Part of the whole

For some UBS employees, “You & Us” means making teamwork a daily reality. They believe a firm can only be successful if its employees make a habit of finding new ways to join forces. It is hard to imagine a team of roughly 69,500 people. Yet it is only if all its employees work as a team that UBS can truly benefit from the scale it has. Although the slogan “You & Us” refers primarily to the relationship between the firm and its clients, its underlying message also reflects relations between the firm’s employees. At least that is how it is seen by numerous UBS employees worldwide.

For Reto Cantoni, an investment consultant in Vienna, “You & Us” represents “one objective, one team, one language.” As he explains: “For us, it involves meeting client objectives. And that is only possible if we work together, since we offer complex solutions that require a contribution from several of the firm’s specialists. It’s one language, however, because it’s the client advisor who brings together the entire firm’s know-how and places it at the client’s service.” In this sense, stresses Cantoni, “You & Us” is a daily reality for him. “Our role is to support the client advisor and, when requested, we attend client meetings with him.” This approach works. An international company recently invited several financial institutions to put forward an investment proposal with a predetermined return and “risk budget”. Instead of asking “what return we would obtain for a certain level of risk, we considered what level of risk we would have to assume to meet the client’s objective, and what return we would achieve if we used up the whole risk budget. The client liked this two-pronged approach; apparently we were the only firm to tackle the proposal in this way.” The solution was the result of teamwork between UBS Luxembourg, UBS Vienna, and UBS Zurich. Cantoni says that teamwork is vital to his role. “Our branch in Vienna has only 45 employees. But it is important that clients receive the same service whether they are in Vienna, London, or Zurich. This can only be achieved through teamwork.”

Kathleen San Martino, in Weehawken, New Jersey, in the United States, is a project manager responsible for home office software updates. Teamwork, she says, helps a firm become more efficient, and she therefore interprets “You & Us” above all as a question of “nurturing effective teamwork”. For her, the recipe for success can be summed up as “understanding what other people’s jobs involve, being honest with our colleagues, and adapting to different personalities. This often means finding a language that they understand. For example, knowing who prefers to talk only business and who prefers to be more sociable.” Steffen Schill, Head Offering Management Financial Intermediaries in Frankfurt, sees the “You & Us” slogan as expressive of the core value of ‘trust’. “Mutual trust brings success,” he says. His team provides technical support for external asset managers and organizes UBS’s offering across various segments. “For us it is important to know what the client wants and how to come up with suitable products. One client told me that trust is what matters most for him. In other words, things need not always be done by the book. You have to know your client well and understand how he or she works. If something goes wrong, clients will be more understanding if they trust you. They will know you are doing everything in your power to resolve the problem.” He gives a practical example: “We worked with a family office that was very satisfied with the customized solution we came up with for them. Unfortunately, there were a few problems at the implementation stage. The client was positive, however. They told us that if problems arise, the key thing is to be able to resolve them together.”

For application engineer Alessandro Sellito, “You & Us” highlights the fact that it is the best teams working together, rather than the best individuals working alone, who achieve the best results. Through teamwork, each employee is able to make the most of his or her strong points as part of the group effort. Alessandro Sellito’s team develops software for analyzing client behavior. This analysis is then used to determine market strategy. “A piece of software has several components. One specialist takes care of the data, another looks after the graphics, while yet another is responsible for the infrastructure. To ensure the desired level of quality, these various specialists need to talk to each other, while at the same time concentrating on their own specialized areas,” he explains. It is a very good example of how “You & Us” applies not only to UBS and its clients but also internally among its staff.

Mara Harvey, who works in Business Development in Frankfurt, has paid close attention to issues associated with the development of a common corporate culture following the acquisition of Merrill Lynch’s German private client business by UBS. For her, “You & Us” means “developing an inclusive culture that supports the integration of new employees who have joined UBS, finding common ground.” She explains why: “If we take over a company, it is because we see it as attractive. It is therefore important to integrate its employees and draw lessons from their experience.” In her opinion, another facet of “You & Us” relates to work-life balance. “As a working mother I have always received a lot of support in many different situations, such as when I have had to leave the office early to pick up my child. This culture of openness underpins staff motivation and success. This has always been my experience at UBS.”