With the digital demand and work from home conditions, the pandemic has resulted in the accelerated growth of the FinTech industry. To provide seamless experiences to the customers, many leaders in the finance industry came forward with new or revised business ideas, modern solutions, ground-breaking technologies, and robust leadership skills. Amongst those leaders, one such leader is Brandon Mays, the President and Chief Financial Officer at Atlas Credit Company (ACC) since Feb. 2011.
We, at CIO Look, caught up with Brandon to unveil his journey and how ACC has grown into one of the most reputable and responsible consumer lenders in the state of Texas.
About the Company
ACC is assisting families financially since 1968. The company prides itself on offering some of the best loans for bad credit. When customers apply for one of their personal loans, it does not limit approval to their credit score. It considers all the qualifications of customers so that it can offer them a repayment plan that works for their budget. Its personal loans are designed to meet the individual financial needs of its customers. The company prides itself on providing excellent customer service.
Continuing Moving Forward
Talking about the challenges, Brandon mentions one of the primary challenges faced by ACC has always been the dichotomy between its legacy processes and its new, cutting-edge processes. It began significant expansion efforts in 2014, and from those efforts, it drove innovation for its processes and underlying technology. Since then, its evolution through expansion has never stopped, and it continues to move forward.
It has constant growing pains, stumbling product launches, and unforeseen issues that arise. But it keeps moving forward as a company and keeps exceeding the expectations of its customers every day.
Brandon asserts, “One of the biggest keys to our success is that we keep our people constantly engaged on new ideas, where we are on progress of current projects and what we have coming down the road. That engagement keeps our people motivated and excited for what is yet to come.”
Servant Leadership
The success of any organization depends on the success and satisfaction of its employees and its customers. Happy employees are able to function more efficiently and are enthusiastic about serving the customers of the organization. Servant leadership in the company plays an important role in ensuring the success and satisfaction of the employees and customers. Brandon Mays leads with servant-style leadership at ACC to create successful employees and happy customers.
Enabling People to Grow with Financial Knowledge
Moreover, Brandon believes that the largest gap that exists for clients lies within a lack of financial literacy. One project ACC has in the works is a financial literacy platform separate from its business operations that will serve as a tool for everyone who wants to take advantage of the various seminars and discussions to deepen their financial knowledge. This goes back to one of the company’s core beliefs of enabling people to grow once they connect with ACC.
Creating Meaningful Results
Impactful leadership to Brandon is when his actions create meaningful results in ACC’s employees and its customers. Delivering value that translates into visible results for both its employees and customers is what tells him that they are making a difference that will last far beyond this quarter’s profit projections.
Having Hunger for More
We asked Brandon about what essential traits entrepreneurs should possess to thrive in the present-day cutthroat business ecosystem, to which he said, “A hunger for more and the ability to execute that hunger. So many entrepreneurs lack one or the other of these skills, and these are the most critical. The hunger for more drives innovation, expansion, new markets, new products.”
He also opines that the ability to execute things brings life to your aspirations. He has seen too many executives who have great ideas but are not able to bring them to life. While, he has also seen the executives with a great ability to execute but have no creative passion to leverage.
In his opinion, the ability to execute and having a creative passion to leverage are the most important traits for entrepreneurs. He considers that these traits must be present and work in tandem with one another. Then truly great things start happening.
Providing More Seamless Product Experience for Consumers
ACC began as a small, locally-owned institution, and it now serves customers across multiple states across the country. With that solid foundation, Brandon believes ACC is positioned appropriately to launch its business model internationally, beginning with a few strategic marketplaces and expanded product lines across all market fronts. To successfully accomplish that scale, it plans to continue enhancing its AI underwriting strategy to provide consumers with a more seamless product experience.