Moderator:
Welcome to the stage, Jenn and Marianne, it's so nice to have you here and congratulations to being named on American Bankers Most Powerful Women in Banking. Again, we really appreciate everything you do, and we're so happy for you as well so many of our colleagues who also had that recognition. So what we'd love to do today is talk about your co-leadership, what you see for the future of the business. I think a lot of our colleagues in consumer and community banking have heard from you, but maybe other colleagues have not, and our clients have not. So we'd love to talk to you about what you see as the future. So let's start with you Jenn. We would love for you to talk about the transformation of Chase over the last few years and everything we've done around the client experience work, product discipline, where do you see that going forward and how will you co-lead that vision?
Jennifer Piepszak:
So I'll start with how we're co-leading the vision for CCB. First of all, importantly, critically it starts on a foundation of experience with one another. We've known each other for a very long time, trust, respect, and friendship. And without that foundation, I think it could be very, very different. And it's also a very large business. It's a business by the way, that at one point was run by three men, and at another point was run by two men, and so having a co-head structure is not anything new for CCB. And because it is as large as it is, I think it's really a luxury that we have the capacity of two of us as opposed to one of us. And so we have majors and minors as we call them and so we've split up the businesses, Marianne runs consumer lending and connected commerce, and I'm running the banking businesses and wealth management, and then even all of the functions, because there is a lot of work that we do horizontally across the business, we have majors and minors. But the miners are in some ways sub majors, because we do a lot of things together because for us to achieve the vision, it really is to be able to connect all of these businesses for our customers so we can support them throughout their financial journey in life. And so we spend a lot of time working at the center on the digital experiences, personalization, and how we can make all of these experiences much easier on behalf of our customers. So it's a very detailed strategy. Each of the lines of business have their own strategies in their own right but then we have to think about a technology transformation in terms of modernization, a data strategy. We have recently went through a transformation in terms of how we're organized into a product architecture and that was a a really big change and then personalization and insights and segmentation. How do we think about-- we say that in order to be the bank for all, we need every one of our customers to feel like we're the bank for them. It's the bank for me, not just the bank for all. And so segmentation is critically important to our strategy and really being an insights-driven organization that really thinks about the unique insights and pain points of every one of our segments. So we serve them in a way that it feels like the bank for me.
Moderator:
Great. Thank you. So you both have built a lot of teams across the organization. You've been in many functions over the years and have built very high performing teams. So we'd love to know from you Marianne first, what are the traits you look for in leaders and managers, the people who work for you or want to work for you one day, what should they do and demonstrate?
Marianne Lake:
So by the way, it's great to be here. I think this is our sixth of these events and so we couldn't be more thrilled than to be here speaking to you all. So I think when you look at people leading in any capacity, the first thing I would say is whatever it is that you're running, whether it is a project, whether it's a functional group, whether it's a business or a part of a business, be the CEO of whatever it is you're running. And what do I mean by that? I mean that it starts by really understanding with an obsessive nature, what it takes to succeed for your customer. So putting your customer, whether that's an internal customer or an external customer at the center of all the decision making that you have. Obsessing about the competition, oftentimes the best way you can obsess about the competition is obsessing about the customer so those two things are very related, but it also means running what you do end to end. And so it's as much about focusing on infrastructure and data and risk and controls as it is on product or revenue. And so whatever you're doing think end to end, whatever you're doing, don't define any boundaries to your role. It's a little bit like that Imagine Dragons song, whatever it takes. I'm just going to do what it takes to make this group project, business, team successful and I'll swell into the gaps that others are leaving. And those sort of people, I think generally over time lend themselves to being tapped on the shoulder to do more things. I think the second thing I would say is don't underestimate the need to communicate. And I would say communicate clearly, consistently, and often with the whole team. So whatever is the strategy, whatever it is your vision, whatever you have defined as success for your business or endeavor, you need to communicate it clearly, consistently, and often because people in the team can get behind what they understand. Context is everything; maybe not everybody would agree with every decision you make, but once they understand what the goal looks like, you have a much higher probability of succeeding. And one of the things that we saw in spades during 2020 and the pandemic is that we all rallied behind a finite number of critical goals. And it was amazing the speed with