Strategy
11/06/2020

Keeping Optimism Alive

We are all in survival mode.

While the health and safety of one’s constituents takes top billing, keeping a business relevant – and viable – during these times should top the shortlist of any board’s agenda.

And while nobody has a compass to navigate these times, we at least have the means to aggregate an incredible amount of information and insight, vis-a-vis BankBEYOND.

With many fatigued from virtual conferences, we challenged ourselves to bring concise, novel ideas to a hugely influential audience. We followed Steve Jobs’ principle of design, working backward from the user’s experience to present board-level issues in new ways on BankDirector.com.

Our North Star in crafting the BankBEYOND agenda and experience: Respecting viewers’ time while surfacing issues that are both specific and relevant to their interests and responsibilities. Hence, our focus on issues that are strategic, risky and potentially expensive.

Since March, the industry has witnessed – and undergone – a rapid evolution of financial services. As a result, officers and directors must now assess the potential of their bank’s business in a post Covid-19 world. Growing a bank prudently and profitably took center stage at our Acquire or Be Acquired Conference in January; today, I suspect many boards and executives today emphasize efficiency to protect their franchise’s value. Indeed, a 50% efficiency ratio used to be the stretch goal for many banks; now, that might be closer to 35%.

Banks across the country are grappling with the tough choices they will need to make to rapidly bring those ratios down while delivering consistent service across physical and digital channels. We appreciate how so many institutions quickly embraced new technologies to solve specific business challenges, like the rollout of the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program. In recent merger announcements, the drive to leverage technologies proved a primary catalyst for striking a deal. In fact, that’s where many efficiency gains come from.

However, boards realize that many of these technology additions can be expensive, which is why economies of scale becomes critical. We have seen how mergers can become the most expeditious way to generate meaningful economies of scale. But of course, much of the bank space is stuck in neutral at the moment when it comes to bank M&A.

We know that BankBEYOND’s audience has the responsibility for finding answers, rather than identifying barriers. We are tackling issues like:

  • Setting high-priority, short-term goals;
  • Keeping optimism and a sense of purpose alive; and
  • Weaving the best of the past eight months into everything the bank does going forward.

These are only three of the topics we’ll address with the help of various advisors and executives. Unlike a digital conference, with specific dates and watch times, we release families of videos and presentations at 8 a.m. CST. Beginning Monday, Nov. 9, we explore strategic and governance issues. The next day, we add information geared to the audit committee and risk committee. We conclude on Wednesday, Nov. 11, by sharing content developed for the compensation and nominating/governance committees.

BankBEYOND tees up the topics that allow for proactive – not reactive – change. By placing a premium on complex issues that all directors must address, we strengthen the knowledge of a bank’s board. And we rarely find a strong board at anything but a strong bank.

WRITTEN BY

Al Dominick

Board Member

Al Dominick serves on the board of DirectorCorps, Inc. The former CEO of Bank Director | FinXTech, he is a partner at Cornerstone Advisors.

Prior to Cornerstone and Bank Director | FinXTech, he ran the business development efforts for Computech, a Bethesda, Maryland-based information technology firm (now part of NCI — NASDAQ: NCIT). Before that, he worked for Board Member, Inc. in a variety of revenue-generating roles.

A 1999 graduate of Washington & Lee University, where he majored in Politics and was a four-year letterman on the varsity baseball team, he earned an MBA from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business in 2007.