WESTLAKE, Ohio -- Cardwell is celebrating 25 years in business, providing the credit unions first with executive search services and now with strategy implementation that includes Web-based management automation tools.

Cardwell, formerly Cardwell Group, is headed up by CEO Jim Cardwell and his wife, company President Karla Norwood. They launched the business in 1983 and since then have worked with more than 300 credit unions.

Their Connections Online automation solution is in place at 90 organizations, they said, and now the company is looking to expand its consulting and executive coaching practice and its software business alike.

"Credit unions are looking for strategic performance and operational efficiency more than ever before," Cardwell said. "Progressive credit unions are retaining their relationship-driven 'people cultures' while at the same time establishing systems for higher levels of performance impact."

The company's roots, along with its future, are in the credit union industry. Cardwell worked for CUNA for four years after completing graduate work in organizational behavior and small group dynamics at the University of Wisconsin.

His work in developing CUNA's planning implementation development strategy execution program led him to engagements with executive teams and boards nationwide, he said, and he then spent five years with Ernst & Young, consulting with Fortune 500 and middle-market organizations.

Cardwell and Norwood then began their own executive recruiting company for credit unions, conducting more than 80 executive search assignments that called for Caldwell to conduct in-depth interviews with more than 450 CEOs.

The company then began its shift to leadership development, succession planning, organization design and strategy execution, eventually giving up executive search services and adding leadership symposiums and the Connections Online strategy execution software solution.

"We wanted to be known as the firm that builds high-performance leaders, rather than a multiple-listing service that just moves people from one place to another," Caldwell said.

The company has changed along with the industry. The top title of "general manager" has been replaced with c-level positions such as chief executive officer, chief operating officer and chief information officer, and $100 million credit unions are no longer considered "big." Narrowing margins, expanding offerings and fierce competition also are putting pressure on credit union management teams, which also are working to retain their unique tenor.

"It's still the greatest industry to work in because values are important to the culture and the people are great," Norwood said. "The challenge we see now is that competition is much more fierce."

Her husband added, "Over the years, we have tried to provide a dime's worth of value for every nickel spent. We are uniquely positioned to build high-performance leadership in large credit unions. Nobody else has this space."

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