CITADELE BANKA
“ We live and breathe the Baltics and we want to be the face of banking in the region ”
VLADISLAVS MIRONOVS MEMBER OF THE MANAGEMENT BOARD , CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER CITADELE BANKA
“ Funnily enough , I knew the then-CEO of Citadele , Guntis Belavskis , because when GE Capital was exiting the Baltics , I sold him part of the bank .
“ With Guntis , Citadele had new shareholders , with a mission to drive transformation at the local bank . They were looking for someone to help drive digital transformation and shake up the innovation strategy .
“ I initially agreed to help for a short period of time and here I still am almost nine years later .”
Driving innovation at Citadele With his extensive experience across multiple markets , the question posed to Mironovs most frequently was : ‘ Why return to the Baltics ?’.
The answer was simple for him , though , it provided an opportunity to lead digital transformation for an entire bank which , for someone in their early 30s – proved an opportunity too great to turn down .
Now Chief Strategy Officer at Citadele banka , Mironovs has flourished in his role over the course of the past nine years . But , just as in any role , there are challenges – and Mironovs ’ s success has been forged in how he has managed to overcome them .
“ Today , the challenge comes in knowing that everything is digital – that is really important ,” he says . “ It ’ s about placing the right technological bets and understanding as well when a certain technological innovation is not right for you .
“ As a leader , it ’ s about finding out what is best for you and figuring out how to deal with any ambiguity .”
“ Once you have an aligned focus and you know what the right direction is for you , you still need to pick up on the right elements and find areas of your operation where you can be agile and bring the agility needed , as well as any changes .”
Over the past few years , driving innovation successfully has been the cornerstone of Citadele ’ s success .
Looking back to 2015 , nine years ago , Mironovs recalls how Citadele was very much a traditional bank at the time – with no digital presence , just bricks-andmortar branches .
“ At the time , our customers were primarily secondary customers ,” notes Mironovs . “ They used other banks as their primary financial services provider .
“ But , we had a strong customer service record and a good tech platform . It ’ s thanks to these two areas we ’ ve built a totally new bank , transforming every area of our operations .”
176 June 2024