Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Making Really Important Decisions In Business? Might Want To Listen Up To McKinsey and Co....

  ... not familiar with them?

✅ Wikipedia: McKinsey & Company (informally "McK") is an American strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926, McKinsey is the oldest and largest of the management consultancies. The firm mainly focuses on the finances and operations of their clients. 

McKinsey has a notoriously competitive hiring process and is widely seen as one of the most selective employers in the world. McKinsey recruits primarily from top business schools, who have demonstrated business acumen and analytical skills.

😎 As you might imagine, these guys are not "industry standard", nor are they seeking to be!

What brought McKinsey to mind was a recent WSJ article [12-10-24], discussing McK's evaluation and selection process for new partners in the firm - a "golden ticket" if you can earn it! 

Senior partner Rodney Zemmel said this: "Our evaluation system is holistic, not algorithmic. Even as someone who loves algorithms, I can confidently say it is better this way. Holistic can sometimes result in debate and disappointment, but it means we are selecting people - real leaders, who "exemplify the value driven leadership, entrepreneurial spirit and client impact to which we aspire."

😎 So, what's the point? The "New/New" race-based, credit-scored lending at SECU is algorithm based, which - as the soaring delinquency and loan loss ratios so clearly show - has become an unreliable lending system, poorly executed. Guess that's acceptable; if sound lending and unjustly hurting so many members is no longer part of a "value driven leadership" to which SECU aspires.

What does a holistic approach to hiring at McK capture that an algorithm can't? Well, things like humility, integrity and character. Same applies to the weakness in algorithmic lending at SECU - it lacks character! 

Character still matters in hiring, lending and life. It is "the Difference"....

  No need to point out is there, that McK did not work on the SECU "Strategic Plan"!


Sunday, February 16, 2025

SECU: We Support Affordable Housing For Our Members In North Carolina!

 

✅ "Look at the difference in credit scores in the recent period . Recently there have been almost no originations for borrowers with credit scores below 620, and few below 660. A significant majority of recent originations have been to borrowers with credit score above 760." [Fed. Reserve/McBride]

✅ So, if you believe the Federal Reserve, race-based/credit score lending is now having a profound effect on younger members, females and Af-Am folks who statistically have lower credit scores [link to post].  The reasons that many SECU members have lower credit scores is often due to unexpected and often tragic events in their lives - Hurricane Helene for example in Western North Carolina [link to post]. But algorithms don't really care to hear about all that ...

😎 Not to worry! The "New/New" crowd at  SECU has developed a new mortgage loan just for you - the undeserved!

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Dr. E. Victor Maafo: A Long Life, A Life-Long Advocate...

An Amazing Grace... 

https://www.newsobserver.com/latest-news/a49s6t/picture231865733/alternates/FREE_1140/jump.JPG 

           ... Dr. E. Victor Maafo, SECU member-owner and volunteer. 

Eugene Victor Maafo was born in Ghana. He witnessed the independence of his native homeland in the 1960's from Great Britain and the change of its name from the Gold Coast. As a young man, he immigrated to Durham, North Carolina. 

As a pastor and preacher, Reverend Maafo has been a life-long advocate for faith and forgiveness. As a professor emeritus of economics at North Carolina Central University, Dr. Maafo has been a life-long advocate for reason and understanding. As a Black man in the South, he has been a life-long advocate for justice and was proud to help support the civil rights struggle in the American South. 

As a member-owner, E. Victor Maafo has been a life-long advocate of the State Employees' Credit Union; famous for summoning SECU members at the 2013 Annual Meeting to all rise and join him in singing "Amazing Grace" - which they did with raucous, rousing enthusiasm!

On October 11, 2023, Dr. Maafo took a two hour trip to Greensboro, North Carolina to attend the Annual Meeting of the State Employees' Credit Union. At that meeting, he rose independently, to voice his concerns over the loss of mission and purpose at the Credit Union. 

No one had asked that he attend, no one had written his remarks. Dr. Maafo understood faith and forgiveness, he understood reason, he understood fairness - he needed no coaching. 

As a member-owner and as a forever-and-always SECU volunteer, Victor Maafo had come to the meeting as a life-long advocate of fairness for his fellow SECU members.  To advocate for a change of heart, a change in direction at SECU... and he did just that.  Dr. Maafo's advocacy was thoughtful, measured, and humble.

The following year on October 8, 2024, Dr. Maafo again returned to Greensboro for the SECU Annual Meeting, but he was prohibited by the SECU Board from speaking, as were all other SECU member-owners. 

On January 4, 2023, Dr. E Victor Maafo fulfilled a life-long goal to become a citizen of North Carolina and the United States of America. [link].

As a fellow human being, Victor Maafo has been a life-long advocate for others - with exuberance and humility, with patience and tolerance, with joy and laughter.  

February 11, 2025 would have been his 98th birthday; he didn't quite make it.

Dr. E. Victor Maafo was an "Amazing Grace" to his Country, to his community and to his credit union - SECU.  

You can refuse to listen to a man, you can deny him the right to speak; but you can't smother his spirit and you can't crush his soul.

 

   E. Victor Maafo, a great man? Yes! ... with the soul of a unicorn! 

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

SECU Board Final Report Card 2024! "Cheesing Out"?

http://imag.altervista.org/_altervista_ht/immagini/2011/10/Steve-Jobs.jpg

  "Think Different" or "Industry Standard"?

 What Steve Jobs Had To Say About Credit Unions... 

"Whether you love him or hate him, you can’t argue that Steve Jobs was not a passionate man. He was passionate about new ideas, about quality, and about his brand. It showed. Apple consumers are famously loyal.

“The older I get, the more I see how much motivations matter” Jobs said. Was there a different motivation between Apple and Microsoft in launching these new products? According to Jobs, there was a huge difference. “The Zune was crappy because the people at Microsoft don’t really love music or art the way we do. We won because we personally love music. We made the iPod for ourselves, and... "

😎 "... when you’re doing something for yourself, or your best friend or family, you’re not going to cheese out.” 

"While many economic and social factors weigh into the success of a credit union, I’ve seen first hand the difference a passionate team can make on the bottom line. The most successful credit unions we’ve worked with have not had the best marketing, they haven’t had the most college degrees in one room, nor have they had the best circumstances. The credit unions, which have the most success, are winning because they personally believe in their credit union. They have a mission statement and a vision they are passionate about. Their members are friends and family." They don’t “cheese out” as Jobs said.

“If you don’t love something, you’re not going to go the extra mile, work the extra weekend, challenge the status quo as much,” Jobs continued. What separates the good credit unions from the great credit unions? Culture. Vision. Passion. 

😎 If you’re making loans for the sake of the bottom line or to meet targets, you’re going to have an uphill battle [plus high delinquency and chargeoffs]

But, if you’re making loans with the understanding of how you are helping a member or changing a life, then...

   What ever happened to "There Is A difference"?