Zhanar Imentayeva

By gaining the good and rejecting what is wrong, it is our desire that we will compare favourably with other lands abroad.

Although, I have had traveled a lot and lived in different countries, I knew that Japan would challenge me in many ways. I loved this fact. Indeed, Japan is very different to any other country and it can teach one a lot. I respect Japanese culture for its efficiency and excellent management system of infrastructure, desire to learn, work hard and develop, staying traditional, its kindness and politeness. During my time in Japan I tried to take as much knowledge as possible. I have fine tuned my time management and efficiency skills, interpersonal skills (I have so many friends in Japan now) while learning new material quickly. I have been tested by absolutely different culture, different people from all over the world and by various tasks, from compliance gap analysis, Japanese market property valuation to derivatives’ valuations. My very hard work proved to be successful and it all went well.        It has been sad to leave Japan but I feel great satisfaction and benefit from this experience. I feel prepared for a competitive and challenging work life after the university. Thank you Saltire Foundation and Global Scots for this opportunity!

 

Kind regards,

Zhanar

TSE and Kabuki

Last week, the heart of Japanese economy welcomed us. We went to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, TSE. It is the second largest stock exchange market in the world by market value and the second only to the New York Stock Exchange. More than 2 thousand companies are listed here with a total market capitalization of over 5 trillion USD, but you won’t be able to see anything more than several computers. Computerisation took away the fun part – shouting sweating men buying and selling financial instruments.

So, I would like to tell you a rather interesting story of a “monumental error”. It is about the initial public offering of J-Com in 2005. It was meant to sell 1 share at 610,000 yen, but instead 610,000 shares were sold at 1 yen. TSE was not able to cancel the mistake and the result was USD 347m loss and resignation of three senior executives of the broker firm.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4512962.stm

On Tuesday night, my work colleagues and I went to a kabuki theatre in Ginza, Kabuki-za, to see Noda-ban: Aida Hime. It is a retelling of Verdi's opera Aida as a kabuki history play. Aida becomes Princess Aida, Radames becomes Kimura Damesukezaemon(!!!), Amneris becomes Princess Noh. And, of course all parts are played by men. Some time before the performance people formed a very long and neat queue for the tickets and waited patiently. The play was sold out very quickly, but we were among the lucky ones!  It was a very good version with lots of laugh, beautiful costumes and a great atmosphere!

I would advise everybody to see kabuki

Kind regards,

Zhanar

Keep the show on the road.

I got accustomed with a term “Keep the show on the road”. Such a great term used in the Information Technology department! In order to provide best products, be the first one in the business and cooperate better with partners and clients, RBS takes care of its infrastructure and “keeps the show on the road” for its business on the global market.

Information technology is a part of infrastructure and one of the main factors of success for business.
This week I learnt a lot about what IT does for banking and how innovative, flexible, supportive it should be. It was interesting to see main servers and to know more about advanced technologies that are used for trading and its support. Most appreciably, I met so many interesting and very smart (!) people from IT department. They have different educational backgrounds (from engineering to finance) and worked for different companies (from defense to university) around the world. Great people to learn from.

While, my timetable in IT was one of the tightest and busiest so far, I had time to have fun as well. Colin, Alex, Bahariah and I went to the Mori Art Museum. Being an RBS worker, I had free tickets for the Annette Messager exhibition held on the highest floor of trendy Roppongi Hills with a great city view. The exhibition was very refreshing from work. Annette Messager, a French artist, managed to portray war, motherhood, cruelty of people towards animals and questioned family happiness by using nonthreatening materials (stuffed toys and photos). It was a bit disturbing to see familiar toys from childhood to represent evil. Probably, it was a goal of Annette's.

I really enjoyed this evening and currently I am looking at other art exhibitions to visit.

Meanwhile, I, as everybody else, watch Olympics games and count medals.

Kind regards,
Zhanar

PS Did you know that one of the main IT security threats is your lost blackberry not another hacker attack? :)

Would you like a Wii competition? You can have it!

Last week I got real evidence that life at RBS is not just about work. I did analysis on several RBS events which took place during the last 3-4 months. It was great to see what happens behind the scenes. I learnt a lot about event organisation and management: from finding the best location, setting up AV equipment, facilitating seminars to logistics, time and cost management. I will definitely make use of this knowledge: be it organising a social party for colleagues or presenting a new product to clients.

 Maybe you would like to know more about the events themselves. RBS belongs to a little number of large banks which care about their staff and organise many fun events for it. Be it a 2-day skiing trip, a Christmas party, Kids at work day or just a normal drinks night after work. It can be anything. All these events are decided and planned by the Staff club, a number of people from every department and of different level. Would you like a Wii competition? You can have it! 

Clients are not left alone either. RBS brings together economists, researchers and strategists from all over the world to organise global seminars to educate clients and increase financial market awareness. It has organised a golf lesson with Luke Donald, an RBS golf ambassador, and now prepares for F1 race in October 2008.

