Sophie Bialaszewski

Head of Innovation Culture, Events & FinTech Collaboration at Lloyds Banking Group

London, United Kingdom

LinkedIn Profile

What has been your experience like so far at Lloyds and their Innovation Team?

It’s an exciting time to be in financial services and in the FinTech capital of the world, London. That’s why I wanted to move into financial services and specifically why I wanted to work for Lloyds Banking Group which has 11 million customers online, 6 million mobile customers and a digital transformation strategy which is investing £1bn over 3 years. And, Lloyds is an iconic brand which is 11 years older than the USA.

When I was interviewed by Claire Calmejane I was inspired by her conviction to change the face of financial services and her knowledge and experience of FinTech (she is one of only 2 women in the FinTech Top 40 across Europe) – the job I was interviewing for was to support the cultural change of the largest bank in the UK, third largest in Europe, and enable innovation at scale across the Group. It was not a journey I wanted to miss; it was one I wanted to join the leadership team of.

My role at LBG is to curate an innovation movement to inspire and engage colleagues. We’ve had over 15,000 colleagues join in 2015 and we’re trail blazing new initiatives from fostering intrapreneurship with a new hac-kit (think hackathon in a box with a mission impossible count down) to connecting colleagues to the FinTech community by developing 14 FinTech collaborations which include 3 Global accelerator programmes, espresso martini (meet-ups), open innovation challenges, mentor matching programmes and helping colleagues across the Group to innovate with the tools and techniques for them to DIY innovation.

I’ve built the internal capability and team to deliver the vision that innovation will be part of everyone’s job at Lloyds Banking Group – it’s enabled me to build a fantastic network of innovation enthusiasts and supporters across business areas. This collaboration both internally and externally is a critical success factor for us.

I am a firm believer that if you get out of your own way, anything is possible. I think about this often and really try to believe in myself to make the difference I want to make.

You are a strong supporter of education and inspiring kids to study STEM subjects. Why is this so important to you?

Do you know, I often sit in external events, seminars and round tables where I am the only woman at the table, it still surprises and disappoints me every time. A recent report (MSCI Index, 2015) showed that companies with strong female leadership deliver a 36% higher return on equity and yet the WEF’s Gender Gap Report (2015) showed that women’s pay has only just begun to equal the amount men were earning 10 years ago.

We must do more to unleash the passion, intellect and drive of women in Financial Services. If we do so the sector, colleagues and customers will benefit. Importantly, young women will have the chance to be part of this exciting FinTech ecosystem in the UK and globally. This is why I am involved in setting up Digital Breakthrough in Lloyds Banking Group, am a keen digital champion as part of Go On UK and think what this program (FemTechLeaders) is just what we need to inspire and attract young women into the sector.

How has your background in cyber security impacted your position with Lloyds today?

The darknet, building trust, authentication, personal data and culture & communication campaigns for better cyber awareness were key themes and projects I worked on as a security consultant. Getting the right balance between security and usability for customers is vital for competitive advantage – customers want simplicity & transparency. It’s something we all need to comprehend and embrace both as businesses and as individuals – understanding the power of our personal data is going to be vital in the future. Only this week the EU Council came to an agreement about pan-European data protection that puts the power in the hands of consumers, increases penalties, strengthens the right to be forgotten and came with Council members talking about the power of data innovation.

What lesson did you take away from your previous experience in dealing with a changing digital environment when you were at the Post Office?

In my view coping with continual change is enabled by a shared or higher common purpose that you can navigate around. This will enable colleagues and organisations to flex with external pressures and will not be as restrictive as a 2-3 year project plan or operating model that can stifle the pivot or response that may be needed. This is something I worked on at the Post Office to create a common purpose that colleagues understood, bought into and used as a north star.

I would also say that encouraging colleagues to fall in love with the problem and not the solution can free up creativity and not being afraid to cannibalise your own business will help you to stay ahead of your competition. Innovation is all about meeting your customer’s expectations of tomorrow, today.

Claire Calmejane is well known and respected as a leader in the Innovation space. What has been your experience in working with Claire and her team?

Claire is one of those unique leaders that moves at a hundred miles an hour, sees the bigger picture and can connect the dots rapidly and is not afraid to give her opinion. Claire has an amazing external network and knowledge of the FinTech sector that is changing not only LBG but also the FinTech ecosystem itself.

I’ve learnt more in my time at Lloyds Banking Group than in any other role and I have stretched myself continually – it’s great to have a leader that believes passionately about digital transformation and financial services, combined with my passion for culture and communications we make a very good team and I am challenged, surprised and driven to do more every day.

You have the responsibility of driving the adoption of innovation and new thinking and an established banking institution. How do you approach this challenging role, in particular with respect to embracing digital transformation?

My advice is to think BIG but start small – find something that you can test, prove it works or not and move on, and then pitch into execs to get it off the ground. This is what myself and the team did with our digital espressos where we invite guest speakers in to LBG to talk about digital and FinTech ideas, products, passions and themes. We started with 5 people in a meeting room, we now have had thousands of colleagues attend, a network of locations setting them up themselves and even espresso cinemas. We film all of the talks so all of colleagues have a large resource they can now tap into.

Find your bright spots (From the book, Switch Now) – look at what is working well, nurture it and think about how you can make it sustainable. And, find your bright people – those execs that are inspired by what you’re trying to do, their advocacy will open the doors for delivery and their passion will be infectious and bring their teams and colleagues to the table.

Surprise yourself by talking to people both inside and outside your organisation, ask them what works, unleash their ideas and empower people to change – sometimes people need a pathway they can follow, once they start on their innovation journey there’s no stopping them.

Storytelling is really powerful a strong narrative that colleagues can feel part of is really important to help them see how everything fits together around a shared purpose. Storytelling has always been a source of motivation, we are in a time when people talk about digital disruption however what will define those that succeed will be those that inspire excitement and not fear.

Who(m) do you believe has had the most influence with respect to influencing your own career?

The CEO of one of the first organisations I worked for, e-skills UK (now Tech Partnership), was a real source of inspiration for me in her fearless leadership but also in her approach to new graduates into her company. I was not given parameters; I created my own job title; if I found an opportunity I was given the time and space to explore it and expected to delivery value, and I was always encouraged to have a voice and use it. I have taken this on myself and try to create this growth environment in all of the teams I have managed and been a part of.

Who do you consider to be strong women leaders in the FinTech space?

Ever since I started working at e-skills UK (now the Tech Partnership) Martha Lane Fox has been a source of inspiration for me and I have admired her entrepreneurial achievement and her tenacity of leading the digital agenda with Go ON UK and now Doteveryone continuing to challenge Government and Corporates alike to raise the bar for the UK. I want to do the same at Lloyds Banking Group and across the industry to drive change and challenge the status quo. When I started at Lloyds Banking Group the first people I met externally were Liz Lumley (then Finextra) and Mariela Atanassova (co-founder of Innotribe, Swift) both have been a huge support in navigating FinTech, Innovation, Culture, Change and have inspired me to have a voice and thought leadership in the FinTech ecosystem.

What do you see as the 3 leading future trends for FinTech?

We will see the continued investment in payments and lending, the practical application of blockchain technology and a new focus on InsurTech (I’m excited we are founding partners of the new startupbootcamp InsuTech Accelerator).

If I were to call out what a think the big stories of 2016 would be from a culture perspective I would say an increase and strengthening of collaborations between organisations (both start-up and giants, finance and technology) and across business units in larger organisations, a focus on closing the gap between the digital haves and have-nots and a strong movement to people empowernment and networks moving further away from command and control structures.