Zhanar Imentayeva

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