ORLANDO-Credit unions shouldn't make the mistake of assuming the book "Moneyball" is just about baseball.
Instead, stressed Mike Kelly, president of PSCU Financial Services, there is a lesson for credit unions which, like baseball, are an industry as steeped in tradition as the national pastime but which now has no choice but to better use data analystics.
"Moneyball," the book by Michael Lewis that was turned into a movie starring Brad Pitt, chronicles the innovative, non-traditional approach by the small market, low-budget Oakland A's to look beyond old-time numbers such as won/loss records and batting averages to better understand what really drives success.
"It's a battle of the business models," said Kelly before the company's Member Forum here. "It's credit unions and what we have to offer, and we don't see an institution better positioned for success than credit unions. When you see the Banks of Americas and PayPal, competition is fierce. We are the Oakland A's. We do not have to play by the rules of others."
Lessons From BMW, Red Bull
Beyond the baseball field, Kelly urged CUs to observe lessons from two other companies:
* BMW, which is coming off its best year ever where the metrics suggest "keep going." But the company is challenging all assumptions and pivoting to "target individual mobility," more than being the "ultimate driving machine."
"The dashboard is really an inspiring story for what we are all about in financial services. The dashboard used to just show you gas and speed and what BMW wanted to tell you. Now it's about what you want it to tell you; individual mobility."
* Red Bull, which obviously should see itself as an energy drink company. Not so, said Kelly. "We would argue that they are a media company. They have created a life style category around sugar drinks."
Kelly said credit unions are at the forefront of a "renaissance," and that he believes the overall industry will be much stronger in 10 years.
"Credit unions are trending. We think that 10 years from now we can double marketshare in the industry. This is a great time to attempt what we want to do.
"Credit unions are the local brand. The local brand wins," he said. "The need of consumers to move, spend and track money never goes away. That's the good news. The reality is there are a lot of people trying to serve those needs. If we can fulfill their needs we can get there.
"A core competency of credit unions is collaboration," Kelly continued. "If we lose that as an industry and we continue to just fight in the industry for the next member. it's a losing battle. We have 6% share. We have to raise that share."
Kelly said PSCU recognized that if companies such as Square and Starbucks see a need to collaborate, credit unions and their CUSOs should recognize the same. For that reason it has partnered with Google on a pilot project involving Google Wallet. Although he it seems counterintuitive, Kelly said credit unions should see good news in major players such as Google and Square wanting in on credit union real estate.
Kelly outlined four strategies he believes every credit union should be considering.
* Engage with your members in new and interesting ways. "You have to take that intimacy in the branch and expand it in new channels. Amazon is number one in engagement, but you can't walk into an Amazon branch."
* Move in bold, new directions to meet member expectations. You have a bunch of brick and mortar, and then you have desktop. How do you toggle?"
* Leverage big data to resent new services and opportunities. "Big data is nothing more than finding opportunities like (Oakland A's General Manager) Billy Beane did. You can't comb through members one by one by one. We must collaborate with our members for best practices and insights. Not collaborating with each other and fighting among credit unions is like stepping over dollars to get to pennies."
Fuel For Engagement
* Success is more than a white board. "We know the regulatory environment is brutal. We're not Pollyanna. You know who also has a really brutal regulatory environment? Bank of America. Dream big dreams; ideas are the currency of our business. Dreams are great; but unless you act, it's just a white board session. You have to try; you have to take a step forward. The Internet is just getting good, and it's going to fuel engagement with consumers and members in ways we have not yet imagined. Failure is going to happen. Let's fail early, and let's learn. Let's get version 2.0 out there."
