Customer Story - Helping Small Credit Unions with Strategic Planning
A credit union partner identified a challenge faced by small credit unions: the inability to afford strategic planning. By pinpointing a central location within reach of multiple credit unions, this allowed the FarWell advisor to fly into one place and conduct annual planning sessions each day, thereby saving on travel costs and distributing the overall expenses among the participating credit unions and the association.
Call For Help:
- Small credit unions often face the challenge of being strapped for time and cash. Despite their incredible work with members every day, they rarely have the opportunity to step back and engage in strategic planning.
- Additionally, two of these credit unions experienced CEO turnover, highlighting the urgent need for strategic planning and prompting the Association to focus on those specific credit unions.
FarWell Advisor Support:
- FarWell Advisor tailored the approach to meet the specific needs of each credit union. To prepare for the sessions, FarWell conducted pre-calls with each credit union to understand their unique requirements and set the agenda accordingly.
- On Monday, the advisor arrived, where the Association had reserved a conference room at a hotel for the entire week. This enabled FarWell to conduct separate planning sessions with each credit union on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. By meeting in a central location, we minimized travel time and costs.
- After each session, the new strategy, goals, recommendations, and general notes were compiled. Follow-up meetings with each CEO were scheduled to review the results and address any questions they had, ensuring they were ready to implement the new plans.
Results:
Each credit union received an updated strategic plan along with a full day of team building and collaboration with their board.
- The Association showcased the benefits of membership and provided recommendations on how they could continue to support the credit unions' strategies through various products and services.
