Creating a Winning Culture: The Keys to Team Success and Retention

Alana Muller:
Welcome to Enterprise.ing, a podcast from Enterprise Bank & Trust that's empowering business leaders one conversation at a time. We'll hear from different business leaders about how they've found success in cultivating their professional networks and keeping them healthy and strong. I'm your host, Alana Muller, an entrepreneurial executive leader whose primary focus is to connect, inspire, and empower community. We at Enterprise Bank & Trust thank you for tuning in to another episode.

Hello, listeners. Welcome back to Enterprise.ing podcast. Today I'm excited to welcome someone with whom I've interacted in my community as we do some board work together.

With more than two decades of FinTech experience, Brad Oddo is founder and CEO of Basys, a nationwide integrated payment solutions company that specializes in custom solutions that can adapt and grow with its customers' businesses. Brad Oddo, welcome to Enterprise.ing podcast.

Brad Oddo:
Well, thank you, Alana, for having me today. I appreciate it.

Alana Muller:
Well, I'm so glad to see you. Brad, it strikes me that in 2002, I know that you quit your previous job and launched Basys less than a month before your wife gave birth to your first child. And I'm guessing that it wasn't because you didn't have enough going on in your life. So what was your motivation for starting the company?

Brad Oddo:
Oh, what a great question to start with. Alright. So it was an interesting time. The reason for starting the company was we saw a niche. There's a need in the industry. Something that was so unique is, I had been in industries before where we were selling the same product as our competitor, and all we had to sell on was price. And I saw a need in the merchant card processing industry, in the payment solution industry, where if we could differentiate ourselves and truly have a unique story and a unique experience for our clients, that there would be room for us to succeed, which we have done. We now have over 200 people in the company and we are ranked one of the 20 largest card-not-present processors in the country.

Alana Muller:
That is amazing. I'm so proud of you. I just think it's amazing. What an incredible thing that you are doing, not just for your industry, but for our community. So, I just think it's phenomenal the number of people that you have created jobs for.

One of the things you and I have talked about before is the notion of culture. I know it's been one of your top priorities. Would you talk a little bit about culture and what that means to you?

Brad Oddo:
Absolutely. When we first started the company, and I think I've even shared the notebook with you, one of the first things I created was a notebook that had this, "What we were going to be with Basys? What was our story going to be?" And the cover shows our top priority: it's culture.

I believe if a company has the right culture and lives up to those ideals, success will come. The right culture is going to be surrounding yourself with the right people, the right customers, the right vendors. Not just saying the right things, but actually doing the right things and having those results. So culture is, to me as CEO, the absolute top priority we have at Basys.

Alana Muller:
Yeah. Has that ever changed? I mean, it seems like that's where you began the company and that is what continues to fuel it.

Brad Oddo:
What’s funny is, in the original business plan, I had culture as my top priority. This goes 23... Well, I wrote the plan 24 years ago, and that absolutely has not changed.

Alana Muller:
Amazing. Well, and I know that you have... You talked already a little bit about it, but I want you to go a little bit deeper in terms of your team. What makes your team unique, especially in an industry with thousands of competitors? We all talk about those things that differentiate us, but what do you think about when you think about your own team?

Brad Oddo:
Our team is what makes the company. And whenever you're talking about a company, it's down to the individuals that you're working with. A company is a faceless entity, but the people, that is what really makes it special.

What's unique about our team is we basically have a “no jerks” policy. And everybody in our company, we get along. I actually like to look at our team, I prefer the title “coach” well above CEO because when you think about it, a CEO can win and the employees can lose. But a coach cannot win unless the team wins. So I really like the title of “coach.” And I do go by Coach Oddo around here. The people that we have on our team, we win together, we lose together. And the other thing I really like about a team is knowing that we're going to have different attributes, different temperaments, different talents, things that we bring to the table. And recognizing that those differences will make us stronger. So, having a diverse team, different backgrounds, different talents, absolutely. But all respecting each other in the different roles we do makes our company so strong.