which we could move when every single person up down and sideways in the team knew that mission critical number one was like turning off our customers, whether that was opening the branches safely, whether it was PPP, whether it was customer relief, everybody, no one was confused, everybody ran to that same fire and it was amazing what we could get done. So I think communication, context is everything people can do what they understand. Focus on the facts. I'm an ex-CFO, I'm an ex-finance person, I can't shake it. The facts will set you free. Jamie has said often and I agree with him, data analyze, rinse, repeat, it takes the emotion out of decisions oftentimes if you can show people with clarity, the facts, the whole facts, and nothing but the facts. And so I think you are what you measure and we should be very disciplined about making sure that we're showing the true facts making like we talked about it, personalization, data-driven decisions that people can understand and then move on from there. So I think that the facts will set you free and that's an important part of it. For me and we'll, we can talk about it a bit more later. I think being a leader in this environment is also embracing change and so the ability to just be willing to disrupt yourself and be bold, to be innovative and sort of lean into trends as you see them and know that every step you take doesn't have to be forward it can be a zig-zag. You can zig, you can zag, you can bob, you can weave, you can iterate and that's how you get to the right place. And then last but not least and I think that they are really critical is to execute with excellence. And I won't swear, but you'll understand what I mean when I say you need to know your stuff, you need to get stuff done, you need to set the bar high and you need to lead by example, which is everything you do has to be centered on wanting to always do the right thing. So if you are to set the bar high and like lead from the front and execute with excellence, then your team will follow you in that same fashion. And that's huge when it comes to carrying the culture, you need to sort of lead by example. And then humanity, I mean this last 18 to 24 months, I guess, 18, and probably the next 18 have shown us the need to lead with a significant amount of humanity and understand that people on your team are dealing with all sorts of things and they're dealing with personal issues and health issues and family issues and logistical issues and knowing that you're expecting people to show up every day and bring their authentic true self to work also means you need to understand that you have to have a high degree of humanity and empathy when you're leading teams. So, I mean, just that.
Moderator:
We all took notes here and there's two former CFO so I think the data point will be more enforced.
Marianne Lake:
One just final thing 'cause I just say be a great partner. It’s just people want to work with people who are really great partners and that's not the same thing as being like really nice or like easy to work with, but just be a great partner, like always mission.
Moderator:
And honest.
Marianne Lake:
Yeah.
Moderator:
Thank you. So let's talk about one of the changes over the past 18 months, the flexibility piece of working from home hybrid models, which we're still piloting and testing. So Jenn, do you think, tell us about flexibility. Do you think it has been beneficial for women? Have there been any downsides to that? When you think about some of the power of being together and working together in person?
Jennifer Piepszak:
Sure. I mean, I think there's a difference between what we had to do over the last 18 months versus what we will ultimately do for flexibility in our workforce going forward. So I think it was extraordinary for-- I mean, Maryanne touched on it, it was extraordinary what we were able to do in a weekend really turn our entire workforce into a remote workforce. And the culture that we brought into that moment is I think a big, not to mention the amazing technology team that we have, but the culture that we brought into that moment is I think what got us through those moments. And so I think the fact that the pandemic had a disproportionate impact on women would tell you that flexibility coming out of it will have a disproportionately positive impact on women, I have to believe. I do think that, and we've talked about it a lot as we go through return to the office, we have proven that you can maintain culture in a remote environment. We have yet to prove that you can build culture in a remote environment, and so I think having an office based culture is incredibly important to this company for a very, very good reason and I think that both women and men benefit from having that opportunity to engage in person and build that culture. So I think the flexibility is going to be great for everyone in whatever form we can make sure that it works for our clients, our customers, as well as our employees. We are testing things as you, as you say Sam, but we'll have to see what form that takes and for different job functions I think it will look very different but being an office-based culture is a big part about making sure that you build and maintain culture over time. Because I do think even although maintaining culture was easier than building culture, even that will atrophy over time in a completely remote environment. So there's lots of puts and takes, but lots of options for us to think about in terms of the workforce of the future no doubt.
Moderator:
As you were thinking about the relationships you've built over time in person until this moment, what did that mean to you to be in the office, to be able to develop relationships, working directly with people they're seeing your work, they're vouching for you, can you talk about the importance of that?
