What makes a dynamic team? GXBank's Pei Si Lai talks to partner Gaurav Kwatra on choosing the right people to build a great team, and why her team's tenacity, humility, and purpose were vital in their effort towards launching a digital bank in Malaysia.

INFocus Series
INFocus provides exclusive insights and trends from experts and leaders across the Asia Pacific region, exploring the forces, opportunities, and challenges shaping its future.

Go to series

Pei Si Lai

Not only do we need to learn new things, we need to actually almost unlearn some of the things that we've learned previously. Because if you want to challenge the status quo, you've got to unlearn. 

Gaurav Kwatra

The GXBank team is one of the client teams our consultants most love to work for. They love the collaboration; they love the energy. I would love to hear your perspective on what sets your team apart. 

Pei Si

I think [there are] a few things. First, we all have joined a startup. And startup is, as we all know, no easy work. Therefore, everybody who comes in actually has a passion — a passion for delivering whatever they felt was the reason for joining us. And that passion, I think, hopefully, then translates into what we love and what we're actually proud of. 

For us to get anything delivered, I think, in an environment where it's completely zero to one, you need to be tenacious, right? You need to figure out and make sure that whatever problems that actually come and are thrown your way because we do not know, typically, how to solve it. We got to work around and work with everybody to make sure we get it solved. And the tenacity helps us to make sure that we achieve targets and milestone after milestone, right? 

The third is very clear. If we had wanted an easy job, a job that we can stay in status quo, we wouldn't actually be where we are. We're here because we want to challenge the ways of working. We want to challenge the ways of banking. We want to challenge the ways of how customers actually want to be served. And also, how you should actually see to those policies, but making sure that you're still within the guardrail of where the regulation is. 

I think the important third thing that the team seems to be representing and manifesting by itself is, everybody’s got to challenge their mindset. And this challenger mindset helps us to then challenge the status quo and, I think, brings things that are going to be a little bit more innovative, a little bit more different, a little bit more differentiated than the everyday bank. 

The fourth is, as I reflect back on my journey right, I thought I knew how to build a bank, but I certainly didn't. I needed everybody to bring their respective expertise and to work with everyone. And that also means that we need to be able to listen, and listen very well to each other and with tons of humility.

Gaurav

Working with your team, I can totally vouch for the passion, the challenge, the tenacity, the energy, the collaboration, the humility. That's also true. 

Before this ends, I remember I was telling you that I'm helping Oliver Wyman build a team to deliver AI and Analytics. It's been a good journey, but I would love to learn how do you build a team like this. How do you build this fun-loving, tenacious, collaborative team? 

Pei Si

I think it takes quite a deliberate and thoughtful way on exactly what type of people and what type of profile I'd like to actually fill the team with. For us, it was actually quite clear. We are a technology company but providing banking services. Therefore, we do need a very diverse group of technologists as well as bankers. In our case, we've managed to bring in half of them being technologists, and half of them being bankers. 

The second big thing, as we try to select and ensure that we get the right team culture, are we able to get alignment of purpose of the folks who actually come in? Everybody and every single person who works with GXBank are either here to change the industry because we think that there is so much to change and do better with, and to actually help the underserved in Malaysia. 

The third characteristic that we need to fill our team with is wanting to learn. It's not only learning, though. We need to actually almost unlearn some of the things that we've learned previously. If you want to challenge the status quo, you've got to unlearn. And then, as you learn and you unlearn, you end up also relearning new things that you want to learn. With these, then we'll be able to have the best chance to put things together. 

The fourth is, we need team players. We need folks who are able to collaborate and actually work with each other and listen well. The ability to listen well is not only actually to each other’s ideas, but also listen well as we talk to our customers, talk to our stakeholders. Making sure that we are always in alignment to what's important and important to them. Ultimately, actually, where and who we are really working for are the consumers who are picking up our products and picking our solutions. 

Gaurav

Thank you for sharing that, Pei Si. I think you've done really well so far. Good luck on the journey ahead. 

Pei Si

Thank you.  

Gaurav

I'll take away the lesson, especially on filling the team with purpose and just the thoughtful planning in getting your people. I'll really take that away, today. Thank you much for your time. 