So many of the companies I've been a part of in the past, you would have cultures where there would be, for example, an operations team and a sales team, and they looked at each other quite differently. We talk all the time here at Basys about, yes, we are wired a little differently. Someone who can make 80 cold calls a day and get one right and call that a win. It's very different than our accounting team who has to be pretty much all the time, and we have to appreciate the differences that people bring to the table.

One of the unique things that we did to promote the culture in our company is instead of having all of our senior managers and managers in the outside of the building on the corner offices, we have two rows of offices right down the center of our building, and that's where all of our managers are. So, our sales managers have the operations team on one side, and the sales team on the other, and they all work right in the middle. And I found that to really help with the communications, if you sit with both groups because there isn't an “us” or “them.” We're a team. We all win together, we all lose together.

Alana Muller:
Yeah. So, almost in some ways, it's the proximity that has really driven the success in terms of team communication and interaction, which I think it's really special, especially in these times where so many companies are struggling with what they're calling their back-to-work strategies. Are you back to work? Are people in the building? It sounds like they are.

Brad Oddo:
Yeah, for the most part, we're back in the building. It's one day work from home, four days in the office except for our programmers, our software engineers, they will be working from home a little bit more.

Alana Muller:
Got it. Yeah.

Brad Oddo:
And we have found that the collaboration of being here in person and not having to “Teams” somebody or email to get a response is very helpful. The biggest area I saw… I've been in the workforce for 30 plus years and I know a lot about what my job is, and I've been doing the same job for a long time. The real challenge I saw was the younger people that we were recruiting right out of school, this was their first work environment. And I can't imagine how stressful it would be during Covid or a completely remote work-from-home job where every time you had a question, you had to “Teams” somebody, or wait for your boss to respond. It's so much nicer to have a group of your whole team right around you and you get to hear what they're saying, learn from what they're doing, or “quick question” and you ask and you get instantaneous response.

So, I am a big fan of the work-at-the-office culture. Even during Covid, I might've been one of only two or three out of the whole company that still came into the office, just because I enjoy being here.

Alana Muller:
I get that. And I think it's one of the things that I've given a lot of thought to and continue to. It just seems that, as you said, especially young people today, there's something maybe missing for them in terms of career development because they don't have that proximity to colleagues. So, I admire the fact that you're doing that at Basys.

One of the things that strikes me, and just listening to how you talk about your team being a little different, I'm curious, is there some secret sauce or some special way that you are engaging in interviews or the hiring process, something different that you are doing that allows you to almost pre-anticipate those cultural aspects so that you know that the person's the right fit?

Brad Oddo:
That's always a challenge. And I think through the years, I've gotten better at this, and our team has gotten better at this. Part of the interview process has been very realistic with the job preview of what you're doing because you want to make sure, or I want to make sure, that we are the right fit for a potential employee.

So, when I'm interviewing someone, I talk about the good and the challenges that they're going to have working at Basys because I don't want to sell them on a job that they come here, it's like, "Oh, that's not what I thought it was." I want them to say, "Okay, I'm prepared, day one. I know what to expect." And then a month later, they're saying it's better than what you said. That is much more realistic to me.

When you talk about, “Is there a secret sauce?” There kind of is. A couple of things I'll talk about is, one, we have multiple levels of interviewing. The challenge I've seen is some corporations, they might take a month or two to get through all the levels of interviewing. By that time, a good candidate has probably already been hired. So, you still have to act fast and with a sense of urgency when a good candidate comes on board. And my goal would be to, if we have a resume from someone, to have a job offer within a week to a week and a half at the longest, yet still meet with several people in our company.

When we talk about what we're looking for, we are a big believer in predictive testing, checking out cognitive ability and checking out what they like to do. So we've all heard of the DiSC® profile, The Predictive Index, Culture Index™. There's so many different ones, and I think they all are... I don't even have a favorite. We have one that we use and I've used several through the years. But I think what's really important, and what I didn't realize at first is, as an employer, I want to set up my team for success. One of my favorite things is when somebody joins our company and they get promoted in a year or two or they grow or they say they love their job.

