Trish Cox of Galileo On 5 Things You Need To Succeed In The Modern World Of Finance & Fintech
An Interview With Jason Hartman
Surround yourself with great people. No one person can do it all or know it all. The best businesses I see bring a mix of experiences to their team. Businesses, technology, and industries are tackling problems in new and creative ways, which highlights the need to curate diverse, well-rounded teams made up of individuals with complementary skill sets.
As part of my series about the “How to Navigate and Succeed in the Modern World of Finance”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Trish Cox, Galileo.
As head of operations at Galileo, Trish Cox oversees the company’s daily business activities and provides operational leadership across multiple markets, including customer and client experience and support, relationship and project management, chargeback/disputes and fraud.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory” and how you got started?
Absolutely! I attended Virginia Tech, where I earned both a BS in Marketing and an MBA. Shortly after, I began working at American Management Systems and had the opportunity to attend Harvard University’s General Management Program. I loved the opportunity to pair continuous education and on-the-job experience, something I’ve carried through my career to keep my business skills sharp. After the program, I accepted a job at Charles Schwab, where I spent over 15 years in various senior executive roles including two separate chief operating officer stints, for Schwab Retirement Services and Schwab Advisor Services. That is where I began solidifying my leadership style to prioritize client relationship building and customer experience. After Schwab, I spent a few years as head of service experience at Anthem, where I managed a nearly $1B budget and 10,000 associates, as well as led key business operations.
Just prior to joining Galileo in August 2020, I served as chief operating officer for Population Health at WellCare Health Plans, which was acquired by Centene in 2019. The move from insurance to fintech was natural and continues to provide me with the exciting opportunity to drive innovation around the client experience in financial services. The number one priority in my role is to optimize Galileo’s relationship with our clients and instill the understanding that collaboration plays a key role when curating and maintaining our relationships with partners around the globe. It’s always been a privilege to have a hand in developing solutions and processes that make people’s lives easier, especially when it comes to their money.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or “take aways” you learned from that?
Years ago, while I was getting my footing at the executive level, I will always remember giving a big presentation at a board meeting. Everything was going really well until I incorrectly said the name of a board member at the end of the presentation. I remember being absolutely mortified at first, and I was so afraid of what the board member was going to say to me (or about me to other board members and colleagues). However, instead of pushing the mistake to the side and pretending it never happened, I owned it and pulled him aside later to apologize personally, face-to-face. Addressing our mistakes is an important part of building client relationships. It shows our humility and willingness to take responsibility.
The board member was a great sport and we were able to laugh about it — which saved me some sleepless nights agonizing over the blunder! It’s important to remember — especially in the professional world — that we’re all human, and humans are allowed to make mistakes.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think they will help people?
One of my proudest achievements at Galileo to-date has been implementing Galileo’s “Voice of the Customer” program. Prior to joining the team, Galileo had no formal way to collect, analyze and react to client feedback. It became my first priority to change this, as client feedback is the key to building and growing the company’s partnerships. By continually understanding customer pain points, I’m then able to develop and collaborate on strategies to solve those issues, helping to grow transparency, collaboration, and satisfaction in all our client relationships.
We are reimagining how our customers work with us — it’s all about being easy to do business with. As an example, one goal of the project is for the client to be able to give us a single work request/inquiry, which we can then assign to the appropriate department based on what’s needed behind the scenes. The request will then be automatically routed to where it needs to be worked on, when it needs to be worked on, all while providing clients with a much easier process and a more transparent understanding of how their case is being handled. It’s a win-win for both our clients and for Galileo as a business, and my team and I are very excited about moving the project forward.
Thank you for that. Let’s now shift to the central focus of our discussion. Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. Can you tell us about the main purpose — or goal — of your company?
Galileo partners with innovators, builders and business to better serve the fintech ecosystem. Financial solutions are not one-size-fits-all, and businesses must understand the community they are serving to offer the best product or services. Our platform, flexible APIs, value-added services and direct connections to the financial services ecosystem enable world-leading fintechs and established brands across industries to create the next generation of financial services products that exceed customer expectations and help businesses scale across sectors.
A great example of our purpose-driven business in action is our recent strategic partnership with Mastercard to accelerate digital transformation and improve access to financial opportunities for the underserved in Latin America and Caribbean. Alongside Mastercard, we’re enabling Latin American fintechs and issuers to build and launch digital financial services using our combined capabilities and infrastructure to help their fintech customers.
Do you have a “number one principle” that guides you through the ups and downs of running operations for a fintech company?
Yes! While it may be cliché, understanding your customer is key. Simply put, if you’re not listening to your customers, you’re not going to succeed long-term. You can offer the best product at the best price, but if you ignore what your users, partners or clients have to say, their needs will likely be better met elsewhere.
And customer preferences evolve, so it’s important to anticipate what will set you apart from the competition in the future. This can only be accomplished if you have built two-way communication with your customers to stay in tune with their current and future needs.
