Voice of Experience: Janet Adams, Head of Strategic Projects and Change Management for Group Regulatory Affairs, Royal Bank of Scotland

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

One of the major challenges women face in the financial services industry, said Janet Adams, Head of Strategic Projects and Change Management for Group Regulatory Affairs at RBS, is a shortage of female role models. “It can be daunting being in meeting after meeting where you are the only woman or there is a minority of women.”

“We have three new female non-executive directors at RBS, and our Chairman is actively committed to developing women in senior positions so we do have successful female role models,” she said. “I have been mentored by two of the more senior women here over the past five years and benefited greatly from this.”

It’s also incumbent on women to reach out to role models, she said. “You need to go out and find them and approach them.”

Career in Change Management

Adams graduated from Imperial College in 1985 with a master’s degree in petroleum exploration and geosciences. “At the time, there weren’t many jobs available in the field aside from those based on rigs or abroad,” she recalled, “so I moved into the thriving IT environment of the ‘80s.”

“It was a time of technological revolution and the internet was emerging” she explained. “I began working as a self employed software product tester and then became a project manager. It was an exciting time, with the creation of the Euro and the Millennium Bug both demanding large scale responses in the financial services sector. In the 90s I moved into big change management jobs,” Adams continued.

“Working as an independent self-employed consultant was very liberating, with the business environment changing at such a fast pace. This experience allowed me to learn and grow fast, keeping up with the technological advancements creating the working world we know today,” she said. “I enjoyed working on predominantly male teams and managing them. Very quickly I learned how to hold my own and express new ideas with confidence.”

Adams joined RBS as a contractor in the mid ‘00s, working as a project manager to implement changes put in place by the international accounting standards board. “I absolutely loved the supportive and nourishing culture here and decided it was the place for me to put down roots.”

She explained, “I found it to be a very supportive place for women – my boss from that time still mentors and sponsors me today.”

“I moved to work for the corporate bank, leading a multi-million pound internet banking change program. This was one of the biggest and most progressive platforms of its kind at the time. My career then progressed through to senior change manager and COO roles until taking up my current position in mid 2011, a position I am very proud of.” Adams continued, “To sum it up, I’m a change agent.

Currently, as RBS’s group head of strategic projects and change management for Group Regulatory Affairs, she is helping the bank take the best course of action in response to new global financial regulations. She said, “In the financial services industry, we have been rocked by the financial crisis, regulators across the globe have responded with reforms to to ensure a more sustainable banking future. I’m looking at change with all of our divisions and functions to see how we can most effectively deliver and implement changes and regulations required of us across the globe, while optimizing our opportunities.”

“We, as senior managers, have the responsibility to create a sustainable banking industry future that adds value to society and restores trust in the industry. We’re architects of the future – and I’m excited to be a major part of this change and major shift going forward,” she added.

The Taktile Management Technique

Adams said one of her proudest achievements is developing a new performance management technique that has delivered big results.

“When I worked as the head of delivery for the corporate bank, I managed a program of work to increase customer satisfaction across all of our clients. I devised a program of management that is the most effective I’ve seen to date. It’s a radical technique for managing change,” she said.

“It’s called ‘Taktile,’ from the German ‘Takt,’ which means the beat of an orchestra, and ‘agile,’ which in management has to do with piloting and trialing,” she explained. “The team delivers output to a beat, and our beat is set at three days. Every three days my team had to deliver something – to execute it, to the stakeholders, to our customers. It improved our performance dramatically, and we saw customer satisfaction rates soar in nine months.”

She added “Taktile management is a way of coming up with creative solutions to new and old problems to get better results for the client.”

Advice for Women in Financial Services

Adams encouraged young women to be ambitious. “Be very confident in yourself. Just because some people may talk a bigger game than you, don’t think they are any better than you – because they’re not. Go for your career and give it everything you’ve got.”

“The advice I would give to a younger self would be to be very conscious and aware of how much you learn and develop in everything you do, and find the optimal time to move on to the next opportunity, within your organization – your next role may be right under your nose, when you have been looking elsewhere,” Adams said. “In my experience its healthy to change roles every few years to keep growing.”

She added, “At RBS, with each move I’ve had the opportunity to learn, grow, and develop. That’s what has given me rounded skills as a professional.”

Women at RBS

“Here at RBS,” Adams said, “We have many women in senior positions, who are inspiring the next generation. They are doing a fantastic job paving the way and our Chairman is right behind them, supporting them.”

She has been involved with several of the bank’s initiatives to attract and retain women. “I continue to be an active member of the RBS Global Focused Women’s network, which is a group-wide program launched in 2007 to support the attraction, retention and development of our female talent. The initiative provides cross company networking, career development, mentoring,  coaching, and  more,” she said. “I’ve made great connections through the network as there are over 5,400 members in 38 countries.” 

Adams also helped launch the women’s network for the investment bank, the Compass network, and serves as its deputy chair. “It’s one of our great successes – we had over 1,000 members within a year of launching.”

She continued, “We have strong and thriving diversity programs in all areas of RBS – we train people on unconscious bias and ensure women are considered equally to men across the RBS group. I’ve benefited from many initiatives over the years.”

She also mentioned one of the bank’s community investment programs. “It’s an employee volunteer program – you can sign up online as an individual or as a group and you can do anything from painting a school playground to planting a vegetable garden in a community or mentoring a young person.”

In Her Personal Time

“My 13 year old daughter comes first,” said Adams. “I was a single mother for six years of my earlier career and I’m very proud to be a role model for my daughter.”

“I spend a lot of my spare time in the outdoors with my family. I find that nature inspires me to come back to the office with a fresh perspective and new ideas.”

Additionally, she is involved in charity work, including organizing a fundraiser for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. “I consider myself extremely blessed,” Adams said.