WICHITA, Kan.-As TECU moves into 2014, its strategic planning is largely built around looking back.
"We made a conscious decision three years ago that we were going to stay focused on the basics," said CEO Charles Bullock.
That means sticking to core products that a wide swath of the membership needs and that the CU does well, including checking, savings, auto loans, credit cards and signature loans.
"As far as our business model is concerned, we wrestled with the decision of 'Are we going to try to appeal to all people on all products or are we going to take a more focused approach?' " said Bullock. Our board had that discussion over a 12-month period of time, 'Do we get into business services? Do we try branching out even more?' And the thing that we came back to at that time was that the best thing for us is to stay focused on what we do best."
Bullock said that TECU remains "firmly entrenched in this philosophy, and strategically we know we're going to stay focused on what we know we're good at, and not try to branch out into waters that are unknown for us."
Not Just 'Looking Pretty'
TECU also plans to keep its focus on outbound sales and service. "We understand that the market has changed ... and you're not going to grow by sitting in here at your desk looking pretty," he noted. TECU earned $457,000 last year. It currently has assets of about $70 million and serves just over 8,200 members.
Along with the focus on outbound sales, TECU has implemented what Bullock called "a relatively aggressive incentive plan. For the last two years the expense on that has run 5% of our total salary; but it rewards those folks that bring in new business."