If a fellow business leader asked you for advice about how to best serve customers in the fintech and finance industry, what would you tell them?
Like the previous question, business leaders must listen and adapt to their customers. In any industry ― and no matter who you are serving ― it all comes down to hearing what the customer has to say and then doing your best to make it happen, or make it happen better than your competition. Whether you’re a fintech that deals with account holders or a company that works with corporate clients, you must anticipate and innovate ahead of the curve to maintain market share and remain as your customer’s preferred vendor.
What measures do you use to determine the value of your team’s work? What advice would you give to other leaders about how to get an accurate evaluation of their efforts?
My team’s role focuses on customer and client experience and support. To evaluate our efforts, we naturally must look at operating metrics around client growth and retention.
Each one of my departments and groups manages different facets of Galileo’s operations, and so I have a dashboard of metrics set up and tailored for each. I review my team’s work holistically and separately on a periodic basis to find key trends, trajectories, and areas to create business efficiencies. But like my human-first approach with clients, I also prioritize my team members’ professional growth and make the time to give them the advice and tools they need to succeed both at Galileo and beyond.
What would you advise to a fellow business leader who initially drove years of successive growth, but has now reached a standstill? From your experience, do you have any general advice about how to boost growth and “restart their engines”?
I always come back to client satisfaction and the voice of the customer. The competitive landscape, especially in fintech, changes quickly. Pleased customers yesterday aren’t necessarily going to be equally pleased tomorrow. If your business is reaching a standstill, it may be time to reconnect with your customers to hear more about what’s working and where their needs may have changed. Business leaders must also continue to look at the macro and competitive environments to stay apprised of digital transformation trends, customer preferences and industry innovations that could be impeding on your market share.
Lastly, it’s important to understand the strengths and passions of your team. A team should have a healthy variety of strengths and celebrate them together, so everyone understands what they’re bringing to the party.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen other fintechs or financial services companies make? What should one keep in mind to avoid those mistakes?
Understanding “unit and variable economics” has helped me make strategic recommendations throughout my career. This means thinking with the end in mind, as what may work in one economic cycle may not work in another.
While most fintechs or financial services companies are looking to solve a specific problem for a specific audience, their business model may work in one period of time and then may degrade in a different operating climate. I’d recommend always making sure that the business model is profitable, forward-thinking, and sustainable through many cycles.
Ok, here is the main question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to succeed in the modern fintech and finance industry? Please share a story or an example for each.
Be curious, listen and keep learning. As I’ve had experience working in multiple industries, from financial services to healthcare, I’ve learned there are so many similarities and ways to apply learnings in one area to another. In many situations, a front-line associate or a client have provided the best ideas to make things better. It comes down to asking questions and not being afraid of hearing feedback. I listened to a call once where we learned that a process was making it difficult for clients to deposit money by imposing daily limits. While the security parameters made sense, we recognized that we needed to update our process to enable a seamless payment experience for our clients.
Model through different market conditions. Business leaders must understand their business model through different economic cycles, be prepared to handle the peaks and the troughs, and invest in both growth and efficiency. To help prepare, you must ensure you know what’s truly variable in your model so you can react quickly. Down markets are never fun, but it’s equally important to have discipline in high-growth markets as well to be truly set up for success.
Choose partners that can grow with you. It can be easy to make short-term decisions based on pricing or the fastest path, but make sure you pick partners and technology that can grow and scale with you. When I first started at Galileo, we were making a few short-term decisions that made it very tough to untangle later. At the time, I learned quickly that adequate time wasn’t spent in the upfront stages to ask the right questions, negotiate the best terms, and help future-proof the business.
Know what makes you different. Competition is fierce in the fintech market, so it’s critical to know what makes you different and stay true to your principles. The best businesses stay laser-focused on what makes them special. For me and my team at Galileo, that is prioritizing our customers’ voices and adapting our products or processes to grow with their needs. Sometimes, that may mean saying no, but leaders must not try to be all things to all people.
Surround yourself with great people. No one person can do it all or know it all. The best businesses I see bring a mix of experiences to their team. Businesses, technology, and industries are tackling problems in new and creative ways, which highlights the need to curate diverse, well-rounded teams made up of individuals with complementary skill sets.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
We reference purpose-driven businesses but should also recognize purpose-driven people. Earlier in my career, I read an HBR article on “The Making of a Corporate Athlete” that has stuck with me to this day. The article was all about the corporate desire to sustain high performance while encountering increasing pressures and rapid changes. Regardless of your career level, I’d encourage my colleagues to stay true to themselves, their values, and their purpose to keep them focused on their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Be kind every day, as you never know what an impact you can have. Kindness comes in all shapes and sizes, from big and small deeds. Taking the time to listen, acknowledge and appreciate someone can make all the difference. This advice rings true in personal and professional settings.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Follow along with exciting announcements from Galileo in our newsroom, and feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trish-cox-79b7b53/
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
