Business View Magazine | April/May 2022

163 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 4 HER I TAGE BANK that the credit for our success belongs to our key people. We’d like to foster a culture where they’re able to thrive and confidently assume the authority and responsibility we want them to have to better perform and better serve their customers and their communities.” Of course, being a community bank, Heritage looks at building lifelong relationships with its customers. Their focus is on the needs of local families, businesses, and farmers, and on keeping their communities vibrant. “Many of the communities we’re in are net-negative in terms of population growth,” Arendt reports. “As those populations decline, or stay the same and simply age, we feel pretty strongly that any community- centered progress that happens has to start with the people who live there. So we encourage our staff to become involved in various community initiatives because that private industry isn’t organically producing itself. We take an active role in supporting our employees to continue Contact us today to learn how a fully core integrated assisted service banking machine may be the answer you are looking for. 800.228.2581 MHM.inc BRANCH TRANSFORMATION IS... ○ Analyzing your branches ○ Creating the best customer experience ○ Creating a consistent customer experience ○ So much more than just a video teller to move things forward because that’s what is ultimately going to sustain life in these communities.” Heritage Bank donates to plenty of causes and tries to be a driver of capital growth wherever possible. “Much of what we earn as a company is through our core local businesses,” Arendt says. “We do feel it’s our responsibility to continue to give back, but it’s a cycle, really. We want to be an anchoring institution and a true ‘community bank’ which keeps employees in the communities served to maintain that ongoing support and connection. We run our business, create earnings, and do what we can to provide value and to provide services. And then we certainly get some of it back. It just all works pretty well when everyone’s moving in the same direction.” Cherishing the many good friendships that have been cultivated since the early days of Wood River, the staff at Heritage look forward to serving the banking needs of Ag producers, consumers, and businesses in central Nebraska for many more years to come. “We’ve got a few channels to connect with our customers and provide that value,” Arendt points out. “We’ve seen firsthand the growth and the efficiencies that can be gained through the technology offerings – both internal and external – that have come on the market in recent history. We’d love to leverage that and expand on some of our services to make our customers’ lives easier and more convenient. Bookkeeping, record-keeping, checking, balances, communication – all of that. I think that’s really the path. We’d like to find that nice groove of improving our offerings while hiring the right people to essentially become that mechanism that can support those improvements.” He adds, “If we accomplish that, we can do a lot of good for our borrowers. Then, it should work out just as well for Heritage.”