Matt: Hello, and welcome to Conversations Unlocked, the UniCredit Podcast and your gateway to industry insights. I'm Matt Thomas...

Nikolina: And I'm Nikolina Zečić. In this brand-new series of Conversations Unlocked, we'll be learning how we unlock a better bank for tomorrow, with insights from experts and conversations with colleagues about the most exciting things happening at our banks across Europe.

In this episode, we are learning all about Culture. For our colleagues who missed our third annual Culture Day, you won't want to miss this because we have an exclusive recording of Joanna Carrs, Head of Group Stakeholder Engagement, talking to Americas Cup CEO, Grant Dalton.

Grant shares with us the lessons he has taken from racing, about how we create a Culture that unites our teammates and inspires us to win.

Matt: And that's not all. Later on, we'll join Sandra Novosel, Culture Expert at Zaba in the Conversations Unlocked Culture Corner, an all-new feature in this series, where colleagues ask questions about our Group Culture and we learn what each of us can do to unlock a better bank for tomorrow.

Nikolina: But before we dive in, here are some internal news headlines from UniCredit. In case you missed the big news, UniCredit recently published its second quarter and first half Results of 2024. This is a landmark set of results for our Bank. We have had a record quarter and first half, culminating in fourteen quarters of quality growth and set new records with a number of these Results.

For example, our net profit increased 16% to 2.7 billion euros in the quarter, and increased 20% to 5.2 billion euros in the half. These results are testament to the strength of our strategic plan, which is helping us grow sustainably, deliver for our shareholders, and meet the needs of our clients and communities.

Matt: Thanks, Nikolina. Now let's listen to our exclusive recording of Joanna Carrs speaking to Grant Dalton at our recent Culture Day.

Nikolina: Here we join Jo as she asks Grant what the secret is to uniting a team behind the goal as important in racing, as it is for a pan-European banking Group like UniCredit.

Joanna: For you, what is the secret behind uniting a team behind a goal, and winning races such as this?

Grant: I was listening to Andrea [Orcel] before just punching that word Culture, and I, I mean don't speak to that many environments with a company like this, but I wasn't expecting it to be punched that hard. Because I don't actually hear it that often in the corporate world, because in our world, it's absolutely everything.

One of the things that we also must have is, we must also have a shared vision in what we do. And we need to agree within our Culture what we all stand for. And when we sat down at the end of, well the middle of 2021 after we won the Cup in Bermuda, obviously what we stood for was to win it again in New Zealand, which we did. And no-one's ever won it three times in a row. No team has ever won it three times in a row. So that's an obvious thing culturally to want to do as well.

But you know, you've got a lot of the same guys there, they're getting older, they've got families etc., so you've got to stand for other things as well that help create milestones along the way. So we decided as our Executive group, that we needed to stand more for diversity and we needed to stand more for sustainability. And all these things are anchored in a Culture of the team, and it makes it very easy, frankly. Once the Culture is working, my job's pretty easy.

Joanna: So if those are the elements that you are focusing on as you seek to build your Culture, what values do you instil in your team, to make sure that it encourages each one of them to step up every day to be there, the best. Because to compete at the level that won last time, probably won't be enough.

Grant: No, no, nowhere near. We've got to be at least 10% better. So the first thing that we... sports teams, I think, are quite bad at recognising that people have other lives. So I think that we have been quite good at recognising the fact that their sole purpose in life isn't just to come to work. Their sole purpose when they get to work is to win, or to be part of a Culture that is to win.

But we try to recognise milestones along the way. We try to recognise an environment where because we're basically, you said before, a technology team, a lot of technology can be done offline in terms of not being in the office. So there's a lot of elements that we've brought into what is a macho Culture of a sports team, that allow us to live life, of people.

And that has allowed us to be continuously successful for 30 years, which is unusual in this sport. No team stays together for 30 years, they fragment.

Joanna: We're talking very much about the training and the focus on the boat and on the team, but you wear two hats because you have the team, which has to be trained and focused on the expectation is then to win, but you also have the production of the entire event. So you must have to delegate and in delegating, you have to trust those people, and if they then make mistakes, how do you manage that? How do you allow them to do that to learn, and then how do you manage the understanding that the mistakes are part of that journey?

Grant: I've never actually heard the word mistakes, I never actually think of it as mistakes. They are just part of a process that you then repair and fix. I don't actually ever see them as mistakes. From my point of view. The Culture that we run is that people are empowered, and must be. We have a no-blame Culture and there is an environment both in the team and in the organisation, which is much newer, the organisation, so you always have some growing pains, that if something goes wrong, if the people are right... no matter which department they're in, they rally.

Joanna: I wonder how that ethos works in practice with the sailors on the boat? Because you've got the best plan. You've made, you know, all of your development, your engineers have fixed what they needed to fix in time. You know what you're doing. Out you go, you've read your weather... that's very non-technical.

Grant: I know where you're going with this question, this is a great question. Can I answer the question before you can ask it?

Sailors have unbelievable brain explosions. And so what happens when that happens is that the main yachtsmen actually come in after each race and they debrief the whole organisation. So they don't just go into their own debrief, 150 people get together, the yachtsmen sit there and they get asked questions. So everybody becomes engaged in the same process, and guess what happens, is the yachtsmen don't have as many brain explosions because they know that they've got to come and explain to the other guys why they had them, and you just kind of get better, and it just...

And it's, the other thing, is that actually it needs to be fun. I know that sounds like a bit of a 'yeah, right, of course it needs to be fun', but it actually does.

And so we, we're all pretty close mates. It sounds pretty hard to have 150 mates, but, and I'm not sure Andrea knows 77,000 people's names, but I'll bet you he knows a few thousand people's names. And I think that's really important to a Culture, that there's this engagement. And you think oh, they don't care, they don't need to talk to me, but they do.

Joanna: I just wonder, on a final question, how do you get your team every day to come to work and say that you can do things that everybody else says isn't achievable?

Grant: Culture. It comes back to that word. You have, we employ really carefully. We have quite a process of growing talent. So we go in, for our engineers we tend to go into the universities, find their best. We don't necessarily promote, you obtain. So we have such a sort of an open-door, or push-the-door policy, that if you are good and if you want to get into a position, you just basically, you'll slowly just walk into that position.

You don't have to necessarily be appointed. I've never had a business card and I've never had an employment contract in my life. And a lot of the guys around me haven't either. Some cases, I don't even know what their title is, but it just kind of works, because people instinctively want to be trusted, people instinctively want to achieve, people instinctively want to get better. And I'm not sure you can teach that. I think if you have the right people, they will do that instinctively.

One of the part of our Culture is a no-Culture. If we had a one sort of a saying in our organisation, it would be no is the hardest word. And it helps the Culture because people therefore know that their projects that they're presenting to help the boat go faster better be thought through properly and have a dollar amount assigned to them and quantify how much speed.

And it holds an organisation tighter, it doesn't get sloppy, when everybody says I'll do this, do that, no-one's going to tell me I can't. We say no a lot.

Joanna: And do you say no quite fast in terms of, so money is not wasted, time is not wasted?

Grant: It depends on the project. It depends on the project. If it's a total science project, which could be breakthrough, we don't say no, we won't say no for a long time. If it is a whimsical project that someone just didn't want to say no to because they don't want to be that guy, then we'll say it quickly.

Joanna: Grant, thank you very much. And obviously all the best for this year's race, for Team New Zealand, and for the production.

Grant: Thank you, thank you for the opportunity.

Nikolina: What a fascinating conversation. It goes to show that even if banking and sailing are two different worlds, the strategy for success is actually the same. It all starts with creating that Culture that motivates people, brings them together, and inspires them to take responsibility for their team's success.

Matt: That's exactly right, Nikolina, and now for more insights on Culture within UniCredit, let's join Culture Expert Sandra Novosel in our Culture Corner, where she'll be answering a question from one of our UniCredit colleagues.

Sandra: Thank you, Matt and Nikolina. Hello, I'm Sandra Novosel Caroli, Culture Expert at Zagrebačka banka, and welcome to the Conversations Unlocked Culture Corner.

Here in the Culture Corner, we answer your questions about UniCredit's People, Culture, and how our colleagues contribute to building the Bank for Europe's future.

In this episode, our question comes from Mara [Helikum], Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Manager at HypoVereinsbank, well let's hear Mara's question.

Mara: Hello, my name is [Mara Helikum], I am Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Manager at HypoVereinsbank in Germany, and I would like to ask a question. Since the launch of our Group Culture, our Values of Integrity, Ownership and Caring, have become an integral part of UniCredit life. Based on your experience, how can my colleagues and I further embody these Values in what we do for UniCredit?

Sandra: Thank you, Mara. Excellent question. Well when we think about Integrity, Integrity is a difficult thing to see. More often, it's easier to see if someone lacks Integrity. In my personal experience at UniCredit, I have seen colleagues acting with Integrity when they have had to take on greater responsibility, and make difficult decisions, to do the right thing for our clients. For example, not selling mobile banking to a client unless they are absolutely sure that the client understands the app and is comfortable using it.

And when we move to Caring, like Integrity, Caring means doing more to help someone because you want them to succeed. You can show Caring to colleagues as well as the clients. For example, proactively offering to be a buddy and a mentor to another colleague who needs assistance. For example, if they have returned from a long sick leave period, helping to make the transition period back into work as easy as possible.

And Ownership, for example, is seen most when colleagues help each other to achieve business. A brilliant example I have seen is when a colleague had a fantastic idea for a well-being initiative and brought it to life themselves, taking Ownership for the end-to-end process.

There are also small ways that colleagues can demonstrate Ownership in their daily life at UniCredit, like raising their hands to take tasks from another colleague, enabling them to go to work immediately on another project and devote their full attention to it.

And to close, our Group Culture encourages us to support and empower each other, and to be a better banking partner to our clients. If you see opportunities to do this and take them, then you are embodying our Values of Integrity, Ownership, and Caring.

So thank you for joining me in the Culture Corner for this episode, and back to you, Matt and Nikolina.

Nikolina: Thank you, Sandra and thank you, Mara. And finally, before we go, here is one more piece of UniCredit news to get excited about.

In a major step forward in our Bank's digital and data journey, UniCredit recently invested in Aion and Vodeno. As you know, our Bank embraces Innovation in service of our customers. We will now own a next-generation cloud-based and scalable digital platform, allowing us to enhance our proposition for consumers and SMEs.

But that's not all. You can look forward to more of Conversations Unlocked Series 3 coming after the summer, with episodes diving into the most exciting new things happening in our Bank and the big internal and external events in the UniCredit Group Calendar. Listen out for episodes about Americas Cup, ESG Day, and much, much more.

Thank you all for listening. We hope you enjoyed this episode.

Matt: Please join us next time for more must-hear insights and conversations about life at UniCredit, on another Conversations Unlocked.

Matt: Hello and welcome to Conversations Unlocked, the UniCredit podcast and your gateway to industry insights. I'm Matt Thomas,

Nikolina: and I'm Nikolina Zečić. In this series of Conversations Unlocked, we will be learning how we unlock a better Bank for tomorrow, with insights from experts and conversations with colleagues about the most exciting things happening at UniCredit. In this episode, we will shine the spotlight on the UniCredit Foundation - the philanthropic arm of the Group.

We'll be speaking to the founder of one of the organisations benefiting from the support of the Foundation, where we will discuss the importance of tackling educational inequality across Europe.

Matt: And later on, we'll be speaking to Mara Helikum in the Conversations Unlocked Culture Corner, our brand-new feature in this series, where colleagues ask questions about our Group's culture and we learn what each of us can do to unlock a better Bank for tomorrow.

Nikolina: But let's start with a run through of the biggest news stories coming from the Bank over the past few weeks. Our first piece of news is one I'm super excited about. At the end of September, the UniCredit Youth America's Cup concluded with an exciting final, in which Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli triumphed over American Magic to claim first place. The competition was an incredible display of skill and determination and we are pleased that UniCredit could play a role in supporting these young athletes in such an exciting race. We'll be talking more about the America's Cup in a future episode, so make sure you listen out for that.

Matt: At the same time, we recently announced our forthcoming Digital Days, which will take place on the 21st and 22nd of October, as we push forward with our digital strategy and ongoing transformation. On the business side, with product innovation and service excellence front of mind, our Group's Investment Strategy and Group Research teams have been merged into one single unit, to allow the operating model to unlock its full potential.

Nikolina: And now we move on to our interview on the work of the UniCredit Foundation with our special guest, Rosa Bergmann, founder of education charity "Hobby Lobby". Matt spoke with Rosa in September - let's hear their conversation now.

Matt: Thank you, Nikolina. So, everyone, we're here today with Rosa Bergmann, founder of Hobby Lobby, and our first guest on this new series of the podcast. Rosa works for a very interesting organisation called Hobby Lobby, which is making great strides in making informal education more accessible via dedicated resources, mentorship and care. Welcome, Rosa.

Rosa: Well, thank you. I'm glad to be here, actually. And it's nice that I am the first guest; it's an honour!

Matt: And to be honest, given it's the start of the school year, it feels like an appropriate time to be to be chatting, right? I mean, maybe I'll just kick it over to you, Rosa, to kick off; perhaps you could start with a little bit about why you started Hobby Lobby and what the journey has been like so far? I think you were also a teacher, right?

Rosa: Yeah, I'll take you back to 2017 then, when I started with Teach for Austria, which is a part of the Teach for All Network. I started as a fellow, meaning that you go to a school as a teacher, a Viennese middle school. I was there to work on educational opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. So, I went there just to teach. I taught mathematics, physics, arts, and everything - it was quite a journey. I got to know a lot of children who were extremely motivated, very kind, very cool, but they were also frustrated because everything they worked for in school was never enough. They worked so hard in school and others also in the afternoons, going to soccer practice, learning instruments, doing pottery lessons, working on their creativity and social skills. There are some different studies that show [that] roughly 70% [of skills], or something, are acquired outside of formal education, but within leisure time and informal contexts: from parents, from friends...

I met those children who had no way to join and had not been able to access informal education because, in Austria, everything that you do after 12 p.m. is very costly.

