MADISON, Wis.-The Filene Research Institute is adding staff and capabilities to help credit unions take advantage of the economic turnaround ahead.
Filene CEO Mark Meyer said his organization has instituted changes that will allow CUs to make significant strides in the coming years, much like what occurred with organizations that prospered following the Great Depression.
"Look back at what happened in the 1930s, during what you would call a structural break or reset of the economy where industries realigned, in some cases were born, and moved forward by relying heavily on research and innovation," Meyer pointed out. "They really put money into R&D-like DuPont, P&G, HP, and Revlon-and ended up becoming organizations that are quite successful."
Changes Filene is making are aimed at providing credit unions with more business-building concepts and ideas, and the assistance to implement them. Filene has:
- Welcomed a new chair, Pat Smith, CEO of Unitus Community CU, following the close of Patsy van Ouwerkerk's (CEO, Travis CU) three-year term.
- Contracted with Brent Dixon, formerly of Trabian and currently an independent designer, to ramp up Filene's young adult projects.
- Contracted with Matt Davis of Members CU in North Carolina to ramp up Filene's focus on implementing innovation projects.
- Hired Ben Rogers full-time as the new research director to work under the direction of Chief Research Officer George Hofheimer.
Meyer summed up the moves, saying, "You can certainly save yourself into survival, but you can't save your way into growth."
Giving credit to former Filene Director Bob Hoel, Meyer said his organization is well reserved today to make the additional investments in personnel and projects. Not only will the adjustments help credit unions leverage the economic turnaround Meyer predicted will occur in 2010, but they will help credit unions address growing net interest margin pressure. "We recognize next year will be extraordinarily challenging," Meyer said, citing looming legislation that will likely impact overdraft protection and interchange income. "Those aspects of the credit union business model may not be relied on to the extent they have in the past. So it will be much more important for credit unions to think creatively about how are they are going to make money to move their organizations forward and serve members."
Moving ahead at Filene, Meyer suggested there could be a change in CU access to the organization's research. "Certainly all those who support Filene will have access to all of our information, but (for others) our door may be less ajar than it has been in the past. And for those who support Filene, depending at what level they support us, we will provide deeper access to aspects of Filene research-perhaps access to researchers' PowerPoints, and in some cases access to researchers themselves.
"What we are doing at Filene is equipping credit unions to be well positioned to leverage what is in front of them," Meyer said, instead of wasting time looking backward.