Jennifer Piepszak:
Well, it means everything. I mean obviously to be able to make your work feel more personal is a big part of feeling part of something, belonging feeling part of something bigger than yourself and I think that is a huge motivating factor for anyone. And that is extremely difficult when you're just dialing in and hanging up and dialing in and hanging up and trying to run to the bathroom and get something to eat in between. It's very difficult to feel like you belong to something bigger than yourself and I think in person, you have that opportunity to build that culture. And yes, you also have that opportunity to take a little bit more time to work through an issue or solve a problem, or run next door to Marianne's office and say, "What do you think about this? Am I thinking about it the right way? What would you do?" You're much less likely to dial someone to ask that same question. So I think it's critically important. But it doesn't mean that we can't have flexibility also, which is a positive coming out of this.
Marianne Lake:
I do think one of the things that Jenn said right upfront about the importance of trust and confidence in the people that you're working with, particularly in moments of truth, when things are challenging is super critical. And so the relationships you're able to build in the good times and the informal interactions that you have allow you to lean on those relationships when things are more challenging and allow you to capitalize on a little bit of the benefit of the doubt, because you have been a great partner because you have been present for the other people in the team. And it is different when you click off at the end of the meeting and you're not standing outside the room having that like last three minutes of conversation. Now we want to be inclusive, we want to make sure that people who are working remotely, not just because they were working remotely from home, but because they, in other offices that we have, but they have the same ability to engage. But I do think the investment in making sure that we're building partnerships is super critical.
Moderator:
Yeah.
Jennifer Piepszak:
And by the way, I have to add, we could probably riff on this for another hour, but I have to add that, that treating everyone equally, it doesn't mean treating them the same. And you have to know the people on your team to know what motivates them and know how to get the best out of them and you're just not going to do that over Zoom consistently over time.
Moderator:
Right. And hopefully managers have found a lot of guidance that we put out across the firm as to what will work and tools to help them and engage in conversations. Marianne, you talked about change – there's gonna be change coming all the time – and you've also talked a lot about how to deal with competitors like fintechs and others that are coming for us or already have. What keeps you up at night and what are you doing to really try to get ahold of change and what we need to do to position ourselves for it?
Marianne Lake:
Yeah, and so I see quite well by the way that doesn't mean there aren't things that we're very focused on and as a leadership team and as an organization, and we most often focus on the things that we can do better, the things that we could lean into more, we could speed up the challenges we have. So a few things in no particular order, I think that we did see a multi-year acceleration during the pandemic of what were already secular shifts we were expecting in terms of self-service and digitization and some trends that we've been preparing for but we did see those accelerate at warp speed and we weren't the only ones that saw it. And so while the competition has been first my whole life and will continue to be first, I do think things have amped up over the course of the last couple of years. And the competition is everywhere, it's not in our traditional incumbent financial institutions space, although it is there and don't discount that, it's not in the large or small fintech or tech space, it's literally everywhere. It's also how every customer experiences, every digital ecosystem, it's how they order a pizza, it's how they order a car. It's all those things that inform what customers think extraordinary experience looks like and what value outside of the transaction looks like that's what matters to our customers. So the acceleration of the pace of change is something to focus on and we need to be able to speed up to meet those accelerating trends. And so Jenn talked about the fact that we undertook what I would posit is one of the most significant transformations into a product-led and design-led organization over the last 18 months. And we're very focused on moving with all due haste and that's everything from our technology to how we operate as teams and how we do budgeting and planning and all those things need to keep pace. So the competition is fierce, it is quite literally everywhere. I think we have a great hand, but complacency is the enemy and we need to speed up. We're focused on that. I think again, in no particular order, Jenn also mentioned this, like financial inclusion an inclusive economic situation is something like we've left many people in this country behind, we want to be the bank for the Americans and we're not. And that doesn't mean that we should have products and services and strategies that like meet the requirements of many or most, but we need to focus on having those to meet the requirements all. And so just an example you saw recently, we acquired the Frank, which is a leading college financial planning platform. We're also instrumental in trying to make 50 million Americans that are credit invisible, have the ability to be assessed for credit. And so there's a whole bunch of things that we can and should do better on in terms of like promoting economic and financial inclusivity and we have a very important role in that space. And I'm just looking at the clock so I could go on and on, but I should just end by saying, there's nothing that keeps me up more than cyber and data privacy protections and the need for us to be forward-leaning in making sure that we're defining data standards for our customers that we think are sustainable and appropriate, so we're working really hard on that too.
Moderator:
Well, I just wanna say thank you to both of you for being here, too short as always, but we really appreciate all your insights and we can't wait to see what you do going forward.
Jennifer Piepszak:
Thanks for having us.
Marianne Lake:
Thank you so much.
END
