Transcript:
Chana Schoenberger: (00:09)
I'm Chana Schoenberger, the editor-in-chief of American Banker. And I'm here in Arizona at our Payments Forum conference. I'd like to welcome Julia Unger, who is the VP of financial services at Walmart. And she's here to talk about moving from banking to retail and how one makes that transition. So thank you for joining us today.
Julia Unger: (00:29)
Thanks for having me.
Chana Schoenberger: (00:30)
It's fun to be here at payments forum in Arizona. Do you wanna start by just telling us about your career past so far?
Julia Unger: (00:38)
Sure. So I'm an NYU graduate, uh, went to undergrad at Stern School of Business in New York and got recruited by Citigroup. I spent 22 years across many different functions within the us and global business at Citi and recently joined Walmart as the vice president of financial services and Omni capabilities.
Chana Schoenberger: (01:04)
So what were some of the things that you did at Citi?
Julia Unger: (01:07)
Uh, pretty much anything, you know, I've started in database marketing, uh, which is, you know, seems like a very distant memory now, but it's a really great role because it allows you to really learn how the sausage gets made. And then, you know, moved around from marketing to product development, to business development, product management cards and lending, you know, Citi's a really great place because it allows you to have multiple careers without leaving the company. Um, you know, I spent the last seven years of, uh, my time there in the global business and our objective was to bring consumer solutions in front of customers across geographies in a consistent manner. So we built global value propositions, both on the cards and lending side, as well as global rewards, as well as program global loyalty programs like concierge and lounge access, and really allow to kind of create a brand for Citi and for the value proposition that we were offering across many different markets.
Julia Unger: (02:14)
So it was very exciting space. Um, you know, we brought, we deployed products like Citi Prestige and Citi Premier. Um, my colleagues launched a global rewards platform. We focused on things like buy now, pay later loans and, um, you know, it's, um, very different customer base globally, but I think their need for credit is, is pretty consistent.
Chana Schoenberger: (02:40)
So there was an interesting stat that came out of yesterday's session, uh, with the Visa economist, Wayne Best, who said that the, um, the pent-up spending demand for the affluent segment, he estimates as a quarter of a trillion dollars. So, which is kind of interesting when you think about credit cards.
Julia Unger: (03:01)
Yeah. I've spent many years at Citi really focusing on the affluent business and it's quite interesting, you know, since I've joined Walmart and now my focus is very much on underbanked and unbanked, so there are different customer needs in those different segments.
Julia Unger: (03:19)
And, you know, I've had an opportunity now to work on both customer segments and really try to understand what the needs are in different spectrum, right, of their wealth. So, um, you know, I think at Citi, we've always discussed how there's mass market customer and affluent customer and try to really bring solutions that focus on things like rewards and loyalty and travel perks. And those were very important for the affluent segment. Um, now that I'm at Walmart and really focusing more on the underbanked and unbanked customer, it's, uh, really focusing more things like building credit and graduation strategies. And how do you make sure that there's a financial inclusion for all? So it's, um, it's a, it's a little bit of a different focus or a lot of different focus.
Chana Schoenberger: (
So what was your favorite role at Citi or the one where you felt like you learned the most?
Julia Unger: (04:20)
So I spent my first 15 years on the U.S. side and really kind of created a common value proposition, um, across different customer segments. And my most exciting role was taking that value proposition globally. Right? So at Citi, uh, when we looked at our credit card portfolio, we had over 850 credit cards that we were offering around the globe. And I mean, as you can imagine from marketing to branding to operating efficiency, it's just not an ideal scenario. When you have to think about 850 products, how to address them, how to talk about them, how to service customers. So we've created a common value proposition that, uh, we deployed globally. And so, you know, once the value proposition was defined, I went market by market, region by region, and really tried to kind of work with those local markets on deploying this global value proposition and eliminating some of the legacy portfolios that they had, as you can imagine.
