Planning to Progress: Beating the Fintech Clock

If you’ve ever looked at a competitor’s new fintech rollout and thought, "How are they moving that fast?" you’re not alone.

Many credit union leaders are quietly wrestling with a growing fear: Are we falling behind? The pace of change in financial services is relentless. Fintechs are nimble. Mega banks are investing heavily in digital. Meanwhile, your team might still be caught in back-to-back planning meetings, debating priorities, and waiting for clarity that never quite arrives.

That fear isn’t misplaced, but it’s also not permanent.

The key isn’t building the perfect plan. It’s building the habits and systems that make execution your competitive edge.

Understanding the Threat and the Opportunity

The financial services industry is intensely competitive, with large banks and digital platforms constantly battling for attention. If it feels like fintechs are pulling ahead, you’re not imagining it. This sense of being left behind is often a sign of what I call "drift," the slow, subtle pull away from what once worked. It causes your team’s energy to fade, your results to flatten, and your culture to quietly erode.

But here’s the opportunity. You can stop reacting and start leading.

The goal is to become a "Catalyst" leader. Someone who anticipates friction, plans ahead, and builds simple systems that prevent chaos before it starts. That kind of leadership creates clarity, focus, and momentum even in a fast-moving, competitive space.

Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Feeling stuck in planning mode is common, but dangerous. Many teams get so focused on day-to-day operations that long-term strategy takes a backseat. But if you want to stay competitive, especially against fast-moving fintechs, your planning process has to be flexible, practical, and adaptable.

Here’s how to turn planning into a real competitive advantage:

• Develop flexible strategies. Build contingency plans into your long-term goals so you can pivot quickly when the market shifts. Flexibility is no longer optional.

• Use quarterly check-ins. Every 90 days, pause and assess your progress. Are you tracking the right goals? Are you drifting off course? These small, consistent adjustments prevent big problems.

• Engage your team. If your key people aren’t bought into the plan, it won’t stick. Bring them into the process. Ask them what’s working. Invite them to help solve the next challenge.

Ask yourself:

• How flexible is our current strategy in responding to sudden shifts?

• What part of our plan needs the most attention over the next 90 days?

• Who on our team can lead the charge to make sure we follow through?

Enhancing Digital Offerings and Member Experience

Staying ahead of fintechs isn’t just about keeping up with technology. It’s about using it strategically to serve better, simplify faster, and stand out where it matters.

Ask yourself: Are we making digital choices that elevate the member experience, or just chasing trends?

To compete effectively:

• Leverage technology to simplify. Automate the tasks that slow your team down. Improve your service flow. Make things faster for members without making things harder for staff.

• Focus on your edge. Your community roots and member-first mindset are powerful. Use them in your messaging. Own what makes you different and lead with that.

• Create member-centric campaigns. Don’t just sell products. Solve problems. Engage your members like they’re long-term partners, not one-time customers.

Ask yourself: What digital upgrades would make our member experience noticeably better in the next 90 days?

The Role of Systems (And Why They Come Last)

Technology won’t fix broken leadership or fuzzy strategy.

In fact, systems should come after culture, service, growth, and financial clarity. Otherwise, you’re just installing faster ways to stay stuck.

Your core processor, CRM, or shiny new dashboard can’t make your team trust the plan or care more about results. Your team has to come first.

• Start with people. Ask your team what slows them down. Where are the bottlenecks? Where does the tech add complexity instead of reducing it?

• Simplify first. Then scale. Once you’ve aligned your team and cleaned up your processes, use systems to reinforce what’s working. Don’t use them to mask what isn’t.

When done right, technology can cut 40% of manual tasks and give your people their time back, to do their best work. But the right system, applied at the wrong time, only creates more confusion.

So before you invest in new tech, ask yourself: Is our culture ready for it? Is our strategy clear enough to build around? Are we solving real problems or just buying speed?

Let’s turn that fear of falling behind into a plan for pulling ahead.

And if you’re ready to build a strategy you and your team can actually execute, let’s talk.

I’m Michael Wolsten, and I help credit union leaders close the gap between plans and progress.

We’ll map out what’s in the way, build a system that works, and get your team aligned around the things that matter most.

Start with a simple 15-minute call. No pitch. No pressure.

Just clarity.