GTE Financial: Creating a Member-Centric Culture
GTE Financial is one of the largest credit unions in the country, top 1% in terms of membership. As the financial institution emerged from the Global financial crisis posting losses in excess of $70M dollars, it was time for a new direction. Enter a new CEO, Joe Brancucci. During the first couple of years restructuring, adjusting the asset base from $2.2B down to $1.5B, and getting the business on firmer ground was the priority. Then the focus shifted to growth.
When Scott Edinger began working with Joe Brancucci to execute on a strategy to grow the business, the one metric that stood above all others in positioning the company for future success was net member growth. Increasing membership became the priority for the business because it was the linchpin for growth in lending and a variety of additional valuable services. One of the keys to achieving that goal was increasing employee engagement to revitalize the company.
Joe had a vision of creating a member-centric culture, where employees at all levels of the company were given an opportunity to improve processes, make decisions, and ultimately deliver “WOW!” experiences. He and Scott worked together on how that vision would be executed from senior management to the front lines of the business. It worked. Membership was restored from negative territory of -6% annually to growth of 9%, and of their work together, Joe said “Scott provided exceptional value as we worked together to think through strategic decisions, leadership, and addressing the challenges in growing our business.”
As expected, the focus on member-centricity at all levels of the business drove additional results. Another critical measure of success was moving aggressively in to lending mode, as volume on mortgages increased by 16% and auto loans skyrocketed by over 60%. Members weren’t just using more services, they were thrilled to do so as Net Promoter Scores rose from the 60’s to consistently being in the 80 plus range. GTE Financial’s Net Worth Ratio, a calculation similar to Retained Earnings that demonstrates strong capitalization increased from 6.37% that is considered borderline risky to a robust 8.25% (7% is considered strong), and the Credit Union has continued to produce excellent year over year results.