Julia Unger: (05:23)
It's probably not the most, uh, you know, I wasn't the most favorite person at Citi because everybody loves the baby they gave birth to. But I think, you know, as we looked kind of on the enterprise level, what's the right thing for the company. The right thing for the company was to create identity for our value proposition, similar how Apple does it, how BMW do it, you know, you don't see, you know, 50 different components in an Apple phone, depending if you're in Mexico or U.S. or France. Right. So we, you know, I, it was a really exciting space because I got to work with very diverse colleagues. I got to understand different customer needs across geographies, and it just felt like a whole new level of scale because, uh, it allowed me to really focus on, you know, deploying this value proposition in many different markets, many different languages, you know, and it really is an exciting space.
Chana Schoenberger: (06:27)
So how do you talk people into shutting down the project that they started?
Julia Unger: (06:33)
Not fun. that is not a fun, but, you know, I think, um, you can't talk them into, um, I think they have to, you can just present the facts, right? And so we did it with leveraging a lot of the data and using a lot of research and we allowed, you know, I viewed local markets as my customers. And so we allowed them to kind of come to us versus us pushing them. Right. So it was, we always talked about pull strategy versus push strategy. You know, sometimes in some organizations, when you have a global team, they really tried to push whatever global strategy is into the local markets. And so my approach has always been, you know, to share what we have to share our value proposition, to share what we have in the global toolbox and let them come to us. Julia Unger: (
Chana Schoenberger: (09:17)So you were at Citi your whole career up until this point. What is it like to leave and go to another firm?
Julia Unger: (09:23)Um, it's quite a transition. I spent 22 years in the company and really knew all my colleagues and you have your people and you have your island and you have, you know, how to navigate, uh, for different initiatives. Joining a new organization as large as Walmart, where you have 2 million employees, you have to relearn how to navigate through their large organization. And, you know, it's not the same organizational structure, it's not the same players. Um, and so you have to figure out how to find your island. And, um, it took a while, but, uh, we're finally at a place where, you know, we found our partners that we work closely with, anyone from marketing to operation, to digital, to tech. And I think once you secure kind of the working team, it becomes easier to bring solutions to life. Chana Schoenberger: (10:23)So how do you figure out the culture of a new organization what's considered acceptable or what's important, or what people prioritize?
Julia Unger: (10:32)So I came from a New York-based bank, uh, which probably had a pretty direct culture. Walmart is based in Arkansas. So, um, and it's retail. So, um, the culture is definitely a lot less direct and you have to figure out, you know, when it's a no, and when it's a yes, because you don't always get this as direct of an answer. So, um, you know, it just culturally, I mean, I couldn't believe how warm and nice people are in the company. Right. They're just, you know, there's just not a lot of conflict that you see on a day to day basis. I think you see a very warm culture. You see people working together as large as it is. It feels very family oriented. And, um, and that was really great. I think one of the things that I had to learn is to figure out if I'm getting a yes or a no answer. And, um, you know, just because somebody doesn't say no to you, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a yes. So when you're in the bank, if somebody doesn't say, no, you just move full steam ahead. Here, you still have to kind of slow down and, you know, um, test your waters before you can actually move forward. So it's a little bit different, but I think, you know, just like anywhere else you adapt and you figure out your environment and, um, it's, you know, it's, it's a great place to work at.
Chana Schoenberger: (12:08)Is it more consensus driven or more hierarchical?
Julia Unger: (12:12)It's probably more consensus driven. Um, you know, a lot of players in their organization, um, a lot of different disciplines. Um, they have a model where they call it four in a box. And so basically, you know, for financial services, for example, there's a business, there's a product, there's engineers and there's design, and those four teams work as one unit. And, um, so as you're thinking about your business need, you kind of pass it over to the design who can bring that business need into a very beautiful design, and then they pass it to the product. They can translate that, you know, into business requirements. And then you have the engineers that are implementing what, whatever the business need is. And so it's a really nice kind of environment where end to end is designed with the right players, uh, versus, you know, sometimes you, I think, you know, business overthinks it, but it doesn't really translate into tech, but here it's, it's really done at the same time. And it's, uh, very consensus driven.
Chana Schoenberger: (13:21)How did you decide to move from banking to retail?