When we were hiring based on my gut feel, which is how we started things out, that was very different. I wanted to be successful for the individuals. And what I learned is, we were hiring people that had great personalities, no attention to detail, no patience and we were putting them in accounting. And they were unhappy because they didn't have patience, they didn't have detail and we were setting them up for failure.

The same thing with sales. We were hiring people that had great personalities, but tons of patience, tons of detail, and no assertiveness and we were setting them up for failure. So for me, predictive testing not only helps us know who's going to succeed, but also it's setting them up for the wins and allowing their management to say, "Hey, here's a blind spot we see in interviewing you. How would you address this concern?" Because a test says this, "How do you feel about that?"

And maybe there's another role in the company that it's a great candidate. I'm a big believer in: you find the right person, then you figure out what seat they're going to be on. And you might say, "Hey, The Predictive Index says you might be happier in a different role. What do you think?" So, I think the multiple interviews, realistic job preview and the The Predictive Index testing doing the Wonderlic and personality audits are very key and essential. And because we do that, last year we saw 85% employee retention of the employees that were with us in January were still with us at the end of the year.

Alana Muller:
Wow.

Brad Oddo:
Out of 200 people. I was thrilled to have that.

Alana Muller:
Yeah, that's excellent. I mean, I talked to so many clients about their struggles with retention. And not only is it expensive to lose somebody, it's expensive to hire somebody, right?

Brad Oddo:
Absolutely.

Alana Muller:
So, if you've gone to the trouble, you want to keep them. So, I think that's really impressive.

I want to shift gears just slightly because I like this notion about the people part of it. And as you know, my business is all about relationships, relationship building. And I know that relationships have played a role in your life, in your business. Talk to me a little bit about what kinds of people you engage with, what types of organizations you participate in, and how relationships have really been the driving factor behind your business success.

Brad Oddo:
I love that question because everywhere we go, people are dealing with people. And we were talking about… it's not really businesses dealing with businesses. You really need to get yourself out there and connect with other people. And those relationships that come in are very important.

One of the things that I would say is, we're a company that has tens of thousands of clients. So one client probably won't make or break our P&L. But what I really like doing, I'm a big believer in networking. But the reason I love networking is, I learned so much from talking to other leaders in the community. I've been on the advisory boards of roughly 30 companies, maybe even more, through the years, and I go there to learn.

I have an advisory board of my own. It's a wonderful group. I learn a ton from them. But where I learn the most is sitting and listening to other groups talk and just being out there, setting yourself up for success and networking.

And one of the things, I'll go off on a little tangent here. I've been to the networking events. I have gone to Chambers of Commerce. And I remember when I first started out going to the Chambers of Commerce and going, "Oh my gosh. I know nobody here. What am I doing?" and I'd be nervous. And I would literally have to just walk up to a group of three people and with a great opening line, I'm like, "Hi. I know nobody here. Will you guys please talk to me?" Every time I did that, it was the greatest reception and people would talk to you and you could start your networking because it's hard to break the ice.

Alana Muller:
Yes, it is.

Brad Oddo:
And it's kind of embarrassing, you walk there. And every time I would go, I'd go on the way home, I'd be like, "Man, that was fun. I enjoyed that."

Alana Muller:
Here's the thing, everybody feels that sense of awkwardness no matter what they tell you, or how many people they act like they know in the room.

Brad Oddo:
Absolutely.

Alana Muller:
Everybody has that sense of awkwardness. And you just sort of laid it out there with that question. I just love it that you're like, "I don't know anybody here. And I'd love... Will you be my friends?" And so, "Yes, we'd love to be your friends." And so you get a chuckle out of people. And so in some ways you get them laughing right away, and that is such a nice icebreaker. Fabulous.

Brad Oddo:
Yeah. It works.

Alana Muller:
Yeah. I love that. I love that. Well, okay, so great. And I agree with everything that you said in terms of the learning, the listening, the kind of putting yourself out there. Let's go a layer deeper in terms of relationships. Who's someone in your life who's had a meaningful impact on you? Whether that be career-wise, personally, both. And is there a particular piece of advice that was the best piece of advice that that person gave you or that you got from somebody?

