Strategic Plan
Update Q2 2016
Central 1’s Strategic Plan Update provides employees, our Board and investors insight into how Central 1 is performing and advancing
its strategic priorities. Posting the 2015-2017 Strategic Plan on our public website was a first step towards creating transparency and
accountability. We continue to listen to feedback to improve, and will continue to modify and refine the updates.
For each strategic priority, the 2016 initiatives are grouped by objective and include both a status summary and a general progress
indicator for the preceding quarter.
The strategic initiatives we set out to accomplish in 2016 were part of an ambitious plan. As we anticipated in our Q1 update, a few
initiatives have moved to ‘off-track’ status for Q2, primarily due to prioritization of resources. Some resources have been reassigned into
supporting new initiatives while other initiatives are requiring more support as the projects move beyond business scope. During Q2, we
introduced a new internal project review and prioritization process to better allocate key resources to meet business needs. This process
will help to support initiatives that are currently ‘off-track’ and assist in keeping all other initiatives ‘on track’.
Our Board has directed Central 1 to undertake analysis and provide recommendations on how the second tier can better serve the credit
union network. An Ad Hoc Committee of our Board is providing direction on key initiatives for analysis and review, which could result in
changes to our strategic plan in Q3 to ensure that we are well-positioned to deliver what the credit union network needs.
Core Purpose Successful Credit Unions
Vision
Canadian credit unions’
most valued and trusted
partner
Mission
To provide credit unions with
the critical scale economies
that we can access cost
effectively working together
Values
¾ Leadership
¾ Accountability
¾ Cooperation
¾ Innovation
Members and Stakeholders
Provide an outstanding experience to our members with whom we build strong, trusting, mutually
beneficial, long-term relationships.
Member-focused approach
Objective: Maintain a holistic understanding of our members.
Initiatives
Create an inventory
Implement a process to have an ongoing and holistic inventory
of our members’ needs, including products and services used
by each member.
Know our members
Implement an effective process that provides a holistic
baseline and ongoing understanding of our members’ needs,
appropriateness of products and services, and our members’
perception of Central 1.
Understand & design member experience
Understand and improve the credit union executive member
experience for Central 1’s touch points. Leverage the brand
strategy to establish service and delivery standards and define
and implement an enterprise pricing policy and guidelines to
drive a consistent member experience.
Measure of Success
Completed business requirements document
submitted to the Business Intelligence [BI]
group by June 30, 2016.
Increase use of Salesforce by 50 per cent
measured by the number of licences and
achieve a minimum of 50 per cent of users
logging into the system at least three times
per quarter.
Implement or modify existing processes
to improve three member touch points by
December 31, 2016.
Status Update
Completed
On Track
On Track
Business requirements document completed and
submitted to BI group. Next steps include the BI
group formalizing a business intelligence program
for Central 1.
Usage of Salesforce is being monitored against
metrics outlined in the strategic plan. Focus is
currently on the consumers of information, and
ensuring account and contact information is
accurate and complete.
Touchpoints - The scope of the three executive
member touchpoints has been defined and
completed. The improved processes include CEO
Onboarding, streamlined access to committee
information, and improved communication of
Digital & Payments projects.
Pricing - Current state has been documented and
an enterprise-wide set of pricing principles has been
developed. A final set of pricing principals will be
submitted to Management for approval.
Relationship Management
Objective: Nurture strong, trusting, mutually beneficial, long-term relationships with our members.
Initiatives
Establish relationship management structure
Establish a relationship management structure that is
appropriate for Central 1.
Brand Strategy
Create an overall ‘brand strategy’ that will transform us from
a product-centric to a member-centric company. This includes
establishing satisfaction, value and brand equity targets and
identifying specific actions that will ensure we achieve our
corporate targets.
Measure of Success
All relationship management positions were
fully staffed by March 31, 2016.
Brand performance, preference and brand
equity targets (TBC once Board approval
received) by December 31, 2016.
Status Update
Completed
On Track
The Relationship Management Department is now
fully staffed and is working to nurture strong,
trusting, mutually beneficial, long-term relationships
with our members.
Brand strategy is a critical part of Central 1
culture, and work is now complete and ready for
implementation. The launch and staff engagement
workshops are planned for September.
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Members and Stakeholders
Provide an outstanding experience to our members with whom we build strong, trusting, mutually
beneficial, long-term relationships.
Smart Solutions
Objective: Deliver the right solutions at the right time that are mutually beneficial to our members and Central 1.
Initiatives
Product & service standards
Formalize corporate product and service standards,
rationalize existing products and services and introduce new,
mutually beneficial solutions, built on responsiveness and
forward thinking.
Measure of Success
Introduce two new products from each of
Trade Services [TS], Digital & Payments [D&P],
and Wholesale Financial Services [WFS] by
December 31, 2016.
