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“Mark's breadth of knowledge of issues facing credit unions, learned from real world, hands on experience, allowed him rapidly understand and relate to the issues and trends challenging our credit union. Using Mark to facilitate our planning session allowed us to quickly identify and focus on viable solutions relevant to our future growth and success. I enjoyed working with Mark because of his unwavering commitment to help us succeed.”

Jim Hagerman, President/CEO, Linn Area Credit Union ($134 million, IA)

“Our planning session flowed smoothly due to Mark's finessse as faciltator. He makes facilitating look far easier than it really is. He kept us on track while still maintaining maximum group involvement. He's been requested to return for our next session.”

Joye Cox, VP Marketing, SAFE CU

Planning

Successful businesses and credit unions need to conduct long-range planning sessions on a regular basis. Organizations that consistently plan well enjoy success more frequently. As author Jim Collins notes in his book Good to Great, “good is the enemy of great.” LRP sessions Mark conducts focus on how to ensure your business does not settle for good, but strives to be great.

Unique skills
When conducting long-range planning sessions, we bring the following skills:

• Facilitating
• 20-years experience in the CU movement
• Contributing author, CUNA Environment Scan
• Team building and training
• Ability to work with board and management
• Broad credit union background (marketing, loans, collections, management)

Process
The long-range planning process can include some or all of the following steps:

• Confidential, written pre-session survey completed by participants prior to the session (questions include situation analysis, direction an organization should take, etc.).
• Team building
• SWOT analysis (strength, weakness, opportunities, threats)
• Top issues
• Priority ranking (“If you were ruler of the business for a day”)
• Tactics (action steps, timelines, persons responsible, tentative budgets, etc.)

Our planning process includes putting your credit union through the strategic funnel and examining how your credit union is performing on the five points of a successful star.