What is more important to the longevity or health of an organization than cultivating the next level of CEO leadership?  You would think every institution would have a long list of promising, groomed alternatives ready to claim the throne. Yet, unfortunately an alarming number of credit unions are faced with a skills gap between the CEO and the ill-prepared top executives.

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When credit union cooperatives were first formed, there was strong intrinsic value placed on volunteers who donated their time to guide the pooled funds on their membership’s behalf. Your chairman’s auto loan was approved on good faith and a handshake, so he could make it to work and feed his family. Loyalty like that is a lost art.

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So you think business culture doesn’t matter. Perhaps you think it’s a passing fad, big in the 1980s and starting to show its trendy head again—and this too shall pass. Or maybe you are one of those who actually think culture matters, but you figure you’ll focus on it when “things slow down around here.” Well, business culture does matter, and as an assistant HR professional you really can’t afford to wait to deal with it. You must make a compelling case for top executives to take notice and focus on the true cost of having an operational culture that leaves people feeling dispirited, disenfranchised, and demotivated. It might be the most important thing you can do to support sustainable bottom-line results.

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We are in the midst of the largest boom in merger activity in corporate history, and there is every indication that it’s only getting started. Each year sees new records set both in terms of the numbers of companies merging and the dollar values involved. Unrelenting pressures from technology, demographics, competition and an increasingly boundary-less marketplace are making it impossible for executives in any industry to ignore the push for growth through consolidation.

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Across business and industry sectors, data analytics is a hot topic. The advantages of becoming a data-driven organization are both exciting and scary—exciting given the potential to delight customers while garnering insights about how to manage the business more effectively and scary in thinking about how your firm’s data analytics capabilities stack up against the competition. Deploying data analytics across a business organization is not a project but a journey, best navigated in partnership between the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Data & Analytics Officer (CDO). In this Q&A, John Janclaes and Juan Gorricho share insights from their work together at Partners Federal Credit Union and offer lessons learned, positive and negative, during the credit union’s four-year (and counting) trek to cultivate a thriving data analytics practice.

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