Why Growth Isn’t a Strategy, And What a Credit Union Must Have, Instead

SEATTLE–Growth is the goal of any credit union, but in and of itself it simply isn’t actionable, according to one person, who has shared some experiences, lessons learned and insights into how growth can be turned into an actionable strategy.

As part of the CU Daily’s 2026 initiative “The Growth Imperative,” Ben Strangland, president/COO and principle with Strum, discusses what is necessary for any credit union to see and maintain sustainable growth.

The CU Daily: First, for those unfamiliar with Strum, what does the company do and what role can it play in driving growth?

Strangland: Strum works with credit unions and community banks through two closely aligned businesses: Strum Agency and Strum Platform. Strum Agency is a full-service marketing and branding agency that helps credit unions define who they serve, clarify their positioning, and align their organization around a focused growth strategy. 

Strum Platform is a marketing technology platform purpose-built for credit unions to turn data into action through automation, personalization, and measurement.

At a high level, our role is to help institutions understand which member relationships, products, and actions are driving margin and which are quietly eroding it, then make it easier to act on that insight. Growth doesn’t fail because credit unions lack ideas. It fails because credit unions often try to be an answer for everyone in the name of inclusion, despite having finite resources. 

Sustainable growth requires focus: being a very good answer for a clearly defined group of members, rather than an average answer for all, and executing consistently within those constraints.

The CU Daily: Strum has worked across the asset size spectrum. Let’s focus on those of $250 million in assets and below. Speaking to the areas of expertise the company brings, what has been your experience, what mistakes are often made that stymie growth, and why is this happening?

Strangland: We work with credit unions as small as $80 million in assets and as large as $5 billion, and the challenges below $250 million are very real. These institutions are typically stretched thin across staff, time, and expertise. The most common mistake we see is trying to do too much at once, often by copying strategies designed for much larger institutions.

Another frequent issue is over-reliance on external providers to “figure it out” for them. When a credit union is underwater, it’s tempting to lean heavily on fintechs or vendors for answers. If those partners don’t understand the institution’s context or know how to shortcut decisions based on experience, they can unintentionally become an operational burden rather than a catalyst for growth.

This happens not because smaller credit unions lack ambition, but because they are operating with very little margin for error.

The CU Daily: How do the challenges differ by scale?

Strangland: Scale changes the constraints. Smaller credit unions are constrained by capacity. They have fewer people wearing more hats, which makes prioritization and focus critical. Mid-sized institutions often struggle with coordination and internal friction as teams grow. Larger institutions tend to be constrained by governance, complexity, and slower decision-making.

One important distinction is that smaller credit unions are often more nimble, but nimbleness is only an advantage if it is intentionally used. Without clear priorities, speed simply turns into churn.

The CU Daily: No credit union can survive without its vendors and suppliers, including fintechs. What have you found to be the most effective way to maximize these relationships, and what turns them into an operational burden?

Strangland: The strongest credit unions, regardless of asset size, treat their fintech providers as true partners rather than vendors. That means sharing context, being clear about outcomes, and allowing those partners to apply what they’ve learned elsewhere to move faster.

Where relationships break down is when a provider is treated as a task executor without context or authority. In those situations, every decision requires multiple approvals, nothing can be shortcut, and progress slows dramatically. Especially for smaller institutions, that friction can outweigh the value the fintech was meant to deliver.

The CU Daily: What gums up the decision-making process?

Strangland: The biggest culprit is lack of ownership. Decisions get pushed into committees, consensus becomes the goal, and accountability disappears. Add fear of making the wrong decision and an overload of competing priorities, and even obvious actions stall.

In an environment where margins are already tight, delayed decisions quietly become one of the most expensive problems a credit union faces. Speed wins in banking, yet many institutions describe themselves as “fast followers” when, in reality, they are laggers who missed the window and the opportunity has already passed. 

The CU Daily: If a credit union says, “We need your help in growing,” how do you respond? Where does a credit union even begin?

Strangland: Our first response is usually to slow the conversation down. “Growth” by itself is too vague to be actionable. For a long time, even the word “profit” was taboo in credit union conversations. That’s far less true today, because margin matters more than ever and is harder to earn. 

A credit union has to build a solid financial foundation before it can sustainably serve unprofitable or underserved segments. Going in with the assumption that you can make money serving only higher-cost, lower-margin markets, or that a break-even branch in an underserved area will perform like one placed in an affluent neighborhood, is not realistic. The right starting point is understanding where profitable growth can actually come from so the institution can fund its mission over the long term.

That typically means looking first at existing members, existing products, and existing data. We often begin with segmentation studies to understand which member groups should be the primary focus for growth, which require retention strategies, and which represent underserved opportunities. 

Before launching new programs or campaigns, credit unions need clarity on what is already working, what is not, and where small changes could have outsized impact.

The CU Daily: How often does stagnant growth require a change in management mindset, and what are some of the mental or management blocks you encounter?

Strangland: More often than many leaders expect. Stagnant growth is rarely just a tactical problem. Common blocks include equating activity with progress, protecting legacy programs because they feel safe, and resisting tradeoffs.

In many cases, this is ultimately a culture issue. At Strum, one of the most effective ways we’ve helped shift mindset is through rebranding. When done correctly, rebranding is not about logos or taglines. It creates pride, energy, and clarity for employees. It helps teams understand who they serve, why they exist, and where the organization is going.

That shared clarity makes focus possible. Without it, even the right strategy struggles to take hold because the organization isn’t aligned behind it.

The CU Daily: When Strum first begins working with a credit union, where do you most often find untapped opportunities?

Strangland: The most common blind spot is relationship profitability. Many credit unions don’t have a clear view into which member relationships are driving value and which are costing more than they return.

We also routinely find underutilized products, overlapping offers, and data that already exists but isn’t being used to guide decisions. These are not flashy opportunities, but they are often the fastest path to improving margin.

The CU Daily: Can you share concrete examples of effective growth drivers or strategic changes that have had real results?

Strangland: One example comes from Embold Credit Union, a $650 million institution that wanted to grow without adding complexity or staff. Prior to working with us, their email marketing relied on static core data and produced limited results.

By shifting to data-driven segmentation and personalization, Embold built hyper-targeted member journeys tied to real behaviors and life stages. They implemented four automated onboarding journeys with multiple personalization elements and continuously refined them based on engagement and milestones.

The results were material. A HELOC campaign that previously generated roughly 20–25 loans per year increased sevenfold to 162 loans, producing approximately $35 million in new balances. Importantly, the impact didn’t stop there. Members who engaged with those campaigns also opened hundreds of new deposit and loan accounts during the same period, driving millions in additional balances.

What made this work was not a single campaign, but focus, automation, and the ability to measure results daily. Small, disciplined changes stacked together created outsized impact without adding operational burden.

Additional perspective

Doing the same things and expecting different results is not a viable strategy, especially for smaller credit unions. The institutions that will survive and thrive are the ones willing to focus, partner deeply, and use their nimbleness as a competitive advantage rather than a liability.

This article is part of the CU Daily’s Profitability Imperative series. Reader feedback, input and suggestions is not just welcome but encouraged.