LAS VEGAS — Want to know the future of the credit union industry? Ask an eight year old.
That's the advice of Mike Walsh, CEO of Tomorrow, a global consultancy on designing companies for the 21st century. Walsh was the keynote speaker during the 2016 CUNA Technology Council and Operations, Sales and Service Council Conference here recently, and he told the more than 600 attendees that millennials have been a "warm-up act" for the industry.
"Millennials have had it good for a long time. People have been talking about them, worried about them," he said. "They come to your organization and you offer them a cup of tea and a bean bag chair and an Xbox, and listen to them say they want to be the CEO in 18 months."
The connected generation – those born after January 1, 2000 – are different from millennials. And Walsh contends that those born around 2008, during the rise of smart phones and other related streaming technologies, are the true future of retail and consumer habits. He related one simple parental call and response: A baby is crying. The concerned parents hands him or her a mobile device and the tears stop – only to start again when the device is taken away. This otherwise benign action, he said, has rewired their brains.
But this new generation isn't as interested in the pathways to innovation and new technology as their predecessors – they simply expect to have it at their fingertips. Walsh contends that it's too easy to assume that this next banking generation will be content with the current mobile-banking experience.
"The next big businesses shift that will transform how retail transactions work will not be mobile, but by the data-driven experience," said Walsh. "This age group is getting used to the digital orchestration of daily life."
Non-Stop Siri? Walsh pointed to Apple's newly released awkward-looking wireless ear buds. Unlike adults or even millennials, he said, younger children will not lose these devices because they will never leave their ears. To this end, they will have an endless echo of Siri in their heads reminding them of daily events: everything from notifications that they've received a snapchat to an alert that they're near a Starbucks. Siri, he said, will be one with their internal thought processes.
"You can't look at all these emerging technologies with your business technology strategy hat on – look at it with your human anthropology hat on," said Walsh. "When you look at the future of financial services, it will be shaped by the next generation of members, so you have to revisit, reimagine and reinvent your organizations."
The best first step, said Walsh, is to select a day and develop a focus group of eight year olds.
"You have to go to the source. Take a day, host a lunch and invite your kids to the event," said Walsh. "Give them a piece of paper and pen and let them tell you how they would expect to conduct financial services."
