BOSTON For a credit union to really grow and succeed, it must look to “the fourth option.”
That advice came from bestselling author Kaihan Krippendorff, who said successful organizations have moved beyond the three fundamentals of the old business playbook: lock up resources; leverage economies of scale, and lock in members. Instead, they look to that fourth option. “Great innovators look beyond the obvious fundamentals of a strategy and create something that is different,” Krippendorff said. “The fourth option gives institutions and organizations a competitive edge, allowing them to utilize a strategy that others don’t see, won’t consider and won’t respond to effectively.”
Krippendorff also reminded that successful institutions today do not define themselves exclusively by their industry, but rather by giving themselves the strategic flexibility to move into seemingly unrelated industries. For example, Amazon does not see itself exclusively as a retailer; the online giant now is moving into the cloud services business alongside book and DVD sales.
