Jul 29, 2026 · 15 min · 10 segments
Virtually all banks engage in strategic planning, but how do they ensure the strategic plan actually drives performance and doesn't just get left in a binder on the shelf? On the latest episode of the…
Kevin BenderGuest
Evan SparksHost
And I have certainly been part of, maybe the right word is a victim to, I don't know, many strategic planning processes through the workplace, through nonprofits I've been involved in, membership organizations I've been part of.
And I think when it's done well, it really sets the tone for how an organization is going to prioritize resources and everyone to row together in the same direction.
But I've certainly been part of processes where we put a lot of work into that strategic plan and then we're really happy with how it turned out.
And then it gets put in a binder and it sits up on the shelf and we don't pull it out again to look at it.
And I would love to talk to you a little bit about that, how this can be useful to banks and of great value to banks.
Can you tell me a little bit about your participation in your role with strategic planning exercises over your years in the banking sector?
I don't even remember the year, but this goes back to somewhere around 2002, maybe.
And so he was turning down our business and our CEO convinced him that we can pull this off, just work with us.
And so he went through a process, I led it, and we went through gathering all the external data we could on the economy, the world economy, the local economy, the banking industry nationwide, the banking industry local.
And in essence, what we're looking for, getting as strong as idea we could on where the economy is going, where is growth happening? Are we in lines of business that have a future? Are there lines of business that we never thought about before that are emerging that we ought to be getting in there? Community banks generally tended, maybe still tend to be a little bit of everything for everyone.
But is that the right strategy at this point for us? Should we focus in the great book of good to great, the Hedgehog Theory? Should we become just amazingly great at one thing? And what would that one thing be? And so we went through a very detailed people process of going...
And I have certainly been part of, maybe the right word is a victim to, I don't know, many strategic planning processes through the workplace, through nonprofits I've been involved in, membership organizations I've been part of.
And I think when it's done well, it really sets the tone for how an organization is going to prioritize resources and everyone to row together in the same direction.
But I've certainly been part of processes where we put a lot of work into that strategic plan and then we're really happy with how it turned out.
And then it gets put in a binder and it sits up on the shelf and we don't pull it out again to look at it.
And I would love to talk to you a little bit about that, how this can be useful to banks and of great value to banks.
Can you tell me a little bit about your participation in your role with strategic planning exercises over your years in the banking sector?
I don't even remember the year, but this goes back to somewhere around 2002, maybe.
And so he was turning down our business and our CEO convinced him that we can pull this off, just work with us.
And so he went through a process, I led it, and we went through gathering all the external data we could on the economy, the world economy, the local economy, the banking industry nationwide, the banking industry local.
And in essence, what we're looking for, getting as strong as idea we could on where the economy is going, where is growth happening? Are we in lines of business that have a future? Are there lines of business that we never thought about before that are emerging that we ought to be getting in there? Community banks generally tended, maybe still tend to be a little bit of everything for everyone.
But is that the right strategy at this point for us? Should we focus in the great book of good to great, the Hedgehog Theory? Should we become just amazingly great at one thing? And what would that one thing be? And so we went through a very detailed people process of going...
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