KQ Article

How do financial institutions stay profitable? Where can new bottom-line growth opportunity be found?

As a bank or credit union leader, you probably struggle with these questions every day. You face a long list of related decisions regarding contraction vs. expansion — whether to reduce or increase branch networks; whether to cut back or spur investment; whether to focus on your core business or pursue a new venture. Author Nick Tasler captures this struggle with a different question on page 12: Do you stick to coffee or sell steak sandwiches?

As is so often the case in this industry, identifying answers seems to require deep and deliberate self-examination. That includes maintaining a detailed, real-time grasp of your complete financial picture, so that those fleeting growth opportunities don’t arrive and depart unnoticed. Fortunately, technology makes this easier than ever, as Chris Bledsoe describes in his lead article on the next page. You might also want to sit down with your team to take a hard look at your business and revisit your value proposition.

It is all about staying in touch: with your business, with your customers and employees, with what drives you to the core. This is fundamental stuff. But the fundamentals can be easily overlooked in these hectic times, where it is so tempting to focus only on activity that immediately impacts the bottom line.

By paying close attention to everything and taking nothing for granted, you will find greater clarity as to what kind of contraction or expansion strategy makes sense for you. And the sustainable profit will follow.

This issue of The Deluxe Knowledge Quarterly offers several perspectives on helping you identify and capitalize on today’s bottom-line growth opportunities. The opportunities are out there. You just have to know where — and how — to look for them.

I invite you to read on now.


Tom Morefield
President, Deluxe Financial Services

_{© 2010 Tom Morefield}