Why create an unusual culture?
We needed an unusual culture to be able to achieve our business objectives. We wanted to make a dent in the banking software industry and we weren't going to do that by following the well-trodden path of others and their corporate culture.
The core of our culture is strengths based operations that assess individual skills and strengths before putting together teams that achieve peak performance and are fully engaged with their work and their clients, whether internal or external.
We embrace diversity in thought, attitude and culture. Insight, informed opinion and perspective are formed from debate that comes from respect, an open and honest environment where issues are confronted and resolved in a culture free from blame.
Work is a huge part of our lives and its challenges mean that sometimes it is difficult and stressful, so it had better be an environment that allows you to have fun, be extended, be challenged and learn - with the ultimate outcome being that your contribution is valued by your teammates and your clients.
We also decided to set up our operating structure to reflect our desire to be different. For example, we have a communications group that offers personal development rather than the traditional HR and is building our corporate university, an innovation team that looks at bringing to light new ideas about technology, business process and product functionality and a creative design team that uses its skills across all of our customer touch points, looking to simplify and enhance the user experience at every level and create real, human engagement with our software.
If we want to make a dent in our industry then we can't be anything other than different.