That's actually when we started the Hobby Lobby, with volunteers offering free course programmes to the children - from pottery to languages to science. So, we now offer different programmes, and children can access them for free.

Matt: That's amazing and it's incredibly interesting too, because it's so easy to think of education as everything that happens inside the classroom. But when I think about growing up and the things that I was involved in at school and various sports and trips, that informal education side is so important for developing soft skills and other important bits and pieces like that. You mentioned 2017 as when everything kind of kicked off, what's the impact been like to date? How can you kind of track the progress that's been made?

Rosa: So, we're now five years old and a bit. We started back in 2019, in March, and by now we have 13 locations and 3 countries. We've actually been scaling to Germany and Romania as well, and we have 11 locations within Austria. We've had over, I would say, 630 courses, I think; over 100,000 childcare hours. Within those courses we've offered 8000 spots to roughly 5000 children. And then in 2021, another programme was born within the organisation. I would say just by accident, one child actually brought it to us because the children grew older, of course, and they wanted to take on also a bit of responsibility and help, they became very eager to help the volunteers and instructors. So, we created the Youth Leaders programme, where the children that actually have been within the programme and have been participating, become instructors, they volunteer too. They also get some workshops and mentoring and it's a one-year programme for them.

Matt: That's really nice. It's so nice that they can come back and almost recycle the skills that they've learned and, you know, kind of taking on leadership roles like that and trying to improve outcomes for others. I think that's fantastic. And maybe to sort of zoom out a little bit, maybe we could talk about why educational inequality in Europe is such an issue, why organisations like yours are so important. Maybe you could comment on that for us.

Rosa: I think it's an issue because in many European countries we pass on educational injustice to the next generation. So, education and injustice are something that is very much inherited by your parents, by their parents. We don't seem to tackle educational inequality as fast as we should in order to achieve, for example, that children are not at risk of poverty anymore. Because with good and high-quality education, we can achieve so much for the future, for their lives, for what they change, for their lifetime. Education actually creates a future. And if you fail them and if you fail those children in the beginning of their lifespan, then you failed them for a long period. And it needs a lot of people, it needs role models and it needs, and you said before, a new understanding of what education is. Education is not only what happens in school, university or kindergarten. Education happens every day in every place, anywhere, any time. So, it's highly important that we see this as such a crucial point for development and for the future, I would say.

Matt: One thing that I wanted to ask you about is how your work has dovetailed with our own Foundation. You know that we have a long, enduring commitment to education and [to] creating a more equitable and inclusive future. Maybe you could comment on the way that we've worked together over the past few years.

Rosa: It's amazing. It's actually what keeps us going. Corporations of that size and value understand that it's possible and for organisations like ours to get funding, and that has made such an impact for our work and stability, because we now have planning security and we can tackle the big issues. We've been to Milan with all the other projects and there has been such a nice exchange of knowledge. And also with the Foundation team, there's so much support while scaling to Romania, for example, so UniCredit Foundation is for us a very big partner now and one of the strategic partners that is helping us.

What's maybe also different from other funding partners is that the issues are so well understood from the Foundation, because education is such an important value (for UniCredit) that it makes such a difference in talking and understanding and finding the crucial points in where it could fail? What do you need? That's just another kind of support and it helps a lot actually.

Matt: That's great to hear. I think having that holistic view across all the markets really helps you to define the debate, maybe to a certain extent. What about the future, is there anything that you can tell us about more expansion plans, anything exciting around the corner?

Rosa: Yeah, what we now have in mind is to scale to a younger target group, because Hobby Lobby programmes at the moment run for middle schools for 10- to 16-year-olds. Since there is such a high demand, we are going for the younger target group as well. We want to tackle primary schools, so that's going to be one big challenge and one big scaling moment. We are very open also to scale to other countries or regions that have the same issues, because everywhere we go, people tell us about the same issue. The issue is almost European wide, I would say. So the issue is there. So yeah, we are open and we will hopefully be an important player in tackling this issue.

Matt: On the impact side of things as well, Rosa, are there special metrics that you have in place to really look at the impacts with a level of detail and granularity? How can you kind of see what's happening across the markets with these initiatives?

Rosa: Impact measurement is quite important to our organisation, and that's also something that I like about the partnership with UniCredit, because not only what we do is important, but also what we achieve with is important to the Foundation. Just a while ago, with the University of Vienna, they did a social return on investment analysis, and somehow made some external impact measurement for our organisation and found that every €1 invested in the programme is worth €21.27 for the society. So that's a very nice and high social return investment.

Matt: Fantastic. Well, we're all very excited to see how things develop. Rosa, thank you so much for joining us today, that was an incredibly interesting conversation, so thank you again for your time.

Rosa: Thank you so much, it was a pleasure to be here.

Nikolina: Wow, what a fascinating conversation.

Matt: Yes. Honestly, it was such a pleasure to have that conversation with Rosa. The work that both she and the organisation have been doing over the last seven years I think is incredible. And it was so exciting, I think, to hear as well that they've got so many new initiatives around the corner and that the organisation continues to flourish in that way. I think one of the most interesting takeaways from the conversation as well was just the central role that the Foundation's been playing in all this, not only from a funding perspective, but also in terms of helping to shape the issues and understand the dialogue that's happening around education and providing resource in different countries, so it was a great conversation.

Nikolina: Wonderful - I'm looking forward to hearing more. And now it's time to focus on culture with our Culture Corner. Today we will be joined by Mara Helikum, who will be answering a question about culture from one of our UniCredit colleagues.

Mara: Thank you, Matt and Nikolina. Hello, I am Mara Helikum - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Manager at HVB - and welcome to the Conversations Unlocked Culture Corner. Here on the Culture Corner, we answer your questions about UniCredit's people, culture and how our colleagues contribute to building the Bank for Europe's future. In this episode, our question comes from Filippo Pili, EFX trader in Italy and member of the employee network, Unicorns. Let's hear Filippo's question.

Filippo: Hi Mara, can you tell us about how UniCredit's social impact projects in Germany are having an impact on the Bank's culture?

Mara: Thank you, Filippo. We have some amazing projects here at HVB, all of which are having huge impact on our Values. For example, HVB is a partner of Tech First Deutschland, which is doing incredible work to improve the quality of education that children can access. They are helping to make our schools and the next generation ready for the challenges of tomorrow, which will be critical if Europe is to grow and succeed in the way we all want it to do. This speaks of our value, Integrity. Integrity is about not just doing the right thing, but doing it in the right way. With a project like Teach First, we are really impacting society and making a difference that goes beyond our call of providing banking services. We have a huge culture of volunteering in the Group here at HVB. We encourage colleagues to participate in skills-based volunteering, which allows them to share their own competencies to drive the progress of our local communities for education, mentoring and coaching.

This kind of volunteering is evidence of our value, Caring, in action, especially when we are all so busy that it can be easy not to find the right time to go the extra mile and give time to volunteer. But our value of Caring reminds us how important it is to be there for those less fortunate than you or who could benefit from your experience.

I know from my role in DE&I that diversity of thought and opinion makes all the difference and brings so much positivity to [our] teams. So, projects like this are also an opportunity to learn from people with different experiences than yours. Ownership is really important for our team and we want to give people the space to focus on the things they personally care about and make a difference in this area. Taking Ownership is a great way to find purpose in your own work and feel positive about the impact you are making.

The UniCredit University provides employees with access to digital and in-person resources to support their own development in the areas most relevant to them. We encourage colleagues to take a look at the Plus learning platform to find out more about opportunities to take Ownership and upskill. I hope what you've heard about today has inspired you to think about how your actions can impact other people and to find ways to create positive change, whether in your team or [in] your wider community. And I hope that answered your question, Filippo. Thank you for joining me in the Culture Corner for this episode. Back to you, Matt and Nikolina.

Nikolina: Thank you Mara, thank you Filippo, very interesting. And that's all for today. Thank you so much for listening in. We have more episodes due to come out in this series over the coming weeks, so stay tuned for more updates.

Matt: And do remember the forthcoming Digital Days that we have coming up on the 21st and 22nd [of] October. I know that the agenda is under construction and soon we will have some very interesting details to share. Please do join us again next time for more must-hear insights and conversations about life at UniCredit on another Conversations Unlocked.

Matt: Hello, and welcome to Conversations Unlocked, the UniCredit podcast and your gateway to industry insights. I'm Matt Thomas,  

 
Nikolina: And I'm Nikolina Zečić. In this series of Conversations Unlocked, we'll be learning how we unlock a better bank for tomorrow. Join us for expert insights and engaging discussions with colleagues about the most exciting developments shaping the future of UniCredit. 

And this time, we're setting sail with an episode dedicated to the 37th America's Cup. As you know, UniCredit played a big role in this year's race by sponsoring the Youth America's Cup. 

Matt: Yes, that's right. In today's episode, Nikolina will be speaking to Mack Dalton, Head of Sponsorship at the 37th America's Cup and son of Grant Dalton, the CEO of the competition, who we heard from in the first episode of this series. Nikolina will ask Mack about the lessons in teamwork that we can draw from the America's Cup and what makes UniCredit the ideal partner for this extraordinary international racing event. 

Nikolina: And that's not all, Matt! Later on, in a special edition of the Culture Corner, we'll hear from "star performers", our branch managers from across UniCredit who were invited to attend the America's Cup in Barcelona. We'll hear why they think our partnership with the America's Cup is so valuable. 

Matt: But before we dive into that, here are some internal news headlines from across the Bank. 

Nikolina: You know, Matt, Christmas is just around the corner and it's hard to believe... But we're all excited to celebrate our second edition of "Kids4Kids and Donation Day" in December. Christmas is all about giving and coming together, so we're inviting our colleagues and their children to all our offices across UniCredit to donate gifts for children in need and enjoy some holiday activities. Stay tuned for more updates - we can't wait to see you all there! 

Matt: How lovely. It's always one of the best events of the year. Thank you so much for those headlines, Nikolina. But now it's time to make some waves. Let's hear this episode's conversation with Mack Dalton. 

Nikolina: Hi, Mack. So good to have you here with us today. And welcome to Conversations Unlocked. 

Mack: Hey, Nikolina. Thank you very much for having me. I'm excited to join you today. 

Nikolina: So, let's start with a very simple question. The America's Cup has come to a close this year, and it was really exciting and intense. How are you feeling now? 

Mack: Yeah, I mean, it's... You get to the end of a journey like this one and there are some mixed emotions. I think the team and I talked the whole time about how we would feel when we get to the end. Another factor in the, really, the uniqueness of the competition is that as the organising entity, America's Cup Events, we're also tied to one team. In this case, it's Emirates Team New Zealand, the team that has won the America's Cup. So, I think on that front, we're feeling a tremendous amount of relief and joy that they were able to successfully defend the America's Cup.  

And then, obviously, as you touched on, you know, I think the event has been a tremendous success. But then there's also the sadness. I mean, you - you grow so close to the people that you work with that... It's a cliché, but you really do become a family. You do everything [together]. It's such a long, intense event. In some cases, a lot of these people you won't see for a long time or until the next project. So, there are, you know, as I said, a lot of mixed emotions. But I think the one underpinning all of them, the strongest feeling is the joy of, really, winning and having an amazing event. So, in that way, I think we're very content with where things are now. 

Nikolina: Thank you. Thank you, and congratulations one more time. And I really like the word "family" - we are going to talk about family and teamwork a bit later. But I want to focus now on preparations. So, with such a prestigious event as the America's Cup, I think preparations must be incredibly complex.  

Could you share some insights with us into the key challenges, maybe, your team faced during the planning stages, and also how you ensure a seamless experience for both competitors and the audience? 

Mack: Yeah, I think preparation, that's an interesting one because we - well, we arrived in Barcelona in April of 2022. We were a very small team, America's Cup Events. When we got here, we grew to about half a dozen for probably the first... The first few months. And, really, everyone was asking, "So what are you doing? What needs to be done?" And there's a massive amount of work behind the scenes that needs to go on - everything from permissions for where we race, to educating the local population, especially in a city that hasn't hosted the America's Cup or maybe doesn't have a history of the America's Cup.  

That's been another challenge for us, really, sort of bringing the event to the locals so that we're not just sailing a race on the shore that no one knows about. But then, I mean, from my scope and my role specifically, also, we started from really a tiny, tiny handful of sponsors. So, we were finding new sponsors, having those negotiations, and then adapting how the event looked - in terms of the TV product, the physical layout - based on how those sponsors wanted to see the event unfold. And then, you also rightly touch on the teams. I mean, there's also the... They're 150 [people], each team wearing their different badges, [they] come to compete for this event, so they can't be neglected [either]. I think when you consider everything, it becomes a massive operation. There are so many different factors.  

What's challenging for a sport like sailing in particular is that we're in a public zone, we're not in a controlled setting. So, it's not like football, where we have a field that you control everyone who comes in and out [of], and the TV product can be very specifically placed. I mean, we have the variables of being in a totally open public space. We're on the - we're on the ocean. I think that brings its own challenges, dealing with administrations, who, admittedly, have been fantastic to deal with for the duration of our time here. But I think it's - there are many elements to it. And they all have to come together in perfect harmony to arrive at a final and successful event, which I think we have. 

Nikolina: Yeah, I totally understand when you mention the massive amount of work behind the scenes, especially when we organise some big events in UniCredit, like, for example, our annual Culture Day. It's really a lot of stress, but also the excitement is there. So, I understand, and I'm super happy that UniCredit is one of the sponsors and supporters.  

Talking about UniCredit and bankers, you know that we like numbers. So, do you measure the success of an event like the America's Cup? And if you do, how? 

Mack: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there are multiple elements of how we need to measure things. 

The most immediate numbers we now have are the attendances. So again, going back to being in a public place, we've remained completely free of ticketing. We've had our three big public zones: two fan zones, and a race village. So that's really where fans can interact with the exhibitions of the teams, the sponsors, live performances, there are lots of people passing through.  

So, to collect the data on that, the initial number we're getting is across - bear in mind, three months, so it's a lot of time, and it's a very busy area already in Barcelona - but over 2.5 million people have passed through our zones and interacted with the event in some way. That's really our preliminary number. The others, which will come out - this next one probably within the next week or so - are social media, the impact of all our digital footprint; and then the final one, the one that I think, in the case of sponsors and people trying to calculate the global ROI, will be the audience numbers, the TV audience numbers, those who have consumed America's Cup content overall. And that, that is done through Nielsen, which I understand does the majority of global sporting events.  

