Malzahn Strategic provides management consulting services to Community Banks and Credit Unions in the areas of Strategic Planning, Enterprise Risk Management, Treasury Management, Leadership Coaching, Board Services, Senior Management Coaching, Organization Structure and Best Practices Consulting all designed to help leadership teams gain traction and strengthen their institutions. Malzahn Strategic is focused on helping Community Banks and Credit Unions increase the value they deliver to their communities, account holders, employees, and all stakeholders.
Celebrating 10 Years of Service to the Banking Industry!
Our approach is unique in that we can go beyond providing strategic direction by working with your senior leadership team to guide the implementation processes – a hands-on, practical approach that delivers sustainable business results.
How are we different from other financial institution consulting firms?
- We have over 60 years of combined, real world, financial institution and business hands-on experience: We’ve been in your shoes and understand the many challenges senior leadership teams in community financial institutions face.
- We leverage our organizational gift by helping your senior leadership team systematize your organization-wide processes to increase efficiencies and effectiveness across the board.
- We are starters, executors and finishers – We will finish your projects on time, correctly, and within budget!
Our business philosophy is simple. We aim to consistently do the right things, and to do them right the first time.
About Marcia Malzahn
Marcia (Marci) Malzahn, a native of Nicaragua, came to Minnesota in 1986 and started a career in banking. She left banking in 1999 for a leadership technology role in a non-profit organization, returning in 2005, this time as the first employee and co-founder of a new community bank startup. In her role as EVP/COO & CFO and later CRO, Marcia oversaw all the bank operations areas, including finance, IT, compliance, internal audit, deposit/loan operations, risk management, strategic planning, and HR.
Starting the bank allowed Marcia the opportunity to lead various teams, and to work with attorneys, auditors, regulators, vendors, board of directors, shareholders, senior management and employees. Marcia had a variety of management responsibilities over the past 18 years in banking, 13 of which were in senior executive leadership positions.
Having grown the bank from zero to over $300 million in assets during a very challenging 10-year period, Marcia wanted to be able to help other community banks and financial institutions gain from her 20+ years of banking experience. That goal led to her founding of Malzahn Strategic in 2015. Marcia combines her community financial institution experience with strategic insight to integrate these areas and help institutions achieve their vision.
Marcia is an international bilingual inspirational keynote speaker, speaking frequently at community banking and credit union conferences and associations as well as financial services leadership and women’s conferences. As a Certified Virtual Presenter, Marcia also provides online and onsite banking and credit union training. Marcia is a published author of five books: Devotions for Working Women: A Daily Inspiration to Live a Successful and Balanced Life (2006), The Fire Within: Connect Your Gifts with Your Calling (2015), The Friendship Book: Because You Matter to Me (2016) also in Spanish El Libro de la Amistad: Porque Tu Me Importas (2017), Bring YOUR Shoes: A Fresh Perspective for Leaders with Big Shoes to Fill (2019), and Inside Your Mama’s Tummy – Your Journey Until You Arrived (2022).
Marcia is the recipient of a number of professional awards, including “40 Under Forty” by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, “Top Women in Finance” by Finance and Commerce, ”25 on the Rise” by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and “Outstanding Women in Banking” by Northwestern Financial Review. She holds a B.A. in business management from Bethel University, is a certified life coach, and is a graduate and faculty of the Graduate School of Banking in Madison, Wisconsin.
About Tim Malzahn
Lifelong Entrepreneur Tim Malzahn grew up in Brooklyn Park and Maple Grove and the Minnesota native started out life calm and controlled, playing the backyard sandbox for hours on end. As he got older, taking things apart to see how they worked became a growing hobby and eventually bicycles caught his eye and he kept busy by taking apart, improving, and rebuilding his bikes.
While studying at North Hennepin Community College he learned VisiCalc on an Apple IIe and a summer job at the world’s largest privately held corporation further solidified his interest in computers with Lotus 1-2-3 on the original IBM PC. Programming extensive macros in 1-2-3 led to position administering an IBM System 36 minicomputer.
