Ozge Tekalp: Leading the Change

Meet Özge Tekalp, Chief Customer and Project Officer at Invotect, specializing in smart cards and wearable technologies offering creative, modern, and reliable solutions that prioritize environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

Özge, as a dynamic CCO, brings over two decades of global experience in the financial industry. Her career has been marked by leadership roles focused on digital transformation and enhancing customer experience. Throughout her journey, Özge has consistently fostered customer-centric cultures that drive commercial success, leading successful digital transformation initiatives while reducing customer churn and increasing sales and profitability. Notably, as the Chief Customer Officer at VeriPark, a global provider of digital solutions for financial institutions, Özge implemented a Customer Health Score system and best practices to boost business value. Her innovative approach led to the introduction of state-of-the-art tools for improved customer engagement. Özge’s expertise lies in bridging technology with customer needs, building a customer success mindset across entire organizations, and consistently delivering service excellence while driving digital innovation in the financial sector.

Özge’s career prior to VeriPark includes leadership roles at prominent financial institutions. She served as Head of Customer Engagement Hub at BankDhofar in Oman and BNP Paribas TEB in Istanbul. In these positions, Özge spearheaded the strategic development and transformation of remote sales and service channels. Her innovative programs streamlined various aspects of banking operations, including, sales processes, digital onboarding, contact centers, customer retention, outsourcing and vendor management, self-service platforms, social media engagement, campaign management, credit collection and fraud control systems.

These initiatives, backed by board members and senior leadership, resulted in multiple international awards for Özge and her teams, highlighting her expertise in driving digital transformation in the banking sector.

Earlier in her career, Özge launched innovative digital initiatives, optimized customer-centric processes and boosted sales performance, as the head of Alternative Sales Channels. In a pivotal role, Özge led a workgroup overseeing the successful merger of two mid-sized banks – Fortisbank and TEB – for BNP Paribas and Fortis Bank. During her banking career she worked in QNB Finansbank, Sakura Bank, İş Bank and in the initial years of her career, Özge worked as a Senior Financial Analyst at Eastman Kodak in the USA and in international marketing of consultancy services at Suter and Suter in Switzerland.

Evolving Leadership Style

Özge’s leadership style has significantly evolved during her 25+ year career, adapting to the changing landscape of the financial industry and the needs of diverse teams across different cultures.

During the early stages of her career, Özge focused on being a hands-on, detail-oriented leader, which served her well where precision and thorough understanding were of utmost importance. As she moved into more senior positions, particularly during the bank merger she managed for BNP Paribas Group, Özge transitioned to a more collaborative and strategic leadership style. She learned the importance of bringing diverse teams together, aligning different corporate cultures, and focusing on shared goals.

In her roles as Head of Alternative Sales Channels and Customer Engagement Hubs, Özge further evolved, adopting a more visionary and innovative leadership approach. She encouraged her teams to think creatively, embrace new technologies, and always put clients at the center of their strategies. While typically favoring a democratic leadership style that empowers team members, Özge demonstrated versatility by employing an autocratic approach when quick decision-making was crucial.

More recently, as the CCO of VeriPark, Özge embraced a transformational leadership style. She focuses on coaching and building a customer success mindset across the organization. This approach involves nurturing talent, promoting continuous learning, and creating an environment where team members feel empowered to take initiative and innovate.

Throughout her career, Özge has maintained a strong emphasis on accountability and results, balanced with a deep commitment to employee development and well-being. She believes in leading by example, fostering open communication, and creating a culture of continuous improvement.

Özge summarizes her current leadership philosophy:

“My leadership style today is a blend of strategic vision, commercial success based on strong customer-centricity, innovation, and people empowerment. I have worked with excellent leaders and leadership teams, and I strive to inspire my teams to embrace change, drive innovation, and always keep the end goal of exceptional customer experience. This approach leads to commercial success within a healthy and inspiring work environment.”-she explains.

Throughout her career, Özge has cultivated a leadership style that harmonizes accountability and results with a genuine commitment to employee growth and well-being. This balanced approach is embodied in her core principles of leading by example, promoting open dialogue, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Balancing Short-Term Performance with Long-Term Strategic Goals

Özge’s priority has been setting clear priorities, using balanced scorecards, and aligning initiatives. Her extensive experience underscores the importance of focusing on critical financial health KPIs in the short term while strategically deciding on long-term KPIs. By tracking performance across multiple dimensions-financial, customer, internal processes, growth, and employee learning and well-being-Özge has also successfully driven sustainable growth aligned with long-term strategic goals.

To maintain this balance, strategic communication, and change management are also important. Özge emphasizes the need to regularly conduct initiatives including regular strategy reviews, scenario planning, stakeholder management, resource allocation, and capability building to ensure the organizations she worked for stays on course to achieve its strategic objectives while adapting to changing market conditions.

Major Trends

The fintech industry is rapidly evolving due to several technological advancements like AI, Blockchain, and open banking APIs. These innovations are not only changing the world of technology, but they are also reshaping the traditional financial systems, and enabling the rise of digital-only banks, embedded finance, and decentralized financial systems. These systems may promise digital and financial inclusion, personalization, and increased efficiency, but they also face significant regulatory threats. Regulators nowadays are increasingly focusing on AI governance, emphasizing ethical use, explainability, and consumer protection. So, the industry needs to navigate this complex landscape while balancing innovation with security and compliance.

Challenges and Opportunities for the Sector

Özge believes that the Fintech sector is at a critical inflection point. Organizations are grappling with a multifaceted landscape of challenges and opportunities needing strategic foresight and agile execution. She feels it’s important to know about complex regulatory compliance strategies that span global jurisdictions while developing robust cybersecurity frameworks to safeguard client’s digital assets and trust.

“The competitive arena is intensifying, with traditional financial institutions, tech giants, and agile startups all vying for market share, necessitating innovative differentiation strategies. Simultaneously, it is time to harness transformative technologies like AI, blockchain, and open banking APIs to create compelling value propositions. The push for financial inclusion presents vast untapped markets, while the acceleration of digital payments is reshaping transaction paradigms,”– explains Özge.

Picture of the Future

In the future, Özge’s goals are centered on leveraging her extensive experience and leadership expertise to drive transformative change in organizations. She envisions herself in leadership positions or serving as an independent board member, where she can make a significant impact in key areas.

Özge’s vision combines her passion for customer-centric approaches with her expertise in digital innovation. By focusing on these areas, she aims to guide organizations through the complexities of modern business landscapes, ensuring they remain competitive, innovative, and customer-focused. Her goal is to create lasting value by bridging the gap between traditional business models and the demands of the digital age, all while maintaining a strong emphasis on customer satisfaction and business growth. Her goal is to help organizations through evaluate current practices, create actionable digital strategies, and establish robust governance frameworks to support these initiatives.