Change Manager Olivia Crease on Driving Growth and Innovation at Foster Denovo

What if navigating the complex world of financial planning could be made simpler and more accessible for everyone? In our latest episode, we sit down with the dynamic Olivia Crease, a change manager at Foster Denovo, to unravel the intricacies of her role in fueling the company’s growth strategy through acquisitions. Olivia shares her journey of ensuring smooth transitions for newly acquired companies, highlighting the pivotal role of culture, support, and collaboration in the process. From dealing with diverse personalities to the thrill of integrating various departments, she offers an inside look into the challenges and rewards of change management.

Join us as we celebrate strong female leadership in the financial services industry and explore the vibrant new London office of Foster Denovo. Olivia gives us a peek into strategic projects aimed at bridging the financial advice gap with innovative digital solutions.

We delve into the essential skills required for effective project management and the importance of a supportive, innovative workplace culture.

 This episode is packed with insights on how Foster Denovo is making financial planning more accessible, particularly within corporate settings, and why this makes it an exciting avenue for career growth.

Don’t miss this comprehensive discussion that underscores the value of teamwork and continuous improvement in a thriving financial services firm.

To find out more about working for Foster Denovo -  click here 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

And today's guest on the Financial Planner Live podcast is Olivia Crease from Foster De Novo. She is a change manager. She works in projects and we dig deep in exactly what that role is within the financial planning profession. We talk about some of the projects that she works on, including some of these super acquisitions that Foster De Novo are doing. She actually left the company a little while back, but she returned, so we find out why and what part culture and values played in her returning back to foster De Novo.

Speaker 1: 0:32

I hope you enjoyed the episode, olivia. Thank you so much for joining me today on the Financial Planner Live podcast on this Foster De Novo special, and I'm really excited to talk to you because the Financial Planner Live podcast isn't just about financial planners. It's about everybody that works within the profession and within the profession, and as the profession is getting bigger and opportunities are opening up more and more and more, there are lots of different types of roles that people just don't know about. It's not just about financial advice. So tell us a little bit about what you do currently at the moment.

Speaker 2: 1:18

So I'm a change manager at Foster De Novo so I manage projects that help with our strategy, our growth strategy, our propositions. Acquisitions at the moment is a big one, so I manage the projects that will have an effect across the organisation and really help manage the change as well. So we know that change can be difficult for people.

Speaker 1: 1:41

So it's that extra bit on term on top of project management that just helps people to accept and and be encouraged and excited by change so when you talk about like change management, is it like changing the systems and the processes and also the emotions that go with it, because not everyone likes change, do they?

Speaker 2: 2:01

absolutely, absolutely. It can be systems, processes, some of our propositions, the way we work. There'll be some really exciting things there as well, but yes, it's that key piece of change management is bringing people along and making sure they're happy, supported and they're involved as well. So it's not just always a case of telling people what the change will be. It will be making sure that the whole business is involved in that and supporting it and getting their expertise.

Speaker 1: 2:31

Because you're working on the acquisition side, because it's a big, big situation, big acquisition opportunities are happening at the moment, aren't they for Foster De Nova, I think they've taken three on in the last year and they've got quite a nice, healthy pipeline. You probably know a bit about that. So, just of the some of the responsibilities that you have around the acquisition side, then of change management, yeah, so I get involved in the acquisitions towards completion.

Speaker 2: 2:54

so when we're, when we're really sort of ready to go and my role is integration, so making the acquisitions, those that are coming over, the people that are coming over feel comfortable and make sure that it works within the business. So there'll be a lot of work that's done before that to make sure the acquisitions are the right company for Foster de Novo and Roger spoke about it, about the right culture, the right fit. But my role in that is to make sure that it works when they come in, that people feel comfortable, that they can do their jobs well. There's always going to be a change, but it's about making that happen and in the best way.

Speaker 1: 3:35

Do you come up against many challenges then that aren't foreseen.

