“I block time to think in my calendar” – Verena Thaler from Raisin
No time right now?
In the “5 things I can’t work without” series, we ask web workers what they cannot do without in their job. Today’s guest: Verena Thaler from Raisin.
Verena Thaler is Vice President Strategy & Business Development at Raisin. In this position, she is responsible for the company’s strategic business development and the expansion of banking partnerships. Before Raisin, Verena worked for McKinsey & Company for more than seven years, most recently as a Junior Partner, where she continuously advised banks on strategy, sales and business formation. After studying in Vienna and London, Verena did her doctorate on brand value and innovation. She is enthusiastic about all topics related to open banking, financial education and leadership.
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5 things I can’t work without: Verena Thaler from Raisin
My iPad: I’ve been working completely digitally and without paper since 2018, even though I was the biggest fan of notebooks before that. I like it minimalistic and at some point I found most printouts superfluous. Avoiding paper as much as possible is not only significantly better for the environment, but also for my back, as I just carry around a lot less with myself. Now my iPad is my constant companion and an extremely important resource for my work. Here I have access to all relevant documents, have an overview of all my contacts and appointments and continue to diligently keep a notebook – just in digital form. I use the Goodnotes app for this, in which I have sorted several notebooks according to different topics.
Communication: Conversations are essential in my job. At Raisin I am responsible for strategy and business development and I am in close contact with both external and internal stakeholders. Together with my team, I advise Raisins Bankpartner on the ideal funding and market entry strategy for them and am also a sparring partner for our founders and managing directors on issues relating to strategic corporate development. I keep in touch with partners, colleagues and my own team via mobile phone, Slack and Zoom. And of course I hope that we will be able to focus more on personal exchange again in the course of the year.
Also interesting: “That’s why your team approach does not motivate anyone”
Inspiration: The financial sector fascinates me again and again. I actively follow the movements in the market and draw inspiration from various channels. This includes discussions with industry colleagues as well as topics, trends and debates at conferences and in the specialist media. I draw valuable inspiration from observing other fintechs, banks, customer behavior and macroeconomic developments. It helps me to put our range of products and services in the larger context and to better understand the expectations of partners and customers. Even if some may not share the enthusiasm for such specific topics as interest rate policy – which we monitor with our monthly interest rate radar – I find these economic changes particularly exciting. This passion often gives rise to important approaches for our product development.
Time to Think: My calendar fills up with appointments very quickly. For my strategic work, it is important to be focused even with a well-timed schedule. I therefore consciously and regularly block time windows for undisturbed reflection in my calendar; my own “time to think”. During this time I ask myself strategic questions: Where do we want to go? What have we already achieved? Where do I want to prioritize in order to achieve certain goals? With the help of these little pause for thought, I can focus my mindset and proactively shape situations so that trends or developments do not come as a surprise to us.
Also interesting: “How does creativity work?”
Teamwork: “… makes the dream work.” I can only confirm that. An everyday source of ideas, a great motivator and an incentive to achieve top performance all rolled into one for me is clearly working together in a team. At Raisin, I work with international colleagues with very different professional backgrounds in a diverse team. This increases the problem-solving skills and creativity of the entire company and gives me a lot of energy and the drive to achieve the best results together.
By the way, all other articles from this series can be found here.
