Don’t Let Coronavirus Deliver a Knockout Blow to Your Strategic Plan

Boxing legend Mike Tyson once famously said "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." Sound familiar for your community bank or credit union strategic plan?

For most credit unions and community banks, this thought is extremely poignant when thinking about your strategic plan as it existed pre-coronavirus. More than likely, you had what you thought was a functional strategic plan that was serving your goals at some level until earlier this year when it took a vicious right uppercut from the coronavirus.

So, there lies your community bank or credit union strategic plan, flat on the mat with the ref working into his ten-count. What are you going to do?

Think like another great boxer (albeit from the world of fiction). Rocky Balboa remarked “… it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!”

That’s right. It’s time to dig deep, pull your strategic plan up off the mat and get on with the work of winning. Not having a plan was never a viable option. Now, trying to navigate the already fluid world of financial products and services with a pre-coronavirus plan makes even less sense. Why?

Here are three key reasons:

1. You must have a plan to generate revenue. Your community bank or credit union strategic plan pre-coronavirus will likely not generate revenue in the post-coronavirus environment.

2. You need new solutions for this new environment. A new strategic plan does this.

3. You benefit from access to top industry trends. A strategic session facilitated by an experienced and energetic partner gives you access to those trends.

Your pre-pandemic strategic plan may be on the mat, but it doesn't have to stay there. Make efforts now to pick it up and accelerate to growth with new ideas, goals and direction. Even at age 53, Mike Tyson recently made an extraordinary announcement about his boxing career … “I’m back!” Your strategic plan must make a similar move in the near future to prepare for the post-coronavirus environment.