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Driving Sustainable Transformation at Arvest Bank with Laura Merling
Episode 2436th September 2023 • Be EPIC Podcast • Brent Williams
00:00:00 00:37:16

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This week on the podcast, Brent sits down with Laura Merling, Chief Transformation and Operations Officer at Arvest Bank. They start the discussion with a review of Laura's background leading transformations at companies like Ford, AT&T and Google. Laura then goes on to share the multi-year process underway to transform Arvest Bank into a technology-enabled community bank of the future. Laura outlines her 90-day framework for transformation, focusing on understanding customers, assessing technology and defining metrics. She highlights successes like the me at Arvest program and cloud migration. Gain insight into Arvest's new Centers of Excellence and how customer-centric innovation is driving momentum in the evolving financial services industry.

Transcripts

Laura Merling:

Because if you're gonna change how we approach our

Laura Merling:

customers and we're going to start with this customer centric

Laura Merling:

versus product we're not going to lead with do you need a

Laura Merling:

credit card? We're gonna lead with how can we help you? You

Laura Merling:

know, what do you need to grow your business or what do you

Laura Merling:

need to help you with your your personal life?

Brent Williams:

Welcome to the be epic podcast, brought to you

Brent Williams:

by the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of

Brent Williams:

Arkansas. I'm your host Brent Williams. Together, we'll

Brent Williams:

explore the dynamic landscape of business and uncover the

Brent Williams:

strategies, insights and stories that drive business today. Well,

Brent Williams:

today I have with me Laura Merling. Laura is the Chief

Brent Williams:

Transformation and Operations Officer at Arvest Bank. Laura,

Brent Williams:

thanks for joining me today.

Laura Merling:

Oh, thank you for the invitation. I was looking

Laura Merling:

forward to it.

Brent Williams:

Me too. I'm looking forward to this

Brent Williams:

conversation. You and I have gotten to know each other over

Brent Williams:

the last year or so and you've been in this role at Arvest now

Brent Williams:

for about 18 months?

Laura Merling:

Ah it'll to be two years next month. Okay.

Laura Merling:

Well, I know. It does. It went by really, really fast. That

Laura Merling:

must mean I'm enjoying it.

Brent Williams:

That's right. That's right. Well, you know, I

Brent Williams:

think when you joined Arvest really it sounded like the

Brent Williams:

charge was to lead a multi year large scale, transformation

Brent Williams:

process, digital transformation process some degree, I assume.

Brent Williams:

But maybe before we get into before we get into Arvest and

Brent Williams:

transformation, tell us a little bit about you. Your background

Brent Williams:

is pretty cool. I mean, you've got I know Ford, AT&T, Google,

Brent Williams:

now financial services. Tell us about that journey.

Laura Merling:

Oh, it's a it's a long and sorted journey. It was

Laura Merling:

definitely a windy road meeting, you know, part of is taking

Laura Merling:

advantage of opportunities that come that came along the way.

Laura Merling:

But it's leveraging knowledge and experience of what I learned

Laura Merling:

in the previous role. And so it was taking, hey, I've learned

Laura Merling:

XYZ at one company, how do I now take and apply that to that one

Laura Merling:

that was probably a little bit of a stretch was doing, you

Laura Merling:

know, AT&T autonomous vehicles, however, but when you think so

Laura Merling:

AT&T is connectivity, right? And so then when you think well,

Laura Merling:

connected cars are kind of the foundation for autonomous

Laura Merling:

vehicles. And then where's the revenue really coming from in

Laura Merling:

self driving cars? It's not really the car because it's kind

Laura Merling:

of expensive, the revenue is actually in the services that

Laura Merling:

surround it and the digital capabilities. So it's taking

Laura Merling:

what you know, and say, Well, how can I apply that to another

Laura Merling:

industry?

Brent Williams:

That makes sense.

Laura Merling:

I think I've oversimplified it, but that's

Laura Merling:

no, it's all very accidental. It was definitely not planned that.

Brent Williams:

Most of our journeys aren't, right? But it

Brent Williams:

looks like you've had a lot of fun, like in a lot of varied

Brent Williams:

experiences, which, you know, now in financial services at

Brent Williams:

Arvest Bank. I assume all of those experiences have prepared

Brent Williams:

you pretty well for this role.

Laura Merling:

Yes, I think so. There's, you know, there's

Laura Merling:

always things you the reason, you also do it is there are the

Laura Merling:

things you want to learn and can learn by going into into a new

Laura Merling:

industry. And that's what's exciting about it. I think I'm

Laura Merling:

a, I'm a continuous learner. And it's just something I like to

Laura Merling:

do. But I mean, the things along along the way that you learn,

Laura Merling:

you know, it was interesting, I looked back AT&T was 2012. And

Laura Merling:

at the time, I thought AT&T was really behind digitally, like,

Laura Merling:

hey, you're trying to do what online? And what do you mean,

Laura Merling:

your customers can't do, you know, XYZ online. And I looked

Laura Merling:

back now, and I'm like, oh, they were actually pretty advanced,

Laura Merling:

in terms of level of maturity. And the things that that I

Laura Merling:

learned there was the foundation, you know, just

Laura Merling:

before ATT was Alcatel Lucent, which was another, they provided

Laura Merling:

telecom infrastructure to AT&T. And those two were kind of my

Laura Merling:

first foray out of being in the software industry. And so going

Laura Merling:

from software to the customer side, and now being on the

Laura Merling:

customer side, saying how do you apply all these great things?