Speaker 2: 3:41

I think a lot of them are foreseen in terms of we know that that's difficult. It's a difficult transition for anyone to move to a new organisation and a new business, and I think that's what this role is all about is making sure that people are as comfortable as possible. It's as easy as possible for them. We know that there will be difficulties, there's going to be niggles and there's going to be things that people find challenging, but always support them and make them feel comfortable moving over. That's where we're all sort of coming and that's where change management comes in in that context.

Speaker 1: 4:20

How many of you are in the change management team then? Are you one of many, or do you sort of feed into senior members of the business? Where do you fit within the company then?

Speaker 2: 4:28

So I am the only change manager, but I work with other project managers as well as collaboratively around the business. I mean I absolutely couldn't do my role without everyone else in the business and everyone else coming on board and helping everyone else in the business and everyone else coming on board and helping. So I sit under Helen Lovett, our chief operating officer, but I'm the only change manager in the business.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Oh, fantastic. So you're kind of managing different stakeholders within the business in different sections as well, so you're having to deal with different types of personalities, different types of pressure. Sometimes maybe that person might not know exactly what that person does over there. So you've got to be that kind of in between to make sure, right, okay, what you're doing here has to happen this way because this person's needs to that information this way. Is that kind of absolutely yeah yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 5:16

That's where I fit in and you know, everyone's going to have their expertise, their skills, um. Someone always says, if, if marketing and finance are getting along, then maybe there's something wrong, and that's, and that's the case. You know, everyone does their job and they do it well, but it doesn't mean they have to know everyone else is in the business and and my role is is being the gel in those projects, um, and making sure we're all working towards the same goal, um, but people are looking after their piece of that puzzle and I try and get that all to fit together.

Speaker 1: 5:51

What about that? Do you like then? What do you enjoy about that I?

Speaker 2: 5:53

love working with all the different people and all the different personalities. You know that has challenges in itself, but it's fantastic. It allows me to gain an insight on a high level about all the different departments in the business and work with a lot of different people. It's exciting and I like the organisational piece as well. That's. That's a good thing for me and it's nice to see something through. It's nice to see a project through and get to work with so many people in the business when you say the organizational piece, what do you?

Speaker 1: 6:24

what do you mean by that?

Speaker 2: 6:26

so, just so, bringing everything together I think that's what I love is speaking to the different departments and getting their expertise, getting their input onto onto a project that's going to affect the business, and piecing that all together, organizing that and making sure that we're working towards the the finish line of the project that we're trying to achieve fantastic, how long you've been the change manager for then, so since november, uh, last year since november last year?

Speaker 1: 6:54

yes, yeah, because you left foster de novo, didn't you A few years back? Tell us your story.

Speaker 2: 7:01

So 2022, I left. But I started working at Foster De Novo at first in 2017. So I was there for five years. I was actually in Second Sight, which is our employee benefits branch of Foster De Novo. I was in projects. Then I came in as a projects and technical manager working on employee benefits projects. So my background's in financial services strong background in pensions never in a financial planning capacity, but in administration and complaints and so I started managing projects at Second Sight. And so I started managing projects at Second Sight, worked my way up to a senior project manager, then managing the projects team, and got to a point where I felt that I was doing the role well, but I just wanted good experience working within an international firm.

Speaker 1: 8:06

But Foster Novo had a draw and I wanted to come back. Well, let's talk about that. So what's the draw? What got you coming back to Foster Novo?

Speaker 2: 8:13

I think bottom line is culture. I missed that. I missed that in the firm that I was working for. Culture I missed that. I missed that in the firm that I was working for. It didn't have the same feel. I never left Foster Novo because that wasn't there. But when I left I realized how much that meant to me and how much I wanted to work for a business that has such a strong culture. That's around values, the way people work and the people. Everyone works collaboratively. It doesn't feel siloed, people don't work in just their departments. It is a business that really comes together and gels together and I wanted to go back to a business like that fantastic, and I suppose, being in a change management type of role, you can influence that even further, right?

