We're a few weeks into the New Year, which means many of us will soon forget about our resolutions. At the same time, credit unions begin an annual ritual of their own: diving into new strategic plans that will set a course for the next 12 months.
Chances are, few of those plans will include any mention of innovation. But they should. And, the truth is it's easy to incorporate innovation into your credit union's strategic direction by taking a few first steps.
Discuss innovation at meetings
Simply adding a 10-minute standing discussion about new technologies or changing consumer trends to your leadership meetings will get your team thinking about innovation. Why not invite an employee, or better yet a member, who is interested in innovation to share insights with your board?
Establish a balanced innovation portfolio
Most innovations never approach the sexiness of new products like the iPhone or Nest thermostat. Disruptive success is rare and the financial risks are great. A balanced innovation approach similar to that of a personal investment portfolio is more realistic.
Allocate most of your innovation budget to low-risk, lower reward changes and process improvements or incremental product enhancements. A small portion of the financial rewards from these changes can then be invested in higher-risk innovations that may bring with them a bigger payoff.
Formalize your innovation process
Developing new ideas shouldn't be a haphazard endeavor. Rather, credit unions should establish a process for identifying problems, developing solutions, prototyping, testing, and bringing them to market.
Filene Research Institute's recent free publication, A Road Map for Worldwide Financial Services Innovation, outlines the proven Filene Method of Innovation that highlights each of these phases.
Don't wait until New Year 2016 to make your credit union's innovation resolution. Trying out even one of these approaches in 2015 will better connect innovation with your strategic direction and yield positive results.
The A Road Map for Worldwide Financial Services Innovation report is the latest in a series of exclusive content from Filene available to CU Times readers. Check out these other reports:
- Addressing the Revenue Growth Challenge
- Filene's Digital Strategies
- Credit Union 2.0: An Opportunity to Build Collaborative Partnerships
- Only Up: Regulatory Burden and Its Effects on Credit Unions
- Credit Union Implications of Living Trusts
- Gen Y Personal Finances: A Crisis of Confidence and Capability
- Impacts of Mergers on Credit Union Costs: 1984 – 2009
- Channel Delivery for Tomorrow
- From Presence to Purpose: Developing Social Media Strategies and Metrics for Credit Unions
- Improving Social and Environmental Sustainability: A Credit Union Assessment and Comparison
- Mortgages and Credit Union Performance: 1980-2011
- Future of Payments: Credit Union Implications – A Colloquium in Salt Lake City
- Asset-Liability Management: Theory, Practice, Implementation, and the Role of Judgment
Andrew Downin is the innovation director at the Filene Research Institute. He can be reached at 608-661-3746 or [email protected].
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