Laura Merling:

All these great technologies, how do you actually make them

Laura Merling:

useful inside of a corporation? And so for me, that was that was

Laura Merling:

kind of the exciting thing is taking what I had learned in a

Laura Merling:

software world and bringing it to an end customer, and then

Laura Merling:

taking that on my journey forward. So AT&T, my biggest

Laura Merling:

probably takeaway was, how to do metrics around one it was a

Laura Merling:

large scale transformation as well. Now their target was, you

Laura Merling:

know, 2020 being 80% digital, so everything that you do with the

Laura Merling:

company, every step every process in the company being

Laura Merling:

digital um, and so a multi year journey, how do you approach it?

Laura Merling:

What are the steps you take? And then also how do you measure

Laura Merling:

outcomes that you measure success. AT&T, I can tell you

Laura Merling:

down to the button, you clicked on a screen, how much money we

Laura Merling:

saved, to every phone call that was made and how much money it

Laura Merling:

costs. So it was really measured at a detailed level, which was

Laura Merling:

an interesting way to understand metrics and outcomes and how you

Laura Merling:

want to, you want to look at transformation, which I then

Laura Merling:

brought to the next place, which was Ford Motor Company.

Brent Williams:

And I assume you've sort of continued to

Brent Williams:

refine that, and I don't want to get into that process on that by

Brent Williams:

pillars. Maybe maybe first a little bit about our best bank.

Brent Williams:

So living in Northwest Arkansas, of course, I'm pretty familiar

Brent Williams:

with Arvest Bank. And, you know, I've heard you refer to Arvest

Brent Williams:

Bank as seeking to be a community bank of the future,

Brent Williams:

maybe kind of just tell us a little bit about Arvest where

Brent Williams:

Arvest is going the footprint and those kinds of things.

Laura Merling:

So started out as a community bank, it's always

Laura Merling:

been a community bank started about 60 years ago, by Sam

Laura Merling:

Walton. And I think what's interesting is, so we don't want

Laura Merling:

to it's not that we we didn't, we never went away from being a

Laura Merling:

community bank. But we want to continue to be a community bank

Laura Merling:

in a digital world, which I think is a an interesting you

Laura Merling:

know you think about community, where does community happen?

Laura Merling:

Does it happen in the neighborhood square? Or does it

Laura Merling:

happen online? And if they find who you are, and what you're

Laura Merling:

doing the answer is, yes. Right? It's both. And so, you know,

Laura Merling:

what does that transformation mean for us? So we're in we're

Laura Merling:

about a mid sized bank. So we like to be called a community

Laura Merling:

bank, because we're focused on on serving the community. But if

Laura Merling:

you talk to the regulators, we're a midsize bank, okay.

Brent Williams:

And that's usually how regulators gonna

Brent Williams:

make that determination.

Laura Merling:

Exactly, it's based on on asset size. And so

Laura Merling:

but, we're in four states. So we have Arkansas, Oklahoma,

Laura Merling:

Missouri, and Kansas as our kind of four state footprint. Within

Laura Merling:

those we aren't across the whole state, we're in a subset of

Laura Merling:

those states. But definitely serve those states. We also have

Laura Merling:

some things that we do that are nationwide. So we have a

Laura Merling:

mortgage, we do mortgage servicing, that's nationwide, we

Laura Merling:

have another service that we do, which is automotive lending,

Laura Merling:

that is beyond the four state so we have a new things that we do

Laura Merling:

that stretch beyond the four state footprint, and those are

Laura Merling:

all done digitally already today.

Brent Williams:

Well, I noticed, you know, speaking of Arvest as

Brent Williams:

seeking to serve the community, I noticed not too long ago, an

Brent Williams:

announcement about maybe different like industries or

Brent Williams:

verticals, if you will, within a community that you're really

Brent Williams:

focused on serving or serving maybe more holistically.

Laura Merling:

Yeah. So when we think about a community bank,

Laura Merling:

and what does it mean to be a community bank in the future? We

Laura Merling:

started by saying, well, what is a community bank today? Right?

