Name: New Synchrony CEO: “We are a digital company today”
Uploaded: 2021-06-22
Duration: 9 min 12 s
Description: Brian Doubles tells us how his company has transformed the way consumers spend their money.

Brian Doubles tells us how his company has transformed the way consumers spend their money.

New Synchrony CEO: “We are a digital company today”

Brian Doubles - President & CEO Synchrony 

Leadership

brian, thank you so much for joining us to talk about your plans for Synchrony. You know, it's amazing how much your company has changed since the days when Synchrony had a handful of retail credit card partners like Gap and lows and Paypal and now you have this vast network and your partners with companies like Verizon, Venmo, Walgreens and you've even gotten into the pet insurance business. Tell us, how would you describe Synchrony today? What is the company all about? Yeah. And thanks susie for having me today. You know, it really is a different company today than it was eight years ago when we took the company public. You know, there's different partners today as you mentioned with Venmo and Verizon and Paypal and Walgreens. But even more than that, we're in very different products today than we were. We have a directive, consumer bank that does high yield savings and cds. We've got a Synchrony Mastercard, a general purpose card with our brand. We do pet insurance. As you mentioned, We have home and auto networks, we do financing in the health and wellness space. We have a big digital platform today. We do so much more in customer experience and data analytics than we did eight years ago. It really is a fundamentally different business and I think that's really setting us up for growth into the future. And the other big changes that you're the new Ceo, you took over from Margaret keane as CEO in april. So just a few months ago, what are you picturing of the future synchrony? Where do you want to take the company? A ton of opportunity in the health and wellness space. We just started engaging with larger health systems like Cleveland clinic and Kaiser Permanente. So that's nice. That's a nice growth adjacency for us to think about the digital space with new programs like Venmo and Verizon. Really exciting new programs we just recently launched those last year and we're doing really good performance there. So it's a combination of large partner programs, which will continue to be a big part of the business, but also diversifying into all those other products that I mentioned as you know, this pandemic was a learning experience for all sorts of businesses. What did you learn about your customers during the pandemic when it comes to, you know how maybe they've changed their preferences for spending or borrowing or the way they want to make their purchases? Not surprisingly, we saw them move more towards digital. You know, we heard from our partners early on as they started to close their stores, they said, hey look, we really need to accelerate our digital transformation. We need to provide financing online where maybe it wasn't a top five priorities before the pandemic, it became at the very top of the list. And so we supported our partners as they tried to figure out, you know, how are consumers going to shop differently, what are they gonna do? Contact list became uh table stakes, you know, as we move through the pandemic, Getting our financing options embedded throughout the digital shopping journey became really critical, so I couldn't be prouder of our team and how they supported our partners and really help them transform. Well. Following up on that, you told investors recently that you want Synchrony to become a digital technology business. What exactly does that mean? We are a digital company today and I think about how we support our partners If if you're 100% digital like an Amazon or a papal er them though, we're supporting you through a number of different ways in terms of how we integrate into your app or your environment. So if you're a more traditional retailer, uh everything we're doing for, you tend to be digital as well. How we're servicing your customers, how we're allowing them to apply for credit, even if its in store, if you go back five years ago, used to fill out a paper application to apply for credit. Now you're doing it on your phone, you're scanning a QR code, the application pops up, you get a digital card that sits on your phone and you can and you can pay right there in the store. So we're a big part of how our partners are transforming themselves digitally brian. I'd like to talk to you a little bit about this whole ongoing debate about the return to the office post pandemic. You've already announced that synchrony us workers can continue to work remotely on a permanent basis. Tell us about your process about deciding that new policy. We listen to our employees. I think that was a big thing early on in the pandemic. I would say one we were surprised at how effective we could work virtually. We did a lot of surveys of our employees. I did a lot of round tables and town halls. And one thing that they told us almost across the board was that they wanted a more flexible work arrangements that the pandemic showed them that they could be effective working from home now. Certainly we had some employees said they couldn't wait to get back to the office and we're accommodating that as well. So this new flexible way of working. I think it's just so important in order for us to attract and retain the best talent. Well, I'm sure you've seen all these surveys with Ceos on this topic and the majority of them have said that it's time for employees to return to the office in person. And that they say that there are shortcomings to the virtual office even though it was amazing during the pandemic. But now that we're sort of going back to normal, uh it could hurt innovation. What are your thoughts on those kind of comments? Like I think there are some things that are better in person. No doubt. I think where you need real collaboration with a group innovation is a good example. I think that is something that is that is better in person. I think when you're on boarding to employees and they're getting to know the culture of the company. I think that's better in person. Uh but not everything needs to be in person. I think that's what we realized and our employees told us that they wanted a more flexible work arrangement. And if we're not going to give it to him, someone else will, I do think this is so important for us to be able to attract and retain talent. It's just something we're going to we're going to embrace, we're going to figure it out as a company. Well, I mean, this whole idea of keeping a virtual office is a huge experiment. What do you think is the most important thing that you need to do to succeed at this? I think the most important thing is to do it in a way that is really inclusive so that if you're in the office, you feel included. But if you're on video or on the phone, you feel included in the meeting and the collaboration. I think we want everybody to feel like they're on uh, on equal footing. And I think that's so important and that's what we're trying to achieve right now is we do some pilots to bring employees back into the office. I think doing it in a way that is really inclusive where employees are able to contribute at the same level that they were before is really important to making this a success. I want to pick up on something you said earlier about this whole war on talent because many Ceos have brought this up that this whole debate about which is the right way to go, could result in competitors coming and picking off some of your best people because they're in the office, so they're not in the office. Um, what do you have to do to keep your best employees so that they don't leave flexibility is a currency. Now when we announced our policy, we actually had inbound interest from prospective employees who called us and said, Hey look, we love your announcement. My company is actually forcing me to go back five days a week in person in the office with the commute and the whole thing. And we'd like to understand what opportunities are available at synchrony. I think that's a great proof point in terms of being able to attract new talent into the business. So brian, I want to talk a little bit about you, You've been working at Synchrony for more than a decade and you've held so many senior leadership positions before taking over as Ceo and you worked so closely with Margaret keane over all those years. And I understand that um, she's going to continue to be involved at Synchrony as the company's new executive chair. So I'm just wondering is there one piece of advice or an important leadership lesson that she told you over the years and how might that guide you as the new Ceo? You know, one of the things that sticks out for me is we were going through our transition, as she said, being the Ceo is a lonely job and she said, you're going to have to find people that will tell you what's really going on because we're going to get a lot of good information from people. But finding the individuals who will tell you what's really going on inside the company that will share bad news with you, not just good news is really important. So she encouraged me to seek out those individuals and really use them To pressure test ideas and to get a real sense for what's going on the company. I think that was just great advice. I've actually used it quite a bit in my 1st 60 days.