Introduced in 1964, the foil-wrapped toaster pastry radically changed breakfast in the U.S., becoming so popular with consumers that its manufacturer, Kellogg’s, couldn’t keep up with demand. Three years later, in 1967, Kellogg’s innovated again by adding a rectangle of frosting to the top of the pastry, leaving just a thin unfrosted crust around the edge.
And then, nothing. In the nearly 60 years since, the Pop-Tart hasn’t changed. What started as a revolution became rote.
A few years ago, there was a social media post about this that clearly hit a nerve, quickly going viral. It said, “I don't know why they aren't frosting the whole Pop-Tart. They have the technology.”
There are a lot of similarities between mortgage subservicing and the Pop-Tart. A revelation when introduced, subservicing hasn’t evolved all that much in the intervening decades, instead sticking with the tried and true. But why? After all, we have the technology.
That’s why, at Cenlar, we’ve decided to frost the whole Pop-Tart. And we're reinventing ourselves and our industry while we’re at it.
Introducing Project Resolute
Transforming an organization as large as Cenlar while revolutionizing an entire well-established industry is heavy work. There’s so much to do. Where do you start?With the right mentality.
To borrow from the author Jim Collins, we picture this whole endeavor like it’s a humongous, heavy flywheel. We need to get it to start moving — and moving very quickly. How do you do that? It seems impossible, right?
You start with a single push. The flywheel might not move much, a millimeter maybe. But it moved, so you keep pushing. With each successive push, the flywheel moves more and picks up speed. Eventually, it’s running on its own weight.
It wasn’t one single push that got the flywheel up to speed, but many little pushes, done consistently. You figure out a strategy every day on what the next push is, the next step. When that’s finished, you go to the next push. Broken down that way, everything's achievable.
We’ve done this at Cenlar with an initiative we call Project Resolute.
This effort is grounded in one of our corporate core values—being Client and Homeowner Resolute. It is a steadfast promise to listen, act and lead with purpose.
There are four pillars to Project Resolute: Simplified Servicing, Servicing Certainty, Client Portal and FAST. Each pillar harnesses cutting-edge technology to make it easier for homeowners to understand their loan, clients to manage their portfolio and our own employees to execute at the highest level in service of homeowners and clients. We look forward to sharing more specifics about each of the pillars with you in the weeks to come.
But know that Project Resolute is not a set-and-forget-it. It's a set-it-and-retune-and retune. It’s our new way—always transforming for the benefit of our clients and their homeowners.
In a rapidly evolving mortgage landscape, transformation in this manner is not just an opportunity—it is a responsibility. Through Project Resolute, we embrace bold changes to simplify complexity and increase certainty for homeowners while strengthening service and creating lasting value for our clients.
This is not about change for its own sake. It is about building a future where our clients can operate with greater confidence and efficiency, and where homeowners experience more clarity, stability, and support across every stage of homeownership.
Stay tuned. Exciting things are ahead.