 One of my favourite events to analyse was a visit of Sir Fred Goodwin, the chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. It was a special event, because it involved all sorts of activities (market and the group overview, future planning, integration, social part) for both RBS staff and clients, and it had a VIP factor (clients meeting, seminars, menu, special service, organise private jet meeting). Everything had to be well thought out, perfectly planned and managed. It was a great opportunity to get accustomed with real life experience of high-priority and high-class event management.

 
Kind regards,

Zhanar

... achieving spiritual enlightenment ...

Tokyo is probably the most technological city in the world, with amazing shopping experience, intense working life and people from all over the world. However, in my opinion, Tokyo would struggle to satisfy your desire for historical sightseeing. The best place to see traditional Japan is the country’s ancient capital, Kyoto!

                   

Everything is different here from Tokyo. The people, the accent (much softer), amazing traditional food (even better than in Tokyo!) and a vast number of shrines, temples and old streets.

I would now like to tell you about some of my favorite places in Kyoto, about my experience of exploring Japan from cultural and historical side, achieving spiritual enlightenment and seeing the philosophical side of our short life.

One of the first places to visit in Kyoto is a UNESCO World Heritage site - Kinkakuji Temple. A golden pavilion surrounded by amazing forest and lake. It makes you wander what had inspired people to build a beauty like this. Probably, a desire to leave something magnificent for the next generations.

Just 30 minutes walk from the temple and you are in Ryoanji Temple, which is famous for its rock garden. The 30x10m sand-pit has no trees, just 15 rocks arranged on a surface of gravel. Is it a garden? No, it is a masterpiece of Japanese culture.

It is said that no matter where you sit, you will never see 15 rocks at the same time. “Only when spiritual enlightenment comes to a viewer as a result of deep Zen meditation, the last invisible stone will appear”. Imagine my astonishment when I saw precisely 15 rocks only after a few trials. The summer heat must have provided me with the required spiritual enlightenment =)

                   

After achieving deep Zen meditation, we headed to Fushimi Inari shrine.  It is famous for a very long path formed by about 10 000 torii gates in the mountains. 4km walk uphill through the torii tunnel was a very good workout after which my visit to Kyoto was over.

Kind regards,

Zhanar

Integrating.

Probably, you have read from the news that RBS group won the battle for ABN Amro Holding NV in October 2007. It was the largest takeover ever in the financial industry - $99.6 billion.

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Now RBS faces the hardest part – integration of the acquired components of ABN AMRO. The goal is to have one organisation with a single shared corporate culture. I have a great opportunity to watch the integration process from inside: how decisions are made, what problems arise and how they are solved.

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Firstly, I took part in several meetings of the bank management regarding the integration. Managers of departments discussed ways to achieve a single pricing product point for products across both banks, a “Single Face” to Clients, migration of products and having a new operating model and organization structure in place. As you can see, every part of the bank is involved in order to maximize client benefit and minimize business disruption.

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Secondly, I had a great chance to see the integration from the legal side. The main difficulty faced during the integration process is that the laws of different countries must be taken into account - Japanese and British laws, in my case. For example, I had a meeting with a service provider performing services to RBS in relation to integration of RBS and ABN AMRO and had to review its contract to see if it follows RBS policy, and the laws of Japan and the United Kingdom. I had to present my results to my manager and propose amendments to the agreement to the head of legal department. It all went well!

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Even though, the working week came to its end, life in Tokyo never stops, even when the earth quakes. So, invitation from my old friend to visit Hakone came in very handy. Hakone is part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. It is a very beautiful place with amazing forests (see “Princess Mononoke”), lots of hot springs, deep blue lake and a view of Fuji Mountain located nearby.

After the relaxing day in Hakone a bullet train took me back to busy Tokyo and working life.

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Regards,

Zhanar

PS Yesterday night I went to "Pecha - Kucha" with my coworkers, the GlobalScots and other interns. Have not heard about it yet? Check out this link http://www.pecha-kucha.org/cities/tokyo/54 Maybe you will want to start it in your town as well J

Introducing Tokyo.

Tokyo with its Imperial palace and urban jungles, young people setting new fashion trends and old ladies in classic French designer clothes, high-tech lifestyle with always delicious traditional cuisine welcomed me a week ago.

 

Working days started very soon after my arrival. I spent the whole week on a trading floor, learnt about Japanese business style and local traditions, watched yearly auction for 30 years government bonds, participated in research of Japanese households spendings, once again saw in practice that Mathematics is a great subject to study and most importantly met so many people from different parts of the world with different backgrounds but common in terms of high professionalism and love of their work. This kind of atmosphere makes you want to come back to your office everyday!_

After our first busy and exciting week my friends (Alex-san, Colin-san and Euan-san) and I traveled to Nikko to wind down. We stayed in a traditional Japanese style hotel with hospitable owners and amazing breakfast, relaxing in a Japanese hot bath and very comfortable kimonos. Nikko’s national park and traditional shrines amaze you and make you forget about energetic Tokyo. Absolute conciliation!

Now we are “recharged” and ready for the next great week in Tokyo!!

Sayanora!

Zhanar - san