Laura Merling:

It's about relationships. And so we don't want to lose the

Laura Merling:

relationship piece of being a community bank. It's really at

Laura Merling:

the core of who Arvest is, and has always been and wants to

Laura Merling:

continue to be. And so then we'd said, if we take that as the

Laura Merling:

foundation, or the or the, the individuals, the companies and

Laura Merling:

the nonprofits that serve the community, and how do we think

Laura Merling:

about that. So when you start to think you think it's everything

Laura Merling:

from skilled trade, to agriculture, to health care. And

Laura Merling:

so what we did is we started with two of those entities and

Laura Merling:

said, okay, we're gonna take healthcare and agriculture, we

Laura Merling:

have a lot of experience in serving those communities and as

Laura Merling:

companies, and what can we do to bring more value to them? How

Laura Merling:

can we help them succeed in the community, both as a business,

Laura Merling:

but their employees that can make up the community? And so it

Laura Merling:

was really starting with those two. What are the services that

Laura Merling:

we can provide to them, and make sure that we get more focused in

Laura Merling:

the areas of value that we bring to them as a as a bank. We don't

Laura Merling:

want to just be a bank, we want to be a partner. And what does

Laura Merling:

that mean to be a partner?

Brent Williams:

And I guess that means refract refining products

Brent Williams:

and services, building new products, integrating products

Brent Williams:

is it all the above?

Laura Merling:

It's all of the above. So it's understanding you

Laura Merling:

know, so in our in our footprint, where we are some of

Laura Merling:

the key areas that we serve are row crop, right beef cattle and

Laura Merling:

then our side cow calf operations, and poultry. And so

Laura Merling:

when you think about that, well wouldn't each of those customers

Laura Merling:

in our market need you know row crop is very different from

Laura Merling:

poultry in terms of what they need to operate and run their

Laura Merling:

business and how they might want a partnership and what that

Laura Merling:

means. On the healthcare side, you have small physicians

Laura Merling:

offices, you know, if I'm one or two, you know, physician office,

Laura Merling:

I might need CFO in a box right?

Brent Williams:

Yeah,

Laura Merling:

If I'm row crop, I might need a leasing platform.

Laura Merling:

Because I might lease my land out. So it's really figuring out

Laura Merling:

what it is, and then where do we add value to that partnership?

Laura Merling:

Or to that relationship?

Brent Williams:

Okay, that makes that total sense.

Laura Merling:

Does that help?

Brent Williams:

It does. And I just when I saw it and heard

Brent Williams:

about it, I thought it made so much sense, you know, to focus

Brent Williams:

on those areas that really are pillars of the communities that

Brent Williams:

we all live in I guess.

Laura Merling:

And those are, those are centers of excellence.

Laura Merling:

So what we're doing with those is they will partner with each

Laura Merling:

Well, so you've been with Arvest almost two years, and hired to

Laura Merling:

of the bank markets. So rather than having everybody have to

Laura Merling:

hire experts, Now some will we still want experts where it

Laura Merling:

makes sense. But how do they help with policies, process

Laura Merling:

products, what are all the things that they can do to help

Laura Merling:

bring, so they're gonna have industry expertise, themselves,

Laura Merling:

and we have some interesting, so the the gentleman that we just

Laura Merling:

hired to run healthcare also happens to own a farm, a fifth

Laura Merling:

generation family farm. So but then so does the person that

Laura Merling:

runs our food value chain also is on the seventh generation

Laura Merling:

family farm. So we've actually found it's been an interesting

Laura Merling:

dynamic between the two of them, and what what they can bring

Laura Merling:

together to help serve our customers.

Laura Merling:

lead transformation. So maybe kind of walk me back over the

Laura Merling:

last couple of years as you as you stepped in this industry as

Laura Merling:

you stepped into Arvest. And as soon as you stepped into this

Laura Merling:

community, like what are some of the other things in that

Laura Merling:

learning process that stand out?

Laura Merling:

Oh, there's so many. One was just Arvest itself is a unique

Laura Merling:

company. And it's, it's interesting, because everybody

Laura Merling:

Yeah. No, it's just an interesting, I guess, nuance to

Laura Merling:

will say that during the interview process, we have

Laura Merling:

amazing people here, we have normally nice people. I have to

Laura Merling:

say, no offense to all the other places that I've worked, they

Laura Merling:

have great people, but Arvest, the folks, people are just

Laura Merling:

really nice. They are very people oriented people. It's

Laura Merling:

just a really fun welcoming environment. And everybody's

Laura Merling:

there to try to help each other. And it just is a I've really

Laura Merling:

enjoyed that. So that stood out just in the company. One of the

Laura Merling:

things that that I learned is I've done a lot of different

Laura Merling:

industries that are all regulated, right? So the

Laura Merling:

difference is that I've learned with financial services is

Laura Merling:

regulatory is part of what you do day to day and ingrained and

Laura Merling:

embedded in everything that you do, whether it be deposits or

Laura Merling:

lending. So whether we're giving you a bank account, a checking

Laura Merling:

and savings account, or whether we're giving you a commercial

Laura Merling:

loan, it's in every part of what we do. And that was to me for an

Laura Merling:

interesting learning to think about, okay, how do we, when I

Laura Merling:

think about transformation, I never had people from the chief

Laura Merling:

risk officer's office sitting in every meeting, we now have that

Laura Merling:

person sitting in every meeting, we have someone from risk and

Laura Merling:

compliance, who sits in every one of our discussions about our

Laura Merling:

product roadmap, our technology roadmap, what we're thinking

Laura Merling:

about doing from a transformation, like setting up

Laura Merling:

the Centers of Excellence they're in all of those

Laura Merling:

discussions. So that's one learning. And one, one change. I

Laura Merling:

don't know if that's the type of learning you're looking for.