Speaker 2: 8:57

absolutely, yeah, absolutely, and it's something that I really enjoy doing, um, as I said, working with different people, um, but bringing people together as well, that's that's something that I love doing. It's the projects that I love working on. Um and foster nova is a place that allows that and really encourages it as well you've got quite a strong female leadership team here, haven't we we?

Speaker 1: 9:18

We talked about Helen Lovett and I hear such positive things about her. She's a CEO, right. You report into her directly. Do you think it's important to have a strong female leadership team, because it's kind of unheard of within financial services.

Speaker 2: 9:33

Yes, I think there's two things on this. So, yes, I think it is important. However, when you meet our senior leadership team, it's on their own merits. You know they are strong women, but they're strong people, they're right for the role and they're incredible at what they do. We've seen people come in recently through acquisitions that have said, wow, this is different. Um, I do think it's extremely important um to see that, but, but I think on their own merit, they're, uh, they're an incredible team. Um, so it's nice to see females in leadership, but it's they're just great at their jobs too.

Speaker 1: 10:13

When it comes to? You know, people often work from home, don't they in in businesses these days? And, um, I suppose a lot of people when they joined the professional they joined any job, during covid for example. That's all they ever really knew. They didn't go really into the office. You know I'm sat in your london new office and it's fantastic you've got a lovely rooftop bar up there. Tell us a little bit about the energy within this business. Is it a great place to come in and work?

Speaker 2: 10:37

Yeah, absolutely, and that's, you know, putting aside the rooftop bar, which obviously is always going to be helpful. It is. It's an exciting business. There is so much energy within the office. There's certain days, there's pockets during the week where you'll see it more than others, but I think everyone says that when they're in there in the office on those days, it is, it's just high energy. It it transforms your day. It can really be the making of your day when you're feeling tired or a bit low or you know there's a lot on. Having the energy and the people around you is is just fantastic.

Speaker 1: 11:16

Great stuff. So let's a little bit about some of the other projects that you've been working on. So you were involved with the acquisition side then. So that's implementation. So when the acquisition's gone through, you're then helping that be implemented into Foster de Novo and I suppose from there you learn and understand what works, what doesn't work, and take it on to the next project so the next acquisition becomes stronger and stronger. What other things are you working on? Is that it, or do you have your fingers in lots of different pies?

Speaker 2: 11:41

Yes, so it's strategic propositional projects really, so anything that's going to help move the business on and grow the business. So one of the other things we're working on is a digital advice solution and that's bridging the advice gap that we're all seeing in the market, and that's hopefully what we're looking to do with that.

Speaker 1: 12:01

So when you say bridging the advice gap which everyone's seeing in the market, which area are we looking at here?

Speaker 2: 12:05

So we're looking at financial advice For those that our private wealth proposition, or a lot of the private wealth propositions out there, probably wouldn't offer fair value. They're not at a stage of their lives where they're going to need full financial advice, but really need help starting to think about that, starting to make plans, and that's what we're looking at, as well as in the corporate market, so helping employees on a financial well-being journey. We partner with a lot of corporate firms to help them do that at the moment for their employees, so this is a bit of an extra piece on that as well.

Speaker 1: 12:39

I think that's wonderful. You know, creating an opportunity to make financial advice and financial planning accessible to everybody. Yes, it's hugely important, um, but I'm with you on the whole kind of corporate side. There is such a huge opportunity on the corporate side to deliver financial planning to employees but to make it also a perk of an employer to be able to offer financial advice, so it's massively untapped. Do you think, like your knowledge and your experience around and obviously fostered in over having second side? Do you think that positions them really well as a step into that corporate world?