Julia Unger: (13:24)Well, I spent 22 years in the bank and as I mentioned, my last role was in global and global was changing at Citi, you know, um, as you probably know, there was a consent order that was issued and the company really focused on resolving, um, things more around compliance. My kind of career ambitions always been around product development and business development. And as those things were slowing down, because there was more focus on compliance, I started looking for new opportunities and those new opportunities really meant going back into U.S. business where I previously spent 15 years and it felt a little bit more of the same. And, you know, I think my old boss used to say, like, a 20-year mark, you kind of get an itch to do something different. And I really wanted to find an opportunity where I was continuing to develop and, um, learn new things and, you know, kind of mid career. And I wanted, so when Walmart opportunity came along, I felt like it was another chapter of my career. It wasn't, you know, you managing one credit card today and now you're managing a different credit card. It really opened up a door to use financial services experience, bring that experience over into financial services at Walmart, but then potentially transition into the broader retail. And, you know, we're seeing, I'm seeing some of that now with, I actually, um, just expanded my role into subscription services and registries and merchant integration. And although it all sounds like a foreign language right now, it's very exciting space because I'm learning on every single call. It's space that I haven't really, um, seen before. And I haven't participated in before, but at the end of the day, we're all solving for customer needs just from a different angle. And so, you know, uh, as I think about my next 20 years, potentially it might be, you know, eventually stepping away from financial services and doing things more in the within retail.
Chana Schoenberger: (15:41)That's a very courageous move to make for someone who has essentially done very similar things at one firm to wake up in the morning and just go to work for a company in a different industry and really a completely different job.
Julia Unger: (15:54)It is. But I think it was important for me to find the right company. Um, I really fell in love with the people and the leaders in the company. Um, just from the first phone call, um, you know, meeting Janey Whiteside and John Furner and the HR team at Walmart, the culture, and just, you know, how they spoke about their people and how they spoke about career mobility. They believe that anybody can be anybody at Walmart, right? I mean, if you look at the U.S. CEO, the global CEO of Walmart, they both had amazing careers at Walmart, but they started as cashiers. And so they really believe in kind of graduating into different roles within the company and moving across functions. I've met people that worked in HR now in finance or finance that moved to marketing. And there are not a lot of companies that allowed this kind of mobility. I think, you know, when I was at Citi, we always talked about cross-functional mobility, but then you always try to find a person that fits your box. Right. And so what I love about Walmart is that it really allows you to move around and to try new things. They really bet on people. And if you're smart, if you're ambitious, if you're hungry, if you're willing to do great work, um, you can be anyone.
Chana Schoenberger: (17:25)That's really the American dream starting as a cashier and ending up as the CEO of the world's biggest retailer.
Julia Unger: (17:32)It is.
Chana Schoenberger: (17:33)That's crazy. So you mentioned that you're really serving a different customer now, going from affluent customers at Citi to, uh, underserved customers at Walmart, financially underserved. How do you make that mental shift to, to really looking in a different customer segment?
Julia Unger: (17:51)You know, I've done a lot of listening and learning, uh, for the first few months when I joined really trying to understand what the customer needs are. Um, I think, you know, if I think about financial services at Walmart and why would somebody use financial services at Walmart? And unfortunately, a lot of our customers are not included in, uh, financial banking solutions with, uh, traditional banks, right? Uh, those, uh, the customers that come to us are typically not the ones that have bank accounts at chase or credit cards at Citi. Um, you know, a lot, most of them either have bad credit or don't have credit at all. And, um, they come to us with cash. Uh, there's a lot of cash-driven transactions, right? So if I think about money services that we offer, uh, at money centers at Walmart, it's a lot of moving cash around, right. It's paying your bills, it's buying money orders, which is by the way, the number nine item at Walmart overall.
Chana Schoenberger: (19:00)
Really?
