At Corelation, Inc., a company that delivers comprehensive software to credit unions across the country, things get spicy — in capital letters.
SPICY is an acronym for the company’s leadership tenets, calling on employees to be: ive. ionate. Involved. Creative.
Yourself.
Corporate culture is vital to CEO Theresa Benavidez and Corelation, whose software system enables credit unions to deliver virtually all of their day-to-day functions, such as loans, front teller lines and back office services.
Benavidez is the 2020 winner of the Top Workplaces leadership award for midsized companies in San Diego County.
She was one of three people who launched Corelation in 2009. Now, the company with offices in Liberty Station has 247 employees and a client list of 147. And growth has continued this year, despite an economy hobbled by COVID-19.
This interview has been condensed for space and clarity.
Q. What’s your leadership philosophy?
A. I provide framework and direction, and then I get out of the way. When we started, there were just three of us. Then we hand-picked people that we knew and worked with. So organically, we kind of created this culture that is extremely collaborative. The last thing I want to be is a micromanager.
Q. Why?
A. Because people can’t learn and grow if you’re telling them what to do every day and how to do it. I’ve done many of the jobs of the people that are working for me now. So I can see when they’re about to take the wrong turn in the road and I’ll nudge them a bit. But for me to walk in and say to my director of conversion services that I don’t think you should be doing it that way, you should be doing it this way — well, 15 years ago that might have been the best way to do it, but today it may not be.
Q. With COVID-19, are some employees working at Liberty Station or is everyone working from home?
A. We have 33,000 square feet of beautiful office space and we have 26,000 that’s under construction for expansion that is empty. We walked out of our office, I believe it was March 19, and we haven’t been back, except for occasional meetings.
I miss being able to walk by and have a conversation with people. I’m hoping they all have a comfortable place to work — not in a closet or having to sit on the couch. Those things concern me but I think that would concern any leader.
Our team has been incredible. We truly haven’t missed a beat. During COVID, we’ve converted eight or nine credit unions through remote . We have hired roughly 40 people. So we’re pretty busy.
Q. Is business up or down since March?
A. We’re up, but I can’t tell you exactly how much because I’m not really sure. Let me tell you this — our goal for 2020 was to sell 30 new systems and we’ve done that. That’s up from 24 or 25 last year.
Q. Is SPICY important because it sets the tone for the culture of your company?
A. The culture was set long before SPICY. The culture is probably more our core values, which we review with all our new hires. In the wheel of our core values, the center of everything is integrity.
Q. Why is integrity so important?
A. Because if you don’t have integrity, you aren’t honest, you aren’t ionate, you aren’t ive. You aren’t any of those things.
