Whats the biggest challenge in managing CU and CUSO cultures?
Understanding and respecting that these should be totally different environments. Credit union service organizations (CUSOs) are for-profit and credit unions are not-for-profit. This demands a different business model, style of leadership, and orientation toward products and services. The CUSO environment should be much faster-paced and more entrepreneurial. It’s an incubator for new ideas and a resource for credit unions to take more risk while protecting the corporate veil. Leaders of start-up CUSOs must think of their company as a small business and run it as if they’re using their own money, not just another department of the credit union. Looking at the financials, CUSOs and credit unions operate differently. CUSOs are income statement-driven, whereas credit unions are balance-sheet driven. CUSOs, especially young ones, are focused on cash flows. You rarely hear credit unions discussing cash flow: ‘Incur a large capital expense and just depreciate it over three or five years.’ Tha
