Eugenia Mykuliak is Founder & Executive Director of B2PRIME Group. She is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience in fintech and financial markets.
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In the fintech sector, rapid growth is often seen as the ultimate sign of success. But where many companies tend to fail is scaling their culture to match the pace of that growth. Values that weaken under the pressure, a disconnect between leadership and frontline teams - as projects expand and adapt to constant shifts, it is not unusual for the cultural foundation that fueled their early success to erode.
This breakdown rarely happens overnight, but if you fail to pay attention, these things can slip right through your fingers before you know it.
In this article, I would like to share some tips - based on personal experience — on how to avoid such an outcome and scale your business with integrity.
Why companies get it wrong
In fintech, one has to constantly balance two mindsets: running and changing. “Running” is your day-to-day operations - customer support, compliance, transaction monitoring, and so on. “Changing” covers pretty much everything: from launching new products to expanding to new markets and adapting to shifting regulations.
The issue arises when top management tries to push for change while neglecting the run side. Or worse, company leaders might ask the same teams to do both, without giving them the support or incentives they need to make it happen.
When priorities clash and comfort zones are disrupted, it’s a recipe for burnout, frustration, and tensions within the team — all of which can ultimately lead to a culture breakdown.
How can we approach this matter differently?
The very first thing to do is to build with people in mind. And I don’t just mean your end users, but your own team members, as well. Growth and advancement shouldn’t come at the cost of keeping your team perpetually tense.
With that in mind, here are a few strategic choices that I can recommend for consideration:
1. Separate run and change teams, but align their overall goals and perspectives
At my own company, we recognized early on that stability and innovation require different mindsets. So instead of overloading operational teams with innovation-related work, we created dedicated “change agents” inside the organization — individuals whose direct task is to identify opportunities for improvement and lead transformation efforts.
Some of those agents were appointed as “champions” within operational units, so they would act as bridges between day-to-day execution and strategic change. These champions have two key responsibilities: to clearly explain the rationale for change to the rest of the team, and to ensure that proposed changes are rooted in operational reality.
This way, we can avoid bottlenecks and culture clashes that typically come with such transitions.
2. Empower middle management as culture ambassadors
While the company’s leaders are the ones directly responsible for defining its core values, the role of middle management in this process also shouldn’t be overlooked. These are the people who translate leadership’s strategic vision into daily execution — which means they can be either the strongest or the weakest link in the chain.
We’ve found that investing in middle managers and providing them with structured training in both task management and team communication has a way of bringing in great returns. This way, we ensure that these people understand the “hows” and “whys” behind our corporate culture and overarching goals. And, by extension, they can explain these things to the rest of the team, ensuring that there is no disconnect between our ideas and their application in practice.
3. Use technology to strengthen collaboration and team cohesion
Technology is often viewed through the lens of operational efficiency — automating tasks to improve performance. But it can also play a big role in maintaining and scaling culture, especially if we’re talking about fast-paced fintech companies.
When your employees are spread across countries — which happens very often in today’s business landscape — maintaining a shared sense of purpose becomes that much more important.
That’s where the right digital infrastructure can make all the difference. Tools like Slack and Notion aren’t just for task management; they can also act as platforms for collaboration and internal communication. For example, using them to share information about major developments and celebrate achievements can create a stronger sense of unity and belonging, even when the teams themselves are working remotely.
