Melissa Smith: Like a Boss, Part 1

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to run a successful company and the journey to that position? That is the crux of “Like a Boss,” a live one-on-one forum where business leaders share their insights with Portland Press Herald CEO and Publisher CEO Lisa DeSisto. WEX President and CEO Melissa Smith recently sat down with Lisa, and a group of more than 100 Maine business leaders, to talk business, as well as the path that brought her to WEX. In this first installation, we’ll share some of her responses to questions about WEX.

How did you get to WEX?

I was at an event and met someone who worked at WEX. He asked if I’d be willing to come in and talk, and I came in and met with then-CEO, Paul Walsh. I remember he said that WEX is the kind of place where an individual can make a difference, where growth is going to create future opportunities, and your work will be rewarded. A bunch of things he said connected with me. I thought if I stayed in public accounting, I’d largely be doing the same kinds of things for the rest of my career. The idea of working in a business was appealing, and I liked the idea of having results that would be tangible.

At that time, 20 years ago, we had $64 million in revenue and it’s been quite the journey since. My first job at WEX was as senior financial analyst, and I had eight or nine jobs before becoming CEO. Titles didn’t mean anything to me, I’d do whatever needed to be done at any given point in time. I became controller, then CFO in 2001 at a time when we were owned by a Fortune 50 conglomerate – which was interesting for me as it was run by some gifted financial people and I had the chance to learn from them.

Tell us about WEX expansion

One of the great things about our business has been the core of what we do, which is the fleet card. This has become much more sophisticated over the years – we now provide a lot of data around the sale. We earn revenue on sales as people fuel, and that part of the business is exposed to fuel prices. So, as we‘ve expanded the fleet business, we’ve expanded that exposure.

As we diversified, we did it for a couple of reasons. We stood back and said, at the core, what are we good at? The answer was simplifying complex payment environments. So as we added new lines of business outside of fleet cards, we created a buffer around the fuel price exposure, and that was strategically important to us.

We bought a healthcare business three years ago. If you have an HSA card, it’s the technology that powers that card to make sure it’s used just for qualified transactions. Our travel business is perhaps the most relatable for people. If you go online and book a hotel room with Expedia or Priceline and use your credit card, we pay those hotels on behalf of the online travel agencies. It’s all very much behind the scenes. Our partners pick us because we make transactions occur in a very seamless manner and have the reconciliations happen in their general ledger account in a way that works for them.

How did you build your leadership team?

One of the things I feel strongly about is that you hire people who are different. I love people who push me, so I tend to hire people who are highly competent. There’s also the likeability factor – I want to like them, and I think that’s important in a culture based on relationships. People can be really good at what they do without having a huge ego.

If you look at my staff, one-third has been promoted within WEX, another third has come from acquisitions, and the final third are outside hires. I’ve intentionally hired people with global experience – something that people growing up from within the company don’t have. If you came from an acquisition, that helps keep the connection to employees of that company. These folks also are really good thinking about from things from an entrepreneurial perspective because they are from smaller companies that had to grow fast and without a lot.

How do you keep 2,700 employees in 11 countries connected?

It’s actually hard keeping people in sync in different geographies, time zones and languages. This week is great example –160 of top leaders came to Maine for a meeting that included working group sessions talking about what, as a company, we want to do strategically. We talk about how we need to message that and if there are any parts people don’t understand. That group of leaders connects with the rest of the company, so if we can keep them aligned and solid, it really trickles down. We do this every 12-18 months in person – and that matters because we’re growing so fast, we have a lot of people who haven’t met. We also videocast a lot of our meetings, so people around the world have a chance to participate. It’s never quite the same as if you’re there, but technology helps a lot.

I heard you like to get feedback– what do you hear?

I think it’s really important to hear what people have to say. When I do performance reviews, I always ask people about what I/we could be doing better. When you start seeing themes, that’s when I pay attention. The themes are different for each location. When I get into an office, I do three things; I do a presentation for the whole group, I get the leadership together and talk to them as a group, and I’ll talk to the leader individually. For me, the leadership team is most impactful, asking them direct questions. Once you get the first one who’s candid, then everyone starts to contribute.

How do WEX employee benefits support retention and recruitment?

I want people to live their whole life – I live my whole life. I think we live in a world of flexibility, so the idea of doing something like parental leave that allows both men and women to take time off when they have a family makes sense. When they come back to work, they come back feeling better about the experience. Volunteer days used to happen organically, and as we got bigger, it was important to institutionalize this practice, especially so employees around the world know that we want our leaders and employees to be volunteering in the communities in which we live and work. There’s actually a smart business piece to all our employee benefits.

How does innovation happen at WEX?

We have people at the corporate level who focus on long-range innovation – things like blockchain or connected cars – thinking about the future. Our people sitting in the line of business are focused on the next couple of years. Innovation happens everywhere and it’s one of those things that’s much more effective if its grassroots. We have innovations where we’re getting patents on technology that we’re rolling out into the marketplace with a huge amount of focus on how we can do that faster.