MARLBOROUGH, Mass. – Years ago Chicago retailing legend Marshall Field assured himself a place in marketing textbooks by instructing a salesclerk, "Give the lady what she wants." As far as Carlo Cestra, president/CEO of Digital Federal Credit Union is concerned, that advice works for credit unions. "Keep it very, very simple and give it to the member any way the member wants it," he stresses. "It's like the old Burger King commercial – `Have it your way.' "Don't make members go through hoops. Our objective is to satisfy their financial and financial-related needs. We need to recognize that without the member, we don't have a credit union. Provide options," says Cestra. That definitely means allowing members to access the credit union through a wide range of means from traditional branches to the Internet. In fact, Cestra points out DFCU was the third credit union in the country to launch a Web site. DFCU members are tech-savvy, and more than half use that site. However, Cestra continues, "Do not say the only way you can do business with us is through the Internet. Do not say the only way you can do business is at a branch. Have the Internet, have the branches and have other means in order to communicate. "If you want to apply for a loan on the phone, you can do that. In some cases, it's very, very important to be available to the member 24 hours a day." Callahan & Associates has ranked DFCU as the fastest growing credit union in America for five years, with average compounded growth of 28%. That compares to 12.84% for the nation's 50 largest credit unions. The growth started when Cestra joined the credit union as CEO in April 1995. By February 2000 DFCU had reached billionaire status. Cestra indicates one key challenge has been keeping assets and capital in line. "The regulator likes that fraction, capital divided by assets. The larger the denominator, the smaller the figure becomes," he notes. DFCU was chartered in 1979 to serve Digital Equipment Corp. employees. Then Compaq bought Digital. The credit union's membership dwindled. Later Hewlett Packard acquired Compaq. Membership again shrank. The credit union responded and began expanding its field of membership by adding SEGs. Today the SEG list has grown to more than 400. "I shared a similar vision to what the board had," Cestra says. "Together we became a very, very good team, and I was able to put a lot of things into place. We were very successful in achieving the tremendous growth we have seen. "We focused on the member and the employees. That makes it all possible. We want to continuously improve the operation and take care of the financial needs of more and more members. We want to grow the credit union and grow the number of members." Competition? Sure. "It's very, very competitive," he says. "Not only do we compete with the banks, but there are also credit unions around us. But I don't care about the competition. There's always going to be competition. I continue to focus on the members." He also highlights the role employees play. He started zeroing in on employees at a staff meeting right after he became CEO. It was the first time he meet the employees, and he read a poem to describe his attitude: Good, better, best. Never take a rest. Make your good get better And your better best. Then he translated those ideals into something tangible by launching a "success sharing" plan linked to achieving company-wide objectives. Everyone in the credit union, whether the CEO or the newest employee, participates. If the objectives are reached, everybody shares equally. "That has been very, very successful," Cestra says. "We started the plan back in 1996, and employees have always been ecstatic about it." He also emphasizes employee training and education. "Never skimp on the training and education of employees," he stresses. "If you have to cut expenses, do not cut the training. Do not cut whatever makes the employees successful." Monthly meetings keep staff posted on exactly what's happening to DFCU's financial position and objectives. Cestra also doesn't like waiting until the end of the year to evaluate employees. He believes in communicating with employees no less than quarterly. "Tell them how they're doing. Tell them if they're doing a great job. Tell them if they're doing a lousy job," he says. He figures employees would describe him as a very caring individual, always concerned about their welfare and the members' welfare. The board, he adds, would probably describe him he same way, as well as futuristic, disciplined, and a leader who believes nothing is impossible. Cestra's career in financial services and credit unions began immediately after he graduated from Widner University in Chester, Pa., in 1968. He was hired by NCUA as an examiner. One day he was examining Suffolk Federal Credit Union in Long Island, N.Y. He was offered and accepted a job as manager, becoming the credit union's first fulltime employee. At the time SFCU held assets of $500,000. When Cestra left seven years later that figure had jumped to $15 million. His next job was CEO of AT&T Employees Federal Credit Union in New Jersey. Again, assets grew during his tenure, rising from $35 million to $400 million sixteen years later when he became CEO of DFCU. Cestra says if he has had any role models along the way, they were his parents, who immigrated to the United States from Italy. Horatio Alger would probably have enjoyed chronicling the Cestra family story "If I have to give credit to anyone, it would be my mom and my dad. My father and mother never went to school. My mother actually learned how to read and write from me when I went to school," he says. "They suffered throughout their young days. They lived in Italy during the war. When they came here in the mid-1950s we didn't have a dime in our pockets. But we worked very hard, even seven days a week. They instilled in me that attitude, a very, very strong work ethic." Fast forward a couple generations. Cestra and his wife, Diane, have two daughters. The oldest daughter has a degree in molecular immunology from the University of Tennessee and is involved in cancer research. Her husband is also a scientist researching cancer. The other daughter is a chemical engineer working for Honeywell, and is married to a chemical engineer. Off the job, Cestra likes to play golf and garden, pretty much in that order. During the summer he tries to head for the tees at least once a week. "As a matter of fact, when I retire from this job I think I'd like to get a job a job cutting grass and weeds at a golf course – as long as I get a chance to play," he muses. -

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