did the best I could to absorb everything I possibly could about credit unions, public relations, financial services, and marketing. I learned about the credit union structure, and how Members Credit Union carefully followed the most sacred of credit union philosophies. Although we offered the latest in financial services technology, this was a traditional (read: wonderful) credit union that insisted on putting people over profit, serving the community, keeping deposit rates high and loan rates low, financial literacy education, and treating employees well. I had found a home.

After only a few months, my boss suddenly resigned. I was lucky enough to be selected as her replacement. In the nearly six years since, I have been blessed to serve a credit union that truly understands, and lives, the credit union difference. Members Credit Union is conservative with lending and investments because we see the credit union's assets as our members' assets. Steady growth, we have always argued, is much more desirable (and responsible) than forced, expensive, and risky growth. Thanks to the careful guidance of our management team and volunteer board, we have always run a lean organization. We have always been open to new ideas, but insist that they be implemented with as little hard dollar costs as possible.

At times, the lack of budget dollars has been frustrating. Looking back, however, I would say that this experience was the greatest thing that could have possibly happened for my personal and professional development. They say that need is the mother of invention, but I'd argue that under-funded passion is. When you don't have the budget dollars to implement an idea, what do you do? Well, if you believe in the idea, you do anything you can to make it work within the budget. You read as much as you can. You work as hard as you possibly can. You connect with people with expertise on the subject. You teach yourself things that you never knew you would ever have a chance to learn. You work every relationship with every person outside of your organization to see your idea get its first breath of life.

This mindset has kept me interested in credit union innovation. It has convinced me that credit unions of all sizes and budgets can implement ideas they are passionate about. It has proven to me that the credit union difference is alive and well. It has allowed me to get to know many of you.

Today is my last day at Members Credit Union.

On Monday I start an 18-month contract with the Filene Research Institute to help credit unions across the globe learn about, implement, and create financial services innovations. Over the years, Filene's i3 Program has researched and created game-changing programs to help credit unions better serve, engage, and appeal to consumers. My goal will be to help as many credit unions as possible deliver these programs to their fields of membership.

This is a dream come true for me, and as close to a perfect professional fit I could ever hope to find for myself. I hope I've proven over the years that I deeply love credit unions, am a total financial services innovation nerd, and walk the talk when it comes to credit union cooperation and collaboration. This position will allow me to live and breathe my passions, while surrounding me with co-workers that I have always truly admired.

I'll miss Members Credit Union dearly, but can't wait to start this next chapter in my career. I hope you'll continue to be a part of it.

Why I Support Filene and Obama (not a typo)

Take away his fortune, fame, success, leadership, entrepreneurial achievement, philanthropic accomplishment and charming good looks, and I would consider myself a modern-day Edward Filene. OK...it's obviously a stretch. But let me explain.

Filene was a man who put philosophy into action. So am I. Filene believed in consumerism, capitalism, and the power (good and bad) of marketing. So do I.

He believed that one of the most important obligations that an American has is to his/her job - with hard work, dedication, innovation, and passion for creating satisfied customers being imperative. I believe that too. Filene also believed that in return for these qualities, workers should be taken care of by their employers. I couldn't agree more.

He believed in the power of self-help - that people, at the end of the day, must take responsibility for their own betterment. Amen, brother. He believed in cooperative self-help - that by electing to cooperatively tackle a problem, people had a better chance of allowing each other to help themselves. Preach it, Ed!

He hated usury, and believed that there is nothing more important than delivering the best possible product at the best possible price to consumers. Anything outside of that was inefficient and unsustainable on both macro and micro levels. My philosophy exactly.

He believed in credit unions. He believed that democratically owned and operated, not-for-profit financial cooperatives could play a vital role in providing low-cost access to credit to individuals who, outside of the credit union structure, seemed doomed to inefficient bank usury. You see, Filene knew that a democratically-operated financial institution had no choice but to serve its members. They are the shareholders. Thus, any earnings, profits, gains, etc. directly improved the lives of member-owners. So, what you have is this system in which members dictate the financial services they receive - from pricing, to products offered, to fee structure. Essentially, then, members are receiving the best possible products and services at the best possible prices. How cool is that?

Bad organizational decisions, when made, are made in good faith. At the end of the day, though, all decisions in such democracies are the will of the people: the members. I take comfort in that.

That takes me to my point (finally, I know). Anyone that knows me knows that I am a conservative. I believe in small government, low taxes, and a strong national defense. I believe that in America all people of all walks of life enjoy the promises of our Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I believe in the greatness of people - that at the end of the day truly free people are compelled to be good to one another.

I believe in less laws, not more laws. I believe that being successful in America should result in national praise, not punitive actions. I believe that in most cases hard work and a little luck are all it takes to succeed in the land of the free. And I believe that the combination of free markets and democracy, while imperfect, are the secrets to sustained economic and social greatness.

I did not vote for Barack Obama.

I happened to be in San Francisco on election night. What amazed me was the palpable feeling in the air. Aside from the dancing in the streets, horn honking, and pedestrian cheers, you could just see a sense of happiness on people's faces when Obama was announced as the winner. People were downright giddy - like kids on Christmas morning. Granted, this may have totally been a function of being in one of America's most liberal cities. But, the sense that I got was that America had spoken. I take comfort in that.

Democracy doesn't mean your "side" always wins. It means that, collectively, the people win. My political views will likely never allow me to vote for Barack Obama, but my patriotism and belief in American democracy requires that I respect and support the will of the people.

So, my vow to you is this: you will never hear me bash Barack Obama, the President. His election is the will of the people. And even though I know that many Americans did not afford this luxury to President Bush, I pledge my support, despite our dramatic disagreements, to Obama and his remarkable story. I must now trust that he will hold true to his word and be a representative of all of our people - no matter how we voted.

Filene and I could totally support that.

Credit Union Warrior Featured on CU Tomorrow Podcast

Last month, I had the opportunity to discuss credit union efforts to attract younger members with Filene/CU Tomorrow's Ben Rogers. I was joined by two brilliant young credit union professionals that I work with in Filene's 30 Under 30 group, Amy Stanton and Robin Hickey.

This gave me time to talk about Members Credit Union success stories such as Football Pick'em and What Are You Saving For? More than that, though, it gave me the opportunity to hear what other credit unions are doing, and planning to do, to attract younger members.

Here's a link to the podcast. Definitely leave a comment either here or on the Filene blog to tell us how you think credit unions can better excite young adults about the credit union movement.