Laura Merling:

the industry as you're stepping in to the transformation. And I

Laura Merling:

also wonder, like, you know, alright, so day one of a job

Laura Merling:

like that, you know, how do you start thinking about the process

Laura Merling:

because it is very much about a process.

Laura Merling:

It, it is about a process. So one is just understanding and

Laura Merling:

learning the landscape of the bank.

Brent Williams:

Okay.

Laura Merling:

What does it do? You know what I've you know all

Laura Merling:

the the services that Arvest has to offer, there's a lot of them.

Laura Merling:

So how do you understand them? Not just who runs them, but but

Laura Merling:

how does, how the customers use them? How do they think about

Laura Merling:

them? What are the different levers that we use in the bank,

Laura Merling:

to run the bank? Just really kind of understanding who makes

Laura Merling:

up the bank understanding the different markets that we're in

Laura Merling:

because every market has different needs. Understanding

Laura Merling:

right what each of the markets serves and what our market looks

Laura Merling:

like. That's just foundational. And that's kind of throughout

Laura Merling:

everything that you do. But back to one of the things that I kind

Laura Merling:

of took away from my work at AT&T was setting up a framework

Laura Merling:

for how I would think about transformation. What did I learn

Laura Merling:

there? How do I think about taking that forward? And it's,

Laura Merling:

it's crazy, but it's a 90 day framework. And that framework

Laura Merling:

starts with, who do we want to be when we grow up?

Brent Williams:

Okay.

Laura Merling:

You have to figure it out. And you can't

Laura Merling:

solve that in 90 days.

Brent Williams:

And these are sort of the questions you're

Brent Williams:

asking yourself?

Laura Merling:

These are the questions.

Laura Merling:

Yeah. So you have to understand who we are, to

Brent Williams:

Okay.

Brent Williams:

know where we where you want to go. How do you leverage, there's

Brent Williams:

a great, I got an opportunity to work with someone at Ford that

Brent Williams:

that helped me refine this a little bit. And his name is

Brent Williams:

Roger Martin. And he wrote a book called, well, how to win is

Brent Williams:

what it's called, but it's where they how to win, I got a chance

Brent Williams:

to work with Roger Martin. Really amazing. Yes, it was very

Brent Williams:

cool. really pushed, how do you how do you think about framing

Brent Williams:

it? But it's, it's where do you want to go as a business is

Brent Williams:

along, though where to play? how to win kind of framework and

Brent Williams:

construct that takes time to do that. So it's where do you want

Brent Williams:

to be as a business? The second one is understanding the

Brent Williams:

customer base. So five pillars, pillar two is Do you know who

Brent Williams:

your customer is? And in that, do you really know who your

Brent Williams:

customer is? We always talk about it. But the thing that I

Brent Williams:

learned at Ford, which was really interesting was, you

Brent Williams:

know, we were building autonomous vehicles. And we were

Brent Williams:

looking at what what would they get used for? Will you use it to

Brent Williams:

move people? Or will you use it to move goods, and we would

Brent Williams:

probably use it to move both. But we were looking at using it

Brent Williams:

to move goods. One of the things that was really interesting was,

Brent Williams:

there's a big difference between the way a customer looks at

Brent Williams:

getting a package delivered to them. And the way that the

Brent Williams:

company doing the delivery looks at delivering the package. So I

Brent Williams:

think we all know that because we've gotten the box all

Brent Williams:

crumpled up at our doorstep.

Brent Williams:

Yeah,

Laura Merling:

But but it's, you know, if you're the customer,

Laura Merling:

you're thinking, Am I do I want it today? Or do I want to

Laura Merling:

tomorrow? Do I want it delivered to me? Or do I want it delivered

Laura Merling:

to my doorstep? Am I am I going to be home? Am I going to be

Laura Merling:

away? Like? Where all those things? If you are the company

Laura Merling:

delivering it, you're thinking I? Is it? Does it need to be

Laura Merling:

refrigerated? Or does it not? Is this long haul or local? Like,

Laura Merling:

am I going across country? Or am I going down the street. So very

Laura Merling:

different in terms of how we all think about it. And so what

Laura Merling:

happens is most companies tend to think of it from their view

Laura Merling:

of how they need to get the package to you, versus how you

Laura Merling:

how you want to receive the package. And if you can flip it

Laura Merling:

and think about it from the lens of how they want to receive the

Laura Merling:

package. You can redesign what it is that you're doing and make

Laura Merling:

it more customer first and customer friendly.