• Introduce Collaboration Sessions and
Enterprise Risk Policies & Consulting
Services from TS
• Introduce Open Innovation and Mobile
Payments from D&P
• Introduce Wire Transfers and Enhanced
Investment Alternatives from WFS
Status Update
On Track
Progress has been made on four of the six planned
new products. Digital & Payments will be piloting
Open Innovation in early Q4, and the Mobile
Payments product is complete and launched
with further roll-outs being planned. Introducing
Collaboration Sessions from Trade Services is on track
for completion in 2016. Scoping and development
work on the Wire Transfers product continues with
the aim to bring it back on-track after resources were
reallocated to a higher priority project. Resource
constraints and prioritization has also impacted
the two remaining deliverables with a risk that they
move to ‘off-track’ status. Options are currently being
considered by Management.
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People
Build high-performing, member-centric teams who provide holistic solutions to members.
Leadership
Objective: Create an environment where every employee – regardless of title or experience – is empowered to demonstrate
leadership, add value and support Central 1’s vision.
Initiatives
Leadership development
Build a leadership training program to support Central 1’s
strategy by developing leaders’ ability to clearly articulate
the vision, promote integrated business thinking and
develop talent.
Measure of Success
Employee Engagement Survey Target: six
per cent increase in Manager Effectiveness
Questions – “My Manager provides the support
I need to succeed” AND “I see strong evidence
of effective leadership from the person my
manager reports to.”
Status Update
On Track
Positive feedback from the 56 leaders who are
enrolled into the program.
New updated course program for the 20 Team Leaders
has been accelerated to start in September 2016.
Culture and employee engagement
Create a top quartile culture where employees are emotionally committed, empowered, focused and accountable to deliver
results and retain a member-centric focus.
Culture & employee engagement
Clearly articulate Central 1’s desired culture in a way that
reflects the organization’s member-centric strategic direction
and implement strategies to embed the associated values and
behaviours throughout the organization.
Employee Engagement
Survey Target:
Overall engagement score
65 per cent
On Track
Review mechanism for reviewing success
of cultural transformation beyond
Aon Hewitt survey.
The output of the brand & culture strategy project
has helped define Central 1's desired culture and
associated key messages. Launch activities will
commence in late August in order to embed the
cultural attributes and behaviours throughout
the organization. Ongoing communication and
engagement strategy continues to generate positive
anecdotal feedback from employees.
Talent Management
Objective: Identify, retain, develop and recruit high-performing employees at all levels of the organization.
Initiatives
Workplace of the future
Review our physical building space and policies to ensure we
offer collaborative, flexible and economical workspaces that
inspire people and enhance productivity.
Career development
Develop a career development model to attract and
develop skilled and high performing employees.
Measure of Success
Measurement to be confirmed during the initial
stages of planning.
Employee Engagement Survey Target 51 per
cent (six per cent increase over prior year):
Career Development Question – “My career
opportunities here look good.”
Status Update
On Track
On Track
B
usiness case is complete with scheduled review with
a Committee of our Board of Directors in August 2016.
Career development program design has been
completed with executive review in July 2016 and
scheduled launch in August 2016. Program to include
workshops, leader scripts and coaching materials is
also complete.
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Internal Business Process
Build secure, highly available, high-performing standardized systems, processes, policies, procedures and
contracts to optimize operational efficiency, decision making and risk management.
Enterprise business process
Objective: Empower employees by providing them tools, insight and skills to continually improve services for members and
with that increase value and member engagement through optimizing processes and enhancing systems.
Initiatives
Catalogue and map key processes
Develop a catalogue of key business processes and map
processes critical to our strategic objectives, particularly
member-facing processes.
Empower employees
Provide staff with tools and training to empower them to
implement process improvements.
Measure of Success
A number of key business processes identified
and selected for Continuous Improvement
initiative by June 30, 2016.
Train all Central 1 employees on Lean 101/White
Belt training by June 30, 2016; train 30 Green
Belts and three Black Belts by December 31, 2016.
Status Update
Completed
On Track
Inventory completed and will be reviewed with
the Members & Stakeholders Working group.
Engagement
Engagement plan training to start in July and be
completed by October.
Training
White Belt - All existing employees have been trained
and self-training modules are under development.
Green Belt - 35 staff have been trained with nine
scheduled to receive training.
Black Belt - One staff has been trained while 13 have
been identified for future training.
Continuous improvement
Continuously enhance processes: first intra-department and
subsequently inter-department.
Improve deposit-taking process
Enhance the efficiency of our deposit-taking process, eliminate
redundant applications and provide a consistent and improved
user experience for members.
Increase capacity by 8,000 hours and redeploy
capacity in a member-centric way.
