Wei-Wei is making small changes to create a big impact.

In today’s climate, companies are rushing to find the innovation and deliver large-scale transformations that revolutionise their business from top-to-bottom, but for us effective improvement has always been a continuous process. Wei-Wei’s role as Chief Operating Officer of our Emerging Markets, Loans and Deposits team in Wealth Management is to manage the growth of her business area. Her accomplishments are proof that when it comes to driving change, your mindset is just as important as your actions.

Wei-Wei is responsible for products, people, processes, performance and protection. Protection means looking at the different ways risks in the business are managed to ensure the correct controls are in place to manage them.

“I look after growth for the business, anything that helps increase our revenues, reduce our costs, and at the same time manage the risks around it.”

One of Wei-Wei’s current projects is improving the Lombard credit request cycle; the end-to-end process that begins with a client’s credit request and ends with funds being made available for the client to draw down. This cycle currently takes too long, as there are various evaluations, checks and processing that must take place, and multiple touch-points before the end point—this is a process that Wei-Wei wants to make more efficient.

“If we shorten the time from front to back within the bank and then to the client, we can meet their needs on a more timely basis, without increasing risk. It’s a win-win for everybody.”

Wei-Wei began the change process by identifying pain-points, learning how other regions and competitors deal with them, seeking ideas from co-workers on ways to improve processes and align stakeholders on the changes required.

“I love to hear about people’s pain-points as much as I like to hear success stories. Every ‘complaint’ is an opportunity to improve”.

She works with people across the business to build the solution and is then supported by a dedicated transformation team who help manage and implement it.

“The way our team is set up is in general a very collaborative environment, starting from strong leaders who encourage collaboration across diverse functions and frown on silo mentality, to working-level colleagues who want to solve problems and make things work. Having access to everybody that runs the nuts and bolts of the business is fundamental to making changes.”

It’s the desire to drive change and work collaboratively across the franchise with aligned goals that make improvements possible. Wei-Wei says,

“There is a general recognition that improvement is done on a continuous basis, it’s continuously looking for areas to improve and delivering solutions quickly.”

That’s what change at Deutsche Bank Wealth Management means for her. It’s less about the one-off big-bang transformation projects, and more about the culture where everybody is open to change – one where every decision and action helps lay the foundations for a better, stronger bank.