Key Skills For An Internal Strategy Manager At LiquiLoans A FinTech Startup
Arnav, a Senior Manager at LiquiLoans, describes a day as an internal strategist as involving "cross-functional work" across departments, identifying and solving problems like automating manual processes to improve efficiency ("saved like 80% of the time"), and even implementing solutions. This differs from external consulting, offering "hands-on experience" and the satisfaction of seeing direct results within the company.
Cross-functional Teamwork, Process Improvement, Strategic Problem-Solving, Project Implementation, Internal Strategy
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Arnav Sutaria
Sr. Manager - Financial Alliances & Strategy
LiquiLoans (FinTech Startup)
University of Mumbai, 2018
None, professional certification - Chartered Accountant (India)
Accounting
Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Strategic Management and Executive
International Student
Video Highlights
1. Working in internal strategy involves cross-functional collaboration with various departments within a company.
2. A significant part of the role involves identifying and addressing redundancies and gaps in business processes, often leading to process improvements and increased efficiency.
3. Internal strategists may be involved in the implementation of strategies, in addition to their development, particularly in startup environments where resources may be limited. This hands-on experience provides a unique opportunity to see the direct impact of implemented strategies.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a senior manager of financial alliances and strategies look like?
I wouldn't just talk about financial alliances and strategy because that's a very specific role. Maybe for our audience, they'd want to know what an internal strategist's life looks like. I'm sure a lot of your target market may be fresh out of college or have one or two years of experience and they want to get into internal strategy. They want to know what they'll be doing.
A lot of people know about management consulting, like the MBBs, the EYs, the KPs. They know that consultants advise clients on projects, prepare roadmaps, and then the client implements them. That's what an external strategist does.
An internal strategist is usually a little different. As an internal strategist, you get to work with almost every department in your company, from finance to operations, to human resources, to compliance, to sales and marketing, and of course, management, because they have to buy into the plans you propose. You work in a cross-functional role.
A lot of your work will revolve around meetings. The second thing is that as an internal strategist, you spend a lot of time understanding the processes and systems that exist in the business. I was able to identify many redundancies.
For example, many of our processes were manual. If an investor invested, an operations team member had to manually process that investment. We automated that, which saved 80% of the time. We were able to increase the number of transactions we could process five or six times simply by automating the process.
You identify redundancies and gaps and attempt to bridge them using your strategic knowledge. And of course, you have to get management buy-in. Finally, as an internal strategist, you may even have to implement.
There were cases where we didn't have a dedicated team to implement a specific strategy. I was asked to not only develop the strategy but also implement it. The good part about working for a startup is that you have to do everything. Of course, the downside is that you have to do everything.
It's a trade-off, but it's an interesting role to have, and it's something that I'd like people to consider more. Instead of just looking at pure management consulting, internal strategy is also interesting because it gives you more hands-on experience. You can actually see the benefit of what you've done because you stay with the firm for a longer period. Whereas as a consultant, you work on a three-month project and then move to the next.
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