Speaker 2: 13:58

absolutely, yeah, absolutely. I mean we have a such a strong employee benefits and corporate side of the business anyway, um, and actually fostered are level-footed on that. So the employee benefits is business is very similar in size to to the individuals, um. So, yes, I think we are in a strong position as well as corporate firms wanting to do this and help employees at the moment. That's it's a huge. It's a huge thing that we're seeing, it's a huge trend, um. So there's, there's a huge thing that we're seeing. It's a huge trend, so there's a need there.

Speaker 1: 14:30

Yeah, 100%. And obviously, if employees are looked after around their personal finances and they're managing their personal finances, it's actually been proven to have an impact on the bottom line of the company as well. So being able to offer that as a benefit to employees as a benefit to employees, I think is huge, and there's not many people doing that really out in the marketplace at the moment. I think a few people are having a go. You've got a good chat about it, didn't we?

Speaker 1: 14:55

there's some companies out there having a go, but it's not the same, is it? It's not for, you know, it's not financial advice. So making that accessible, making accessible to those that wouldn't normally have it and obviously corporate is a fantastic route into it and it has a positive impact on their overall well-being, which is hugely, hugely important. Do you ever think about becoming a financial planner, because you see it day in, day out. Is that something that's always, ever crossed your mind?

Speaker 2: 15:18

it's. It has. It absolutely has crossed my mind, um, and I've had friends at fossa de novo and in the industry that have said would you really not think about doing that, because I love speaking to people? Yeah, and I've got an idea of the business, but I'm happy in this role and I will rock the boat at one point. But I don't know, I'm not sure if financial planning is the way forward for me and I don't think it has to be in this industry. I think you know, know, we've had that conversation there's. There are so many other roles, um, and I love being in this, this industry, I love being in financial services, but actually I think my best fit is where I am now. It's lovely.

Speaker 1: 16:01

It's lovely that they wanted you to come back as well, isn't it so they obviously valued you when you went away. I could imagine they probably didn't want you to leave. But you saw also pre-crestline investment. Foster de novo have had, you know, a big investment and it's injected a huge amount of innovation and energy into the business. You've come back with that crestline investment in place. Has it impacted the business differently? Is it a different business now?

Speaker 2: 16:27

yes, yes and no. What I would say is fostered and over, have managed to keep a really strong culture, a really strong culture of looking after their people. You'll see the our executive team, the senior leadership team, talk about people being what this business is about, what this company is about, and that's that remains true. What I would say is it's exciting. You can see there's so much opportunity. People are excited and since I've come back, I can see a lot of innovation, a lot more exciting thinking and yeah, and that's how it feels, I came back to a new office as well, which was lovely, new, clean office, a lot of opportunities, but underlying with a great culture and the same values that they always had.

Speaker 1: 17:14

It's a very creative company. Now, though, even doing things like this. I mean, we're looking at the coming back to Foster De Novo and re-engaging, and the website's completely changed, marketing's completely changed. You know, you've got columns in magazines now going out. Social media is looking really good, so it's starting to really look like the type of business that's standing out in the marketplace at the moment, and I think that's really really important.

Speaker 1: 17:40

With this advice gap that we're seeing, advisor gap, the attraction of top talent into businesses and some of the things that I think are really important, um, uh, to sort of articulate, really to anybody listening here as well, is that the career development plans within this business are really strong. You know, I'm bringing people in. You've had three promotions in a couple of years. Someone had like seven promotions in eight years, so lots of different job opportunities, and it's not all about one pathway and that's it.

Speaker 1: 18:08

You can kind of sidestep into other areas. You talked about private. You talked about employee benefits, project management. There's lots of different areas that you can work within. I also love the whole kind of self-employed model as well here as well, because underneath it, you've got to employ some employed advisors, right? Yeah, I think 80 of your business is actually employed, yeah, um, but you've got some self-employed advisors in there, but within the business as a whole they're like individual practices. Yes, aren't they? Yeah, and I quite like that. You know, seeing all these little individual practices when you've done the acquisition and the onboarding, are you having to kind of set up those little individual practices as well for those new acquisitions that come on board? Are they used to that?