Brent Williams:

I assume you know, when you join an

Brent Williams:

organization, you know we've been if I've been in an

Brent Williams:

organization for 15 or 20 years, I think I know who my customer

Brent Williams:

is. But I'm sure there's always surprises for the organization,

Brent Williams:

as you really start to dig in, how do you bring a fresh look to

Brent Williams:

a company on who their customer is?

Laura Merling:

Well, the easy part is the fact that you don't

Laura Merling:

know the industry.

Brent Williams:

So a fresh set of eyes,

Laura Merling:

A fresh set of eyes is one good way. A lot of

Laura Merling:

people will do NPS net promoter score, which is do you like me?

Laura Merling:

Absolutely that customer centric perspective works no matter what

Laura Merling:

Will you recommend me? Yeah, we did a vulnerability study, which

Laura Merling:

is completely the opposite. What are the rocks of your shoes?

Laura Merling:

What are the things that are going to drive you away from us

Laura Merling:

like what do been like about what we do? So we did that? A

Laura Merling:

little bit that. But it's also going out and talking to

Laura Merling:

customers and understanding who they are so standing in the

Laura Merling:

lobby of a branch and talking to customers or in asking them

Laura Merling:

questions. And it's really figuring out who they are from

Laura Merling:

that perspective. And what are they trying to do? You know,

Laura Merling:

it's it's kind of stepping back and looking at it through just a

Laura Merling:

different lens of looking at it as who you are as a person not

Laura Merling:

what financial services do you meet? If we look at it through

Laura Merling:

the Do you need a loan? Do you need a credit card? That's not

Laura Merling:

helping you when you're who you are, how you want to live, how

Laura Merling:

you want to run your business. I think it's that taking that

Laura Merling:

perspective will really change the answers that you get for

Laura Merling:

what you might offer.

Laura Merling:

the industry is.

Laura Merling:

It does, it does.

Brent Williams:

So customer understanding the customer's

Brent Williams:

pillar two, yep, how about three?

Laura Merling:

So pillar three was probably the I started

Laura Merling:

within the first 30 days, just because it takes a while which

Laura Merling:

pillar three is really doing a technology assessment. So the

Laura Merling:

transformation that Arvest hired me to do. While some of that is

Laura Merling:

technology, it's really about transforming the bank, how do we

Laura Merling:

make sure we're set up for where, you know, the world

Laura Merling:

changed during COVID? That won't start to change before COVID and

Laura Merling:

continues to change? And it's it's technology is everywhere,

Laura Merling:

right? Think about how fast people started using Gen AI?

Brent Williams:

Yeah,

Laura Merling:

it went from zero to 100 million users in two

Laura Merling:

months, two months. That's pretty fast adoption of a

Laura Merling:

technology. And so for us, you know, it's where do we want to

Laura Merling:

be as a bank? And how do we still be a community bank,

Laura Merling:

that's technology enabled. And so pillar three is technology

Laura Merling:

assessment. So it was under skin, understanding the

Laura Merling:

landscape of everything that we have at the bank all the

Laura Merling:

underlying technology capabilities, application

Laura Merling:

systems. And that takes a while. And as you might imagine, in any

Laura Merling:

business, any institution that's been around for more than a

Laura Merling:

year, you have legacy technology, I think I talked

Laura Merling:

about it at another conference was the minute you implement the

Laura Merling:

technology, its legacy. And so it's making sure that you're

Laura Merling:

thinking about how you construct things for the future. So you

Laura Merling:

want to know what you have to know where you need to go. And

Laura Merling:

that technology assessment is also what data do we have? And

Laura Merling:

what data can we get out of that technology? You know, what, what

Laura Merling:

data can we get from the systems that we have? And how do we, how

Laura Merling:

we think about that data? Do you really is exhaust from the

Laura Merling:

systems that you use, I hate to say that, but it's an exhaust

Laura Merling:

from the applications and services that that our customers

Laura Merling:

use and our associates to use. And it's important to understand

Laura Merling:

both the technology and where it is, but also to understand the

Laura Merling:

data and what's available, because the best way to serve

Laura Merling:

the customer is to know what they're using and not using

Laura Merling:

because you don't want to continue to offer things that

Laura Merling:

are valuable. Or if like, simple things are, this can sound

Laura Merling:

really crazy. But our mobile check deposit for a while people

Laura Merling:

were having a challenge with mobile check deposit. Well, if

Laura Merling:

we don't look at what we're having a challenge with, you

Laura Merling:

don't know that it was actually we were just giving them an

Laura Merling:

error saying we couldn't deposit it, we weren't giving them an

Laura Merling:

error saying well, you didn't sign the check. It was really

Laura Merling:

just depends on the check, right? So it's making sure that

Laura Merling:

you're being very specific about what the problem is. But you

Laura Merling:

have to know what data you can and what you have access to and

Laura Merling:

not access to, to be able to improve customer service.

