Independent Banker - January 2022 - Cover2

EXPERTS
Game-changing industry insights
for community bankers
After All Your Planning...
Be Sure You Execute in 2022
Done with your annual strategic plan yet? That was likely your Q3 in all seriousness.
It is one of the most daunting tasks that you undertake. You spend countless hours
building the plan ensuring all essential elements are included: your mission and vision,
assumptions, and plan design.
Many of you plan differently. Some focus on what impacted your community bank
in the past. Others focus on people and process and perhaps even creating a
SWOT analysis. The remainder may focus on specific business initiatives such as
implementing and leveraging new digital technologies.
Mark Bergeron
VP, Strategic Relationships,
StreetShares
mbergeron@streetshares.com
Mark Bergeron has been in the
financial services industry for over 25
years and is currently the VP Strategic
Relationships for StreetShares. Prior
to joining StreetShares in January of
2019, Mark was the Senior Director
of Wholesale Lending for American
Advisors Group where he developed
operational sales policy and led the
inside and outside sales teams. Mark
also spent several years at Freddie
Mac as a Director for National Lending,
managing some of Freddie Mac's
largest accounts. He also ran financial
sales divisions for companies such
as JP Morgan Chase, IndymacBank,
NetBank and others.
But once the frenzy of building the strategic plan is complete and the annual planning
meeting is over, then the real work begins: Executing on the plan.
Ensure you are action-oriented
The common weakness in executing strategic plans is failing to take action to reach the
actual goals. Sure, leadership sets the vision; managers need to manage the process
and employees need to execute the tasks that support the vision.
Example: Executing the vision of adding digital lending technology
Some of you may believe that delivering on the digital part of the strategic plan will
utilize too many resources, take too much time, and require a heavy lift. Perhaps even
involve a hefty license fee for you before even seeing any results.
But this is where your planning needs to envision all possibilities of execution
* Solutions that can be execute in just a few weeks, with little effort or time required of
the community bank
* Solutions that actually require very little training and that are intuitive
* Solutions that are subscription-based and can actually add to your bottom line quickly
by expanding your digital footprint
Paradigm shift
Imagine delivering on a plan or being able to accomplish more from it by embracing
solutions that deviate from the past: software that is expensive to buy, takes a long
time to deliver, and feels like a bet on the future. Instead, take your cues from what
other community bankers did during the pandemic.
With branches closed, many of you embraced the digital platform subscription
approach. It did not come about from planning, but it did come about from an execution
mindset where you embraced new possibilities. That is no different than today when
you are thinking about digital business lending for 2022.
Visit streetsharesplatform.com to learn more about Atlas
Business Lending.

http://www.streetsharesplatform.com

Independent Banker - January 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Independent Banker - January 2022