Sacred cows make the best burgers. It was some 25 years ago when I first heard speaker and consultant Robert Kriegel throw out that phrase and he even titled a book with it. It’s a good read and still in print. Every CU c suiter should read it.
That’s because we have entered an era where what worked yesterday…doesn’t. Survival is the issue.
In today’s podcast Peter Duffy, a credit union expert and a managing director at Piper Sandler, tosses out that sacred cow phrase as a piece of key advice he offers credit union board members at board retreats he now regularly speaks at.
In the credit union context what the phrase means is look hard at what you are doing and ask – are we doing this well, is it essential to who we are? Face facts: a lot of what many credit unions do is done because “members expect credit unions to” – even if the credit union isn’t especially good at it and despite the reality that nowadays there are lots of places to get a mortgage or car loan or a credit loan or a CD or…keep going down the list and ask, is this one of our sacred cows?
This podcast gives a taste of what’s discussed a the board retreats and the range is wide – should we stop issuing our own credit cards, should we outsource mortgages, and – maybe the crucial question of the moment – with whom should we merge?
That last is on the list because, says Duffy, suddenly lots of credit unions are chewing the merger question.
There’s a lot to digest in this show.