Brent Williams:

All right, step four.

Laura Merling:

So step four is defining looking at and metrics.

Laura Merling:

Now Step Four kind of needs to go hand in hand with customer or

Laura Merling:

technology. And then where you want to go kind of step four

Laura Merling:

really is what metrics can you use to define success? And

Laura Merling:

there's longer term metrics, but there's short term metrics. So

Laura Merling:

what we did was we took the vulnerability study that we did,

Laura Merling:

where are the pain points and rocks in the shoes? And how

Laura Merling:

could we set up some quick wins to demonstrate metrics and

Laura Merling:

outcomes? Hey, you know, by improving self service for

Laura Merling:

password reset, we can take 1000 calls a month out of the contact

Laura Merling:

center. Great, that's not just that's 1000 customers, we've

Laura Merling:

made happier. And it's also 1000 less calls to the contact

Laura Merling:

center. So there's two ways to measure that. So it's, it's it's

Laura Merling:

things like that, that we wanted to be able to say, what are the

Laura Merling:

metrics that we can take in the short term? And then long term

Laura Merling:

is we've put together our technology roadmap, as well as

Laura Merling:

our transformation roadmap, like, where do we want the

Laura Merling:

business to be? And how does that tie to technology, we now

Laura Merling:

have big projects that we're working on, that I can tell you

Laura Merling:

over a five year period, here's the investment we're going to

Laura Merling:

make. And here's the outcomes we expect each year either the

Laura Merling:

reduction in cost that we take out of the bank, or increased

Laura Merling:

potential revenue. And so we look at both sides of that coin

Laura Merling:

for the investments that we're making.

Brent Williams:

Okay. And that's sort of your final piece to your

Brent Williams:

framework.

Laura Merling:

And then the last piece of the framework is

Laura Merling:

actually in governance. So metrics is kind of four. And

Laura Merling:

that's it piece is really governance and governance is

Laura Merling:

really, governance is really about how do we make sure that

Laura Merling:

we're holding each other accountable for all the things

Laura Merling:

that we're trying to do,

Brent Williams:

Okay. And that's governance of the process.

Laura Merling:

That's governance of the process. That's also it's

Laura Merling:

a little bit of governance of things happen, market dynamics

Laura Merling:

change, market dynamics changed earlier this year in banking.

Laura Merling:

Right? We had some changes happen in the banking sector.

Laura Merling:

And so you have to be prepared to adjust for those dynamics for

Laura Merling:

what you do as part of your strategy, right. So while we

Laura Merling:

created a multi year roadmap, you have to make sure that

Laura Merling:

you've put enough you're putting governance that you're not

Laura Merling:

spending dollars on something that right now doesn't make

Laura Merling:

sense. Maybe you do come back to it again next year. Yes, it's on

Laura Merling:

your long term journey. But you need to step out of that journey

Laura Merling:

to do something else right now. And so that's, that's what that

Laura Merling:

governance is, it's, it's to look holistically at your

Laura Merling:

roadmap, and say, what are you doing? And are you still

Laura Merling:

prioritizing what you should be?

Brent Williams:

I think the thing that sort of the reason

Brent Williams:

why I wanted to go through that framework is, you know, I think

Brent Williams:

it's just a simple way to think about it, that's right to think

Brent Williams:

about it, I assume it's allowed you to galvanize your team

Brent Williams:

around it, and you can communicate it easily. And it's

Brent Williams:

not. It doesn't only work in financial services, it works in

Brent Williams:

in any industry.

Laura Merling:

It works in any industry. And the one thing that

Laura Merling:

people always go, but you forgot people, like well, I didn't

Laura Merling:

really forget the associates what what we've what we've done

Laura Merling:

is we kind of see people as kind of overarching

Brent Williams:

Okay

Laura Merling:

across those, that process, we're methodically

Laura Merling:

thinking about in the Arvest program and what that means to

Laura Merling:

our associates on the people side. And along with that comes

Laura Merling:

process changes. So we found out a whole organizational change

Laura Merling:

management team. And that organizational change management

Laura Merling:

team is right there alone with us through every step of the

Laura Merling:

way, with our associates, and like the technology team to say

Laura Merling:

here's what we do. It's complicated.

Brent Williams:

Yeah, it is complicated,

Laura Merling:

but it's not yet.

Brent Williams:

As you explained it. It. I think, I don't know if

Brent Williams:

I use the word simple, simple to understand. Complicated to

Brent Williams:

probably execute on and, you know, and one thing I just

Brent Williams:

wanted to mention is, you know, we laid it out as a framework of

Brent Williams:

five steps. But those aren't five linear steps, right?

Laura Merling:

Their definitely not linear.

Brent Williams:

That's one thing that probably adds some of the

Brent Williams:

complexity.

