08/19/2019

A One-on-one Growth Strategy

The secret: A lot of face time

When B. Dan Berger became CEO of the National Association of Federally-insured Credit Unions (NAFCU) in 2013, his primary goal was simple: Get out of the office.

“I went on the road for about four or five months straight, just grinding it out and meeting as many CEOs and senior management of members and nonmembers around the country as I could,” he says. “I asked, what do you want from us? What do you want from your trade association?”

That shoe-leather approach to leadership among members (and potential ones) has paid off for the trade association: Since Berger took the reins, NAFCU’s revenue has grown 31 percent, and more than 465 new members have joined since 2015. But he cautions that while all that travel helps with engagement, it’s not a meaningful effort unless the association actually responds to the concerns it hears about.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.