But for me, that's - that's a very big one. That's a very important one, if you could talk about numbers. Yeah, I think we're - we're equally interested in how the numbers break down and whether we've given a positive ROI, which I am beyond sure that we have. But those numbers come out in a couple of months. So, I think we'll be able to collect all of them together probably - well, I'm hoping by December. 

Nikolina: Impressive. I believe UniCredit and America's Cup have really a lot in common - not just talking about the numbers. We have an interesting connection. Both banking and America's Cup racing demand a high level of strategic decision making, and also cutting-edge technology plays a crucial role in both industries.  

And last but not least, teamwork is so important. You mentioned the word "family", which I really, really, really like. Each member of the crew is important and of course each employee of the Bank contributes to the overall success. Would you agree with me? 

Mack: 100%. I mean, even if you break down the roles of the various people on the team; for example, Emirates Team New Zealand has something like 140 full-time staff and 40 of them are engineers and designers. So, you know, the guys that stand up on the podium, they're the best at what they do - the sailors, that is. And there are 12 of them: eight on the boat, four who sort of switch in and out. So, think of that. The guys building the boat, you know, [are] three to four times as many as the ones who actually sail on the boat and, you know, you will never see many of them.  

So, I think the concept of teamwork and needing to do what's better for the greater good is present in every single team. I mean, it's the way they're structured; these guys sweat day in, day out to design the perfect boat. And many of them, you know, you wouldn't hear about. So, I think the team that wins the America's Cup has got to be such a tight unit and such a group of individuals that has each other's backs and sort of wants what's best for the collective, as opposed to looking for personal glory. And I think Team New Zealand is a great example of the first thing I described. 

Nikolina: Yes, I totally understand. And I couldn't agree more because in UniCredit we bring people together, we operate in 13 different markets. It's not easy, but you know, when you have this common culture - for example, we have three Values that are connecting us - it gives us some kind of a guidance, and it's definitely our North Star.  

So, let's go on. You have a professional background in marketing, branding, and partnerships with a special focus, of course, on sports. And maybe this is too personal, but I'm really curious to know: did your dad pass on his love for sailing to you? And when we talk about, for example, the power of influence? 

Mack: Yeah, no, absolutely. Don't worry. It's not - it's not too personal. I mean, for sure. And as a New Zealander, I think there's a natural love of sailing. Everyone in New Zealand is, you know, pretty close to the water, regardless of where you live. But for sure, I think he passed on the passion of sailing, and I think, more than anything, the passion of competing. He's literally the most competitive person I've ever met. He hates losing more than anyone I've ever met, and I think he's really passed that on to me and my sisters as well. I mean, all three of us have been involved or worked in sport, and I think sport has always been a part of my life. So, I'm very pleased that he put that upon me as well, because I think sport is such an amazing thing. You know, it's - it's said a lot. Sport has the ability to transform and it teaches you a lot of life skills. 

So, for that, I'm so appreciative that I was able to have him as an influence getting me into sport. And then, I guess last but not least, really the - the love of the America's Cup. I was saying earlier that, you know, the America's Cup is such a unique, unique thing. And [for] those who have lived it and really, for lack of a better word, "been in the belly of the beast"... It's something truly magical. And so, to have seen it from the perspective I have, I really - from a young age, I was able to understand what the America's Cup is, what it symbolises, and you know, how it can change people's lives.  

So, I'm very much obsessed with the America's Cup now, just like him, for better or for worse. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, but no, I mean, he's passed on a lot to me. And I think the love of competing, of sport, and the America's Cup is definitely prevalent in me as it is in him. 

Nikolina: I'm sure it's a good thing, and we're sending our regards to Grant. And when you say you're a competitive person, from your personal experience, what's your number one recipe for success? 

Mack: I think my number one recipe for success, and it's something that is a constant battle to develop, is the ability to visualise and hold in your head a specific goal. I think too often, we set lofty goals and things we want to do, but we don't have a specific vision of how we will achieve them, or the moment we achieve them.  

So, for me, setting a goal that I can - I can run over back and forth in my head, myself achieving that goal, I think for me that's what's worked the best so far, and I think it's a good strategy. 

Nikolina: Well, thank you so much for the insightful conversation and really valuable tips you've shared with us. We truly appreciate your time. And, of course, we wish you all the best in the future races and everything that lies ahead. Thank you so much. 

Mack: Thank you so much, have a great day. 

Matt: Well, thank you, Mack and Nikolina, for that inspiring conversation. And it was so interesting picking out some points there about hearing Mack on the importance of preparation, and teamwork, and the greater good, especially when we think about our own transformation. 

Nikolina: I agree. And there's a special magic between UniCredit and the America's Cup. Now for more on America's Cup, it's time for this episode's Culture Corner.  

This is a special edition of the Culture Corner, where we're going to hear from UniCredit's branch managers who had the amazing opportunity to attend the America's Cup in Barcelona in person. Let's meet each of them and learn what makes them "star performers" and what they have to say about our partnership with the Cup. 

Ivana: My name is Ivana Petrović. I am the Branch Manager of two branches of UniCredit Bank in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. I was selected as a "star performer" by my CEO to be part of Culture Day in Munich in 2024, based on the fact that I truly work by our Group's values, that are Integrity, Ownership, and Caring. And that's why they brought me here in Barcelona today - I got two tickets for today's America's Cup.  

I really try to live our Group's values because they're [the] essence of everything, of our work. We can't work with our clients without them. And that's most important in our work. It's a good thing for the UniCredit Group to be involved with the America's Cup because we share similar values, that also we employees live every day in our work, share with our colleagues, our teams, also our clients, and then we automatically reflect them in our lives. 

Krisztian: I'm Krisztian Steiner from UniCredit Hungary. I come from nearby Budapest, from Szentendre, in a small branch. I've worked there with five colleagues for more than five years. At the end of May, I got a call from our Network Sales Head that they had chosen me to represent UniCredit Hungary in the Group Culture Event. So, this was the beginning of [me] being here, and it was a big honour for me.  

I was following the races on television in Hungary because it's the first time that in our country there's a live-streaming of the America's Cup. And I think our cultural values are strongly the same as the America's Cup. So, I think it's a truly authentic cooperation between us. We can learn a lot from the teams because I think in sailing, the teams need almost the same teamwork that we need in our banking industry, in our teams. I think it's a long-term responsible cooperation between us. 

Alina: My name is Nita Alina. I come from Romania, from a very small branch - Târgoviște, Caraiman branch, with five members. I felt very excited and very grateful to be part of this experience. The main values that I feel in Youth America's Cup and UniCredit are ambition and Caring. The thing that we can learn from America's Cup is that, individually, we're a little drop, but together we're an ocean - a functional and healthy team is the key to success. 

Philip: My name is Philip Lehner, and I come from Austria. I'm the Branch Manager of three branches in Linz, I have 20 employees to manage there, and I'm responsible for over 30,000 customers. I was invited to Munich, to the headquarters of HypoVereinsbank for Culture Day. And yeah, as a surprise, I was also invited to the America's Cup here in Barcelona. It fills me with pride and shows me what it can mean to work in such a big company. Barcelona is one of my favourite places, and I never thought that UniCredit would make it possible [for me] to see the America's Cup live here in Barcelona. I'm very happy and grateful for that.  

Sailing is a team sport. Banking is about people and teams, and only a strong team can win. You have to stick together and be able to rely on each other. That's just as important in sailing as it is in banking and leading teams. You can't control the wind, but you can set the sails differently, and every team member has to put a strong performance into that. 

Matt: Wow, thank you to all our "star performers". So great to hear from them and so great to hear from them directly from Barcelona as well, where of course, this year's event took place.  

Now, finally, before we go, here's one more piece of UniCredit news to get excited about. Our second ESG Day will take place on Thursday, 14th of November, at our Milan headquarters, as well as being streamed externally, via LinkedIn and our dedicated web page. The event will also be translated into four different languages, which represents a first for all Group.  

Now, for this next edition, we're putting the focus firmly on the need for greater progress in tackling some of the toughest issues facing our society today. These range from climate change and technology to how we can go about solving sustainability trade-offs. The event, held in tandem with COP29, has been put together with all clients front of mind, and will serve as a forum to review and assess all of the solutions available to us. It promises to be fantastic, and we really hope that you can join us for that. 

Nikolina: Thank you, Matt. Really looking forward to our second ESG Day in November. Thank you all for joining us today. We hope you found some inspiration and took away something new. 

Matt: Yes, do tune in next time for more must-hear insights and conversations about life at UniCredit. 

On another... 

Matt and Nikolina: Conversations Unlocked! 

Matt: Hello, and welcome to Conversations Unlocked, the UniCredit podcast and your gateway to industry insights. I'm Matt Thomas,

Nikolina: And I'm Nikolina Zecic. In this edition of Conversations Unlocked, we'll explore how we are unlocking a better Bank for tomorrow. Through insights from experts and discussions with colleagues, we'll dive into some of the most exciting initiatives and developments shaping the future of UniCredit.

Matt: And in this episode, we're going behind the scenes of our Bank's second ESG Day, which took place on Thursday, 14th November. This year's exciting event was a truly pan-European experience that brought together over 13,000 participants, with talks from expert panellists in Milan and local events taking place across many of our markets.

Nikolina: Together as one UniCredit, we looked at how we solved trade-offs between environmental and social concerns, achieving sustainable growth, and how we help our clients navigate the ESG transition to achieve success.

Matt: And I'll be speaking to a returning guest, our Head of Group Strategy and ESG, Fiona Melrose, about how we organised and put on this extraordinary Europe-wide affair and what lessons we can take away [about] how to solve the world's biggest challenges.

Nikolina: And later on, in the Conversations Unlocked's Culture Corner, Zsuzsanna Lázár, People and Culture Expertise Centre Manager at UniCredit Bank Hungary, will be answering a question about how we embed the pillars of ESG in everything we do.

Matt: But before we dive into all that, Nikolina is going to share some internal news headlines from across the Bank.

Nikolina: On Thursday, 5th December, UniCredit was awarded Bank of the Year by "The Banker" and "Financial Times" for the second year in a row. We also won the awards for Best Bank in Europe and Bank of the Year in Italy, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the words of UniCredit Group CEO Andrea Orcel, "These awards are [an] acknowledgement of the success of the UniCredit Unlocked strategy, which is transforming our Bank into a leader in its industry. Congratulations to all our colleagues for their hard work, which has helped us to achieve this milestone. And let's keep it up." And now it's time to get the inside knowledge on UniCredit's second ESG Day. Let's hear Matt's conversation with our Head of Group Strategy and ESG, Fiona Melrose.

Matt: Thank you very much, Nikolina. I'm delighted to be joined today by Fiona Melrose, our Head of Group Strategy and ESG. It's great to have Fiona with us today. Obviously, you'll know that we had our second ESG Day very recently and we saw today's podcast as a good opportunity to kind of drill down into that. So, thank you for joining us, Fiona.

Fiona: It's a great pleasure to be here, thanks for having me.

Matt: No problem. I'd like you to start, maybe before we go into the event itself, by talking a little bit about ESG. I think we might have seen perceptions change a little bit this year, perhaps around the election of Trump, and even in the UK, we've seen various commitments being rolled back.

Is that something that you've noticed as well?

Fiona: Certainly, you can see... and I think maybe the right word would be more noise, or more questioning around ESG, particularly - kind of - in the political arena. But at the heart, I think the need for us all to act sustainably and leave the world in the place - in the state that we found remains very much unchanged in people's thinking or companies' approach to the world.

So, I think the fundamental need to play our part in ESG and be sustainable hasn't changed. But there have been more questions and certain countries may be going at different speeds, which is a challenge. I mean, ESG itself is a very complex arena. And one does feel, when you asked about changing perceptions, that the world is becoming ever more complex in this respect.

Matt: And that's an interesting word that you used as well, "challenge"; that it's something, of course, that we tried to tackle with this year's ESG Day, the idea that it's quite a challenged path. And we need to... to all kind of knuckle down and make sure we make the right decisions to ensure a better future. So maybe we can look back at the first year that we did the ESG Day, last year, and maybe you could comment on why we decided to launch this format as a Group.

Fiona: In year one, we were really looking at what the challenges were and obviously for the second year, having already addressed that, I think the challenges we all face are very well-known at this stage. It was... what we thought was more relevant was to look at how we face those challenges. So, what are the tangible things that we should be doing ourselves, and particularly companies, to approach the future and how should we be thinking about ESG together as well in the -  As a whole, rather than just looking at the "E" aspect and the part that we all have to play in it. So, the idea was to be coming away with more ideas and more tangible, concrete actions that we should be considering.

Matt: Completely agree. And I think that's... I was going to ask you how the event had evolved over the last couple of years, but I think that... it's clear that this year we have clients at the centre, didn't we? And I think that was shown by the great attendance that we had from our client base.

Fiona: Yes, and one of our number one principles is that we're fully committed to joining our clients and accompanying our clients in a just and fair transition. And in a way, the second ESG Day was about putting that into practice. So, living it, having the clients fully involved and hearing the approaches and the ways in which they're tackling the challenges they face, so that we can all learn from each other was really, I think, a key aspect of this year and how it differed from the first time we did the ESG Day. And I think it was also very valuable in terms of the clients to hear other perspectives.

Matt: And away from the client side, internally as well this year. I mean, I think we had over 13,000 connections or people attending the event, whether that was online or in person. We also had loads of local activation as well, particularly across CEE, and it must have been quite gratifying that people were bringing this to life in their own markets in a slightly different way.

Fiona: Yes. So obviously, we're a Bank with 13 different countries, so the approach to ESG can differ by country. So, this allowed them to deal with it in the way that they felt suited them best and also to involve the clients, you know, whether it be through events and branches in Italy, for example. So it was really, I think, also an educational kind of way of dealing with it, but it also allowed everybody to approach it in their own way. But we always say that embedding ESG in all that we do is kind of the way that we try to approach it. And I think this certainly worked in practice.

