If you had to explain your job to a child, how would you describe what you do?
Sylvie Ouziel: My job is to transform Allianz into a digital group, which probably as such you would not understand if you were a child. But if you were a child you would be a so-called digital native, which means you would have found a tablet and a smart phone in your cradle as of day one. So I would use those devices to show you how you can interact with Allianz, how to ask for a quotation, to subscribe a policy or to make a claim being on a mobile device, on your tablet or on our PC. And how we are providing the underlying technology to support that, from the channels to back office systems. I would also show you how big the group is and all the operations we have around the globe as a leader in the financial industry. So that you could get a sense of the power we can extract from this size and the synergies we can materialize.
So, if you were a child I would definitely use technology and communication technology to explain my job to you. And it’s a good coincidence, because information technology and communication technology are quite at the heart of what I’m doing.
What do you like most about your job?
I would say two things: One is being at the heart of core business transformations and big change programs. And second, the international dimension of my job.
What is the one thing you would advise women to do, if they aspire to be top managers?
Frankly, I would advise them to be self-aware. I think, there are very different ways for women to be successful as top managers. They have to be authentic - there is no one recipe, but it’s very important to know which cards you are playing. Women are sometimes perceived as a little shy, not stretching themselves, not being as assertive as men can be, not taking as many risks. Also sometimes as being a little bit too transparent about the risks they have to manage and not being in control and managing their scope. All that may happen. I think you can behave in very different ways, as long as you are self-aware and know which cards you want to play, when you want to stretch yourself, when you want to be more assertive, when you want to be more on the safe side. These are all conscious choices.
So, be yourself, be authentic, make the choices you want, but really think of it in a thoughtful way. Be sure you’ve got the strategy, be self-aware and do not go with the events. Manage your destiny, I would say.
