YORKTOWN, Va.-Longtime 1st Advantage FCU CEO Adrian "Casey" Duplantier has announced he will retire at the end of the year. Duplantier has spent 30 years in the credit union industry, the past 25 at the $500 million credit union, which was chartered as Fort Eustis FCU. A successor will be selected and in place by the end of 2011.
Below, Duplantier shares his thoughts:
CUJ: How did you come to be involved in credit unions, and then to come to 1st Advantage?Duplantier: I started in the mid-70s when I was looking for a part-time job while in school. My aunt/godmother managed a $3-million credit union for a small FOM in New Orleans. At the time I was impressed that credit unions were the only financial institutions that could pay interest on checking among other distinguishing advantages.
Just out of school I took a job as a manager of a small CU for a few months, then became the general manager of what was the largest CU at the time, Greater New Orleans FCU, a telephone company FOM. By the way, the president of the board who was in his 70's or early 80's had met [CU pioneer Roy] Bergengren and other early CU leaders. He was very interesting to talk to. I remained at GNO FCU for 10 years. Knowing that I would have to relocate to move up, I began to explore opportunities outside of Louisiana. In 1987, I took the CEO position at 1st Advantage, which was then known then as Fort Eustis FCU.
Shortly, after I was involved in credit unions I found out that I had several uncles on my father's side and my grandmother on my mother's side who were volunteers at credit unions. My father became a big supporter of credit unions after being in banking for a decade. I guess you could say I had credit unions in my blood.
CUJ: What have you learned about managing people and a CU during your career?
Duplantier: We have instilled a family atmosphere at 1st Advantage. It's what employees tell us in our surveys. Caring about your colleagues is a great motivator to them. We have been good about being fair with compensation, and that, combined with a caring culture, has kept our turnover low. Two years ago when we had earnings issues and decided not to do any increases, we heard few rumblings from employees. The elimination of increases in 2009 did not affect morale; in fact, we had a record earnings year, in 2010. Last year we resumed increases.
While we don't intentionally overanalyze our actions, I have discovered organizational cultures can have a serious impact on performance and workplace gratification. Board, employees and members should be culturally aligned. While organizational alignment can be taught in seminars and texts, it must be genuine and natural. Any change starts with the CEO and the management team and must be accepted by all. Counter-cultures can poison mergers and acquisitions. The damage caused by attitudinal issues is usually undervalued. We all seem to think when we merge the numbers, the deal is done. In most cases if the cultures are not aligned properly the cost can double.
CUJ: 1st Advantage has a solid growth record, and has successfully navigated new markets after initially serving the military. What strategies have helped to manage the transition and to drive that growth?
Duplantier: After the Vietnam War the military began to scale back troops. We recognized in the late 70s and early 80s that we could not survive exclusively as a military credit union. We began to add SEGs and a few mergers. In the late 90s, after a great deal of member diversification, we recognized that our name would hinder our growth. So we changed our name. When the provision for community chartering came about, we had already significantly diversified our membership, so converting to a community charter was a natural transition. I would credit successful transition to an open-minded board and a great leadership team. Our leadership team embraces change as a fact of life.
Our next step is to adopt a community financial institution model. I have seen very few successful community credit union models, most are in the banking world. What I mean by community CU models are organizations that have personal connections in the community that they serve. They contribute financially to organizations that benefit the community, sponsor community activities and provide volunteers for community events. Community CUs provide support to small businesses in the form of development, loans, and operational advice.
CUJ: What advice would you have for a new CEO or manager just starting out?
Duplantier: You will have to be much more bottom-line oriented. Don't get snowballed into thinking the credit union brand stands for better service. There are huge differences in service levels at credit unions. Develop your own brand promise; don't rely just on the credit union brand. Our members continue to call us a bank and always will. We don't have enough money in our advertising budgets to change that perception.
CUJ: You have done quite a bit of traveling? What have been your favorite experiences and locales?
Duplantier: I have been blessed to have traveled to all but one continent and to all but four states.
My favorite travel and experience was participation on a science cruise in Antarctica in 2006. I have a good friend who is a chief scientist on a long-term ecological research project. He invited me to be a part of his research group for his annual 43-day cruise in an area called the Antarctic Peninsula along with about 40 other research scientist and staff. I had special permission from my board, which encouraged me by giving me "sabbatical leave".
Working in an environment way outside my comfort zone was challenging and appealing. Living on a ship, not anything like a cruise ship, but more of a comfortable, basic-needs communal boat was something I had never done before. The surprise factor was how well everyone got along and worked well together. I also discovered that scientists and research science are much more fun than I expected them to be. The Antarctic scenery was the most beautiful I have ever experienced. I go back there often when I need a place to escape to.
Paris is my favorite city, so many things to do and places to visit.
CUJ: What is your view on the present state of credit unions, as well as the future of credit unions if there is to be one?
Duplantier: I started in an executive director/CEO role 34 years ago. I went to CUNA School, participated in national trade organization, was really into the "movement" most of my career. We were trained to view participation in national organizations or the cooperative movement as critical to our success. These organizations have become more focused on survival than helping credit unions and are losing there relevancy. I see a huge amount of credit union resources spent on legislative contacts and regulatory awareness, presented to us as do or die. Ninety percent of "the movement's" focus is on legislative and regulatory efforts, which have been dismal failures and produced zero benefits to our balance sheet and income statements, which we desperately need.
Re-channel that energy into collaborative operational initiatives. Let's leverage our CU cooperative spirit by working with our peer CUs to combine and share resources. If we are to survive as independent organizations we need to recognize that we don't have the scale in many operational areas to succeed.