Matt: And maybe more of a question on staging, because I think that's one of the - the real points of strength about this event is the real diversity of speakers that we have. I mean, if you look at the agenda this year, we started out with the climate anxiety specialists giving the keynote. We also had academics. We've already touched on the client side of things. How did we arrive at the topics that we'll cover at the event and how do we... how do we look at the type of speakers that we want to bring in?

Fiona: I think there are so many different topics within ESG. But we were really focused on "E" and "S" together, and obviously looking very much at the social side and how it interacts with climate. So, the first topic, which was the social dilemma, how climate change and technology are reshaping society, is very much trying to combine or recognise the "S" within ESG and also within the just and fair transition. So how there are interactions between those, and I think that worked very well. Certainly, another thing that we talk about a lot when it comes to ESG is trade-offs, and the interactions between all of the elements, whether that be environmental and nature, or biodiversity, or whether it be environmental and social.  
And that, I think, was a very valuable session, particularly with the involvement of clients and hearing, you know, actual, tangible actions that are being taken, or approaches. And also, I think it was very encouraging to hear some of the solutions to the trade-offs and how actually there... there's a way forward, because we obviously talk about the challenges, but I think it was also with optimism, that there are ways to meet the challenges, particularly in areas such as the energy transition. And then the last, but by no means least, obviously ESG continues to evolve and natural capital biodiversity is an area that is of increasing prominence because without - you know - safeguarding nature, climate change is to all of our disadvantage. So, we need to make sure that all these things work together in a positive fashion. So, I think [that] looking at that aspect, and how businesses could approach it, it was a very valuable session.

Matt: So, one of the main takeaways from Dieter Helm, one of the Oxford academics who we had joining us on the day, was this need to be brutally realistic about the environmental scenario. You know, the idea that we need to be very clear about what's being sacrificed for what... and he was, of course, talking about this in a biodiversity sense. Fiona, maybe you can comment on how we approach that notion of trade-offs within our ESG strategy.

Fiona: Yes, I agree. His talk at the beginning of the panel was very impactful, and I think one of the statistics that he gave, that the global economy is still around 80% dependent on fossil fuels was pretty sobering, because this hasn't moved. And if anything, if you think that 80% is now of a much larger demand. So, "brutally realistic" is certainly very apt. And that's obviously showing us that - you know - those actions that we need to take need to be impactful and need to make a difference. And when it comes to looking at the impacts or the trade-offs, whether that be between climate and biodiversity or the environment in a general sense and social, that's certainly something we really do take very seriously. Certainly, the work on natural capital that we're doing, along with many other institutions, is to ensure that there aren't... you know, that we're aware of the trade-offs being made and that there are positive trade-offs happening between climate and biodiversity. And similarly, we also take very seriously environmental versus social, and that's certainly for us something that's very key or apparent in many of our countries. We have many countries where the stage of their development is lagging, where they're still highly dependent on fossil fuels, more so than some other countries within our footprint. And that does lead to taking into consideration more of a way - the social aspects, because there are certain decisions and times where we face key, key decisions, or trade-offs where we need to ensure that the knock-on impact to society is minimised or taken into account.

Matt: That's a side of the debate that many of us don't really appreciate. Are there any examples you can bring to the fore that show that approach in action across our footprint?

Fiona: There are certain examples, such as when one's thinking of countries where coal is being phased out and you know, the extent to which one needs to consider retraining. But generally, if you look at examples such as the recent skills, the transition programme that we've launched, there we're taking into account the social side of transition. So, the need for education and retraining for a relatively significant amount of the working population and also the positive aspect of that - we need to redirect talent and skills, so you can see it from that lens as well. So, that's one example, I would say, of trying to marry social and environmental together.

Matt: Looking back at last year's event, the main takeaway, I think, and the main soundbite was this idea of cathedral thinking, which I think has a certain centrality when we talk about ESG. Was there a similar extract that comes to mind this year from the speakers that, you know, people... you would want people to take away with them?

Fiona: Yes, I think it was - and certainly it's resonated with me - and this was the concept of "gardening thinking", or "garden thinking", as in: you're tending a garden and all of the aspects within that garden interact and play off each other. And so, you need to get all of the elements together, or all of the elements supporting each other to grow. So, that certainly was a concept that I think some people found helpful alongside "cathedral thinking" which also, in terms of the long term, certainly works as well, but this was more how you deal with it as you basically move forward.

Matt: And zooming out slightly, how do you think we can be the best possible partner for our clients in this transition that we're talking about? All companies are going through a transition. So obviously leading by example, I think it's very important for us as an institution and as a company. So, when we are interacting with our clients, I think staying true to our ESG principles, which obviously are embedded in the policies that we have, remains paramount. But there is so much work to be done on partnering with the clients in their journey.

Fiona: So, it's very much their transition. But with us helping them, and supporting them on that journey. So, when we talk about a just and fair transition, we're living that with the clients, and that is an area that we've been very focused on, particularly as part of our net zero journey, and we have a transition strategy. So, the interaction with the clients here and how we're advising and how we're supporting and financing them is key.

Matt: And maybe it's - you mentioned ESG principles, so it came to mind - maybe it's a slightly cheeky question, but can you give us any clues as to - you know - how we view ESG in the new plan? I know we haven't really formally announced it yet, but maybe you can give a very brief hint.

Fiona: Well, in UniCredit Unlocked - which remains very much our plan to basically reap the best that we can from our organisation - it was one of the five strategic imperatives to embed sustainability in all that we do, and that remains very much fundamental for us. We don't see ESG as an add-on. We see it as a part of our day-to-day business in terms of the way that we approach it, and obviously very much aligned with the values of the company and the purpose, particularly the purpose which is empowering communities to progress. That's obviously in a sustainable way. So, for us, the ESG strategy is very much an evolution and remains very key to our overall strategy and UniCredit Unlocked.

Matt: Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations again on what was a very successful event. And I think I speak for everyone when I say that we're excited for next year's edition and - and how it continues to evolve. Thank you, Fiona.

Fiona: Thank you.

Nikolina: Thank you, Matt, thank you, Fiona, for this conversation. As Fiona rightly pointed out, while challenges exist, there are clear paths to overcome them and move forward. I truly believe participants left feeling energised and, most importantly, equipped with practical insights and tools they can apply in their daily work. Right?

Matt: I completely agree. I think at a time when there are so many negative headlines about the environmental scenario, this was an optimistic and really constructive forum that put the spotlight on the tools and best practices that we can use to drive this transition. Now, it's time for this episode's Culture Corner with Zsuzsanna Lázár.

Zsuzsanna: Hi, I'm Zsuzsanna Lázár from UniCredit Hungary, and I'm working as Head of People and Culture Expertise Centre. As I saw today, we're having a question about volunteering.

Cosmin: Hello. My name is Cosmin Creanga and I'm a Senior Policy Adviser in the Group Public Affairs and Policy Department. UniCredit believes in the importance of each pillar of ESG, Environmental, Social and Governance. For example, we recently had our International Volunteering Day, a day where we honoured our commitment to the "S" of ESG by encouraging colleagues to give back to their communities. Do you have any tips for colleagues who want to start volunteering regularly? Or, more in general, how we can all do our part to put our ESG pillars in place? Thank you.

Zsuzsanna: Thanks for the great question. I think this is something that's more and more relevant in our everyday lives, and also in our workplace. So, it's definitely something that we need to think about and to embed in our everyday life. First of all, what I would recommend to you, if you'd like to have these volunteering activities in your everyday life, is to start with the possibilities offered by UniCredit. So, I'm sure that also in your local UniCredit Bank where you're working, you have several options and please try to join those first. For instance, in Hungary we're having blood donation, tree planting, house renovation, and other possibilities that are time to time organised and advertised by the I&C colleagues to the whole Bank, so that everybody can take part in these. Other than that, I would also recommend that you start with small things, with things that are close to your heart, that you can be passionate about. And that's something that also brings to you some joy, so you can establish this in the culture, you can share your positive experiences with your colleagues, so that they become enthusiastic to join you or join such activities also. It's also, I think, a very good possibility to have team buildings linked to volunteering.  
For instance, you can go for kindergarten renovation together with your colleagues and you can enjoy, it will bring you together as a team, but you are also doing the right thing for the community. Going to the second part of your question, how we could take part in ESG-related activities. As you know, there are three pillars of ESG, the Environmental, Social and Governance. So, it's very simple. I would say that, of course, in your everyday life, you can see, for instance, in environmental place, you can think about recycling, reusing, supporting sustainable products, even if it's not the cheapest for you individually. But knowing that this is something that you can help your environment with. I think it's very important. Then for the social part, as we were just talking about, of course, volunteering is a very much important part of this. You can also support communities in different ways, supporting inclusion. And always bear in mind that whatever you do, it's more important that it serves a community than yourself. Regarding governance, I think we're having quite a relevant part in making our policies and following our policies in the right way, making the decision-making and being advocates of the right behaviours in the Bank. So, first of all, you can do it in your workplace, but you can also embed it in your everyday life. Maybe you'll find it not so easy when starting, but as it becomes your routine, it will be embedded in your life, sooner or later. Thank you all for joining us in the Culture Corner today.

Nikolina: Thank you, Zsuzsanna. Finally, here is one more piece of UniCredit news. Colleagues listening to this will know that we are into our UniCredit Holiday Calendar. You're receiving daily emails with invitations to exciting festive activities and holiday traditions from our countries.

We hope these emails are helping to get all our colleagues into the holiday spirit because Christmas is a season that brings the spirit of togetherness. Join in the fun and let's celebrate Christmas the way we do everything - together, as one UniCredit. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed this episode.

Matt: Yes. Tune in next time for more must-hear insights and conversations about life at UniCredit on another...

Matt & Nikolina: Conversations Unlocked!

Twyla: Hello and welcome to Conversations Unlocked, the UniCredit podcast and your gateway to industry insights. I'm your host Twyla Doone and together we will hear from leading experts from UniCredit and beyond on how they navigate challenges and their tips to unlock success. Handing us the keys this week is Nikolina Zečić.

Nikolina is the Head of Group Culture at UniCredit. She is a renowned businesswoman with extensive knowledge of and tremendous skills in digital strategy, business planning, financial risk management and corporate banking. She joined the group in 2008 as a Relationship Manager at Zagrebačka Banka. Since then she has carved out an impressive career path within the Group occupying prestigious roles and accumulating a wealth of industry insights and experience. In her most recent role, she contributed to the financial organisation becoming the number one bank in Croatia. She spearheaded the launch of the first socially responsible marketing campaign during the pandemic and set up the first internal mental health campaign. Today I'm thrilled to be speaking with Nikolina whose proficiency and expertise will help us unravel the answers to the questions "What is Culture and why is culture so important to UniCredit?" Nikolina, welcome to Conversations Unlocked.

Nikolina: Thank you very much, Twyla, thank you for having me.

Twyla: So Culture is the new buzzword within the commercial space and what would you say is your definition for Culture?

Nikolina: So you just mentioned in the intro part that I had the privilege of working with corporate clients when I was back in Zagrebačka Bankaa as a Relationship Manager. It helped me a lot during my career and I can really confirm that the customer is the king but the Culture is the queen, so you know this is the recipe. Every company has its culture, it's actually a company DNA, it's a fingerprint. It is a set of beliefs, values, and behaviours that we see in the workplace. So culture is everywhere, and you can also feel the culture when you enter the organisation and when you talk to people.

You know you can sense if the people are enthusiastic, if they are optimistic, if they believe in what they're doing. I think happy employees are loyal and passionate. I think that they work harder, they bring more creativity and they feel that they're part of something bigger. Actually, this is the culture that I would like to witness at UniCredit.

Twyla: I really love that analogy that culture is the DNA of an organisation. That's such a brilliant visualisation to have. Something we really want to do within this podcast is to unlock the idea that is behind the words like culture or simplification. So here's a follow-up question to your definition of culture. If it is the DNA of a workplace, what does Culture mean at UniCredit and what is UniCredit DNA?

Nikolina: I would say that we define Culture in the same way. So, you know, how successfully we work together and at the same time how we benefit from our diversity. So it's not just about free yoga classes or, for example, a free day for your birthday, I would say the culture is how the company treats its employees.

Twyla: I really like that and I really like the idea of free yoga classes. Why do you think that it's so important that you shape the UniCredit culture at this moment in time?

Nikolina: Let me start actually with a BCG study that I was recently reading. It says that companies with a clearly defined and lived culture outperformed their peers and they provided higher returns. A strong culture provides a competitive advantage and basically, it's very difficult to copy because it delivers better financial performance and influences positive customer experience, it attracts and retains better talents and increases productivity. As it was announced by Mr Orcel, our CEO, last December during our Strategy Day, UniCredit Unlocked is our new strategic plan. This is the plan to unlock the potential within UniCredit to move into an era of purpose, growth, and value-creation and to achieve it we need the right mindset: Win. The right way. Together. We have already defined our values - Integrity, Ownership & Caring - and I think they will have a positive impact on our customers, our people, our communities, and our shareholders. They will follow our purpose: empowering communities to progress. So, it's all very connected.

Twyla: I really like the idea of seeing it as a fresh start, a new chapter, a new book and it feels like it really is the beginning of something new and what an amazing time to start shaping the Culture. So it's a big job, isn't it?

Nikolina: A huge responsibility.

Twyla: Absolutely. I understand that UniCredit has approximately 80.000 members on its staff. So how do you shape a Culture across a workforce which is so large?

Nikolina: I see being so large and so diverse as an advantage. So we can all learn from each other and we can share best practices. I'm originally coming from Zagrebačka Banka you mentioned, and it has around 3500 employees, but if I needed some help or advice I could always call my colleagues and friends all around UniCredit and that's why I think the internal mobility programs and working on different Group projects is so valuable. You meet the people and you actually spread your horizon.

Twyla: I like the idea that you are all better as part of a bigger team because of the different expertise you can lean on and help you move forward.

Nikolina: Yes. So you have different skills, different competencies and whenever you need some help you can ask in your own company, but you can ask all around the globe, the Group.

