Claire Rogers

Head of Digital Strategy and Innovation for the Retail Bank of ANZ.

Melbourne, Australia

LinkedIn Profile

What led you into a career in Digital?

I spent nearly four years working in Europe around 2000, based in London, at the time when the Euro currency was launched - an exciting time participating in the formation of a new market! As a consumer in the UK I enjoyed the online purchasing experience while I lived there, the like of which turned out to be virtually non-existent in Australia on my return. This surprised me given Australia is generally a market of early adopters (for example we are the largest “tap and go” card payment market in the world). That made me passionate about digital and I opened ANZs digital car loans channel well before it was cool to sell online here! By the way, I still consider Australia’s ecommerce market immature - there is still much to be done to remove friction for buyers. At ANZ, we have made targeted investment to remove buying friction and seen amazing results. Given my experience and the fact that Digital is really where the most significant transformation in my lifetime is happening I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else!

During our interview you noted the career advice to ‘stand up and knock on the door’. How has this been reflected in your career?

In my experience, people do get noticed for quality work but it often doesn’t lead to a promotion. People need to know what you want. They can’t guess or if they do it might be wrong and then there’s a lot of uncomfortable discussions if expectations are not aligned. Building relationships with potential sponsors and asking for roles makes the job easier for those who might be considering you for an established role but I’ve also been willing to take risks and ask for a job to be created or taken a short term assignment to prove the value. My passion for digital led to the role I’m in. I asked to join the team because I had a strong view on what I thought needed to happen in the business. The answer was ‘yes’.

What lessons did you take away from your early career as a young Australian female manager working in the UK?(you mentioned ‘if you don’t ask, then you don’t get”).

I became a mum while working in the UK. I was being headhunted to join another bank at the time, and had to negotiate parental leave. I managed to combine the conversation and got a pay rise as well as support to work from home for 6 months after my son was born. I didn’t think either of those things were possible when I asked the question - both came true. We are often afraid to ask – I’ve learnt asking gets me access to insight and perspective even if the answer is ‘no’ but often there is a willingness to support.

“Digital is a key driver for face-to-face experiences.” Can you elaborate on this statement?

There is a lot of talk about robo advisers and sales teams. There is no doubt that as artificial intelligence matures a digital adviser will become more a reality. But right now great sales experiences can be achieved by providing the front line sales teams with great apps and digital experiences that they can do together with their customers. On the release of our new mobile lender app, we’ve seen a reduction in appointment duration, customers finishing the conversation with a deeper understanding and more home loan options, new lenders achieving competency more quickly, and increased sales conversions with customers not shopping around as much. For our sales people, there is also less post appointment administration - all of that equals happy staff and happy customers. Lots of attention is on on-line self-directed sales and this is growing and important but in many products 50-80% of sales still happen face to face - why wouldn’t companies support their teams with the power of “phygital”?

You noted ANZ’s ‘Notable Women Program’ as a catalyst to ‘get you going’. Why was that?

Old style leadership of big companies has pervaded for years where media and press commentary is controlled at the centre and the consequences of speaking to the media are pretty fierce. ANZ aspired to develop fresh social identity through thought leadership. ANZ has invested in me to be a domain expert, provided media training and encouraged my public contribution to debate in a number of domains in ways that I probably wouldn’t have felt I had opportunity to take up on my own steam. There are still not enough female voices in the media and ANZ gave me the permission to step out confidently and own that space.

You are a very active mentor. Why is this?

I mentor in two places - encouraging women and men to grow in leadership but secondly in the start-up community. I’m excited by the innovation potential of businesses unencumbered by legacy and feel I can add perspective to help them grow into established participants in the economy. On top of that, my skill set is strategic vision for where a business can play with more success, I get excited by helping others achieve that. Then there is the added bonus of spotting things we might be able to use in the Bank to accelerate our delivery.

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

I’m inspired by Ada Lovelace and Marie Curie. They did it tough when it was virtually unheard of for women to be involved in technology and or science disciplines. Their innate curiosity and intellectual pursuit of understanding despite significant barriers has been a driving force for me (there is an excellent summary of Ada’s story in The Innovators by Walter Issacson in case you are interested- she has pride of place in the first chapter!).

 

Claire’s write-up from ANZ Blue Notes: It’s Always Your Turn in Digital