FISHERS, IND. -- Credit unions are going through a definingmoment and have an opportunity to figure out what they stand forand come up with a strategic plan to get where they want to be.

That was the outlook from Robert Falcone, an adviser for JRFConsulting Services who spoke at the CU Water Cooler Symposium onFriday about his experience at Nike during a pivotal moment in itshistory.

After enjoying decades of fertile growth, Nike faced asignificant down year in 1994 and needed to regain its bearings.The company formulated a long-term strategy for becoming a globalcompany that included signing the top athletes in each sport. Asone example of the strategy's success, the golf department wentfrom $50 million to $700 million after signing Tiger Woods.

"If you focus and put your strategic plan together, great thingscan happen," Falcone said.

He urged credit unions to do an honest analysis of theirstrengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and warned themnot to ignore what the information reveals. He also advised CUs tobe realistic about their goals, measure their successes andfailures and revise their strategic plan to reflect lessonslearned.

"Review it and update it often, don't just put it on the shelf,"he said.

Falcone argued that boards should not be involved with strategicplanning. Their role is oversight, he said, and while they cancritique and ask questions about the plan presented to them by themanagement team, they should not be creating the plan.