Twyla: Is it just you and your close colleagues who are responsible for shaping this culture or is it the responsibility of everybody to cultivate?

Nikolina: It's not just me, it's not just my colleagues. It is often said that the Culture change must start at the top, with the leadership. I believe it's true but it's not the whole truth because culture is not like the machine that you just built and you operate on a daily basis, I think it's more like a living organism. You have to feed it, you have to nurture it and it's not just about setting the company values, but it's more important how you invite your employees to own these values. So it's not just the job of the CEO, it's not just the job of top managers or the People & Culture team. I think that Culture should be a regular agenda during the board meetings but I also think that the middle managers should communicate and they should be the role models of the desired culture. Everyone should play its part. It's not just about me and my team, but we are open, everyone is more than welcome to come to approach us and to really talk to us to share their ideas so we can brainstorm together. I think this is the responsibility of all of us at UniCredit.

Twyla: I think it's such a wonderful opportunity to have somebody like you really leading this new approach to Culture because when somebody is so welcoming to having new ideas and to brainstorming it means that it's so much more of a collaborative approach and that's wonderful and very exciting. The people who make up the Culture are the individuals who step into an elevator or walk across each other in whatever Region they belong to and that is so important.

Nikolina: And you are also invited to join us for the brainstorming.

Twyla: Thank you very much. Have you seen in your wealth of experience any organisations that you think are an excellent representation of Culture?

Nikolina: I would say that there are many examples but I was recently reading about Netflix. 70% of Netflix employees left a Glassdoor review saying that they would recommend working at Netflix. There is this Netflix Manifesto that was created back in 2009 and I'm going to quote just one sentence "Our version of the great workplace is a dream team in pursuit of ambitious common goals". I really like it, I think it's super powerful and of course, I mean the Manifesto was updated in 2017 with dedicated parts of inclusion and integrity and you know Netflix really wants people to be better versions of themselves and this is what I really like.

Twyla: That is a really good example - and 70% is really a huge amount.

Nikolina: Impressive. But we also have very good examples at UniCredit.

Twyla: Please tell me about them.

Nikolina: Well what comes to my mind at this very moment is actually how united, efficient and caring UniCredit was across all the countries towards its people and clients during Covid-19 times. I think that was really amazing: we had a lot of projects going on, especially mental health-related projects. Talking about our values, like Integrity & Caring, I have to mention that UniCredit is very supportive towards ERGs - employee resource groups. Those are actually voluntary self-led groups aiming to foster diversity, and inclusive workspaces, aligned with the organisation they work for. They are usually led and participated by employees who share something together, like gender, lifestyle, interests, and various topics. The group provides support and help in personal and career development and creates a safe space where employees can bring their whole selves to the world and so I'm super proud of those. We call them Unicorns.

Twyla: That's fantastic! ERGs sound like something that is really good to be part of when you work at such a big organisation to be able to actually find your community within that.

Nikolina: Yes, a place where you can thrive, and you can grow and I think it's super important and we have to talk more about it. We have to promote them and that's why I was mentioning it right now.

Twyla: That sounds like a brilliant initiative and I hope that lots of people who are listening will find out how they can be a part of it. So we obviously talked about the good examples both outside the organisation and within UniCredit itself, but there are obviously challenges to building a culture, particularly when you are starting from a new page. What do you feel are the main challenges to building a positive Culture and how can people overcome them?

Nikolina: Well, I would say that it's very important that now that we are working on a lot of cultural action plans they're not perceived as just another short-term project. This is my primary concern. Second I think you cannot only rely on the leaders to cascade it through the entire organisation. You need to have the buying from early adopters from Generation Y, Generation Z, from talents, from people who can really share your core values, the people who have the willingness and the ability to embrace all those values. Also, hiring is important, because sometimes you don't hire the best talent but the one who is the best cultural fit for your company. You know, hiring a rock star performer with a bad attitude will not help your business, so we also have to pay attention to that. There's also one more obstacle that I have to mention: if the culture is not connected to measurable business outcomes that is a huge problem. The key is to recognize that the Culture is not a goal itself, but the culture means achieving some business results, greater customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, etcetera. It needs to be tangible and we need to measure it.

Twyla: So it's coming back to the idea that culture is the mindset which will bring you to that success.

Nikolina: It is the mindset: Win. The right way. Together.

Twyla: And if I can summarise, it's about listening, isn't it? It's about how everybody can listen to each other and then you can build on what you have learned as a result of feedback from employees wherever you may be in the stage of your career. Previously you carried out a culture diagnostic service in order to be able to inform those values. I know there's another initiative which is the GEC email box - isn't that really important as well because so much feedback has come in and which will help you develop? It's great to hear that actually in order to overcome the challenges it's about listening in the feedback loop that you have within UniCredit.

Nikolina: Exactly! We have the Accountability and Speak-up Programme, we have the Courageous Voices programme, and we're working on numerous activities so that we are really here to listen to our people and really do something.

Twyla: So we've talked about good examples and challenges and we've talked about how much that needs to turn into measurable, tangible outcomes. So what would you say is your measure of success when it comes to performing a positive Culture at UniCredit? What will success look like in 5 years?

Nikolina: Wow! So you mentioned this Cultural Diagnostic. I think that was really crucial because it allowed us to dive deep into the current culture and set the right direction and of course we are going to repeat it on an annual basis. Besides that, there are ongoing listening activities - so you just mentioned listening is super important. So we'll have regular poll service and we will be able to see the developments and understand the real mood of our people, the engagement and their level of satisfaction. I think regular pulse check is very important because you need to understand how your employees feel, so we are going to do it as well. We are going to appoint culture sponsors and culture champions and we will encourage collaboration and co-creation and will promote our values so that we can use them in our everyday lives and that we can Win. The right way. Together.

Twyla: Sounds like a very good key to unlock the door to success.

Nikolina: Definitely! We are really working on beautiful things, so many beautiful things to come and I think we should have another conversation in six months so you can track the progress.

Twyla: Yes please, I would love to!

So this next section is about how we find out what makes you tick and gives us a little bit of insight into your day-to-day life as a UniCredit leader. So please just answer the first thing that comes into your head. So breakfast or lunch?

Nikolina: Lunch.

Twyla: Excel or PowerPoint?

Nikolina: PowerPoint.

Twyla: Sun or snow?

Nikolina: Sun.

Twyla: Remote working or office working.

Nikolina: Office.

Twyla: Films or documentaries.

Nikolina: Films.

Twyla: Which film?

Nikolina: Batman.

Twyla: Standing or sitting desk?

Nikolina: Sitting.

Nikolina: Batman or Harry Potter?

Twyla: Harry Potter!

Twyla: Thank you so much Nikolina and we know that UniCredit mission is, as you already said, to Win. The right way. Together. We want to ask all our guests the top tip for winning so we can start sharing each other's successes and unlocking our true potential. So Nikolina as an expert in your field, what is key to winning?

Nikolina: Well, where focus goes, energy flows. So if you want to inspire a real change you need a real laser focus on what you want. I think this new focus on Culture is our key to success and creating the right company culture is at the moment our top priority. Once more, the customer is the king, culture is the queen, so this is the recipe.

Twyla: I love that. Remind me what you said one more time: where focus goes, energy flows.

I really can't wait to come back in six months to have my poll.

Nikolina: Perfect! Thank you very much for being such an incredible host!

Twyla: Thank you!

Twyla: Hello and welcome to Conversations Unlocked, the UniCredit podcast and your gateway to industry insights. I'm your host Twyla Doone and together we will hear from leading experts from UniCredit and beyond on how they navigate challenges and their tips to unlock success. Handing us the key this week is Marco Bressan. Marco is the Group Data & Intelligence Officer at UniCredit. He's a renowned data scientist who joined UniCredit in February 2021 bringing a wealth of experience in data-driven transformation to help the Group expand its use of data, analytics and AI, as part of its new digitalisation or "datalisation" strategy. That experience includes senior roles at multiple companies including Chief Data Scientist at BBVA and Chief Product Officer at Satellogic, as well as being the recipient of a Digital Masters Award for Excellence in transformational use of data. His works and research have resulted in over 30 scientific publications and 14 patents. Today, Marco is going to use his digital and data dynamism to help us answer the questions: "What is datalisation?", "How is it going to revolutionise banking?" and "What does digitalization mean to UniCredit?". Marco, welcome to Conversations Unlocked.

Marco: Thank you, Twyla, thank you for having me here.

Twyla: It's a real pleasure and a real honour to have somebody who has so much expertise. So thank you for joining us. We've heard a lot about what data is, whether that be on our mobile phones or online or elsewhere, but before we start the conversation on what datalisation is and how it can be used for UniCredit, could you give me a brief explanation of what we mean when we say data, what types of data do we work with and what do we do with it?

Marco: What we need to understand is that today almost every business is already an information business, so you can't even compete in the market if you don't have the right amount of information. To a certain extent, the information that you have about the business, your environment and your clients, is a key enabler of the business. And that information is in the data. Two implications are relevant for us and for any business in general: number one is we need to use data to learn, we need to use that data to do things better, to be better ourselves, to better understand our clients, their needs, and the market. The second one is, that because data is becoming so valuable, in many cases it's accurate data that is the product. So in the case of banking from providing more traditional financial services we are seeing a large growth in terms of advisory services and advisory services basically are financial services where data is the product.

Twyla: It is so helpful to have a visualisation when you talk about information. So why are you so passionate about data? Why do you think other people should be excited about it? Because it can come across as quite a dense topic.

Marco: I hope not. To start, rather than being passionate about data, I'm passionate about learning and data is key, information is key to learning, but from my everyday work perspective, I think we have huge opportunities ahead. Data is becoming ubiquitous thanks to digital and there is a huge challenge in terms of the potential of manipulating data, and ethical limitations of artificial intelligence - machines that learn from data. So there are challenges in automation as well. We are starting to make automatic decisions that we need to be able to explain to our clients, to our partners and so forth. There are a lot of interesting things coming with data that make it fascinating to us - I mean the broad community of data practitioners within UniCredit, which is huge. Finally, I truly believe the data can change the world and I truly believe that we have some huge challenges ahead for the planet, in terms of food production, energy production, population, environmental challenges and so forth. We've seen it with a pandemic, we're seeing the same with some of the geopolitical events that we have today. In order to address those challenges, the first thing that you need to do, the starting point, is knowing where you are, knowing information and implications. I do believe that data can change the world and this concept is fairly new in that sense.

Twyla: So there are so many different facets of how you can use that data, what implications that use of data will have. As Group Data & Analytics Officer, what are the ways UniCredit serves clients and communities across Europe and how do you use data to do that?

Marco: As I said, one of the main benefits of data is its usage for learning. As an organization, we need to learn in order to provide better services, to be better, to be faster, and in order to be smarter in the decisions that we make we need to use data. So, I would say that the first thing is data-driven decision-making, which I mentioned about grounding your decisions on concrete evidence. Right now, the challenge that we have is if we want all colleagues in UniCredit to ground their decisions on evidence, the first step that we need to make is to make information accessible to all our colleagues. I always say: if I manage that everybody and everyone in this Bank has access to all the data they need in order to make the decisions and go about their everyday work in the right way then I'm done. Then there are a lot of things to consider when you're developing digital services at scale. First, using data to personalise the experience of the millions of clients that we have and focus on the key aspects of what we need to deliver. The last one which is also important is all the benefits around operational efficiencies. In many ways what we want is really not to use data to improve decisions, but actually to use data to eliminate decisions in some cases. Because if you have the right data, the data has the right quality, you just have a typical decision that you would want to eliminate, why would you want a man-in-the-middle to decide whether somebody gets a note or not? You can do that with data and focus on the important stuff.

Twyla: I love how you say that if you create a library of data where everybody can access exactly the information that you want and at the time that they need it, then your job is done. That's a good goal set.

I suppose this is also one of those topics in UniCredit that has equal weighting and importance both when you're looking internally at how data is used and helpful for the employees as well as how it can be also helpful to the clients and that that's a really interesting relationship. So, obviously, we've talked about how it streamlines but UniCredit's digital strategy is more than just automating processes, it's about living digital. So how does UniCredit's plan to live digital set it apart from other banks?

Marco: I think living digital is a really interesting concept from many standpoints. Take for instance, the tools that exploded during the pandemic like videoconference, but also food delivery - everybody had the food delivered at home at least once a week - and e-commerce to a large extent. All these are enabled by a digital transformation and in that sense I think this is what we mean by living digital. A lot of the tools, the interactions, and the enablement that digital provides are already there. We need to embrace it and make it part of our everyday decisions. I think from that perspective UniCredit has an interesting advantage. I mean, number one we operate in a footprint that is pretty homogeneous from the way we access, from a cultural standpoint, the way we use these tools and then we have a plan where data and digital are essential for product-centricity and within that the digital experience. I think we're well off into actually living digital.

Twyla: You mentioned challenges and obviously being very far down the line and living digital you must have come across some challenges and your team must have done as well. Could you talk me through some of those challenges and how you've overcome them?

Marco: Well, there's a ton of challenges. One of the things that one is tempted to do looking at so many things going on, is to be overly ambitious in what one wants to cover in the initial stages and I think we need to be very cautious. I would say that one of the challenges we have is "start by home". I receive people that come and say "Look at these third-party data sources that we can use to improve our service". My default response "Let's first learn how to capture the value and how to manage our own data. If we manage to do that and we're good at that, then we can incorporate other data. Then there are also the cultural and social organisational challenges, which at the end of the day are always the important ones. The main one probably affecting digital is that we come from an industry that has had a traditional division between the business and the technology. The technology was a provider of certain capabilities to the business. Some companies that are already native digital don't have this kind of division and we need to evolve towards that. So that's to me one of the huge challenges.

Twyla: So, it has to become part of your DNA as an organisation. Obviously, that is a really huge responsibility to take on and overcome a challenge. What will the changes mean for employees at UniCredit and how will they revolutionise people's roles within the Bank?