During this time, he met and married his wife Marcia, graduated from North Hennepin and transferred to Minnesota State University at Mankato eventually graduating with a business degree in 1992. A steady climb from hardware technician to global network manager at a rapidly expanding global hair care company had him managing a team responsible for telecommunications, networks, servers, desktop computers and the helpdesk.
During this period, he launched a support and repair company called TNM Networks, helping individuals and small businesses with computer and networking solutions.
As the Y2K issues faded into late 2000, Malzahn joined a startup ISP as the operations manager building the core infrastructure and collocating the servers in a data center. After launch, he built out the multimedia section of the service – digitizing audio tapes, CDs and video content. He also built out some of the first large-scale live streaming church events on the Internet (this was in 2003) which regularly attracted over 2000 viewers.
Malzahn then founded an early 2005 startup pottery importer called Fox Creek Trading and by the end of 2005, Malzahn founded Zahn IT Solutions, a Managed Services IT Provider. By the end of 2008 and as a result of the financial crisis, most of Zahn IT Solutions clients had disappeared and Malzahn folded it into another Managed Services IT Provider.
This organization, already in Managed IT Services for 10 years, had the momentum to carry themselves through the financial crisis and by 2011, Malzahn was pivotal in successfully implementing the TruMethods tools and service delivery methodologies across the organization.
In 2014, Malzahn and his team started introducing some of the tools from EOS into the operations side of the business, such as meeting rhythm, daily huddles and operational scorecards. As time went on he was promoted to the leadership team and as a team, they started self-implementing EOS by collectively reading the book Traction by Gino Wickman and then implementing core EOS tools such as the Level 10 Meeting, VT/O, quarterly and annual planning sessions.
Around this same time, several of the clients Malzahn managed also started implementing EOS and one of them was already many years into EOS with an outside implementer. This client assignment proved to be pivotal as Malzahn saw firsthand the inner workings of an organization fully committed to EOS and from that point on, EOS was his focus.
At the end of 2019, Malzahn left the Managed Services Provider and joined Malzahn Strategic as a Principal Consultant. Whether your organization is a Community Bank, Credit Union or any other organization type with an entrepreneurial mindset and a leadership team willing to try new things, EOS might be right for your organization. Malzahn can help you make that critical decision and is passionate about helping organizations and leadership teams be healthy and successful.
Vision: To strengthen the infrastructure and efficiency of the country’s community financial institutions, enabling them to become more competitive with large banks and other financial services providers.
Mission: To help community financial institutions succeed by working with their senior leadership teams to establish strong operational infrastructures and enterprise risk management programs. Helping them not only stay alive… but thrive in an increasingly challenging environment.
- We believe that all community financial institutions should have the opportunity to be successful while complying with regulations and staying on top of technology.
- We believe community financial institutions should serve their local communities by providing financing and support to grow businesses that in turn fuel the country’s economic growth.
- We believe community financial institutions provide employment opportunities to many in their communities, including professionals who work with individuals and business owners to help them be successful.
- We believe community financial institutions provide employment opportunities that help strengthen families, businesses and the community.
- We believe in doing business with integrity, honesty and truthfulness.
At Malzahn Strategic we strongly believe in getting involved in the communities in which we live and work. Our focus is in four areas: time, talent, treasure and touch.
Time
We believe we all have the ability to donate some of our most precious resource – our time. People need help!
Talent
We believe each person has unique talents and gifts, and we should share those with others. When we serve, we inspire others to do the same.
Treasure
We believe in the concept of giving, not only of our time and talent but also of our treasure. There are countless non-profit organizations that dedicate their existence to helping make people’s lives better. Each organization has its unique needs, and financial resources are critical to accomplishing their mission.
Touch
We believe in connecting people with others. We each have networks that include other professionals, vendors, businesses, and organizations that could collaborate on similar causes. The process of connecting people and later seeing the positive outcome of that connection is one of the most fulfilling experiences one can have.
Marcia has long been involved in the community—locally and globally, personally and professionally. She currently serves on the boards of inFaith Community Foundation and United Financials Making a Difference.
