Ece is an engagement manager in the Financial Services practice with a focus on digital banking for Retail and Business clients. She joined our Amsterdam Office in 2022 and found her match in the office culture and its people.
You transferred from the Turkish office. How did you experience the switch?
As someone not having lived in any other city but Istanbul, the transfer decision was quite a big deal for me. However, starting from the early days of my decisioning process, the support and guidance I got from my circle of colleagues, partners in Istanbul and in Amsterdam, my Talent Managers connecting me with people with similar experiences helped me a lot to make up my mind.
I would say overall, the transition process was very smooth for me. I already started to work with Dutch clients and colleagues from Amsterdam office before my transfer, and workwise, I barely realized I have switched offices.
Why Oliver Wyman Amsterdam?
I find Amsterdam as the most dynamic OW office in Europe - it is growing at an incredible pace, diversifying its sector and capability focus, and I really wanted to be part of an office where I could contribute. Plus, Financial Services practice being very strong here made Amsterdam the obvious choice for me. My other alternatives were London and MEA, but to be honest did not even consider them thoroughly.
Coming from a very small office like Istanbul, my biggest concern with the transfer was to miss the ‘family-like’ atmosphere at the office, which was one of the reasons for me to prioritize Amsterdam: it is a company-wide known fact that everyone at the office is very open, welcoming, and eager to get to know you.
What do you find most interesting about Retail & Business Banking?
My particular focus is around digital banking for Retail and Business clients. I find it really fascinating to what extent banks can have an impact on their customers’ business or their daily life – not only from a financing perspective. The work we do on digital value proposition development revolves around understanding customer needs (through persona and voice of the customer analyses) and creating a robust value proposition which would differentiate our customer (the bank) from competition.
Take a small sized enterprise, say a family-run restaurant in Amsterdam. Banks are now competing to become their ‘business partner’, where they not only provide financing but also value-added services such as business insights (e.g., what is the best time to launch happy hour) on their mobile app. Such services allow banks to establish new and closer points of interaction with their customers, which, if designed thoroughly, can be an important lever to deepen their banking relationship increase cross-sell.
What distinguishes Oliver Wyman Amsterdam from others?
This is an easy one – people. Consulting is a highly demanding job, which makes camaraderie an extremely important aspect of our professional life. The team spirit we have whilst building a proposal, preparing for an important client meeting, or spending hours to figure out a problem is one of my biggest drives, and I think we do a great job at Oliver Wyman to recruit people who feel the same level of ownership on whatever they do.
We say people at OW take their jobs very seriously, but not themselves – I think this is the best way to put it. Everyone I have worked with, independent of seniority level, is impressively smart, practical, output oriented, but at the same time very down to earth and super fun. Most importantly, in both offices I have worked, I had colleagues who genuinely enjoy spending time together – which for me is the secret ingredient to build and maintain a positive office culture.