On Track
Decommission Odyssey System by
December 31, 2016.
On Track
Engagement plan developed and execution to start
in July with completion targeted for October 2016.
On track to achieve a saving of 8,000 hours for
redeployment to benefit our members.
Business Case, Project Plan and preliminary budget
have been approved. Project execution is in progress.
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Business Intelligence
Objective: Provide employees with actionable insights to improve service delivery to and strategic alignment with
Central 1’s members.
Initiatives
Shared data services
Recognize data as a key enterprise asset. Define and institute
strategies which allow well defined, consistent, quality data
to be easily integrated into operational and decision making
processes.
Business intelligence realization
Provide BI tools that provide lines of business the ability to
access key performance indicators and actionable insights.
Measure of Success
Implement a BI analytics software platform
to support directed and discovery analytic
capabilities for Central 1 business units.
This includes defining requirements, data
governance, populating a common data model
and project integration by December 31, 2016.
Provide BI tools that provide lines of business the
ability to access Key Performance Indicators [KPIs]
and actionable insights by December 31, 2016.
Status Update
On Track
At Risk
2016 Execution plan and staffing needs have been
approved, and work is progressing with key staff
now hired. Armanta Risk Management software has
been acquired, with server deployment and the first
phase of an operationalization project scheduled for
completion by December 31, 2016. Work continues
on the Common data Model with a focus on
identifying the format and content of data to
be standardized.
Availability of key business and initiative resources
delayed the corporate interviewing process. Key
resources have been assigned back to this initiative.
The BI tool that will provide lines of business the
ability to access KPIs will be implemented by
December 31, 2016, but the Actionable Insights
component is at risk for a 2016 delivery.
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Financial
Create a well-capitalized, liquid, risk-disciplined, national financial institution with a strong credit rating that
generates a return for the benefit of our membership and to sustain the business.
Financial Strength
Implement value-based measures to ensure we provide our members with the best possible value for their invested capital,
their dues and their fees for service.
Initiatives
Strength in risk management
Accurately assess risk for business activities to make effective
business decisions including effective use of system capital.
Capital framework
Leverage risk management capabilities to optimize credit
union capital to ensure they are getting the best value for
their money.
System advocacy
Evaluate system capital and liquidity structures through
analysis and system consultation and advocate for capital and
liquidity regulatory frameworks that allow credit unions to be
competitive.
Measure of Success
Risk-based capital methodologies developed
for each significant business line (Mandatory
Liquidity Pool [MLP], WFS, D&P, and TS) by
December 31, 2016.
Financial reporting and operating targets for all
business lines (MLP, WFS, D&P, TS) implemented
by December 31, 2016.
Deliver submissions that incorporate the
credit union views and advance the regulatory
frameworks for credit unions.
Status Update
At Risk
At Risk
On Track
The Risk Development Plan will be revised to
accommodate the availability of resources required
for analysis work to provide recommendations on
how an ideal future state credit union network
could be operationalized. This has not impacted the
Effective AML-CTF Monitoring initiative which was
already ‘off-track’ due to dependencies on the Shared
Data Repository project. No regulatory requirements
have been compromised, particularly the ICAAP,
liquidity, and crisis management initiatives.
Higher priority initiatives required key corporate
and business resources which impacted progress.
The project plan has taken longer to complete than
anticipated and has identified more dependencies
with other initiatives than anticipated. The team is
working to bring the initiative back on-track.
Initial meetings with the Financial Institutions
Commission [FICOM] have been held. Work is
progressing, and due to the critical nature of the MLP,
a paper is currently being worked on to fast-track this
key component of the initiative.
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Financial
Create a well-capitalized, liquid, risk-disciplined, national financial institution with a strong credit rating that
generates a return for the benefit of our membership and to sustain the business.
National platform
Objective: Work cooperatively with other parts of the Canadian credit union system to create a national vehicle for the
wholesale financial business and perfect the national payments vehicle.
Initiatives
National options
Measure of Success
Confirm system intention by December 31, 2016.
Establish a national vehicle to better serve the Canadian
credit union system.
Explore collaboration options
Investigate beneficial opportunities to work with other
organizations with an eye to better position credit unions
to compete in the financial services landscape.
Recommendation to the Board by
September 30, 2016.
Status Update
On Track
On Track
Central 1 continues to be a key participant in the
National Platform and National Payments Strategy
discussions. We have held in-person and virtual
consultation sessions with more than 200 individuals
through Q1 and Q2, and also received valuable
feedback from about 300 individuals at our AGM.
Our Board has established an Ad Hoc Future State
Committee to oversee development of future state
options. The input, options and recommendations
will be incorporated into a Central 1 Board approved
future state discussion paper which we expect will
be available to our members in the Fall.
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