MBA students at Pepperdine University had long been offeredcourses working with local banks, but a case study program launchedin the first quarter of 2010 introduced the school to the creditunion industry.

The idea for the case study originated with an intern who foundXceed Financial Credit Union through an MBA program offered by theFilene Research Institute. Neha Marfatia, who graduated fromPepperdine University in 2008, used her contacts with the school tocreate a program that would afford the credit union direct contactwith the Gen Y market.

Acting as liaison between the university and the credit union,Marfatia corresponded with Doreen Shanahan, program director atPepperdine, to set up a case study program that would allowstudents to engage in actual business situations.

“They basically broke up into several different teams, and wekind of assigned them different employer groups,” said KathrynDavis, Xceed senior vice president, who worked with Marfatia.“During the course of the project they did research and then cameback and gave us some really fantastic recommendations.

It was like a real-life business scenario; you kind of work onstuff and things happen, and then you have to redirect to kind ofget back to the goal. So I think they really liked that, becauseyou would not get that practical application just in a straightclassroom setting.”

According to Davis, students focused on online usage andstrategic methods to revamp the credit union's website, xfcu.org,in addition to interacting with its select employee groups. “Theyhad some ideas on how to get members that were already in theselect employer group involved, so it was a really powerfulopportunity to interact with them,” she said.

In gathering research material, the MBA hopefuls used Facebook,LinkedIn and other social networking sites to contact SEGs andcirculate performance surveys. Some students also visitedbusinesses for interviews with company executives or socializedwith workers in lobbies.

Throughout the project, Xceed executives met with the Pepperdinestudents to offer guidance and advice when needed. Marfatia alsoacted as a daily correspondent for the student groups, answeringquestions and helping navigate roadblocks in their research.

“In some cases folks were a little bit off, and we could helpredirect or in some cases say, 'You're spot on. Keep going withthat. I'm interested with what you're going to discover,'” saidDavis. “Also, given their focus on select employer groups, we didhook them up with our business development officers, and they gotan opportunity to ask them some questions, understand their role,and how the process worked. So I think they definitely got in touchwith a lot of folks here at the credit union and understand how thecredit union runs.”

Marfatia believes that the program was successful and said thatXceed will continue to work with the University in the future.

At the beginning of the program just one of the 30 studentscould provide the definition of a credit union, but students' finalpresentations presented practical and innovative ideas formarketing to SEGs and expressed greater understanding of the creditunion industry.

Six student teams presented the results of the quarter'sresearch to Xceed executives before taking questions and receivingconstructive feedback.

“It was interesting at the end of this entire case study, theywere all really jazzed about credit unions and what it is we offerto members, and so that was kind of fun to hear,” said Davis, whodescribed the program as mutually beneficial. Marfatia added, “Ourgoal was to increase membership and get a better degree ofpenetration among our corporate clients, and so we wanted tounderstand what the demographics are of our existing clients andcome up with some new strategies that we could reach out to thembetter.”

According to Davis, the pilot program produced some useful ideasthat are currently being implemented at Xceed. Quick and easysocial networking suggestions are first on the agenda to target GenY and will be carried out by the end of the summer.

The unique experience offered by the case study has alsoprompted the university to invite Xceed back in the fall semesterfor a product and service level addition to the curriculum. “Afterthe fall semester,” Davis said, “we have talked about what willkind of follow up on that for the spring semester, so I think it'sgoing to be a nice partnership with the university; they've beenvery nice to work with.”

Initially assuming the role as an intern, Marfatia's performancehandling the case study project earned her a full-time position asa product analyst at the credit union. “Initially, it was kind of alearning experience, and by week two I kind of figured out I wantedto stay here,” she said.

Davis added, “And we didn't want to let her go.”

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