Tactics for meaningful strategic planning
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Who is Kevin Bender and what is his banking background?
And this is really fun for the bank because if you can get all of your staff involved, commit them to the mission that the bank is on in a manner in which they feel ownership, great things happen.
From the American Bankers Association, this is the ABA Banking Journal Podcast. Welcome back. I'm Evan Sparks. Today's episode is presented by Q2 Software, and I'm delighted to be joined by Kevin Bender. Kevin is Chief Banking Officer at Exchange Bank in Santa Rosa, California, a community institution out there. And Kevin, we're really glad to have you on the show today. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to have a little discussion. All right. I would love it for just for the benefit of our listeners. Could you tell me a little bit more about yourself and your career journey in banking? How did you get into the industry and where you where have you been over the course of your time in our industry?
Yeah, yeah. That'd be fun. Bankers always say they get the industry in the weirdest ways. I got into the industry because mom said I should. Back when I was a pretty young kid, I started this business when I was 19. And I went downtown in Sacramento, filled a meter with quarters or nickels and applied at all the banks. And one bank decided to talk to me and then I got in and I have worked my way through the ranks ever since. I joined a community bank, small bank in 86 and I was there for 35 years. Great bank. I got to be part of doing everything. I got to play deep roles, whether it be in credit, technology, when it became a thing. Of course, when I started banking, it was all internet. There were no debit cards.
There was no ACH. So I've got to be part of implementing all of those things. I was a lender for a long time, working for the administration. I was the first CIO of my bank.
How did Kevin first become involved in strategic planning at Exchange Bank?
And we could spend an hour just talking about that journey, but I'll leave it there. I left that bank. We sold that bank. I went to work for a couple of different outfits, doing some exciting things, helping a startup. Then we were going to have an industrial loan charter. Then I went to another bank here in Santa Rosa and then the exchange bank called and said, got to get on board over here. And so here I am.
All right. You've been a CIO. You've been a chief banking officer. You've worked on these strategic issues around charters and all of these different areas of the banking industry. The issue I want to talk with you about is strategic planning. And I have certainly been part of, maybe the right word is a victim to, I don't know, many strategic planning processes through the workplace, through nonprofits I've been involved in, membership organizations I've been part of. And I think when it's done well, it really sets the tone for how an organization is going to prioritize resources and everyone to row together in the same direction. But I've certainly been part of processes where we put a lot of work into that strategic plan and then we're really happy with how it turned out.
And then it gets put in a binder and it sits up on the shelf and we don't pull it out again to look at it. We're just really happy that we did it. And then everything just keeps going on business as usual. And I know banks do a lot of strategic planning. And I would love to talk to you a little bit about that, how this can be useful to banks and of great value to banks. But I guess let's just start out. Can you tell me a little bit about your participation in your role with strategic planning exercises over your years in the banking sector?
Yeah, I sure can. I got my first deep involvement in strategic planning. I don't even remember the year, but this goes back to somewhere around 2002, maybe. We hired a consultant. He had a very elaborate, detailed six-month process. A lot of people involved and so on. However, we only had a month to get this done.
What data‑driven questions did the team ask during the planning process?
And so he was turning down our business and our CEO convinced him that we can pull this off, just work with us. And so he went through a process, I led it, and we went through gathering all the external data we could on the economy, the world economy, the local economy, the banking industry nationwide, the banking industry local.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who is Kevin Bender and what is his banking background?
0:01–1:46
2
How did Kevin first become involved in strategic planning at Exchange Bank?
1:46–3:45
3
What data‑driven questions did the team ask during the planning process?
3:45–5:43
4
How did the board retreat help choose the bank’s strategic scenarios?
5:43–7:37
5
What steps were taken after the retreat to turn the plan into action?
7:37–10:08
6
Why is ongoing staff and board involvement critical for plan execution?
10:08–12:19
7
How does regular tracking and milestone reporting keep the plan alive?
12:19–14:26
8
What can listeners learn at the ABA Annual Convention about strategic planning?
14:26–14:45