Strategic Financial Solutions: Strategically Crafting Culture
Gary Foodim, SVP Marketing, Strategic Financial Solutions
Strategic Financial Solutions is a New York City based financial services company that helps Americans burdened with high credit card debt. That sentence does not inspire visions of a company with a robust and vibrant culture that has been carefully created since the company was founded. However, the culture at Strategic is unique and inspires a sense of family that is unlike most corporate environments across the country.
There are many cultural initiatives that help define Strategic. The company is committed to the well-being of its team members both at work and outside of the office. Inside the company, Strategic does things like Cupcake Tuesday where the CEO, or one of his senior managers, walks around the office and gives each of the over 800 team members a cupcake. This seemingly small gesture is incredibly well received because it gives everyone in the company an opportunity to connect with the senior leaders of the organization.
To balance the sweetness of Cupcake Tuesday, Strategic also created Wellness Wednesday. Each week, the company provides every Strategic family member with resources that help support a healthy lifestyle. These resources include things like a healthy snack, information sessions, or wellness activities like in-office yoga or guided walks in the neighborhood. It’s important that the Strategic culture promotes opportunities for all members of the Strategic team with the tools to live the healthiest lifestyle that they can.
Every day, Strategic team members help clients who are in incredibly challenging financial situations. Strategic, and its team, is a true lifeline to people and change lives in a deeply positive way. Clients talk to Strategic team members about their dreams and Strategic helps them achieve them. As senior management thought about that, the cultural initiative that most embodies Strategic was born. Strategic Dreams is a unique program that grants dreams to Strategic team members every quarter.
Strategic Dreams is fundamentally a program about giving back and creating happiness by helping Strategic family members attain something that was out of reach. At every Town Hall, Strategic grants 10-12 Dreams. To date, the company has provided all-inclusive trips for parents to take their children on their first vacation, flights to see a sick or long distance relative, nursery furniture and strollers for expecting mothers, and help with four engagement rings. The process is simple, a strategic team member can nominate a co-worker or submit a dream of their own. Since Strategic Dreams was started less than four years ago, the company has granted over 160 dreams! Watching the reaction of a team member hearing his or her name called at a Town Hall is incredible and that energy creates a virtuous circle with more and more team members submitting Dream requests.
Of course, Strategic can’t grant every wish. And, the Strategic family doesn’t expect that. The goal is to help create as many Dreamers as possible. The feedback the company has received from the Strategic family is overwhelmingly positive. This feedback is not only from people who have had Dreams granted, but also from co-workers who talk about the incredible generosity of the program. The pictures the company receives of families on trips, engagements, and newborns in cribs the company has purchased is enough to fill a huge album.
When the program started, senior management was hopeful that it would make a positive impact on the culture of the company. The reality has far exceeded expectations. Strategic Dreams has grown into the most popular cultural initiative at the company and its popularity only increases each quarter. It is gratifying to know that the company changes lives, not just of its clients, but also of its own.