I spent a few hours driving to the Credit Union Reality Check conference last week and it afforded me time to ponder various things, like how Siri can provide one set of directions on one trip and different ones on the next trip to the same location. But I was doing plenty of credit union-related thinking, too, on my trip to and from New Jersey.

Retired Texas Dow Employees Credit Union CEO Ed Speed gave very thoughtful and impassioned arguments for a truly member-centric approach to running a credit union. You can read the article here, but he said so much more than that. He fulfilled his own obsession for making loans by incessantly focusing on the member needs. One of the things members needed was excellent care by the frontline employees.

As large as TDECU is the credit union never ran with an operating ratio below 4%. Speed faithfully employed the old adage, 'You have to spend money to make money.' The credit union spent $35,000 for a consultant to come in for a day and a half to discuss a variety of issues. According to Speed, it was worth every penny.