Brad Oddo:
That's a great question. I am so lucky I have wonderful parents, I had wonderful grandparents and I learned a lot from them. The best business advice I've gotten would have to be my dad. My dad, when he got out of the military, started a facilities maintenance company, basically doing janitor service. I learned the work ethic of this man that whatever it took, he was going to succeed and be a winner and provide, and nothing would knock him down. He would work literally till two o'clock in the morning. He would work on weekends to make his business succeed.

One of the best pieces of advice I got from him, and it was countless times I remember this happening, we'd be sitting at home watching television. My dad would be getting ready for bed and then the phone would ring. This goes back in the days when there was actually a phone for the whole house. And we'd all hear it ring.

Alana Muller:
Exactly.

Brad Oddo:
For our younger listeners.

Alana Muller:
With a cord, right? A cord-

Brad Oddo:
Yes, with a cord.

Alana Muller:
... for those.

Brad Oddo:
That you'd stand around the corner so Mom couldn't hear what you were saying.

Alana Muller:
Yeah. Exactly. Little did you know she was in her bedroom on the other line listening in, right?

Brad Oddo:
Right. Exactly. Oh, I wish I could do that still. And he would get the call. It would basically be a janitor in charge of the night. And I remember my dad would get dressed and he would always say the same thing: “It's a lot easier to keep a client than to go find a new one.” And they would go, my dad, and he'd get back 2:00, 3:00, 4:00 in the morning, whatever time, and he would go pull janitor's service in the middle of the night so that way that client had service.

And I actually remember one time as a kid, it was on a Christmas Eve, and the entire crew did not show and my dad got the call. It was the old Yellow Pages building, the Old Mass building and the whole crew didn't show. So we spent our Christmas Eve, my mom and I, my two older brothers and my grandfather, we went and cleaned a building. And that's the work ethic that I learned from my dad.

So, the best piece of advice I would have for anybody, it's a lot easier to keep a client than to go find a new one.

Alana Muller:
Oh, that's so good.

Brad Oddo:
Once you get them on board, do whatever it takes to keep them. And I'm very proud of that fact because Basys has the highest client retention I've ever seen in our industry. We have the retention that's off the hook compared to most of our competitors. And our net promoter score in an industry where a large portion of our competitors have negative net promoter scores, we average over a 75.

Alana Muller:
Oh my gosh, that's amazing. You don't hear that honestly in any industry. So, that's remarkable. Congratulations.

Brad Oddo:
Yeah. Last month we actually had an 83, which set a record for us for a net promoter score.

Alana Muller:
Congratulations.

Brad Oddo:
We're in a tough industry, so I was very proud of our team because that is absolutely our team making things happen and us having the absolute right people.

And I want to go back. When we were talking about our team and what makes us special, there's one more thing I wanted to add. It's flexibility and listening to the team and doing what they need. So when we're talking about the work from home and remote, if somebody has a baseball game for their kids or a volleyball game for their daughter, whatever it is, we work around that. And I think, as employers today, that that is every bit as important as work from home, to let parents or children take care of a parent that needs it or a friend that needs help. We absolutely have to be flexible. And that's one of the things I did not get to, so bouncing back to that subject.

Alana Muller:
Well, I'm so glad you came back to it. You nailed it. I mean, even going back to our conversation about the lost art of being together in an office and how important we both agreed that that is. I think your comment about flexibility, to me, that is actually what this current generation is asking for, is flexibility as opposed to anything else. I actually think people want to be together. They may tell you they want to work from home, they may tell you that they don't want to be in an office environment. I have a feeling, at least maybe I'm projecting, but I think it's more that people want that flexibility. It's not that they don't want to be with others. They just want to be able to live their lives in a way that in some ways can marry both their personal needs and requirements with their work life. And so I think it's really special that you allow your team that opportunity.

