Creating Balance Between Growth and Your Core Mission, with Michael Murdoch of Wauna Credit Union

Episode Summary

While most new credit union members are middle-aged men and women, credit unions, like so many other organizations, want to pursue the millennial market. That apparent disconnect creates quite a challenge for growth-minded credit unions.

In the latest episode of the Digital Banking Podcast, host Josh DeTar welcomes Michael Murdoch, the marketing manager at Wauna Credit Union. The two get into what credit unions should do to attract younger members, why credit union executives should include their entire teams in the decision-making process, and how the appropriate use of data, technology, and diversity can help credit unions grow.

Key Insights

⚡ Why the focus on millennials? Michael believes that each credit union should know its communities, but noted that marketers have become obsessed with finding millennials lately. “Young people are making up more and more of the populace of this planet. Young people are making more and more money than other segments and other groups. They are coming up with new ideas. But, at the end of the day, if that’s the only thing that you’re seeing, I think you might be thinking of dollar signs and not of who you could be putting in the right places within your credit union.”

⚡ Credit unions often forget that they are not for profit but for service. Michael pointed out that in an effort to keep pace with the rest of the market, credit unions sometimes forget their core purpose. “We’re not for profit, which means we’re not trying to make money off of people. We have to keep the lights on, and the more we grow, the more people we can help. If my goal is to be a $10 billion credit union, […] maybe I’m not paying attention to the people I’m serving, how I’m serving them, and how I can serve them better.”

⚡ Credit unions should include everyone in the decision-making process. According to Michael, it’s smart to include input from employees at all levels in the decision-making process. “Start involving your frontline in decision-making processes. […] Let them sit in a board meeting. Let them be a part of some of the decision-making when you’re in your steering committee meeting. Let the CEO say, ‘Hey Susie Q. or Michael T., what do you think?'”