So what kind of strategies do you need to have this year? Because there’ll be huge opportunities, as a lot of banks will be going under and giving up for those who pay attention to really pull ahead in a big way.

This is the time to get your executive team thinking strategically about opportunities. The old games aren’t going to be the ones that work. For example, I’ve been reading strategic plans for banks for the last 30 years, and so many of the strategic plans are filled with ideas that are not in fact strategies, like “Hire more commercial lenders.” Does that work to solve the commercial loan growth issue based upon the fact that we’ve seen thousands of banks try it over the years and never with any success?

So, we can’t keep throwing the same old solutions at the problems, especially since the problems are new. We’re coming into an election, and we don’t know the results. We don’t know what will happen with, interest rates. We don’t know what will happen with COVID, so now is the time that the executive team needs to understand strategy and what that means—how to think strategically, react quickly and change things as necessary to adjust—because those banks that stay fluid and strategic in their thinking will have a world of opportunity ahead of them.