Page 6 - Summer 2025-Final_Neat

FROM THE BOARD ROOM

How to Pursue Relevance

BY PHILIP SMITH and CHARLES PLUNKETT

opportuni�es for flexibility of work
Early last year, we penned an ar�cle asking the ques�on “is schedules, yet developing specific
your organiza�on s�ll relevant?” It was noted in 2024 that many policies and strategies around things like
organiza�ons were refocusing internally with the mo�o “Survive �ll remote work, the measurement of
’25.” Well, now that we have made it more than halfway through 2025, produc�vity, and maintaining employee
we wanted to share thoughts on the con�nued importance of relevance engagement.
for an organiza�on and how to ac�vely achieve what may be missing. In • We believe community banks will have a
this current environment, whether your organiza�on is steadfastly growing need to diversify the various
remaining independent or looking at poten�al strategic opportuni�es, methods of the delivery of their products
pursuing relevance remains as important as ever to achieve stakeholder and services. The way an elderly
value.
grandmother wants her financial services
The Board of Directors and Management must set the right tone and delivered is en�rely different than the
culture within the organiza�on to ac�vely pursue those steps with a way her grandchild wants the services
focus on con�nuing to maintain organiza�onal relevance. But what does delivered. Do we offer both a welcoming,
pursuing relevance actually look like? We believe organiza�onal appropriately sized lobby, as well as the
relevance is holis�c in the sense that your bank is trying to create opportunity to avoid coming into the
relevance for customers, your community, stockholders, and employees. bank at all, with appropriate online
If your goal is to remain independent, relevance may be incorpora�ng tools?
a�ributes that will allow the organiza�on con�nued growth and • Our organiza�on will focus on promo�ng
customer reten�on. If your goal is pursuing an acquisi�on or a sale, and requiring Board succession planning
relevance may be improving certain metrics to make the organiza�on through either mandatory re�rement,
more a�rac�ve as a strategic partner. periodic peer and self-evalua�ons, a list
of director expecta�ons, or other
The following is a list of thoughts and comments provided by various mechanisms.
bankers that we have surveyed around the country and which we think • We will ensure that we have propriate
paint a pre�y good picture of the mindset of the Board and Management management succession planning,
when governing the organiza�on toward more relevance. Our ownership succession planning, and even
recommenda�on is to carefully consider discussing these or similar customer succession planning.
topics and ques�ons at your next board mee�ng, management mee�ng • To stay relevant, we must increase our
or planning session: focus on cybersecurity, fraud preven�on
and fraud detec�on, and elevate those to
Rather than just focusing on mee�ng customer needs, we also need to board level concerns.
specifically focus on avoiding customer dissa�sfac�on. • To provide relevance for our employees,
• As a community bank, we must recognize that we s�ll maintain an we will develop career pathing and in-
older customer base, but con�nue to have younger employees house training for our new and younger
(hopefully), so we should train younger employees on more employees.
tradi�onal, personal interac�on aspects like shaking hands • We will periodically provide surveys to all
appropriately, making eye contact, and pu�ng customer service employees of the organiza�on to provide
first. feedback on specific targeted ques�ons
• We must be honest about threats to the organiza�on and ac�vely about remaining relevant.
develop strategies to avoid such threats. This includes both • Overall, our organiza�on must avoid falling into a strategy of
internal and external threats from asset quality, credit unions, complacency, where doing well and being comfortable leads to a
online providers of financial services, and compliance issues. lack of change.
• Our organiza�on must pursue efficiency, even if it means spending
Given these strategies being considered by community banks across the
money in the short term to create greater efficiencies in the long
country, do you feel like your organiza�on is pursuing relevance? We
term.
suggest raising these kinds of issues at your next mee�ng or asking the
• Our organiza�on should con�nue to streamline the customer
experience, including the poten�al adop�on and use of so�ware board members and the execu�ve management what it would take to
and AI tools, where appropriate. make your organiza�on more relevant. If you do not get any good
• The bank needs to improve its collec�on of, and find be�er ways answers, try asking the rest of your employees or some college students
to u�lize, the data it has regarding its customers, and be more in their twen�es what would make your financial ins�tu�on relevant.
predic�ve in terms of trying to meet their needs. We should think You may be surprised at the responses!
like Amazon in this regard.
• Relevancy for our employees may mean focusing on crea�ng a
more posi�ve work environment, iden�fying appropriate

Arkansas Community Banker | 6 | SUMMER 2025