Aligning a global team of 1.500 employees

Client

Backbase is a leading fintech software company, empowering banks and financial institutions across the globe in their digital transformation with Software as a Service (SaaS). Visit site: backbase.com

Challenge

We were tasked to align Backbase’s global team of 1.500 employees across 14 offices on 4 continents for the annual kickoff video. The primary goal was updating all team members on the strategy, opportunities and challenges per department and function group for the year ahead. However, it would not be bad if we created some excitement too.

Work

Previously the year kickoff was a set of video presentations of each department leader in a clear - yet fairly straightforward - format, filmed in the office. This time, we wanted to take this opportunity to also strengthen connection, team-spirit and enthusiasm across the company. As we just positioned Backbase as a human centered, purpose driven brand at the annual conference Backbase Connect (see case), it was only fitting to add a deeper and more personal layer to this film too.

We chose to start off with a never-told-before personal story of Founder and CEO Jouk Pleiter on Backbase’s origins. We chose to film him in his private environment for maximum authenticity and intimacy, before showing him join an informal dinner table with his department leaders, sitting together as a family. The strategies per department were shared with a personal touch also, using an empathetic interviewer to make the talks feel like an authentic conversation rather than a set of powerpoint presentations and triggering some spontaneous personal words.

To extend the feeling of involvement and inclusion beyond the leadership, we decided to add a diverse array of self-made video’s from team members across the company’s locations and hierarchies each sharing their own view of the company’s challenges and opportunities for the year ahead.