Laura Merling:

It does, well, I know they're not linear, and

Laura Merling:

they're not one time, right, you have to continually be looking

Laura Merling:

at all of those. Now, you don't want to continually change your

Laura Merling:

goalposts of what you're what you want your business to be in

Laura Merling:

five to 10 years when you grow up, because you don't wanna keep

Laura Merling:

changing the goalposts. But it's not a direct line. It's going to

Laura Merling:

be zigs and zags, again, based upon things that happened in the

Laura Merling:

market. Who would have known COVID, who would have known

Laura Merling:

Silicon Valley bank , who would have known, right, just so so

Laura Merling:

things have market dynamics happen that you have to pay

Laura Merling:

attention to.

Brent Williams:

Well, as you I guess I'll kind of ask you a two

Brent Williams:

pronged question here. As you look back over the last couple

Brent Williams:

of years, what's maybe the thing that you're most proud of thus

Brent Williams:

far, and then anything as you're looking forward, that really,

Brent Williams:

really excites you?

Laura Merling:

The probably one of the main things was the me at

Laura Merling:

Arvest program, because we didn't have have that right and

Laura Merling:

we partnered with our people team, our HR team too and a

Laura Merling:

third party helped us because without that, no, people would

Laura Merling:

join the company, and they've had different experiences at

Laura Merling:

other companies. So people have been at Arvest for a long time,

Laura Merling:

but but they also have come at different stages of their

Laura Merling:

career. And those experiences might lead them to believe like

Laura Merling:

we had a few of our associates who were terrified of moving to

Laura Merling:

the cloud. And because they were at another company that when

Laura Merling:

they moved to the cloud, they outsourced all of it. And so

Laura Merling:

they lost their job. So when we said we were moving to the

Laura Merling:

cloud, they're like, oh, I'm losing my job right now. No, no,

Laura Merling:

no, no. We, we need you here, we want to, we want to teach you

Laura Merling:

how to do this. And so me setting up me at Arvest

Laura Merling:

framework and foundation and getting that in place. And it it

Laura Merling:

wasn't easy. It took us almost a full year for people to believe

Laura Merling:

that we were really not going to let we were focused on their

Laura Merling:

growth on their success alongside of what we were doing.

Laura Merling:

So that's probably one because now it's spreading across the

Laura Merling:

rest of the bank. Right. It takes time to roll it out. But

Laura Merling:

that for me is probably one thing that I'm most excited

Laura Merling:

about what we've been able to put in place. In terms of the

Laura Merling:

transformation on the technology side. We are on track. It's been

Laura Merling:

pretty fast. We've we've made four pivots if you ask my head

Laura Merling:

of infrastructure, he'll tell you we've made four pivots on

Laura Merling:

our migration to cloud over the last year, we are not the only

Laura Merling:

one, you'd have to. I think I just if I could tell everybody

Laura Merling:

just, if you think you're the only one, you're not go ask five

Laura Merling:

other companies, they've made four pivots as well. So if

Laura Merling:

you're trying to move to cloud, but over the course of that

Laura Merling:

year, not only have people learned it, and done side by

Laura Merling:

side with partners, but we will be wealthy out of wonderful data

Laura Merling:

center, with almost from a year beginning to end to be in Google

Laura Merling:

Cloud, with one of our data centers. That's pretty good.

Laura Merling:

That's pretty good clip.

Brent Williams:

Yes it is.

Laura Merling:

By anybody's standards,

Brent Williams:

Yeah.

Laura Merling:

That's a fast pace. So I think, I think the

Brent Williams:

Yeah.

Brent Williams:

team and what they were able to do there, there's, I mean,

Laura Merling:

Other than hopefully they use the platform,

Laura Merling:

there's so many, I mean, we've had so many between the quick

Laura Merling:

wins that we did with the contact center and making some

Laura Merling:

adjustments there. To last year we went, we have two things.

Laura Merling:

Last year and nine months, we went from building our own new

Laura Merling:

core banking platform to delivering the ability to do

Laura Merling:

equipment finance, as a loan product on a new core banking

Laura Merling:

platform that we built from the ground up. Yesterday, we

Laura Merling:

launched our loan origination system for all commercial

Laura Merling:

lending. So the other one was loan servicing, this is loan

Laura Merling:

origination. For me, some portion of our commercial loans,

Laura Merling:

and the team built that from the ground up and we did it in

Laura Merling:

partnership with it, we changed the operating model. So the I

Laura Merling:

mean, there's so many wins, we we changed the operating model

Laura Merling:

of how we built software and for, for Arvest, for us, the

Laura Merling:

lenders, the loan assistance, customers, all gave input to

Laura Merling:

what we built and how we built it. And every two weeks, we had

Laura Merling:

a group of associates that got to see what we call a sprint,

Laura Merling:

right. So we follow an Agile process. And every two weeks we

Laura Merling:

right? That's the goal is it gets used, because many products

Laura Merling:

