When trying to figure out any problem in banking, including strategic planning, it helps you to understand the system you are dealing with. Oftentimes bankers apply the wrong mental model to a problem and come up with a suboptimal answer. System thinking is the ability to recognize a pattern before you act so that you...

Knowing the correlation of interest rates to your bank funding cost is critical. For years, community bankers believed that their deposit base is sticky, relationship-driven, and too lightly priced to move much when interest rates change. By corollary, if your cost of funds barely budges when the Fed acts, you can hold longer-dated fixed-rate loans...

Fed President Warsh didn’t moved rates today and implied that the next rate move might be up. However, for much of the past year, some loud and persistent voice(s) had insisted that interest rates are headed lower, and a surprising number of market participants have arranged their balance sheets as though that outcome were a...

Its World Cup mania and creating a model to predict the winner is excellent training for bankers looking to forecast their deposit run off in the future. In this article, we take bankers through a step-by-step process of “vibe modeling” a World Cup model and then apply it to modeling future deposit run off due...

In this episode, Chris Nichols and Caleb Stevens sit down with Brennan Perkins, a recent Citadel graduate, to explore how early leadership experiences translate into a career in banking. From learning how to be an effective follower to leading peers under pressure, Brennan shares key lessons on servant leadership, attention to detail, and building influence...

In this episode, Chris Nichols and DJ Seeterlin explore what banks can learn from Trader Joe’s approach to strategy, focusing on clear customer segments, intentional trade-offs, and delivering value over price. They discuss how aligning products, people, and experiences around a defined audience can help banks stand out, and how these same principles apply to...

In this episode, Chris Nichols is joined by Samer Saab of Alloy Labs to explore the growing tension between a traditional “debt mindset” and a more forward-looking “equity mindset” in banking. While banks are built to minimize risk and protect principal, that same instinct can limit innovation, partnerships, and long-term growth. Samer shares practical ways...

In this episode, Chris Nichols sits down with Jack Henry’s Lee Wetherington to unpack the biggest strategic shifts facing community banks today. From deposit pressures and the rise of small business banking to the growing importance of data strategy and payments, the conversation highlights how banks must rethink their approach to growth. The discussion makes...