Credit unions are dealing with a very complicated competitive landscape these days. From legislative and regulatory pressures, to changing consumer dynamics to fending off hoards of traditional and non-traditional competitors, it's not easy being the good guy. With all we have to deal with I must say that this is not the time to make thing unnecessarily complicated. 

What am I referring to? None other than the ever-expanding variety of organizational charts credit unions are creating to try to deal with the complexity. The number of titles beginning with "C" is becoming a bit hard to keep up with. CCO, COO, CMO, CFO, CIO, CXO, CAO…we've almost run out of letters in the alphabet. I have come to believe in my credit union career that, no matter how big the credit union gets, there is only one "C" that really matters…the CEO.

To explain why I believe this, it is important to revisit the credit union business model. The basic credit union business model is to obtain capital, usually in the form of member deposits, and make money to pay for that capital by loaning it out to members.