S&L; Company’s Investment in Fitness Pays Off : Karate, Aerobics and Other Exercise Programs Offered Columbia Employees

It is perhaps the only financial institution in the world to employ a karate expert full-time . . . or devote about 7,000 square feet of prime real estate in Beverly Hills and Irvine to two state-of-the-art gymnasiums for just 580 employees . . . or to recruit Lakers Coach Pat Riley to train top management on issues of health and fitness.

But then Columbia Savings & Loan Assn. has never been known to do much of anything the traditional way.

Now $215 Million

For some time, the company has had a reputation as the country’s fastest-growing S&L;, although 39-year-old president Tom Spiegel insists the organization is now one of the nation’s slowest-growing. In any case, Columbia went from a net worth of about $3 million in 1977 when Spiegel took over as president to an estimated net worth of $215 million at present--all without benefit of mergers or acquisitions.

The S&L; is also known for its largely successful but controversial investments in low-grade, high-yield “junk” bonds and for its high executive salaries (Spiegel’s was reported at $1.36 million earlier this year and he acknowledges that some of his key executives have become millionaires through bonuses and stock options).

As Salvatore Serrantino, president of Santa Monica-based California Research Corp., a national marketing consultant to banks and S&Ls;, described Columbia, “They are definitely a new breed of financial services industry institution. They have taken a very strong interest in their employees and in staff development.

‘People Resources’

“They literally creamed some of the top young executive talent in the business about five years ago, people who are fairly young but have substantial experience. Now almost all their senior people are the same ones who’ve been with them for a number of years. Their approach to employee/staff development is to put the greatest emphasis on their people resources.”

The physical part of that emphasis had its genesis in 1981 when, as Spiegel recalled, both he and the company were in bad shape.

“Interest rates were 20%. Columbia was losing $500,000 a month,” the former stockbroker said the other day at the Beverly Hills gym, where he wore faded navy shorts, a yellow polo shirt and new leather Reebok sneakers. “Some of the largest savings and loans in the country were having serious problems. The country was in a recession bordering on depression. I was working 14-15 hours a day, seven days a week. I had no outlets for my frustrations.”

Spiegel had met Hugh Van Putten, a personable Beverly Hills karate master who was giving Spiegel’s two children (and a number of celebrities) karate lessons.

Spiegel thought it might be a good idea to “start working out with him to relieve my tensions. Eventually, my consciousness about what I ate started to change. I started sleeping and feeling better. My stamina increased. So did my ability to work harder and think clearly. It had a very positive effect on my business life as well as my personal life. When the people in the company saw what a positive impact it was having on me, some of them said, ‘What about us?’ ”

Not long thereafter, Putten began working full time for the company, providing karate lessons privately and in groups. His duties have expanded to giving classes in stress relief and managing the company’s assorted fitness programs, which are steadily increasing.

Aerobics Classes Offered

Aerobics classes are now offered three times a day. And in addition to supporting ice hockey, basketball, baseball and bowling teams, the organization also pays for some staffers’ visits to the Pritikin Longevity Center. Arrangements have been made for a Pritikin physician to work at Columbia with interested employees and their spouses.

The S&L; also sponsors health and wellness weekends for managers, such as a recent retreat in Newport Beach (where the Lakers’ Riley was one of the speakers). The agenda? Spend the weekend considering such topics as nutrition, exercise and health management.

What’s more, Columbia owns some condominiums in Deer Valley (a Utah ski resort) and encourages its mid- and senior-level managers to take their entire departments there for two or three days of skiing--interspersed with business discussions.

“You’d be surprised how much you can learn about your own company taking a 20-minute chairlift ride up the mountain,” Spiegel noted. “People tend to tell you how they feel about things in that kind of an environment as opposed to things they think you might want to hear in the office.”

Wendell Ruppe, the executive vice president Spiegel credits with much of Columbia’s overall success and particularly with strongly supporting the firm’s fitness programs, has similarly found that simply wearing workout clothes and sweating in the gym quickly puts people on the same level.

‘Open-Door Policy’

“People start relating to other people as human beings instead of as titles,” he observed, adding that since the company’s various programs began he has lost 50 pounds and attained a blue (mid-level) belt in karate. “It’s amazing how sitting around in shorts and sweats breaks down all sorts of barriers. We’ve always had an open-door policy here but this encourages even more communication.”

“It fosters a family feeling among the employees,” karate master Putten said. “Tom doesn’t want a company with the usual corporate tensions. In the gym, they’re able to let loose a lot of their tensions. They’ll sweat it out, punch it out, meditate it out, Ping-Pong it out--each individual has his or her own way to relieve stress.”

Such a continuing commitment to health is quite rare among corporations, said Ruth Prodan, president of Office Aerobic Services, an employee fitness and wellness company serving many Southern California companies.

“In my experience I’ve never run across a company that spends so much per employee on fitness programs,” said Prodan, whose clients range from the Chevron Corp. to the Los Angeles Police Department. (Prodan’s firm provided fitness testing services for Columbia.)

“What impresses me most is that Tom (Spiegel) grasps the importance of creating an environment conducive to health, which is conducive to work,” she continued. “A lot of companies want to see numbers to justify their expenditures--numbers on whether productivity has increased or absenteeism has decreased--but a lot of time you’re working with intangibles. He understands this. It’s the wave of the future. By 1990, all major corporations will have to have fitness programs to stay competitive.”

But, as Spiegel remembered, he didn’t do any of this to enhance the bottom line. At least not initially.

“I didn’t do it for business purposes, but as it turns out, it’s one of the best investments the company has made,” he said. “I don’t view these things as company frills. They’ve become an important part of the vitality and camaraderie and concern that exists in this company.”