Business Chief USA October 2020

in particular – it has reinforced the
human-centric trend. “We’re in the
age of the consumer right now,” says
Novak. “You have some stellar companies
and industries that, because of
where they are on their digital journeys,
were able to react and thrive very
quickly amidst the disruption. In my
view, it’s very difficult for any business
to truly succeed if they haven’t made
significant headway in putting members
first, and we’re seeing that being
played out as a result of the pandemic.”
A great example of this, says Novak,
is the physical and digital parity that
a retail leader such as Wal-Mart has
done. With e-commerce sales up, it is
now planning to convert the parking lots
of 160 of its stores in August to drive-in
movie theaters, where it can sell products
from the store for the patrons to
snack on while watching the movie.
Thanks to Novak and his colleagues’
work on its digital transformation strategy,
Visions has been able to respond
rapidly to the disruption brought by the
pandemic. “An example is the emergency
loans we offered at the onset
183
EXECUTIVE PROFILE:
Thomas Novak
Title: AVP/Digital
Industry: Financial services, credit union
Thomas P. Novak is a vastly experienced financial services leader. Today,
he is AVP/Digital at Visions Federal Credit Union, where he is directly
responsible for the digital strategy of the organization and overseeing
all digital banking, digital payments, and the operations of public
and secure digital platforms. Thomas leads on digital transformation in
relation to member-facing technology platforms. At Visions, he actively
works with marketing, business development, IT, lending and branch
administration to assess automation needs and initiatives that include:
UI/UX, SEO, digital analytics, voice of the customer, content
management, vendor management and strategic planning.
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