Marco: I profoundly believe that the digital contract between employees and employers has changed in a very fundamental way. What I mean by digital contract - when you sign a contract you're signing your intentions or expectations on the other party and not only what it is written down when they hire you and how much they would pay or whatever right? The expectations that the employee has of the employer are essentially different. What an employee expects from the employer is that the employer will help him or her become a better professional overall, not specifically for the purpose of that company. So employees expect that there is a specific purpose and they have their own purpose and they expect an intersection between their values and those of their organization, in terms of diversity, social commitment, and environment. But also, as a company that needs to change, we expect employees to be able to adapt, to learn, to embrace that change. So I think that the responsibilities on both sides are evolving. From the company standpoint, I think we need to be better for the employee, we need to help that professional grow and not focus on our own corporate needs, but look at things from the side of the employee. From the employee standpoint, we need to have a commitment and understanding, and a certain level of patience. We have to follow certain values and a purpose, and we have to be willing to change. And one of the most important aspects is precisely living digital. What are the implications that digital and technology will have in our work? We have the obligation as employees to understand those implications and not run away from them, but we have to choose to embrace them, reskilling and advancing ourselves, because it's not only good for the company, but it's also good for us, from a broader environment.

Twyla: It really highlights UniCredit's purpose of empowering communities to progress doesn't it?

There is such a wealth of opportunity here within datalisation, What would you say are the key measures of success? You said your big one is to be able to create this library that everybody can access, but what would you say are the key measures of success?

Marco: I think the accessibility of the information is key. The kind of democratisation of information for decision-making is key. But the single measure of success at an individual and organisation level is the capability to learn and adapt. I think this is the only one. The world is changing really fast, so "Are you able to change as fast as the world is changing?". The example that I always like to give is if you look at the knowledge that a software developer has out of the university 5 or 10 years into their career, whatever they learnt in the university is already obsolete. So I cannot hire somebody based on the courses that the person did in the university because the software programming language which that person learned probably doesn't exist anymore. The only ability that I can consider when hiring, is the ability and willingness to learn. And the same goes for organisations.

Twyla: I could ask you so many more questions, but time, unfortunately, doesn't allow, so please come back. We are asking all of our guests to do a quick-fire round which just gives us a little insight into what makes you tick as a UniCredit leader. So, please, just answer the first thing that comes straight to your head.

Marco: Only one word?

Twyla: Only one word. Ready? Breakfast or lunch?

Marco: Breakfast on the weekends, lunch during the week. That's not only one which works.

Twyla: Spain or Italy?

Marco: Argentina!

Twyla: PC or laptop?

Marco: Mobile phone.

Twyla: Coffee or tea?

Marco: Morning or afternoon?

Twyla: Morning.

Marco: Coffee.

Twyla: Afternoon.

Marco: Tea.

Twyla: AI overrated or underrated?

Marco: Both ... absolutely both. Under is miscalculated.

Twyla: Zoom or phone call?

Marco: Probably Zoom.

Twyla: Sitting or standing desk?

Marco: I'd love to try a standing desk, but I have a sitting one.

Twyla: Banking: online or in person?

Marco: Online, only.

Twyla: Thank you so much. The final question we're asking our UniCredit leaders is that we know UniCredit is on a mission to Win. The Right Way. Together., so we want to ask all our guests their top tips for winning. So Marco, in the words of UniCredit's datalization expert, what is your key to winning?

Marco: I think I mentioned it: it is about learning and adapting. Now, one of the things we need to understand is that today the process of learning cannot be limited to what we can do as humans, so we are seeking the support of machines in order to learn for us at a scale. We're delegating some of the learning to machines, but the important thing is that the machines which can learn are those that can make us, humans, smarter and better at our work and good people in many ways. At the individual level, the winning advice that I would give is pretty similar to the one I give to my kids at home, in the same way my grandmother was telling me to learn foreign languages, today we need to learn the language of machines. We need to talk to machines. In the same way you're learning English, Italian or Chinese, learn Python and Java, learn to talk to machines.

Twyla: That is an incredible piece of advice that I will personally take to myself, having gone through a workshop to learn Javascript and found it very intimidating, but I promise on the podcast to pursue it.

Marco: Think of it as a foreign language.

Twyla: Thank you so much it was a pleasure.

Marco: It was a real pleasure, thank you.

Twyla: Hello and welcome to "Conversations Unlocked," the UniCredit podcast and your gateway to Industry insights. I'm your host, Twyla Doone, and together, we will hear from leading experts from UniCredit and beyond on how they navigate challenges and their tips to unlocking success. Handing us the keys this week is Azra Popo. Azra is part of the Group Strategy team at UniCredit, focused on simplification and business transformation. Azra's career is impressive, to say the least. Over the course of 30 years, Azra has worked in hedge funds, investment banks, and law firms in Sydney and London. Her roles within business as COO provide unique insight and knowledge of the business life cycle, from business start-ups through growth as well as decline, transformation, innovation, governance, and control frameworks, as well as culture. Aside from her expertise, Azra is known for her energetic, zealous, resilient and positive approach to her work. These characteristics, Azra says, are much needed for driving and transforming business in ever-changing landscapes. The latest initiative on top of Azra's agenda is simplification. Simplification initiatives are focused on clearing the clutter, tackling visible complexity head-on, and striving to reinvent a simpler, more effective business. The question she poses and what we will be exploring in today's episode is how can you drive change today that will make your life easier and you're working environment happier tomorrow? Azra, welcome to "Conversations Unlocked." So, should we start with the basics?

Azra: Yes, sure thank you very much. First of all, thank you very, very much for the wonderful introduction.

Twyla: It's an absolute pleasure and what an expert to kick us off. A real gift to have you here. So, what is your definition for simplification?

Azra: I'd say probably just making things easier especially at work. Making your working environment more effective, you are able to concentrate on more value-added tasks, therefore feeling better about what you contribute. And also, just making you a happier employee on a big scale, I guess. It's really about the real business transformation, getting the business to a point where it has that elasticity and being able to really adapt to an ever-changing world. And it really is a foundation for a culture change, business transformation, the way we operate, and ultimately, getting us into a position to be the future leading European Bank.

Twyla: Often, I think, simplification can be used as synonymous with optimisation. How do you think these two terms differ?

Azra: I guess optimising means, basically, making the best out of things. So, it's squeezing all the benefit that you can from whatever it is that your target is. But you're right, I mean, it's unlikely that you'll have optimised something and get the best out of things if you haven't simplified it and vice versa. There is no point simplifying if you are not going to be able to optimise, so it kind of works hand-in-hand, I'd say.

Twyla: Why do you think we tend to complicate rather than simplify, both in our own lives and also within businesses?

Azra: I've often thought about that myself and to be honest, I mean, there are probably a myriad of reasons, but I think simplification is something that is not seen as the "thing." If you're building a business, you will be focused on creating a new, addressing a new initiative and it's really exciting, but then you don't necessarily go back and think, "Okay, what can I get rid of?" And so, we tend to kind of just leave things as they are and build upon them without actually focusing on, okay, let me strip it down. Putting more in is seen as you are protecting. You are being more conducive to risk while, actually, it's probably the other way around. Having more complexity probably leads to more operational risk as well. Simplifying is hard. Changing is hard. It's easier to build new than it is to simplify. Change in itself is boring and often, people feel that no one else sees how much effort has gone into simplification.

Twyla: That's really interesting to think about how people tend to want to build rather than remove and how do you move forward, but actually in that moving forward, strip back. And I know that simplification was really a key part of Andrea's strategic plan for the Bank. So, why do you think at this moment in time is it so important for UniCredit that you simplify?

Azra: Oh, so many reasons. But really, just to get down to the bottom of it really is a question of survival. We are changing and the clients are changing. Expectations are changing. We as people, you know, you don't really shop the way you used to shop and you don't expect it to be the way it used to be. So, we really, kind of, need to have a business that is, as I said, resilient and agile enough that it can move with the change. So, it is about the culture change, its transformation, the foundation for digital transformation. If you want to be a digital Bank, you can't do it on the complex structures and processes that we currently have. It's also about the client experience as they journey. But also very, very, very much so and I know that Andrea really cares for it, is the happiness of employees and their day-to-day life and being proud of where they're at and how they operate and what they contribute.

Twyla: Resilience is such a core part of a business and part of resilience is that idea of being agile, and, I suppose, to be agile, you have to try and remove as many parts as possible to be able to shift and turn when the opportunity arises or when the need arises. So, do you feel like there are core principles for that stripping down for that simplification?

Azra: As I always say, simplification is not a "thing." I think sometimes it's just about unleashing what we ought to speak in our strategic language, "unlocking it." A lot of simplification initiatives especially top-down, really big ones, are so overwhelming and so huge and have been tried before. So, I think, you know, it can feel overwhelming to even think about taking on something massive. But I think what I do is actually break it down into small chunks while having the big kind of target in mind. So, what that means is that, you know, every two weeks, you deliver something, even if it's a two-page written document, a definition of something because you have a feeling that you are moving. It's that delivery, delivery, delivery. If there is a regulatory requirement for something, I'm not going to take a look at the process that we currently have necessarily straightaway. What I'm trying to do is understand what the requirement is, what the principles of whatever the topic is, we need to abide by, and then try and interpret it, as opposed to, okay, this is what it is at the moment, because the likelihood of it is that me or somebody else, not just me, will have different ideas, which in time always improve and also challenge the status quo, challenge what you are told but equally respect other people's perspective, and it's very, very important because if I'm coming from Risk or Compliance, I'll think one way, and that's all valid. If you are coming from the business or from those people who actually do it day-to-day, is equally important. So, that feeling of putting yourself in other people's shoes and understanding where they are coming from and then coming to a common agreement is the key.

Twyla: So, that's really interesting that you should say that because I come from a military background and the core approach to any plan and putting that plan in place is to "red-team" it, and that idea of really being objective when coming to your plan and really trying to get everybody's opinion on something and challenging those core principles that you have in order to be able to make sure that, against anything, that plan is resilient. That is core to this process.

Azra: Yeah. Great. Absolutely.

Twyla: And so, I suppose you come from two different backgrounds both in the banking sector and also then within law. Do you feel like simplification is different in those two sectors or do you think that the core principles fundamentally remain the same and they can be applied wherever you are?

Azra: Look, it is different for financial services as an industry. It is slightly more difficult because you are facing a lot of regulations that you have to address and it's rightfully so. But the point is that, first of all, every financial services organisation deals with exactly the same legal requirements and regulations. So, we are not alone. It is how we interpret that internally that is the key. Now, when you talk about principles, to be honest, and we discussed this before, is that I'll look at it almost like tidying up a house. You can have a clear-out every now and then, but if you don't do it consistently and continuously at every step of the way, your clear-out is going to be a lot harder and that's the important part. A lot of things are in our control. It is about having the confidence to change it and then making sure that it really is robust and resilient. It addresses all of the risks and regulatory requirements but allows us the freedom to operate in a much more nimble and resilient way. So, to me, that's the core but the principles are generally the same, really.

Twyla: The visualisation of core principles is really important for me and I think that analogy of clearing up your house when you said that to me earlier, it really made me identify with what you meant.

Azra: Nobody likes it. Nobody likes it, but that's the way it is, yeah.

Twyla: Yes, so true. And I think, we're talking on a macro level, but on an individual level, that is even more important to be able to really, truly understand what it is that you mean. So, on an individual level for members of the UniCredit Bank who are listening to this, what would you say they can do to simplify their work on a day-to-day basis?

Azra: If I remove myself and I think about it the way it's structured at the moment and what we trying to do, certainly there are a number of GEC sponsored initiatives and there are all lots of these initiatives that are going on. It's just that it's impossible to know them all. So, to that extent, you know, we are kind of building the intranet where we articulate what GEC or top sponsored initiatives we have, so that top-down approach and to that extent, by all means, please, if you have ideas, come to us, speak to us. If you want to get involved, please speak to us. As I said, the reason why I score for simplification, there is no right or wrong answer. Andrea talked about it recently, it is really a job for all of us. There is no sort of magic simplification army to do things for you, me, or anybody else in the family, so people really need to think about what bothers them and what they want to improve, whether that's for them themselves, their team, their customers, their colleagues, or whatever is the case. Now, it's not necessarily just about the laundry list of issues. You need to think about, I guess, what will bring the best value. And that brings us back to that kind of optimising versus simplifying, as well, and there are many examples, many, many examples across the firm of the way people have been taking things on their own and it's been giving us great benefits across.

Twyla: Could you talk through some of those examples?

Azra: We have kicked off something that is called UCX and a lot of people will hear about it or know about it, or be part of it, more importantly, which is basically the first UniCredit customer experience in a digital product development factory. And the way it came about is a group of us went to the GEC, proposed the initiative, they sponsored it, and off we went. It focused on optimising, simplifying and creating a dedicated process for mortgages, consumer finance, onboarding, and small businesses and lending. So, for example, for consumer finance on omnichannel, now, instead of 41 fields that were required to be completed by the client, we now have four. From seven digital signatures, we came down to two. So, you know, and the stories go on. There are so many examples, and we will bring them all up on the intranet, but equally, we will only know about them if people tell us. So, that engagement accountability, ownership, and being part of it all is absolutely the key.

Twyla: The UCX example is really a key one for showing that ownership, which is so key to the culture in the values set that UniCredit is creating and for individuals to come forward with their own initiatives, but also then be supported by their seniors, their line managers, and that's really, I suppose, how you simplify, is from that support of your network and the people around you. Therefore, what challenges do you see that people might come up against when trying to simplify and trying to implement these key themes?

Azra: There won't be a list of challenges. They come up as you go, and again, it's about being resilient, being able to address them one-by-one, and again, you go back to the principle that you're trying address because as soon as people drag you into that detail, you need to pull yourself back and look at it again. People are kind of fearful of failure. People will tell you that it's been done before, that people have tried before and failed, and therefore, what's the point of doing it? Do not let anybody define you, what you want to do, obviously. So, at least retest why and with the new frame of mind. I mean, do try again, calling out for help, as well. You know, don't sit there and kind of think, "Oh, this doesn't work and I'm not going to make it" but knowing and feeling that is really important to you and your people.

Twyla: Yeah, so, it's so much about refinement as well, isn't it? Simplification seems to be very much refining something in order to make it lean and move forward.

