CUES 130: Mergers Have ‘Roots and Wings’—an Interview With Jeff Shewfelt, CCD, and Bill Kiss, CCD
CUES Podcast
English - April 07, 2022 06:00 - 24 minutes - 16.9 MB - ★★★★ - 8 ratingsBusiness News Business News cues credit union professional development financial organization banking www.cues.org ceo board of directors directors executive Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
When G&F Financial and Aldergrove Credit Union merged, they started with a cultural assessment to see if the combination was a right fit. And they followed up with “roots and wings” sessions designed to honor the history of both credit unions and to create alignment around their joint future.
“We did some reads to see exactly where individual employees were at, what were their values, what was important to them, and try to align what they liked about their previous organizations and what they hoped for the new organization,” explains CUES member Bill Kiss, CCD, co-CEO of G&F Financial, a $5 billion credit union in Burnaby, British Columbia, and a guest on the show. “So that was a fascinating exercise to go through. And after the merger, we went into ‘roots and wings’ sessions. So those were, from the root side, you’re honoring your past. You’re recognizing the great things where you’ve come from, and all of the accomplishments of the organization. And then the wing side is the future about where you can go, what you can benefit from doing together.”
This process aligns with the professional mantra of CUES member Jeff Shewfelt, CCD, co-CEO of G&F Financial, who says in the show that his organization strives to do things for and with people, not to them.
The show gets into more depth about how G&F Financial and Aldergrove determined a merger would be a good thing for the members of both organizations, insight into how to handle the “merger” of two boards and how the 2021 flooding in British Columbia gave the continuing credit union, G&F Financial, an opportunity to show it really does take care of its members and its communities.
Tune in and you’ll also get to hear Shewfelt discuss the four lenses through which he views every merger and Kiss talk about how consumer needs are speeding up in ways that impact credit union member service.
Links for this show:
Transcript
Canadian CUs Think Big About Collaboration
Podcast: Merge for the Right Reasons
Mergers Shouldn’t Be Your Organization’s Primary Tool for Growth
Six Steps for Evaluating Merger Opportunities Early On