Leadership Lessons on Managing Culture Across Multiple Locations

Culture is often the silent driver of success in any organization. For agencies in the collections and receivables management space, it’s the difference between transactional operations and teams that perform with purpose.

On the Receivables Podcast, Brian Bowers, Co-Founder and CEO of Financial Recovery Services (FRS), sat down with Adam Parks to share how his company built a culture that not only survived but strengthened as it expanded from two people to four locations.

In an industry defined by performance metrics and regulatory scrutiny, culture may seem intangible but Bowers has proven that it’s measurable, transferable, and scalable.

Building a Culture Framework Early

Bowers founded FRS in 1996 with his business partner after recognizing a gap in how agencies balanced compliance and performance. What began as a two-person team quickly evolved into a multi-location operation employing over 140 people. But as the organization grew, one challenge stood out: how do you maintain consistency across people, processes, and places?

His answer was structure.

"The mission statement, the core values, and the FRS views — it doesn’t change. The expectation is the same for all." — Brian Bowers, FRS

FRS created a Mission and Values Card, a tangible document given to every employee. It outlines the company’s mission ("to provide the best quality collection services through fairness, empathy, and responsiveness") and defines the behavioral principles that guide every decision. These "FRS Views" include actionable commitments like "Take ownership," "Be an ambassador," and "Choose to be happy."

By formalizing culture in writing, FRS transformed values into an operating system, one that every team member can reference daily.

Scaling Organizational Values Across Teams

As the company expanded, so did its need for consistency. Bowers quickly learned that scaling culture required deliberate communication and leadership alignment.

"If you see it and it’s broken, it’s yours. Fix it." — Brian Bowers.

That statement reflects what he calls "shared accountability", a principle that eliminates silos and ensures that everyone, regardless of title, contributes to continuous improvement. Whether it’s a collector identifying a compliance issue or a manager spotting inefficiency, responsibility begins with ownership.

A McKinsey report found that successful organizational transformations are 5.3 times more likely to succeed when leaders model the behaviors they want employees to adopt. This demonstrates the power of consistent cultural reinforcement from the top down. This approach isn’t limited to internal efficiency. It strengthens compliance and client trust, too.

Celebrating Mistakes as Growth Opportunities

In many companies, mistakes are treated as liabilities. At FRS, they’re learning tools.

"You just have to accept the fact that there are going to be mistakes and those mistakes are learning opportunities." — Brian Bowers, FRS

Rather than penalizing errors, FRS uses them as discussion points to coach, retrain, and improve. This "growth mindset" approach has become part of the agency’s DNA, encouraging employees to own their learning process.

That shift from fear-based correction to collaborative improvement reduces turnover, boosts morale, and fosters transparency. As a result, FRS has achieved long-term stability and a reputation for operational excellence.

Based on Gallup's extensive research, highly engaged teams consistently outperform their counterparts, resulting in 23% higher profitability. This engagement is a critical factor for retention, leading to significantly lower turnover rates: 51% less turnover in low-turnover organizations and 21% less turnover in high-turnover organizations.

This data demonstrates that a workplace culture driven by engaged employees directly translates to superior business outcomes and organizational loyalty.

Empowering Leaders with Trust

Leadership scalability often becomes the breaking point for growing agencies. Many founders struggle to relinquish control as operations expand, but Bowers took a different path.

"We give them a lot of rope — they can run with it, or they can tie it around their neck. It’s up to them," says Brian Bowers.

His words reflect a balance between empowerment and accountability. Department heads at FRS are trained to lead independently but are held to the same standards of trust, integrity, and transparency that define the company’s core values. This empowers leaders to make decisions quickly without compromising culture or quality.

By institutionalizing empowerment, FRS effectively built a Scalable Leadership Model, where values replace supervision as the main control mechanism.

In industries where compliance and oversight dominate, this autonomy-driven model sets FRS apart as both efficient and people-centered.

Connecting Culture to Compliance and Client Trust

In collections, compliance is more than regulation; it’s reputation. FRS’s commitment to fairness and empathy extends beyond its staff to its clients and consumers.

Culture alignment ensures that every interaction, from a phone call to a client meeting, reflects the company’s values. The outcome is measurable. FRS maintains strong compliance scores and low HR incident rates across sites, which is a rare balance in a high-volume industry.

This model proves that culture management frameworks for agencies can directly improve compliance and service outcomes. As the CFPB continues emphasizing ethical consumer treatment, cultural integrity is no longer optional, rather a competitive advantage.

A Playbook for Managing Culture at Scale

The FRS Culture Framework offers a replicable model for other agencies and receivables firms:

1. Document Values Early. Don’t assume everyone knows your standards. Be sure to define and distribute them.

2. Reinforce Values Repeatedly. Integrate them into training, meetings, and performance reviews.

3. Empower Accountability. Teach teams that ownership doesn’t require authority.

4. Celebrate Mistakes. Turn errors into teachable moments to build trust.

5. Lead by Example. Culture scales when leadership embodies the same principles expected of the team.

6. Connect Culture to Outcomes. Measure how cultural health impacts compliance, retention, and client satisfaction.

This framework transforms culture from a mission statement into a management system that keeps large organizations aligned without sacrificing empathy or performance.

Conclusion: Scaling Culture Through Leadership Consistency

Managing culture at scale requires clarity, consistency, and conviction. Financial Recovery Services demonstrates that when culture is formalized and modeled by leadership, it becomes both scalable and sustainable.

"The fundamentals stay the same. The tools change — but everything on the inside should stay the same." — Brian Bowers.

As agencies continue to adapt to automation, remote teams, and evolving regulations, culture remains the true constant. For receivables leaders aiming to scale, FRS’s story offers proof that values are not just inherited, they’re engineered.

To explore more leadership frameworks and operational insights from across the industry, visit Receivables Info website for in-depth articles and expert discussions.

Author Attribution

About Adam Parks

Adam Parks has become a voice for the accounts receivables industry. With almost 20 years working in debt portfolio purchasing, debt sales, consulting, and technology systems, Adam now produces industry news hosting hundreds of Receivables Podcasts and manages branding, websites, and marketing for over 100 companies within the industry.