Magda Oleksiewicz talks to us about her role as Head of Change Management at RBS and supporting effective collaboration with fintechs.

Tell us a little bit about what it’s like to lead change management at a large financial institution. What are some of the key challenges?

Being a change person is really very interesting. You cannot be bored with your job and you are always learning a lot – it’s exciting. Leading change in any organisation is highly challenging, because changes are often connected with fear. People generally do not like to change – they like what they know. Due to this reason, implementing new projects or new ways of working requires, genuinely, two key skills: planning and communication. As simple as it sounds, these are the most difficult parts of any change, especially when you are working across locations, cultures and generations.

Do you view fintech as a key driver of change across the financial services industry or do you think that incumbents can leverage technology in innovative ways?

I definitely see technology or – to be even more precise – the way we use technology nowadays certainly as one of the key drivers for changes across all industries, not only financial services. Certainly fintech companies are great challengers for the big players on the market, which is definitely a very positive trend. Big corporations already understand that they need to think and act more agile, be flexible and use more innovative way of thinking. This is happening as a result of new technology and also as regulatory changes require more disruptive ways of working and ever more collaboration.

What do you think enables effective collaboration between incumbents and start-ups? How do you overcome some of the cultural differences between the two?

I have already seen great examples of collaboration between corporations & start-ups and some failures as well. In my opinion, the key success factor for effective collaboration is a proper matching process between the two parties. If there is a real business problem to be solved, willingness on the side of corporation and capability on the start-up side – it hardly ever goes wrong. A common mistake corporations are making is that they cooperate with start-ups simply to be perceived as innovative…if that is the key driver than it will never work out long-term.

What are your views on the current challenges around ensuring a sufficiently skilled labour force for in an increasingly digital world?

The main challenge is, of course, around education. The way our kids are taught in schools and students at universities needs to change. It should focus much more on the effective and creative use of knowledge, which nowadays is so easily available and the emphasis should definitely be less on memorising. Creativity, curiosity and collaboration – these are the most important lessons to ensure a skilled labour force ready for the digital world.

Do you have a passion for craft beer?

Sure, especially during the summer