Technical Glitches?
William Michael Cunningham, social investment adviser at Creative Investment Research Inc., a Washington, D.C., firm specializing in minority banking, said often a big challenge for small banks such as Liberty is managing multiple locations in several states. Becoming familiar with each market and coordinating those efforts can prove costly. Cunningham says McDonald can use Web metrics to determine Liberty’s website traffic and stickiness, or why customers come to the site and why they stay. Moreover, the creation of customer profiles would be a bonus. “If he can take advantage of the cost efficiencies bundled into online services, then he’s got a pretty good model,†Cunningham says.
Looking ahead, McDonald maintains the young people Liberty hired to keep the institution abreast of technology trends are now are in management posts and are being positioned for future senior management as part of the institution’s training and succession planning. That group includes Todd McDonald, Alden’s 31-year-old son, who has worked at Liberty for eight years and was instrumental in helping McDonald become tech-savvy. “He would say, ‘Dad, what you’re doing is old time and you have to change the way you’re doing this.’â€
Today, McDonald could tweet him that that statement no longer holds true.