Contract Roadmaps with Ryan Rackley // Cornerstone Hot Takes

Hey, GonzoBankers. Tony DeSanctis, Cornerstone Advisors. Super excited to have Ryan Rackley here with us.

Ryan, you had an opportunity to meet with a bunch of bank executives over the last couple of weeks, and there’s a pretty unique, pretty significant takeaway from them on one of the biggest challenges in the space. Tell me about that.

All right. Yeah, Tony. I did a couple of roundtable sessions with a total of 40 bank executives from across the country and had everyone pick what they thought was the most prevalent dysfunction within our industry.

Okay.

The number one thing, you’ll never guess what it is, was the lack of tech and/or contract road maps. And we’re not talking about, “What is Fiserv’s road map? What is FIS’s road map?” We’re talking about, “What is the road map for the financial institution?” Because it’s bigger than just following FIS or Fiserv’s road map, or any of your vendor partners’ road maps.

Right. Spot on.

Internal road maps. That is defining the true north of what can and should be done. So it was really defined as the bridge between strategic plans and action. How do we get there? What do we start first? Who prioritizes? What does the business case look like? The road map is how to improve our condition in the short term.

How do I make the strategic plan a tangible action plan that can be used to drive the business going forward?

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it comes from an organizational “we will.” You’ve got the stamp of the brand on top of it, right? Timelines, names in boxes, resource assignments, deadlines, outcomes with deadlines based on tangible, measurable numbers.

So did it surprise you that that was the challenge? I don’t know from your perspective, but for me, “What do I do next?” always seems to be the question I get when I talk to clients.

Jaw hit the floor. I was shocked, but in a good way. Here at Cornerstone, we have our own lens of the world as consultants. That’s what we do. It’s driving things, leading the way and making sure outcomes are achieved.

From our perspective, when we work with clients, it’s always about chasing the outcome. Own the outcome. But that’s not always the case internally at the financial institution.

Indeed.

My chin hit the floor because my perspective is different than what the average GonzoBanker’s would be. We have a very structured process by which the outcomes are clear. They’re defined upfront. You don’t bring a consultant in if there’s no outcome, right?

Exactly. Yeah.

Exactly.