demonstrate what we built, we built this, look at it, built

Laura Merling:

this, look at it, we even had our loan assistance, and the

Laura Merling:

lenders got to design what they needed. On the screens, like

Laura Merling:

this is what it needs to look like for us. And oh, by the way,

Laura Merling:

we need a pizza trackers that everybody that's working on the

Laura Merling:

loan knows where it is when the customer calls, and oh, by the

Laura Merling:

way, the customer needs access to the pizza tracker, so they

Laura Merling:

know where the loan is. So I think all of those things add

Laura Merling:

up, there's just so many of them. So many you can't measure

Laura Merling:

like measuring that partnership with our internal associates and

Laura Merling:

customers to define what that product looks like we had never

Laura Merling:

done that. On that regular basis. You don't have a way to

Laura Merling:

measure that.

Laura Merling:

get implemented, and kind of forced usage, meaning this might

Laura Merling:

not be the best tool ever, but you're gonna go use it. Well, if

Laura Merling:

you get to design it, that really helps in terms of

Laura Merling:

adoption, use and value that it brings.

Brent Williams:

But what about as your anything just on the

Brent Williams:

horizon, which is really exciting?

Laura Merling:

Oh, so many things. We have a lot of big

Laura Merling:

projects and programs on the docket for next year, we have a

Laura Merling:

continuation of this loan origination and loan servicing

Laura Merling:

platform for customers revamping our consumer platform. But what

Laura Merling:

I'm really more excited about right now is where are these

Laura Merling:

centers of excellence? Right, they're new. And so I'm really

Laura Merling:

excited about what these centers of excellence can help bring to

Laura Merling:

our customers. What is the value? We've started in the, in

Laura Merling:

the healthcare space, we've already started and a customer

Laura Merling:

advisory board. That is really, you know, we have one customer,

Laura Merling:

she is a she runs a unit inside a hospital and she's a

Laura Merling:

practicing physician, but she also is doing the hospital's

Laura Merling:

transformation. And so the interesting part there is she

Laura Merling:

wants to learn from us what we're doing on our

Laura Merling:

transformation. We want to learn from her what we can help with

Laura Merling:

the hospital or even hospital ways like what's what's the

Laura Merling:

value add? Where do we add benefit? So I think there's so

Laura Merling:

much to be gained from those centers of excellence. That I

Laura Merling:

just I'm looking forward to what the outcomes are from from they

Laura Merling:

just started right and I'm looking forward to the outcomes

Laura Merling:

from from those centers of excellence.

Brent Williams:

I think it will be exciting to see how those are

Brent Williams:

additional value to customer's lives, no doubt, well, maybe as

Brent Williams:

we, as we conclude, I always ask it sort of similar question. You

Brent Williams:

know, at the Walton College, we've got somewhere between

Brent Williams:

probably 8,500 and 9,000 students, so you know, that are

Brent Williams:

a part of the business school. And so you know as you just kind

Brent Williams:

of think about what you've learned throughout all of your

Brent Williams:

career journey. And you think about, if you could just give

Brent Williams:

one piece of advice to to a student, what is it?

Laura Merling:

I'm gonna, I'm gonna steal a quote for

Laura Merling:

somebody. So I, there was a quote from a former president

Laura Merling:

that said, just do stuff. I'm gonna say, just try stuff. If

Laura Merling:

people ask you just try it. You know, I, when they asked me when

Laura Merling:

Ford asked me to do autonomous vehicles, I was like, you're

Laura Merling:

kidding me? Right? I know nothing about them. And I'm

Laura Merling:

like, that's okay. You get connectivity, you can figure

Laura Merling:

that. So So you just have to put yourself out there. Don't be

Laura Merling:

afraid to try thing I guess is really what I would say like if

Laura Merling:

if opportunities come your way. You don't know if you can do it

Laura Merling:

unless you try it. So I mean, I still stay involved in the

Laura Merling:

autonomous vehicle community. Because I still love that,

Laura Merling:

right? It's, it's based on passion. And I still talk to all

Brent Williams:

Love it. Well, Laura, thank you for joining me

Brent Williams:

my friends at AT&T. And actually, we're thinking about

Brent Williams:

how we use some of that technology to do could you go

Brent Williams:

stand up a pop up branch with you know, an independent network

Brent Williams:

that didn't need hardwired connectivity? Like you can take

Brent Williams:

things with you as a nugget. Just don't be afraid. Just try

Brent Williams:

whatever comes your way.

Brent Williams:

today. It's been pleasure to get to know you. And it was a

Brent Williams:

pleasure today get to learn about the transformation journey

Brent Williams:

at Arvest and the way you approach it, thank you.

Laura Merling:

Thank you. Thanks for the invitation.

Brent Williams:

On behalf of the Walton College thank you for

Brent Williams:

joining us for this captivating conversation. To stay connected

Brent Williams:

and never miss an episode. Simply search for be epic on

Brent Williams:

your preferred podcast service.

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