aCrOnYms e-commerce Hamiltonian Path Problem: given a directed graph and distinguished start and end nodes, does there exist a path from start to end that visits all nodes exactly once?

3PL Third-party logistics

CPC Cost per click

PPC Pay-per-click

DGC Digital gold currency

im Internet marketing

 

maP Minimum advertised price

 

mmO Making money online

saas Software as a service

B2B Business to business

B2C Business to customer have retired from the military. That gives quite a good reference of why they are so mobile. The other thing we know about the military is that they are very comfortable with using technology. In fact, one of the things I learned from some of the social media demographics is that the military are one of the biggest users of social media, so naturally they gravitate toward technology.

Js: and that’s something you often forget. You often associate social media with high school and college students, but you often forget that the military are away from home a lot and that’s when those tools become really essential.

Gs: Amen! Exactly right.

Js: in terms of other banks that do have large brick-and-mortar operations, do you see them existing in this way in the future? Do you think people will gravitate away from physical banking and toward electronic?

Gs: I think it’s a strategic question that some of the guys with thousands of branches are going to have to ask themselves soon! They are going to be left with a large real estate bill if they don’t change their strategy. But I will say that you can use brick-and-mortar with technology very well.

We have a financial service center in our high military populations. It’s not a branch, but it’s another choice for our membership. We have a number of these now, and over the next few years we’d like about 25 of these. If you walk in, it looks nothing like a branch, but you can do any business with USAA in a self-service room. You can use the Internet and also perform a video call with our MSR. You sit down in a booth and are greeted by an MSR, and you can have a conversation with them.

We also use those service centers to do financial seminars, and those give us office space to be able to do that as well. If you wanted to do a deposit, we have ATMs there that do that, and we also have just rolled out a deposit scheme with UPS, where you can deposit immediately at any UPS store.

Js: Let’s look far into the future. i know i rarely carry cash these days. i pay mostly using my card. Do you see any point in the future where people just do away with physical currency?

Gs: It’s been my experience with technology that you never really get to eliminate legacy. I’ve been in this business for 30 years, and 20 years ago, everyone was saying that the mainframe was dead.

I think you always carry legacy with you, but I do see a point in time, not many years out, where a majority of the population won’t carry cash. There is so much innovation going on in person-to-person payment. The federal government is involved, the Federal Reserve, all the traditional credit card companies, the cellular phone companies—everyone is trying to win the game of what technology the future will use to transact business. We are monitoring that so carefully right now. Our architects are working extremely hard so that whichever way the technology curve goes we are on top of it.

Js: Computer World awarded you the number one it employer in 2010. to the people reading XrDs, what would you say makes Usaa a great place to work?

Gs: The kinds of folks we like to attract are the ones who want to work with the cutting edge. The financial services industry as a whole is a very exciting place to work. If you think about it, just take a step back, we sell virtual products. They’re not physical. These virtual products are enabled by technology. All the barriers we used to have from a technology standpoint that limited our ability to service our members have been eliminated.

The mobility part of the equation, and the ability to use so many different open platforms for development is very exciting. The sky’s the limit. The payment industry is rapidly transforming. There’s a lot of innovation in person-to-person transactions. USAA is a leader in this space. We are recognized from an innovation standpoint in all of our services. It’s a very exciting place to work for someone who wants to make an impact in this industry.

It’s a great place to develop your craft. What’s really special, technology aside, is that we have a unique mission. We get to serve the military community and their families, and that’s a pretty noble purpose, and we take that extremely seriously.

We are not a Wall Street company. We can afford to make long-term decisions, as we are all about our membership. We care about our members. You can feel that immediately when you walk in here and talk to our people.

What I try to tell all the college graduates is that we’re really hiring you for a career. There aren’t many companies out there that advertise that. I want to give you an opportunity to grow your technology skills and your leadership skills, and I would like nothing better than for you to work at this company for more than 30 years. I’ve been here 28 years and I’m in my seventh year as CIO. We’ve got a talented workforce and a young workforce. We constantly hire young people and bring in experience when needed, but it’s a pretty dynamic culturally diverse team.

To see current career opportunities and learn more about working at USAA, see the careers section of usaa.com.