Brad Oddo:
Absolutely. If we treat our team right, if we even treat our vendors right, which sometimes can be a challenge, but I want to be treated right as a vendor, but if we treat others right, then they're going to treat our clients right and it works out wonderfully. So yeah, I agree with you on this.

Alana Muller:
Absolutely. We're talking about all these positive things. You and I both know that in business we often face challenges. So, if you'd be willing, I'd love to ask you about what's one of the biggest obstacles that you've faced and how were you able to overcome the obstacle and emerge as a stronger leader? And then going further, what advice would you have for others who face similar challenges?

Brad Oddo:
One of the largest obstacles we've ever faced — Covid was an absolute challenge for us. As you can imagine, being in the payments industry, credit card processing, our clients really suffered. I mean, someone who owned a restaurant, a hotel, retail stores… our clients were suffering. That was very difficult for us, too. And I mean, virtually all of us were really challenged during Covid. And it was a difficult time for us.

One of the things that we learned is working with our team, because that gave us time to concentrate. And unfortunately, it was one of the worst days I can ever think of, is we actually had to do layoffs in our company. It's the only time we've ever had to do a layoff. We lost some great people in that mix because it was very unfortunate. But one of the things that we learned is after doing that, for the most part, our top performers, we did everything we could to keep. And like I said, there were some good people in the mix that we also had lost in the layoffs. It was a very unfortunate situation. And you said, we were going to talk about something rough. This is a difficult thing to talk about because it's not something that CEO, anybody, wants to do this.

But one of the things we learned is in the departments that we kept going, we tried to keep the absolute best of our team, and we did stack ranking. And we ended up having about a 25% reduction in staff overnight because we needed to stay alive. The most amazing thing happened. Our net promoter score skyrocketed overnight. Our client retention skyrocketed. Most amazingly, our overtime went down with 25% fewer employees.

Alana Muller:
Wow.

Brad Oddo:
And it really does show something that I've learned through the years. And it's difficult, because I always want to coach people up. I always want to give people that second chance, that third chance, and help them to succeed. And I've learned through the years that sometimes if somebody is struggling, they also might be better off working somewhere else. Sometimes it's best for both parties.

So, really what I learned with that is by having the best employees and the best team members, the best thing I can do for a great employee, surround them with other great employees, which brings up that very, very difficult thing that sometimes you have to let go of your C players or the players that aren't quite making it because other people are having to pick up their work or they're bringing down the team. So going back to I'd rather be called a coach than a CEO, the whole team wins and the whole team loses together.

It was an amazing thing when I realized that with fewer people, all of our metrics went up in every way. So now we're very selective and we work very hard to coach people to have them performing where they are. And I think one of the keys is to have very clear metrics of, "This is what is an acceptable goal. Here's what we expect you to achieve." And that way they see it. I don't want there to be any surprises.

So, you ask for a difficult conversation. That's one of the most difficult, is to coach somebody out of the company. But I am an absolute believer that through that very rough time, I learned a lesson that surrounding my team with other great players only makes those great players play their game even better.

Alana Muller:
I think you're right. You and I had talked sort of offline about failure. Would you maybe talk a little bit about your perspective on failure?

Brad Oddo:
Yeah.

Alana Muller:
Because I think talking about this idea of laying people off, I mean, how painful in so many ways, especially for the senior-most leader, because you know that you're dealing with human lives. And yet, you didn't see that as a failure. You really found it ultimately as an opportunity and really an opportunity for growth for your company. So, would you talk a little bit about your perspective on failure?

Brad Oddo:
Yeah. Actually, I don't believe I've ever failed. I've made lots of mistakes. I'll probably make half a dozen mistakes just in this podcast. But I really don't believe in failure because as long as I learn from a mistake… if I go do a presentation, I'm trying to get a client and I don't win it, if I don't learn anything, that would be a failure. But if I sit there after every call, I ask myself, "What did I do right? What could I have done better? And what is my next step?" And that might be with the client, or if the client said, “no,” that next step is going to be, how do I make myself better? This presentation better? Our company better? I don't fail as long as I learn. I'm a big believer in whatever I tell myself is going to happen.