Julia Unger: (19:00)Yeah. um, it's, um, loading cash on cards on prepaid cards. So you can take an Uber, right. Or do other things where cash is not accepted. Um, so it's a lot of loading and unloading, it's money transfers. It's sending money to, internationally, to your family. But, um, so I had to do a lot of learning and, you know, some of it was, I mean, the team that I inherited at Walmart, they just know the customer so intimately, right. They know exactly, you know, what they're doing, where, like, we know, for example, that people that come to money center, 88% of them go and they shop at Walmart and right. That's a very strong statistic. And we know that we disperse cash, you know, for them to shop, but cash is not traceable. And so we don't know exactly how much of that cash is being spent. What are they buying, you know, do they come back into the store, et cetera. So the focus is really now on how do you take those cash customers and bring them into a banking platform so that we actually know who they are. We, we know where they shop, we know what they buy, we know how to help them build credit. We know how to graduate them, uh, through a product line. And so, uh, there's a number of initiatives that are kind of supporting, bring, supporting these customers in kind of bringing them into a financial inclusion. Um, but you know, there's a lot of very interesting use cases. Uh, I remember joining the organization and I asked my bill payment team. I said, why do we have five different bill payment providers? And they said, well, they do different things. And so I said, well, what is this one for? Well, this one sends money to prisons. And what I didn't realize is that 20% of our bill payment is being sent to prisons. So it's a very large segment of bill paying customers. Um, we had another use case where it's, uh, the bills that paid in real time. And that's extremely important because customers run in five minutes before Con Edison is about to shut their lights off or turn their water off. And so they run in with cash and they pay their bills and they make sure that, you know, the lights stay on or the water stays on. So it's, um, you get to see very interesting cases that you just, I've never observed that at Citi.
Chana Schoenberger: (21:31)That's the definition of an essential service.
Julia Unger: (21:34)It is. So these customers really rely on us. And even when we look at, you know, brand affinity and, you know, they really trust Walmart, um, they really trust that we're gonna do it in real time, that if the money is gonna get to the right destination and there's a lot of affinity into, um, well, we, we just rebranded ourselves to Spark Money. So, um, there's a lot of affinity to that brand.
Chana Schoenberger: (22:01)Wow. So if you think about any advice you could offer to other bankers who might be thinking about a move to outside the financial services sector, what would you tell them?
Julia Unger: (22:14)Just do it. I think it's a great experience and I think the skills and the experience that you get in the bank translate well. You know, um, it's a different product, it's a different customer, but you know, you're still building products and solutions and you're marketing them to the end customer. And, you know, I was worried at first, you know, obviously you get to a new company, there's new product lines, there's a new customer, and it can be overwhelming in the beginning, but I was very surprised how quickly I adopted and how quickly I made the space, my own. And part of it is just having a great team, right. And bringing in talent and the talent, the talent that was there. And the team was excellent. I got to also recruit and bring in new talent into the organization. And I think, um, it became a home very quickly. And, um, you know, I'm excited by this space. I've learned a ton. I think I've learned more in the last year that probably the last, you know, seven to 10 years at Citi. Um, and you know, I think the anxiety that was there just from coming, you know, transitioning from one industry to another it's, it's not there anymore. And, uh, but learning new space is, you know, it's, it's a great opportunity to develop yourself.
Chana Schoenberger: (23:41)That's almost an argument for leaving earlier.
Julia Unger: (23:44)I think there's the right time for, you know, uh, I remember Mike Corbat leaving city and somebody asked him in the audience, when do you think is the right time to go? And he said, when you feel like it's the right time to, before they ask you to leave.If I think about my career, you know, working in the U.S. and working in global, there was always kind of the next thing I wanted to do in the company. Uh, when I was looking for my next role, I didn't, you know, I wasn't sure exactly where I wanted to kind of head to at Citi just because I've done so many different roles and it's all started to feel a little bit of the same. And so I think that's when you go, right, it's when you feel like you're not developing, like you're not learning. And, um, that was my time. Maybe for others, that time comes sooner. Uh, but for me, I've really enjoyed my career at Citi. You know, I've got to work with amazing leaders and I think, you know, it's not always what you work on, but who you work with. And so for me, that's really important. Like I've always tried to partner with whether it's my boss or my team, people that I really enjoy working with. And at Citi, um, a lot of the people that I grew up with in the company, they were leaving the company, right. We all been there for about 20 years and started transitioning out and I looked across the organization and I didn't see my island anymore. And so I got to build a new one in this company.
Chana Schoenberger: (25:23)That's great. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you talking to us.
Julia Unger: (25:26)Thanks for having me.