Speaker 2: 18:45

I think they're used to working in those teams but probably haven't seen that sort of practice structure before or not thought about it in that way. Usually it's not actually a huge change for them. It's just the way that we, the way that we sort of work it and discuss it. What I've seen it do is breed this real team culture within those practices. So it's not just the advisor or the partner, our partners, that are out there looking at business and and looking to service their clients, it's the whole team, it's the client experience team, it's the power planners, it's everyone that works around that partner as well. And you see, see it in the office a lot and it is lovely to see that they really are all working towards a goal, a common goal, and it makes them feel part of something Everyone feels part of the growth and the progress and it's really just a lovely way, I think, of structuring the business.

Speaker 1: 19:45

So you're responsible for the strategic direction of the change management team. That's your baby, right?

Speaker 2: 19:49

Yes, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 19:50

Do you see that growing? Is that something that you want to grow and build for the business?

Speaker 2: 19:55

I think it will grow naturally as the business grows. As you mentioned earlier, we are still looking to acquire quite a few more businesses. That's part of the growth strategy and I think it will continue to grow as that's part of the growth strategy and I think it will continue to grow as we continue to go down that route. We're going to become more innovative. I can't see that changing. There's generative AI out there now and Helen speaks a lot about bringing that into the business. I don't know what that looks like now, but I can't see that we'd ever stop trying to innovate and grow and find new ways to do something, that we'd ever stop trying to innovate and grow and find new ways to do something. So I do think that, just as the business grows naturally, hopefully this role, um and the department grows.

Speaker 1: 20:35

I spoke to a few guys actually about gen ai and one of the interesting things that I took on board was, you know, like documents, you can talk to documents yes, it's like a document will come through and you'll just be able to ask the document a question and it will answer it for you at any time of the day.

Speaker 1: 20:50

You know. If you want to know a bit about what does this mean? It will tell you what it means. There's so many cool things going on with gen ai. It's unreal, um, and it's going to massively impact businesses hugely and, I think, the financial planning profession as a whole. As ai comes into it, it's going to completely transform it and change it, so it's quite exciting. I'm looking forward to speaking to helen actually about that in a bit detail. Um, what advice would you give to somebody who's maybe sitting in a business right now, maybe in a financial planning business, but they're listening to this podcast and they are thinking about they want to get into something like project management, change management? What advice would you give them?

Speaker 2: 21:21

I would say just start looking. Just start looking. I was in a complaints management role beforehand, before I went into project management, and I applied for a project manager role just because I noticed some of the skills were similar. So I think sometimes it just takes a step back and analyse your own skills. If you want to get into project management, why do you feel like you'd be good fit for that role? Um, and have have a look around. Start, start conversations. I think that's one of the biggest things you can do. You know, linkedin is an extremely powerful tool for for this as well. But start conversations, either internally in the business you are or or externally, if that's the way that you feel. Um, but yeah, I think it's being open, and open to where your gaps are as well. So you might have skills that you can bring into project management. But what do you need to enhance as well to be a good project manager?

Speaker 1: 22:16

be open-minded and, and yeah, just start to have a look yeah, if you were to sort of help someone identify some of the skill sets that they might have that might be suitable to project management, what would you look for from a good project manager, for instance?

Speaker 2: 22:28

Good people skills. I think that's extremely important. As a project manager, you're not supposed to know everything about everything that you're working on. You rely on other people to feed that into you. You're not the expert, so you need to be able to communicate with them effectively. It's always going to be able to communicate with them effectively. That's it's always going to be one of the biggest ones.

Speaker 2: 22:48

Organizational skills in terms of managing priorities well, seeing where there might be blockers to success or or where the sort of wins are, and putting something together that works well and they're definitely two big ones but also just being able to understand where the project is going. So you need to be able to listen and understand from those sponsoring the project whatever that may be, what, what the aim is, understand it, ask questions really get a, get a deep knowledge of that, and then you'll be able to hopefully successfully manage a project through and you've got to be quite confident, I suppose, to also probe and ask those questions, especially when it comes to budget, I guess absolutely I mean, budget is a big one, isn't it?