I read a book years ago, I wish I could remember the name of it. And it basically was saying, "Whatever you tell yourself today is what you will become tomorrow." I'm a huge believer in that. So failure, I don't believe in it. I don't fail. I do make a lot of mistakes, but I learned from them and I come out stronger the next day.

Alana Muller:
Love it. Love it. Maybe switching gears a bit, maybe on the other end of that spectrum, is there something that you're working on now that you're especially excited about? And after 23 years in business, I'm curious to know, is there some special motivation or something that's keeping you excited?

Brad Oddo:
I love what I do. It is amazing. I love the challenge of it. My motivation has really changed. As you get older, you want to help out other people. When I was younger, and I can't speak for all young people, but when I was younger, I was really trying to succeed for myself and really trying to hit those goals and those objectives. And as I've gotten older, I really believe that now I'm so blessed and so lucky to be in a position where I can help others out. So, now when I am lucky enough to run an organization like Basys, and I bring on young talent right out of school or a talented person that this might be their last job and they're wanting to retire, if I can make... And I don't mean this egotistically at all, but if I, through the company, can make their life better by them having a job that they enjoy, what a huge win.

My motivation has really changed through the years from… Because I was in debt for the first 10 years of being in business. So my sole focus was, "I got to get out of debt. I owe people money. I got to make money." Now Basys is profitable. We have zero debt. And now it's like, "Okay, let's win together. Let's bring everyone together. Let's win." And when people get promotions, they enjoy their job, they tell me they love it, that's my motivator now. And that's what I really enjoy doing, is coming to work.

I don't care about being the biggest. I talked about us being one of the 20 largest in the country for card-not-present transactions. That's great. But really, what's being the absolute best, that's my motivator now. And I absolutely love working with my team and what we've created.

Alana Muller:
Love that. Love that. As we sort of wrap up our conversation, I've shared with you that there's one question I ask every guest and I'd like to ask you. So, the question is, if you could meet with one person living, not living, fictional or non-fictional, who would it be and why?

Brad Oddo:
Fictional. It was interesting. I've got a couple. The first one would be my grandparents. Just, I miss them and would love to talk to them. But I'm going to answer this with a fun answer.

I would go find 18-, 19-year-old Brad and go talk to him. And I would love to give him the advice that I would love to give my sons now, but they've got to learn for themselves. And the advice would be, “You are going to get knocked down. They're going to be a lot of challenges. Get back up. It's going to be okay.”

And the other advice I would really love to give myself when I was younger, is to find my purpose sooner. I'm at a stage in life where I believe God put me here to make the world a better place. And again, I don't say that with any ego. I just think that's all of our purpose, or whatever entity you believe in. If we make each other's lives happier and better no matter what, that to me is a win. And I wish I could have found that vision at a much younger age to say, "Hey, lift everyone up. A rising tide lifts all boats. Help everybody out along the way. And you're going to get kicked. You're going to get knocked down. Just bounce right back up. It's going to be okay, buddy."

So yeah, could I go talk to myself and give myself some advice? Is that a good fictional character? Alana Muller: It's a great choice. It's a great choice. Well, I just love it. And I have to tell you, you have such a positive, upbeat disposition, so you're a pleasure to work with and I'm just so glad to have had you on the program. So, I'm going to call you Coach Brad Oddo, thank you so much for being on Enterprise.ing podcast. Tell us where our listeners can go to learn more about you and about Basys.

Brad Oddo:
Wonderful. You can go to betterisbetter.com and that will bring you to the Basys website. It's a place to go, because as I talked about, it's going to be the best company, which is judged by both our teammates and our clients. It's not going to be the biggest company necessarily, but it's going to be the best. It's going to be who our clients decide to go with. So betterisbetter.com and you can learn all about Basys.

Alana Muller:
Fabulous. Brad Oddo from Basys, thanks so much for being on Enterprise.ing podcast.

Brad Oddo:
Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

Alana Muller:
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