Six years ago, a major player in the financial services industry partnered with Projective Group to introduce an innovative service in correspondent banking. After the successful launch in 2016, this initiative rapidly became the new standard in cross-border payments ensuring that international payments met the industry’s needs for speed, traceability and transparency.
In order to boost & support global adoption, a partnership with Projective Group was created to handhold & support customers in their E2E onboarding journey. That’s where Philip Somers, Project Manager for Projective Group, entered play. Philip carefully started putting together a team, consisting of senior experts and Projective Group trainees, to make this program a success. Today, the team largely consists of Projective Group Talent, who continue to surprise Philip every day.
‘For five years, we’d been doing this with people who had more than 10 years of experience in the financial services industry, for clients from all over the world. Honestly, I was worried about these young and freshly graduated consultants having to navigate all the sensitivities and difficulties of working with different cultures.’ Philip says. ‘But this fear was completely unjustified. These young talents are so motivated, so eager to learn and willing to go the extra mile to prove that they can learn quickly and deliver quality.’
Forming a team with young grads in a complex and sensitive context scared me at first. But my fear was completely unjustified.
The three pillars of added value
Content
Philip is convinced that young people create a richness in the team. ‘For me, the value of having emerging talent on the team is based on three pillars,’ he explains.
‘The first pillar is the content. Because they’re fresh out of school, these young talents are eager to learn. And because of this eagerness, we see a very steep learning curve. And there’s another big advantage to their inexperience: they have an unbiased, fresh perspective. Thanks to our young talents’ input, criticism and improvement points, we were able to finetune our processes to the benefit of our end customers.’
A young consultant’s unbiased, fresh perspective challenges us to stay critical of the way we do things.
Flat structure
‘The second pillar is the flat structure. Nobody is a Master Leader of anything – everybody is part of the team and has a dedicated role. It’s important that everybody on the team takes on responsibility and ownership from the beginning. By doing so, we are creating growth and new opportunities naturally. All kudos go to the Projective Group young talents, who work very hard every day to deliver an excellent job. They put the entire group in the spotlight, which in turn creates an additional value for Projective Group and its partners.’
By giving everybody responsibility and ownership, you impel the team forwards and create growth within the company.
Coaching
‘The third pillar is the coaching. A lot of effort is made by the Projective Group recruitment and talent development teams to look at the person behind the CV, and to match that person with a job offer.’
And then there’s the intensive coaching during their time at the client. In a structured and at the same time informal way, they support the consultants through professional and personal challenges. I have deep respect for the energy that Talent Development Managers put into their coaching endeavours, the preparation that goes into the 360 evaluations and the support they give their consultants every day.’
Conclusion
When you bring these three pillars together, you get natural growth. ‘These young people have the motivation, the freshness and the support to open doors all by themselves, thus broadening the reach of the company as well. We’ve all heard the saying “one plus one equals three.” That’s what we experience in our team as well. That all the different entities within the group are making our success story possible,’ Philip Somers concludes.
Something that we, at Projective Group, are really proud of is that this approach not only helps our clients grow but it also enables our people to work on challenging projects. Effectively transcending the traditional ladder structure you often find in a consultancy context. Win-win for everyone.
Curious how carefully selected and matched young talents can liven up your business and impel you towards growth? Get in touch today, and let’s chat!
About Projective Group
Established in 2006, Projective Group is a leading Financial Services change specialist.
We are recognised within the industry as a complete solutions provider, partnering with clients in Financial Services to provide resolutions that are both holistic and pragmatic. We have evolved to become a trusted partner for companies that want to thrive and prosper in an ever-changing Financial Services landscape.