Azra: Yeah, and you know, one thing is to have a defined project, and then you have your sponsorship, and then you know what you're trying to do, you have your team properly engaged and stuff like that. It's a different thing when you're saying to yourself, well this is kind of the clearing out and moving the house versus tidying up as you go. So, practically, if you are drafting a document, think about the reader, think about using simple language. Do not copy-paste large chunks of legislation; nobody's going to read that. It's unlikely people will even understand it. If your document is longer than 10 pages, the likelihood that he says that you will lose people after that, so the point is to make sure that it, kind of, makes sense to them, you know. If you are working on a regular Tree Project or big initiative that especially has resources and IT funding, then do turn your mind to simplification. What is it that you can do to simplify not just address the regulatory demand, or the regulatory requirement, but actually, simplify as you go along? If you have a control that is a four-eye control, and I won't bore you with what that means if you don't know, but if it doesn't work, often, our responses are, "OK, well we'll introduce a six-eye control." Well, unlikely two people who aren't able to pick up something, it's unlikely the third person is going to pick it up. Therefore, the four-eye controller, in itself, doesn't work, so please, go back and look at it structurally, why it doesn't work and you'll find out that not only you will stop wasting the time of not two but three people and you will actually address the risk. So, by adding, it doesn't mean that you're actually addressing the risk, or operational risk or compliance or whatever the risk is. So, it's really, kind of, thinking about simplification, kind of as a culture, constantly thinking about it, is there is a better way of doing it.

Twyla: Yeah. A previous organisation that I used to work with used to say, I have a phrase, that they said, "It's easier to complicate than to simplify," and it's so true but one thing that I've always tried to take on from a piece of advice is if you have a slide and you want to convey a message, know the three keywords that you would be able to convey that message with and I think if you have any more information than those three keywords, then...

Azra: It's superfluous.

Twyla: Yeah, exactly.

Azra: The other thing that I keep thinking about is that you know, unfortunately, simplification generally means that something is wrong, or it's not liked, or it doesn't work. So, you kind of start with a negative emotion to begin with. I don't have people lining up and saying, "I want to be part of simplification," and do it because it's hard. I know it's negative, like I said, you know, you start with, "Oh God, this doesn't work, and I have to convince people that we need to do something else to work," when we've been doing it for 10 years, and I that's one of my pet hates. "We've been doing it for 10 years and therefore that's the way it should be." Quite the contrary. We probably then need to change it. It's that! You need to have real energy towards it and you need to have the desire to just go at it. Find a way to have fun in the process as well, otherwise, it just becomes even more difficult, I guess.

Twyla: What would you say by next year you would like to see, or in five years you'd like to see, being achieved in UniCredit because of simplification?

Azra: I think in five years' time I have all sorts of ideas and dreams for us being the top digital bank, more being almost like a technology company providing financial services than the other way around. But you can't even think about digital transformation without simplifying, because you first need to have something simple and adaptable, resilient, and nimble, in order to put technology over, it, I guess.

Twyla: Great, well thank you so much. I think there are huge amounts of lessons that we can take away from that and this whole idea of being resilient and agile, this way of simplifying your existing structures, whether that be your personal structures in your day-to-day tidying...

Azra: Yes, exactly!

Twyla: ...Or within your work, so thank you so much. I really, really appreciate that. Next, I'm going to go on to the quickfire rounds just briefly, where we find out what makes you tick, and you give us an insight into your day-to-day life as a UniCredit leader. So, please, just answer the first thing that comes straight to your head.

Azra: Sure.

Twyla: Great. Breakfast or lunch?

Azra: Breakfast

Twyla: Excel or PowerPoint?

Azra: Neither really. I'm a bit of a Word person. I need a Word document. I need thinking. I'm kind of a lawyer and negotiator person at heart.

Twyla: Great. Sydney or London?

Azra: Oh, London. Anytime.

Twyla: Virtual or in person?

Azra: Oh, in person.

Twyla: Coffee or tea?

Azra: Coffee.

Twyla: Snow or sun?

Azra: Sun.

Twyla: Zoom or phone call?

Azra: Phone call.

Twyla: Sitting or standing desk?

Azra: Standing.

Twyla: Simplify or complicate?

Azra: Come on! Come on!

Twyla: Thank you so much. So, we know that UniCredit's mission is to Win. The right way. Together. We want to ask all our guests their top tip for winning so we can start sharing in each other's success and unlocking our true potential. So, Azra, in the words of UniCredit's simplification ninja, what is your key to winning?

Azra: Positive attitude. Believing that it's possible. Great and resilience. And I just love people, I really do. I just enjoy immensely working with a fantastic group of people of all, I guess, walks of life, all levels of seniority, coming from any part of the organisation. I like a bit of a challenge, a bit of negotiating of any, you know. Going out for coffee with people and so you're coming down to Earth and getting along with them and, yeah, I just love what I do, I guess.

Twyla: So, finding the human in everyone.

Azra: Oh, absolutely.

Twyla: And enjoying yourself.

Azra: And learning from everyone. I've learnt so much in just the last few months that I've been here from all types of people. Juniors. Seniors. Whatever. By all means, I really am here for anybody who wants to talk and discuss simplification. How to approach it if I can help so the more people that come to me and want to raise and discuss, the better.

Twyla: Thank you so much for joining us and this has been "Conversations Unlocked" with Azra. Thank you.

Azra: Thanks very much.

Twyla: Hello and welcome to "Conversations Unlocked," the UniCredit podcast and your gateway to Industry insights. I'm your host, Twyla Doone, and together, we will hear from leading experts from UniCredit and beyond on how they navigate challenges and their tips for unlocking success. Handing us the keys this week is Fiona Melrose, Head of Strategy & ESG at UniCredit. Fiona started her career at the Bank of England in 1992 in Banking Supervision. She then moved into Bank Equity Research where she covered European and global banks for over 20 years, from Execution Noble to RBC. She joined UBS in 2017 as Global Head of Strategy for the investment bank, and in 2019 moved to Gruppo Santander in Strategy and Corporate Development. More recently, she has worked at Bankers Without Boundaries on ESG. In May 2021, Fiona was appointed Head of Group Strategy and Optimization at UniCredit becoming Head of Strategy in ESG in February 2022. Fiona is excellently positioned to help us understand why ESG is such a vital part of UniCredit's strategic plan and how keeping it at the centre of all decision-making is crucial for success. Fiona, welcome to Conversations Unlocked.

Fiona: Thank you very much for having me on the podcast today.

Twyla: Absolute pleasure. It's a real delight to have you here. I think, let's start with the basics. Why do you think it's so important for big corporations like UniCredit to have such a focus on ESG?

Fiona: Well, I think ESG is fundamental to us all, but particularly for large corporations and having a focus on ESG means that we are looking to the future and we are building a more sustainable and more equitable society and being very conscious about our environmental impact. One of the key things that's facing us all today is the energy transition and within ESG, that's obviously a key focus, particularly for us in terms of our financing and accompanying our clients along their transition journey. The other aspect I think within ESG is there are obviously three letters there and we are very much focused on looking at S as well as E and the social side, which I think can often be overlooked. And I think it's very important for banks given the role that they play in society and in the communities that they operate in. We are very conscious of the interaction between both E and S. Lastly, I think that looking at how we measure impact from an ESG point of view is key and making sure that we have the appropriate KPIs and that we're able to monitor and track our progress so that we see how we are progressing towards net zero.

Twyla: It almost seems that we need to separate the three letters and remember that they all exist and themselves, not just one monolith. So, Chairman Padoan said at your shareholders' meeting in April that environmental, social and governance considerations are at the centre of all UniCredit's activities. So why is ESG so important to UniCredit specifically?

Fiona: When we launched our UniCredit Unlocked plan in December 2021, sustainability and ESG were a key part of our plan. So, we have firm business targets that we can talk about later where we're looking to grow the business, support the energy transition, and support those companies that are involved in the green space. We also have the same on the social side. So for us, there is a business opportunity from the growth in that space but also there is a role for us to play in a just and fair transition. So we are accompanying our clients along their pathway and for many of them they are undergoing significant change and they require financing to do that. And we are very much there to help them in that journey. And I think also we have a very firm purpose at UniCredit, which is empowering communities to progress. And that in itself is all about sustainability and about helping society and about making a contribution to our communities, both from the way in which we finance, but also the way in which we interact with, um, our communities and society.

Twyla: Yeah, absolutely. And I can understand how there must be competing agendas constantly for clients and investors. And so how do you keep it on the agenda and fundamental to every decision that you make at UniCredit?

Fiona: One of the key things that we've done is to set three principles. And I think that certainly helps very much to frame our strategy and what this means for everybody in how we view ESG. So the first one is that we hold ourselves to the highest possible standards and that we do the right thing for our clients and society. The second is that we are totally committed to supporting our clients in a just and fair transition. And the third is that we reflect and respect the views of our stakeholders in our business and our decision-making. So when we take those three principles, those are the foundations of our ESG strategy. Also, more recently we've elevated the responsibility for ESG to the Group Executive Committee. So that also underlines the importance for all of us. And in terms of the path of embedding it in everything we do, that's partly cultural and partly training, but it is very much that we are considering ESG in all of our decisions. It's not a nice to have, it's not an add-on, it's a fundamental part of our business in terms of how we interact with our clients, in terms of our own operations. So our number one aim is also to lead by example. So when we signed net zero, we had a target for our own emissions to be at zero by 2030. We've made a lot of progress, but there's still some way to go. So you know, we're trying to be plastic-free by the end of 2022. So there's a lot we can do on our own part, as well as obviously focusing on what we're financing.

Twyla: Yeah, absolutely. It is keeping it in the forefront of people's minds in even just the very small ways, isn't it, that you keep it on people's agendas? So when we talk about social responsibility, what is it and what does it mean to fulfil social responsibility?

Fiona: Well, social is broad in terms of what that could mean for different communities and certainly across different geographies. Given we cover 13 geographies, there are different needs for society or different issues that they're facing. But for us, what we've been focusing on is financial inclusion and also education generally, and financial literacy, which is obviously linked to topics such as female empowerment. So, we try to focus our impact. We try to focus our efforts on those areas. We also have a Foundation, the UniCredit Foundation, which has a range of social and humanitarian initiatives. And then in addition to that, we've got a contribution that we make in terms of scholarships and fellowships and education. Our own social contribution last year was around 36 million euros, for example.

Twyla: It's a very impressive list, the social contributions that UniCredit has. And how do you ensure that these social contributions have an impact and that your ESG strategy measures its impact?

Fiona: Well, on the social side, we also have a social finance business or a social impact bank where we are lending, for example, micro-credit or social housing. And so we're looking very much at the impact that can have. And generally, over the whole space of ESG, we are looking at KPIs and targets to ensure that there's an impact.

Twyla: There's obviously an extensive range of ESG targets. Are there a few you could possibly touch on? Just to give examples so listeners can understand all the different areas in which you have these ESG targets?

Fiona: So, for our overall business, last December, we gave an overall target for ESG volumes, which is the market norm over the next three years - so that's from 2022 to 2024 - of 150 billion euros. And that was spread across a range of products in the first quarter, which is our first quarter relative to the plan, we've done fairly well and we're running ahead of target. So, for example, in environmental lending, we were above target at 2.4 billion euros in the first quarter. And on things like investment products, we had a 28 billion increase. And then lastly on social lending, I think it was 1.1 billion of volume in the first quarter. So on track, the only thing that was off track to a slight extent was sustainable bonds, but I think that was partly the market environment and we're on track from a longer-term perspective.

Twyla: Obviously you've touched on the social impact side. Do you think that environmental, social, and corporate governance all have equal weight when building policy objectives for the business?

Fiona: I think it's difficult to put a weight on them because it really depends on the country and sub-sector. But you know, one example that is often used is in the energy transition. There are obviously very significant implications for certain countries. In Bosnia, for example, electricity is largely produced from coal to a larger extent than in some other countries. So with the transition, there are likely to be implications on the social front when it's such a significant part of the production. Whereas in other countries, says Austria, they may be in very different stages of transition. So I think it can differ, but obviously it's very important to look at both. So recently we launched refreshed policies on coal and on oil and gas, and within that, we obviously have to balance E and S. So our policies will mandate a certain, you know, strategy and certain areas of operation and how we look at our customers or how we class our customers. But we also have to be mindful, I think of the social impact of some of these outcomes.

Twyla: And for such a big bank with so many different Regions, it's obviously difficult to make sure that every country is at least meeting its targets. How do you ensure that no country gets left behind in the ESG movement?

Fiona: Maybe I would encapsulate it more as maybe not different priorities, but different starting points. So we have to be mindful of where they are in the transition path. And certainly, when you see things like exit from coal, different countries in our footprint have different exit dates. So that is a balancing act and is an area where we can support our customers in areas such as green financing, for example. So that we are there with them, on the transition. So I think we recognize that there are different speeds but we have to be realistic on the trade-offs here. It's not one size fits all.

Twyla: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's also a pragmatic approach that actually leads ultimately to success in the end. And I suppose looking at the success side of things, what would you say are the next key milestones within UniCredit's ESG strategy?

Fiona: We have a very comprehensive ESG roadmap. So this roadmap has 20 different work streams, so there's obviously a lot going on both within the business and at the Holding level, given there are various regulatory developments over time and certain projects, for example, on data. But within that, one of the key projects is net zero, particularly given that we recently signed that commitment. By April 2023, we will be releasing our initial targets for a limited number of sectors to be achieved by 2030. And then obviously there are more targets required as time passes. So that's a very significant piece of work across the Bank in terms of a project that touches all the businesses, Risk, ESG finance and where we have to have a very joined-up strategy where everything is integrated in terms of what this means for our overall business targets, what that means for the direction of travel. And obviously, within this, there's a lot of data and baselining and measurements. So net zero is one of the key projects that we're working on. Generally, we have a continued review of our policies which is something that's a dynamic process and we're adding new sectors or reviewing policies. And then the other key area of focus is S. So we have set targets within the business plan for the social lending side. So we have a target of 10 billion incremental volumes over the next three years within the 150 billion target. And that's a key focus for us in growing that business and having a positive social impact with that business in terms of the people that we reach and the beneficiaries.