Speaker 1: 23:32

do you have to kind of manage quite a large budget as well? Does that take quite a lot of responsibility and weight on your shoulders?

Speaker 2: 23:40

yes, it does, but we've got a finance team and again and this is this is comes back to you will be working with a lot of different areas within project management. So've got a finance team and again and this is this is comes back to you will be working with a lot of different areas, uh, within project management. So we have a finance team that I work closely with on on the budget. Um, so, yes, it is about feeding, feeding back, but you are supported. You are supported as a project manager by your sort of work stream leaders, but you need to be able to do that. I think one of the biggest issues for me is is relinquishing control. You know, as a project manager, you need you need that to a certain extent, but you also need to relinquish it a bit. Understand that there's other people that are very capable of doing their jobs and you need to trust that why is that then?

Speaker 1: 24:22

because you're worried it of course, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 24:25

if you're in control of a project, you want to be that. Why is that then? Because you're worried? Of course, yeah, absolutely. If you're in control of a project, you want to be in control of it and in control of its success. But when you start working with people and communicating well, then naturally that will happen.

Speaker 1: 24:35

I think it's a lovely position to be in as well, because it gives you an overview of the business as a whole, so the opportunities for you to progress as well. You know the business as a whole, so when it comes into like I don't know, it's almost like a next step ceo type level, isn't it? There is a a kind of top level approach to this. I find things quite interesting around top level. I like to look at things from a top level perspective. If I go too much into the, the nitty-gritty or something, I get a bit, but I like to see things as a whole and I it's like for me.

Speaker 1: 25:01

I look at the financial planning profession as a whole, so I see what works over there, what doesn't work over here, and who's doing self-employed really well, who's doing employed, who's got great marketing, who's got poor marketing, who's got a great name, who hasn't, who's got a great career progression plan.

Speaker 1: 25:13

I love seeing the whole thing. It's really, really interesting and I think sometimes people can get bogged down in one thing, can't they? And it becomes quite sort of insular. But this company here it doesn't seem like it's like that, because the more people I talk to, everybody kind of moves around a lot and you have kind of think tanks as well where you kind of sit within different teams and you know the client relationship manager might go and sit with another financial advisor. The financial advisor brings the client relationship manager into meetings. But you know it's a great environment to be innovative and to learn from each other. You know you're different. It's a great environment to be innovative and to learn from each other and I think the culture here definitely shines through around that type of approach to learning and development.

Speaker 2: 25:51

Absolutely. I don't ever see a point in this business where people just stop asking where we can do things better. That's always going to be the case is can we do that better? Can we it more efficiently? Can we do it better for the client? You know it's, it's always going to be the question here at foster nova how do we do that better for the client, which allows for those situations where people start to work in different teams, because you get those different perspectives and I think that's what people really enjoy as well. I I don't see anyone feeling really stale and stuck in their role. I see them moving around and talking to different areas of the business, and that's where you see better results for everyone for the employee and our clients.

Speaker 1: 26:36

Fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing your journey today and what it's like working here at Foster de Novo. Obviously, we wish you all the best in your next progressive step. I'm sure you're going to continue to push forward with this change management. It's a busy time at Foster De Novo. They are on the grow. Let's just leave some words now. If you were to entice somebody to come and work for Foster De Novo, why should they come and work here?

Speaker 2: 26:59

Because I think the people that's what I'd say the people are great. You will never feel alone or unsupported. This is a business that really puts their arms around everyone and makes sure you go where you want to go. You achieve what you want to achieve. So I'd say, come for the people and the values and you won't go far wrong.

Speaker 1: 27:21

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 27:23

Cheers.