What makes a dynamic team? GXBank's Pei Si Lai talks to partner Gaurav Kwatra on choosing the right people to build a great team, and why her team's tenacity, humility, and purpose were vital in their effort towards launching a digital bank in Malaysia.

INFocus Series
INFocus provides exclusive insights and trends from experts and leaders across the Asia Pacific region, exploring the forces, opportunities, and challenges shaping its future.

Go to series

Pei Si Lai

Not only do we need to learn new things, we need to actually almost unlearn some of the things that we've learned previously. Because if you want to challenge the status quo, you've got to unlearn. 

Gaurav Kwatra

The GXBank team is one of the client teams our consultants most love to work for. They love the collaboration; they love the energy. I would love to hear your perspective on what sets your team apart. 

Pei Si

I think [there are] a few things. First, we all have joined a startup. And startup is, as we all know, no easy work. Therefore, everybody who comes in actually has a passion — a passion for delivering whatever they felt was the reason for joining us. And that passion, I think, hopefully, then translates into what we love and what we're actually proud of. 

For us to get anything delivered, I think, in an environment where it's completely zero to one, you need to be tenacious, right? You need to figure out and make sure that whatever problems that actually come and are thrown your way because we do not know, typically, how to solve it. We got to work around and work with everybody to make sure we get it solved. And the tenacity helps us to make sure that we achieve targets and milestone after milestone, right? 

The third is very clear. If we had wanted an easy job, a job that we can stay in status quo, we wouldn't actually be where we are. We're here because we want to challenge the ways of working. We want to challenge the ways of banking. We want to challenge the ways of how customers actually want to be served. And also, how you should actually see to those policies, but making sure that you're still within the guardrail of where the regulation is. 

I think the important third thing that the team seems to be representing and manifesting by itself is, everybody’s got to challenge their mindset. And this challenger mindset helps us to then challenge the status quo and, I think, brings things that are going to be a little bit more innovative, a little bit more different, a little bit more differentiated than the everyday bank. 

The fourth is, as I reflect back on my journey right, I thought I knew how to build a bank, but I certainly didn't. I needed everybody to bring their respective expertise and to work with everyone. And that also means that we need to be able to listen, and listen very well to each other and with tons of humility.

Gaurav

Working with your team, I can totally vouch for the passion, the challenge, the tenacity, the energy, the collaboration, the humility. That's also true. 

Before this ends, I remember I was telling you that I'm helping Oliver Wyman build a team to deliver AI and Analytics. It's been a good journey, but I would love to learn how do you build a team like this. How do you build this fun-loving, tenacious, collaborative team? 

Pei Si

I think it takes quite a deliberate and thoughtful way on exactly what type of people and what type of profile I'd like to actually fill the team with. For us, it was actually quite clear. We are a technology company but providing banking services. Therefore, we do need a very diverse group of technologists as well as bankers. In our case, we've managed to bring in half of them being technologists, and half of them being bankers. 

The second big thing, as we try to select and ensure that we get the right team culture, are we able to get alignment of purpose of the folks who actually come in? Everybody and every single person who works with GXBank are either here to change the industry because we think that there is so much to change and do better with, and to actually help the underserved in Malaysia. 

The third characteristic that we need to fill our team with is wanting to learn. It's not only learning, though. We need to actually almost unlearn some of the things that we've learned previously. If you want to challenge the status quo, you've got to unlearn. And then, as you learn and you unlearn, you end up also relearning new things that you want to learn. With these, then we'll be able to have the best chance to put things together. 

The fourth is, we need team players. We need folks who are able to collaborate and actually work with each other and listen well. The ability to listen well is not only actually to each other’s ideas, but also listen well as we talk to our customers, talk to our stakeholders. Making sure that we are always in alignment to what's important and important to them. Ultimately, actually, where and who we are really working for are the consumers who are picking up our products and picking our solutions. 

Gaurav

Thank you for sharing that, Pei Si. I think you've done really well so far. Good luck on the journey ahead. 

Pei Si

Thank you.  

Gaurav

I'll take away the lesson, especially on filling the team with purpose and just the thoughtful planning in getting your people. I'll really take that away, today. Thank you much for your time.