Twyla: So they are the immediate milestones and they seem like an incredible feat to achieve. But what would you say success looks like in the long run?

Fiona: Success for us would be to have ESG fully embedded and I think we're on that path. By that, I mean that ESG is something that everybody considers in everything they do, which is increasingly the case. But in that, it is totally integrated into the risk management side, into business practices, and into the entire accountancy finance side, and we're on that path. And obviously data is the key resource that we require on all of our finance emissions or all of our clients. And that is part of our journey. But I think success would be to have it totally embedded across the organisation and I think we're making very good progress on that. The other would be ensuring that we're innovative and we're at the cutting edge on the sustainable finance side, that we are accompanying our clients along their transition and that we're doing so in a positive and innovative fashion. So there is obviously a lot to be done in that respect over time.

Twyla: Absolutely. A huge amount to be done, but it sounds like it will have an incredible and long-lasting impact.

Fiona: And I think the last element is also on the social side, in that we are obviously very much part of the community, at the heart of the community and of people's financial needs. So ensuring that we have a positive impact on society and that we can measure that and we can accompany our clients along their overall journey as well, and meet the needs of the communities.

Twyla: Thank you so much, Fiona. So this is where we find out what makes you tick and you give us a little insight into your day-to-day life as a UniCredit leader. Please just answer the first thing that comes to you. Ready?

Fiona: I'm ready.

Twyla: Great. Breakfast or lunch?

Fiona: Lunch.

Twyla: Excel or PowerPoint?

Fiona: Excel.

Twyla: Remote working or office?

Fiona: Office.

Twyla: Sitting or standing desk?

Fiona: Sitting.

Twyla: Sun or snow?

Fiona: Sun.

Twyla: Milan or London?

Fiona: Milan.

Twyla: Yes. Me too. Now I've been here. Absolutely. Great. Thank you so much. Okay. And the closing question that we like to ask all of our UniCredit leaders, just as it's such a wonderful opportunity to talk with you, obviously UniCredit's mission is to Win. The right way. Together. We want to ask all of our guests their top tips for winning so we can start sharing in each other's successes. So Fiona, as a leading UniCredit expert, what is your key to winning?

Fiona: My key to winning is teamwork. And I think that's certainly very important for us as a bank because when you look at UniCredit, it is a collection of 13 banks in 13 different geographies. So for us to reap the proper synergies and the benefits of being a Group, we really, really need to work together. And that's something that I think is a challenge for everybody because we're in different geographies and different places. But I think for me, if we are to win, I think it requires us to work very much as a team.

Twyla: I think that teamwork is really key and what's come from all of the experts that I've talked to is that it is a really strong element of UniCredit's work and how important it is for the bank to succeed. Thank you so much for your time. It has been a real honour to speak to you and to go into detail about all of the various different ESG policies and targets that you are moving towards within UniCredit.

Fiona: Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure.

Twila: Hello and welcome to Conversations Unlocked, the UniCredit podcast and your gateway to industry insights. I'm your host, Twila Doone, and together we will hear from leading experts from UniCredit and beyond on how they navigate challenges, and their tips for unlocking success. Handing us the keys this week is Richard Burton, Head of Clients Solutions. He first joined the Bank over 20 years ago as Managing Director. Since then he has held many vital roles within the organisational structure as Head of Client Solutions. He has overseen key simplification initiatives that are helping UniCredit to stay 100% focused on its clients, keeping them at the heart of everything it does. Richard is uniquely positioned to speak to us today about client-centricity and solutions. Why is this so crucial to UniCredit strategic plan and how do you unlock it to serve your clients in the best possible way? Richard, welcome to Conversations Unlocked. Thank you so much for joining us for Conversations Unlocked. It's a pleasure to have you here.

Richard: Good morning, thank you very much for inviting me here.

Twila: Thank you very much. So, before we delve into the details of client solutions, can you briefly explain what your role as Head of Clients Solutions entails?

Richard: That is quite simple. I am working with my team, my first line, and together we are organising two factories - product factories of the Group - so that they are focused, organised and correctly serve all the different client segments to ensure that we have the right structure, products and focus to help the bankers in our countries.

Twila: So, as you said, this role in Client Solutions is split into two key areas: corporate and individual solutions, as I understand it. Can you briefly explain the differences?

Richard: The clue is in the name. Corporate solutions are the products that are targeted and focused on all our corporate clients, from small to large. Individual solutions are the products that go to our individual clients. So, our wealth management clients, our private banking clients, such as investment products or insurance products.

Twila: Last year, Andrea Orcel launched the Bank's new strategic plan, UniCredit Unlocked. At the heart of it is always the client, ensuring that the organisation goes above and beyond just to support their needs. So, how has Client Solutions' harmonised service model formed a key part of unlocking this potential?

Richard: The service model, the setup of this matrix that we have put together, where we have the bankers in the country who know the client's best in the class needs, and we have product factories, corporate solutions and individual solutions. By having this matrix, we can take the size of the Group, the purchasing power, the buying power, and the investment power of being a large Group to design

best-in-class products that give the best product to our bankers to deliver the best products to the clients. This is helping the client get a better experience. While having this clear separation of coverage and products, we can concentrate the resources in the right way on all the client segments, giving them - the clients - the best experience. Twila: So, it is about the harmonisation of those two coming together.

Richard: Yes.

Twila: It is crucial. Excellent. So, how does this cultural shift at UniCredit bring colleagues closer to clients and who are Clients Solutions main partners in this? Richard: Well, clearly, with the Matrix we have two main partners. We have the banker and internal client because we need to ensure that we are working together as one, and - of course - we have the client to whom we are delivering the products. What we have tried to do in putting the client at the centre, is we have added some products. We have added some expertise and one of the good examples of this is we built industry expertise, and this allows the coverage banker to be able to have a very strategic conversation with its clients and up to our relationship. Our industry expertise allows an industry expert to join the banker when they talk to the CEO, to the CFO. They can talk about what is happening in the industry, and what are competitors doing. These conversations were very different conversations to just selling a product. And these are little examples of what we are doing and building to give everybody the tools to put the client at the centre.

Twila: So, it is encouraging informed conversations.

Richard: Yes.

Twila: And that ideal of collaboration across the Group and all of the different regions, which is so important.

Richard: It brings the benefits of local knowledge and global knowledge together. This way we can harmonise and tailor our products to local needs, but at the same time recognise what the global trend is, and we can do things that any of our thirteen banks on their own wouldn't be able to do. Any single Bank wouldn't necessarily be able to build industry expertise because they do not have so many companies or a particular industry in a country, but when you look across the whole client base, we have enough to have the centralised industry expertise that we can bring to the benefit of a pharmaceutical company in Germany, in Austria or Italy. And this I think is going to enhance what we are doing with our clients in the future. And the same on the individual solutions side. By having experts at the centre, we can use that and work with the best partners and providers of products because one individual country may not have relevance to the provider. By doing this we can bring the best products into each country and that is a win-win-win.

Twila: This is a unique offering UniCredit has created with this new Clients Solutions initiative, and we have talked about this in other conversations, about this idea of a strong community.

Richard: Yes, very very important.

Twila: And how do you manage to support both small and large businesses to progress? Richard: We need to serve different clients in different ways. If you look at UniCredit, we have 1 million thereabouts corporate clients? Obviously, we have large clients and they are very few, it's like a pyramid, and then we have loads more SMEs and middle corporates, and they all have needs. I try to look at it in one way. ESG, for example. If you look at the large corporates today, they have the resources themselves. They understand the vision of where to go and they have their committees with people, specialised people, and we help them with the capital markets and advisory. But we are going to make a difference in helping this mass at the bottom - the small and the medium corporates - where they don't have the resources or they don't have the knowledge, but we can. So, we, for example, are training our bankers to bring ESG to their Bank client base. We are providing a product that can be delivered and we are going to help all those clients in the transition. But how do we reach the clients is different. So, for example, we reach our clients through our digital portal, and one of the things that we are working on now is to create the factoring offering through a digital approach. This way, we will then be able to reach hundreds and hundreds of SMEs and allow them to access the benefits of factoring. Whereas, at the moment we are targeting mid-corporates, but by using a digital channel we can serve them with more.

Twila: Well, digitalisation is really a key pillar in the UniCredit Unlocked strategy, isn't it?

Richard: Yes, yeah.

Twila: How does providing key services digitally empower communities to progress through client services?

Richard: By connecting them digitally, we can offer products to communities that they wouldn't necessarily have been able to have. I can give some examples both from the product side where - I have mentioned before - for factoring, but I also look at some of the payment services that we have now recently introduced onto the portal in Italy, 110 currencies with which clients can make their payments electronically. Before, they only had 33. So, if they need to pay a supplier overseas, they can do it electronically. And what's more important on that, it also is a straight-through process. So, there is less error, it is faster. We are doing a lot on that, the faster payment initiative. So, the digital tool is about the client experience, and UniCredit Unlocked is about the client at the centre. So, all these things move together.

Twila: We have talked a lot about simplification in a different episode of the podcast and it does seem that digitalisation really helps cement that simplification because it makes you more agile as an organisation and therefore helps the clients in a more integrated way.

Richard: Yes, it frees our resources internally. It makes us faster, and nimbler. A straight-through process takes out the errors, the payments being stopped in a cue, and all those delays that build frustration for clients. Suddenly, the whole organisation feels lighter and nimbler. It is also better for colleagues internally. We all like to feel lighter and nimble which allows us to concentrate more time on the client and less time on the process.

Twila: So, you have mentioned the importance of ESG and how crucial that is within the client services realm. So, how does the Bank's Sustainable Finance Advisory team support its clients to manage the transition and to design their sustainability frameworks?

Richard: Well, sustainability, ESG, is massively important. If you just look at the money that is coming from Next Gen EU, REPowerEU, how this money has been targeted at transition and how it has been targeted in new technologies means there is a lot of need. Not just for the sustainable and financial advisory team, where they have a dedicated team helping clients design their sustainability framework. But also these funds are generating the need for Banks like us to act as multipliers because there are going to be infrastructural changes, new technologies, and project finance and we have to understand all these frameworks. So, the sustainable finance advisory team is not only helping clients, but it is also helping us understand where this money is going to come from, and how can we, as a Bank, best help.

This is a benefit for the whole community, to be able to make this transition. And there is a critical role of the Banks. So, the sustainable finance advisory team is a pillar within our Bank that is beyond just clients. It is a centre of expertise that is sharing its knowledge around the Group.

Twila: It's like an encyclopedia, isn't it? For UniCredit.

Richard: It is an area that is developing so fast. So, I think encyclopedia is the wrong word, it is more of a sort of Wikipedia.

Twila: Yes, yes. So, sustainability as well, kind of takes on two forms in the sense that you are looking after your clients today but the next generations of clients that are coming into UniCredit will be looking for ESG initiatives and that expertise. And so, really, it's future-proof.

Richard: If we do our model well, everybody will be an ESG expert individually because this transition is really important. It is fundamental for the future generations. We all need to get this in our DNA. I look at the younger people joining our firm, they are much more conversant and understanding of the subject and have the will to drive it forward than perhaps some of the people who have been in the firm longer. We need to capture this energy because it is the topic of the moment.

Twila: Yeah, it is about equipping both the clients and the individuals inside the Bank with everything they need to know to drive forward. That's very exciting. So, I suppose we have talked about all the various sectors or touched on - I should say - all the different sectors of Clients Solutions and how important ESG is to its fundamental growth. But what are, would you say, your key measures for success?

Richard: I think, you know, you could look across Client Solutions. I have measures of success and KPIs on different business lines. However, I think that if I step back and look at what is a key measure of success is going to be clients that want to come to UniCredit because we have got the best service model, because we are giving them the advice. They understand that if they come to us, we understand what they need, and what they want, and they are willing to come and share with us information and their problems because we need to help them with their problems. The clue is the name again: "solutions". And our success is: "Can we bring those solutions?". Are clients coming to us, are they feeling that they come to UniCredit and we are light, nimble, focused on them, that they are in the centre? We have lots of clients, but I want each of them to feel that they are the ones that matter most. This way, we can make a difference and move forward.

Twila: Yeah, yeah. It's about evoking that feeling among the clients rather than necessarily a number.

Richard: Exactly. We see it in the quality of the transactions that we are doing, the strategic advice that we are doing, and the growth of the assets management because we are bringing the best quality of products. There is always a way of measuring it but it's that of wanting to be with UniCredit and feeling the passion that I have for the business. I want everybody to be there with that passion.

Twila: Yes, well, I have to say, since being in the UniCredit office and conducting this Podcast, I feel every person I have been able to speak to really really has that passion and it's very contagious.

Richard: It is.

Twila: And it is lovely to be a part of it. Richard, thank you so much for answering these questions. This is the part where we find out a little bit about what makes you drive and gives us a quick insight into your day-to-day life as UniCredit leader. So, please just answer the first that comes into your head.

Richard: I'm interested. Let's see.

Twila: Breakfast or lunch?

Richard: Breakfast.

Twila: Excel or Power Point?

Richard: Excel.

Twila: Milan or London?

Richard: Milan.

Twila: Virtual or in-person?

Richard: In person.

Twila: Coffee or tea?

Richard: Coffee.

Twila: Snow or sun?

Richard: Both.

Twila: Zoom or phone call?

Richard: Zoom.

Twila: Sitting or standing desk?

Richard: Sitting.

Twila: Do you know you are the only person I talked to who's only answered with one word? How brilliant, quick far around from you. And finally, we know that UniCredit's mission is To Win. The right way. Together. So, we want to ask all our guests their top tips for winning, so we can start sharing in each other's successes and unlocking our true potential. So, Richard what is your top tip for winning?

Richard: Challenge the norm. Do not be afraid to challenge the norm. Be courageous to challenge the norm, and then we can move the Bank forward. Don't be afraid of failure because some of the best entrepreneurs and companies are born from attempt after attempt after attempt. So, be brave, be courageous and challenge the norm.

Twila: Wow, that's a really lovely thing to end on because I think these podcasts should be inspirational and some of the insights that we have gathered from all of our speakers have been really inspirational. So, thank you so much.

Richard: It's been my pleasure.

Twila: Thank you.

Richard: Thank you.