LAS VEGAS–How CEOs can create cultures of collaboration and why it’s important to “get the hell out of the way” were explored during a panel discussion here, as were some myths that were popped. 

The CEOs were part of a panel during the NACUSO Reimagine Conference that was hosted by Mitchell Stankovic Associates as part of its Underground initiative.

With Barb Lowman, CEO of CUNA Strategic Services, acting as moderator, panelists included Liz Wininger, CEO of Xtend; Bill Butler, CEO of Kachinga; Eric Berg, founder of Dnt Blnk.

A fourth member of the panel, Jennifer Oliver of Rize Credit Union, is featured in separate reporting in the CU Daily.

Lowman: Shared services is not new for our industry. What is getting in the way of leaders of doubling down on collaboration on these mundane tasks that are so time consuming?

Winninger: Xtend is a people company. We provide talent and resources on the human side. When we have a problem that comes to the table from credit unions…we’re able to say, ‘OK four other credit unions have this same issue, let’s bring it together and solve the problem together. We can aggregate that.

What gets in the way of credit unions isn’t so much money, it’s time, so we recently deployed a project management service just to help them get the easiest things off the ground. You’ve got to have that middle piece between the software and the implementation. Credit unions don’t even approve an e-mail let alone get a project out and deploy it; the integration fatigue gets annoying.

Lowman: We hear a lot of talk of fintech or vendor vs. Partner? What is the secret sauce of turning a vendor into a partner?

Winninger: You’re a strategic partner if you are vested, with time or money, into our future. If you are a transactional partner, then you’re a transactional partner. But our partners are typically vested in one another. 

Lowman:  Credit unions often see youth accounts as loss-leaders? Why is that wrong?

Butler: It’s a misconception. You could look at it as a loss-leader strategy, but loss-leader strategies are short term. The fact is this is not a loss-leader; there’s opportunity here within youth banking to really grow the business.

What’s exciting to me is the challenges credit unions face in youth membership. They have an aging membership. They need deposits. They need share of wallet. 94% of population is banked, and 65% aren’t going to change Fis. The cost of acquisition is high. Acquisitions costs can be $1,000 or more just to bring them on board. 

But within our own family, our own community, we have a natural growth opportunity for new members. Even though credit unions may have just 3%, 5%, 10% of members that are youth, the opportunity from what we’ve seen could be 20-25% of that member base. Youth is just tremendous opportunity.

Lowman: You have an interesting perspective in investing in innovative solutions and in building models, and also the bottom line. When it comes to fintechs or tech solutions, can collaboration be innovative:”

Berg: The answer is yes, But what is innovation? Statistically speaking, only 2% of people are actually able to take that innovative first step; 15% are early adopters and then 68% follow after that…We innovate when we collaborate but maybe in some cases it’s OK to iterate instead of having to innovate. And that’s an easier thing to swallow a lot of the time for a lot of people.

When we’re walking into a credit union we’re saying, ‘Well, I’ve got all of this compliance, I’ve got all these regulations, I can’t really move that fast.’ (The college students who developed a platform in 30 hours who earlier spoke to the meeting) are who we have to find a way to bring in. If we don’t let them innovate, they’re not going to be here…You have to really realize that those that innovate should innovate and those that want to support innovation are just as important. Partnership with collaboration in that way is extremely important.

Decide for yourself where do you want to be? Do you want to be in that innovative seat? Do you want to be constantly told no. That’s not going to work; it’s going to fail 

Lowman: What do credit union leaders get wrong when they may think they are being innovative?

Berg: Get the hell out of the way. They step in as if they have to somehow try to manage the process. We’re going to manage our way out of the best relationships and manage our way out of the relationships with those young people if we don’t let them just sort of do what they need to do.

(When they talked about what they did in developing a platform in 30 hours)  I’m sure that all of us in our brains went, ‘OK, what about this? And what about that? Bring your boards on board. Bring your boards to conferences. Bring your boards into those conversations so that if they’ve been sitting in the boardroom back at the credit union for the last however many years they need to see what’s happened…If we don’t do that then there’s no chance for those kids.”