What does the Insights team do?
The Insights team has a fascinating and diverse job. We work with McKinsey project teams to translate Finalta’s benchmarking assets into actionable and impactful insight on a range of topics for McKinsey clients. We also regularly join client workshops and meetings to provide market and topic expertise. Lastly, we mine our datasets to create new and exciting knowledge!
As a leader within Finalta, how do you mentor more junior colleagues?
Through mutual trust, encouraging a mindset of ownership and challenging them to proactively explore both their strengths and areas of development. To me, this is about guiding them through these and helping them reach their own answer, not just giving them your version of an answer.
Which projects are you most proud of over the past year?
Is it too cheesy to say I am proud of all our work?! I guess if I was to pick one – we worked on a competitive proposal workshop for a large global bank alongside 6 McKinsey Partners for 2 weeks. We put together a standout workshop which combined the vigour and robustness of Finalta insights with McKinsey content knowledge, which the client thought was super complementary and impactful.
What skills have helped you during your journey at Finalta?
Analytical and client communication skills are table-stakes at Finalta, but what truly helped on my journey were Determination, Grit and Positivity… and yes, I consider these skills! Successful benchmarking and analytics are the intersection of a data-driven and equally client-focused experience, which is challenging. But it is this challenge that makes the work exciting and rewarding. To deliver true impact you need - Determination to explore the vast dataset to identify the key opportunities; Grit to maintain our high-quality bar for each presentation, each analysis, each datapoint; and Positivity to provide the best client experience that lands us our high satisfaction scores.
Has there been a situation when you received mentorship that contributed to your progression?
Absolutely, I wouldn’t be where I am if not for mentorship. I personally consider myself lucky to have some very senior McKinsey mentors, who challenge me to reflect on my own leadership style. One specific instance, which I think was so small and simple for the mentor, but had a great impact on my career, was not to take emotionally charged actions. “Step back, let them emotions settle and then, with a calm mind, move to action. You will often find that your initial impulse, is detrimental to overall success”.
How has Finalta facilitated your progression?
Ah, an easy question! … One word – opportunities. We don’t wait for them, we create them, and we inspire all our colleagues to be open minded in trying something different.
What do you have to bring with you to be successful at Finalta?
Passion. It is in our values to be passionate. Passionate about high quality, passionate about growing the business and passionate about your role. Bring passion and you will find that success is not very far behind.
