Since November 2009, I’ve enjoyed working with two rising stars in the credit union world: Matt Davis and Brent Dixon. Both are playing in Filene’s sandbox through next April. Their task…to help make credit unions:
- more innovative through the development of consumer friendly services, and
- more relevant to young adults.
This past week I had the opportunity to collaborate with Matt and Brent at the Wisconsin Credit Union League’s Annual Meeting in Green Bay, Wisconsin. All I can say is people love Brent and Matt. It’s not just because they are exceedingly good looking or overly gregarious. It’s that they are the torch-bearers for a new generation of credit union leadership. They are passionate, knowledgeable and focused on their optimistic vision of the future of the credit union system.
The standing room only picture from Green Bay above portrays the electricity and interest Matt and Brent bring to our maturing industry. And I don’t mean “maturing” in the age-sense, but rather in the competitive sense. The credit union business model is showing signs of maturation, and we are searching for rejuvenation.
You may well get a chance to visit with Brent and/or Matt over the next several months as they are currently booked for over 40 credit union engagements through the end of this year.
If you’d like them to come visit you face-to-face and help examine options for credit union revitalization with your board, senior management or staff, they have a limited number of openings available. Just click here to let them know your needs. We like to call it “Renting a Brent” or “Leasing a Matt”...I hope you find the time to visit with these gems.
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3
Does this mean Filene is in the consulting/marketing business now?
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Jeffry, always direct and to the point. I like that. Thanks for your question. Like all organizations we are re-assessing our core business model. When the financial crisis hit we anticipated a drop in annual contributions from credit unions and other system organizations. We needed a way to replace lost funding to support our research and innvoation agenda.
So, for an 18 month period we are testing a low-cost “applied research” model with Brent and Matt. The key differentiator is that we are only focusing on the areas where we’ve done extensive research: young adult outreach and innovation competency building.
We aren’t getting into marketing (we’re pretty green in that area), but I suppose you can say what Brent and Matt are doing is close to consulting. It is a test and so far credit union people are reacting very positively.
Keep in touch.
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Thanks for the reply George.
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