Previously, Marcia served on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities for six years and chaired the board for the last two years. Additionally, she served in several other boards including Shine in the World Ministries, Way to Grow, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable. She helped launch Darkness to Light Education Project and Wings of Africa International, both non-profit organizations. She also served on the local, district and international board of Financial Women International, an association focused on helping women in the banking and financial services industry become effective leaders. Marcia also served on the advisory board of Homes for Heroes, Inc., a for-profit organization.
Marcia’s international travels include a trip to Nicaragua in 2013 to participate in an Opportunity International Insight Trip to learn about their micro finance program with the poor. In 2016 Marcia went to Rwanda with Shine in the World Ministries to speak at pastor’s and women’s leadership conferences. She then visited Nicaragua in 2018 on a short mission trip with a local non-profit that helps the poor, and most recently, Marcia participated in an Insight Trip with Hope International to learn about their micro finance program in the Dominican Republic.
Marcia has been involved in various Minnesota Bankers Association committees, including the Women in Banking Conference, CFO/Financial Officers Conference, Operations/Information Technology Conference, and the Emerging Markets Focus Group. She was also a teacher in the Twin Cities area for The Master’s Program for Women.
Tim has served in a number of volunteer positions over the years including their children’s school Information Technology steering committees and various volunteer service and evangelism programs through their local church. In 2016, he founded RecoverTech, a ministry to rebuild and repurpose end of life laptops and donate them to emerging evangelical ministries and schools in eastern Africa – mostly focused in Rwanda and Kenya. If you have HP, Dell, or Lenovo or other top tier business class Intel i5 or i7 laptops you would like to donate, please use the contact form and let us know.
We encourage you to become involved with organizations where your heart and their mission align, giving the gift of your time, talent, and treasure, connecting others along the way who can also help promote their causes and fulfill their missions.
Below is a list of organizations we support. Please visit their websites to learn more about them, and consider donating your time, talent and treasure.
BNG Payments
Whatever your processing needs, BNG Payments makes it easy for merchants to accept credit and debit cards, mobile payments, e-commerce, eCheck, or ACH payments.Ncontracts
Ncontracts is a leading provider of risk management software and services to financial institutions. More than 900 financial institutions use Ncontracts to manage risk more efficiently and effectively using their integrated suite of software including enterprise risk management, business continuity risk management, findings management, and cybersecurity management.90 Degree Media, LLC
Jamison and his staff keep things humming for the Malzahn Strategic website. They have run our site since inception and do a great job at both hands-on management or hands-off management (depending on your needs).
Findability
If you are more in the “Learn It then Do It” camp, Findability might be for you. They empower business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketing teams to dominate online with easy, non-technical SEO or what they call “Findability” training. We’ve attended their training and it works. Attend their online course or a workshop and get up to speed quickly.
Connect Booster
Connect Booster is a scalable solution that fixes your cash flow by getting paid on time, every time – all while saving time.Astoundz
This Houston, TX based SEO and Digital Marketing Agency provides expert help in making your website SEO responsive and are experts in the field. We’ve done a lot of work with them. Tell them we sent you!
TMClarity
TMClarity is a fully owned brand of Malzahn Strategic and empowers Community Banks to attract more business core deposits and increase non-interest fee income through Treasury Management services. Our Treasury Management Framework™ supports the transformation of your bank into a world-class provider of Treasury Management services, enhancing sales, implementation, and customer support for your business customers.
Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase an item or subscribe to a service, we will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
American Bankers Association (ABA)
Bank Holding Company Association (BHCA)
Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO)
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
Federal Financial Institution Examination Council (FFIEC)
Graduate School of Banking, Madison, WI
Southwest Graduate School of Banking
Ncontracts is a leading provider of risk management software and services to financial institutions. More than 900 financial institutions use Ncontracts to manage risk more efficiently and effectively using their integrated suite of software including enterprise risk management, business continuity risk management, findings management, and cybersecurity management.
TMClarity empowers Community Banks to attract more business core deposits and increase non-interest fee income. The Treasury Management Framework™ supports the transformation of your bank into a world-class provider of Treasury Management services, enhancing sales, implementation, and customer support for your business clients.
