FCCS News & Insights

2019 - One Year to a Stronger Professional Portfolio

Kicking off 2019 with new services, protection against cyber risks and a powerful theme – Accumulate Experiences by Design.

Twelve months, 365 days, 8760 hours. And they’re all yours. If you were to spend this year gaining career-optimizing experience, where would you start? What skills could you leverage? Who might you engage to help you navigate further, faster? Let’s use this year to develop a stronger professional portfolio.

Today’s agribusiness and finance organizations are operating in an environment of greater volatility, faster change and higher stakes than ever before. To help prepare our clients for this rate of change, FCC Services offers a full range of targeted programs and expert-guided services to complement their governance goals, talent development plans, risk management and insurance solutions, and strategic planning initiatives. And, to ensure we’re positioned to help meet the evolving needs of our clients, we continually seek to identify opportunities to expand our collection of services.

2019 Theme: Accumulate Experiences by Design
Our 2019 theme, Accumulate Experiences by Design, is about the unique networks, connections and skills we all need to accumulate to develop an experience advantage. A portfolio of experiences builds knowledge and creativity and allows for the improvement of competencies. It’s about intentionally developing yourself with the skills and tools you need in this age of technology. We will apply this theme throughout the year to our conferences and programs.

“Through our conferences and consulting, our intention is to raise awareness and understanding of the different disruptions happening in the world today, many of which are caused by technological advances and are impacting the way we work, the way we interact, and board room effectiveness. We consider it our role to help our clients develop their professional portfolios with intentionality,” says Jean Cantey Segal, Chief Learning Officer of Learning and Consulting Services, FCC Services.

Click here to view a video regarding our 2019 theme and new service offerings.

New Service Offerings
“For years, we’ve brought people together and convened people within our client groups, and we take that role very seriously. But it’s also important for us to bring outside expertise to the problems that are happening today with our clients, so it’s not just the sharing of best practices and what’s worked historically, but also how we get people positioned to take the next step forward,” says Scott Binder, CEO, FCC Services.

Along with convening peers and bringing forward experts and thought leaders, FCC Services is positioned to help our clients meet new challenges. We recently introduced Appointed Outside Director Search and Selection services in coordination with our governance expertise and CEO and Executive Selection experience, processes and tools.

“FCC Services has decades of governance expertise and experience in seeking executive candidates and CEOs for the Farm Credit System and cooperatives. We’re combining all that knowledge and insight into this new Appointed Outside Director Search and Selection process. We’re broadening the candidate pool, we’re helping the directors think outside of their normal comfort zones, and really helping them explore in a deep way their needs for today and tomorrow,” says Jean.

Click here for more information on Appointed Outside Director Search and Selection services.

Boards of directors face complex challenges – from mergers and technology to economic, commodity, political and global volatility. For more than 10 years, the Premier Governance Series has helped heighten board performance and individual competence by connecting directors with subject matter experts and peers to share their perspectives. In December 2018, we introduced a new module to the program, Technology Disruption & Cyber-Risk: The Board’s Role.

For leaders and directors, technology disruption and cybersecurity are rising concerns. Areas where change and threats are accelerating, however, also offer opportunities for organizations to stand out. With a concerted effort to bolster cybersecurity and develop expertise in emerging technologies, organizations can create differentiation in their marketplace.

“There is a need for Farm Credit directors to understand more and more about technology disruption, opportunities, cyber threats and cyber risk as a core part of governance. In response, we developed and have launched a new module for our Premier Governance Series directors that addresses technology innovation and disruption, and cyber risk,” says Leslie Hilton, VP Governance, FCC Services. “We bring in excellent outside faculty who are experts in those areas and they work with the directors to help them understand what it is that they need to know to govern their organizations effectively around these issues.” Read more about the Technology Disruption & Cyber-Risk: The Board’s Role module here.

Protection Against Cyber Risk
In addition to increasing cybersecurity and digital competencies, FCC Services provides cyber protection through our cyber insurance coverage and outside expertise of brokers and carriers.

“Given the ever-changing face of the cyber-criminal network, it’s more important than ever for financial institutions to carry good quality cyber insurance to protect them when their systems are breached. That
means having the best possible coverage available and having sufficient limits. It also means vetting your risk transfer partners and making sure they have the wherewithal not only to provide coverage but also to provide assistance in the event of a loss,” says Larry Lawson, Executive Vice President, Risk Management & Insurance, FCC Services.

Traversing the Year Ahead
2019 is THE year to prepare for the new world of work by building your employees’ professional portfolios, developing your strategic vision, growing your governance expertise and protecting yourself against growing threats. We look forward to working to side by side with our clients as we have done for decades to prepare for 2020.