If there is one thing Anita has to come to learn as a leader driving change in the banking industry, it’s that while it breeds resistance, involving those affected from the start can make all the difference.
Anita’s day-to-day work as General Manager in charge of Innovation at the Housing Finance Corporation (HFC) involves taking her colleagues and customers through some form of change—sweet or bitter.
“One of the things about human beings is that we don’t like change and my work is about change. This is in how people do their work and solve issues. There is always a lot of resistance to the change,” she says.
“I have learnt that once you walk with people from when you are creating a particular product or service, the change becomes easier. Human beings want to be heard.”
"I have learnt that once you walk with people from when you are creating a particular product or service, the change becomes easier. Human beings want to be heard."
An information technology graduate from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), she has been in the banking space implementing tech systems for more than a decade .
In an era when customer satisfaction is perceived as a key to any business success, Anita’s role of creating products and services that address customer needs calls for maximum keenness, lest she drive her organisation towards failure.
“One of the key products is our Whatsapp banking in 2019,” she says.
When not in boardrooms demystifying tech issues, or with fellow bankers taking them through some form of change, Anita will be on outings with her two children during weekends, hiking with friends, or engaging with a group of fellow women in tech, on professional and personal issues.
A lover of dogs, she donates some hours twice a month to tend and clean the canines at a city-based facility.
Her personal mantra? “Putting in work does pay, in the end,” she says, “even if people don’t notice the work and hours you put in, they count. When I started, I would be away from my family for months and work very long hours. But in retrospect, those hours have contributed to the person I have become,” she says.
– By Peter Mburu
