by Mark Arnold | Strategic Planning
Strategic planning ideas are a second thought for many this year. For example, a financial institution executive was recently discussing with me the severe impacts from the pandemic: earnings are tanking, investment income is negligible, fee income is dropping...
by Mark Arnold | Strategy
Questions and answers. They are a key part to developing any strategy. Ask the wrong strategic questions and it doesn’t matter what your answer is. Answer the right questions the wrong way and it doesn’t matter what the question is. With On the Mark Strategies’...
by Mark Arnold | Marketing
Fall is almost here. While you may still be experiencing 100-degree heat (like those of us in Texas) and the “dog days of August,” Fall (and Fall marketing campaigns) are just around the corner. Fall has typically meant football, festivals and funnel cakes. Of...
by Mark Arnold | Strategic Planning
Your strategic plan created last fall is more than likely in a trashcan somewhere. Thank you, COVID-19. Strategic plans are one of the many casualties left in the pandemic’s wake. While situations have certainly changed, the need for a strategic plan has not....
by Mark Arnold | Marketing
The classic Boy Scouts motto famously says, “Always be prepared.” Despite disaster recovery and pandemic plans, I’m not sure anything could have prepared credit unions and community banks for COVID-19. But we can prepare for the post-pandemic world. How? ...
by Mark Arnold | Strategy
This post by Mark Arnold originally appeared on cutimes.com. COVID-19 is one of the biggest challenges of our time. The pandemic’s health threat and death rate are the likes of which we have not seen in generations. And of course we are likely to feel the...
by Mark Arnold | Leadership
One of the funniest memes I saw recently was this one: Funny. Sad. True. When we were planning for 2020 in 2019, no one could have foreseen the pandemic or its devastating economic impact. But the “new normal” is that we’re now living in an...
by Mark Arnold | Branding
“We’re in a recession—we’ve got to cut marketing!” “Since our income is down we need to cut our expenses. So let’s start with marketing.” “We’re going to pause our marketing efforts until this pandemic and economic crisis passes.” Do any of those (or similar) phrases...