Land a job at Cohen & Co., a Cleveland-based accounting firm, and one day you may find yourself in an unappetizing chow line.
Dishes might include sardines, crickets, baby food, chocolate-covered ants, pigs’ feet and pickled eggs. You wouldn’t know which is yours until the dish is uncovered. And you must eat — there’s no backing out.
The “meal” sounds like a frat-house hazing session, but it’s actually a game in Cohen’s biennial Olympics, where more than 400 workers from five states — plus those from Cohen’s sister company, Sequoia Financial Group — assemble for a day of team-building exercises.
“It’s one of those things that has become part of the fabric of who we are,” Chris Bellamy, company partner and president of Cohen’s Investment Industry Services Division, says of the Cohen-Sequoia Olympics.
This July, the games were at SPIRE Institute, a sprawling sports complex in Geneva, Ohio. In addition to the Fear Factor-inspired food competition — which settles which employees can eat the most objectionable food the fastest — the Olympics include wheelbarrow relays, inflatable obstacle courses and trivia games.
The Olympics are fun, which is an important ingredient in Cohen’s culture, but they also help a growing company maintain unity and identity.
“We’re all about building connectivity and relationships among our people, especially as we expand,” says Tracy Campbell, Cohen’s support services manager. “In the past we tried things like happy hours and company picnics, and, while they were fun events, we wanted something to build more interaction.
“We’re all working with a lot of the same clients, so we need that connectivity to make sure our people are communicating, and in the end it helps us serve our clients better,” Campbell says.
At the Olympics, Cohen divides itself into teams of eight to 10 employees. Each team consists of workers at various levels — partners are grouped with senior managers and administrators.
“We want to get a cross section of people working together who might not normally interact,” Campbell says.
Not everyone has to participate in each game, but everyone must take part in something. Those not athletically inclined can compete in the trivia game or the 10-Key Challenge, where accountants crunch numbers on old-fashioned calculators, racing from calculator to calculator.
The Cohen-Sequoia Olympics started about 10 years ago in a single Cohen division — Bellamy’s Investment Industry Services Group. Employees wanted to liven up a dry, all-day training session. The company’s younger workers came up with the idea.
“It’s really indicative of how we run the organization,” Bellamy says. “We empower young people to make decisions and make the organization strong.”
Jake Vogel, Cohen’s audit manager, was an intern from The Ohio State University that first year.
“We’re accountants,” Vogel says. “Far too often we get too comfortable in our own group. It was a great day to get out of the office, have some physical and mental challenges and have fun. To me, that’s what the day was all about.”
The Olympics went all-Cohen in 2014. The day begins with a parade of flags from each of the five states — Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — in which Cohen has a presence. An Olympic torch, forged by a Cohen worker, is carried in.
The winning team is awarded a trophy, and second- and third-place finishers receive medals.
“We now use the games as a recruiting tool,” Campbell says. “Kids on campus ask about the Olympics.”