Richard Andrews
Managing Director of Devoteam UK
Empowering and collaborative is how Richard Andrews, Managing Director of Devoteam UK describes his leadership style at digital transformakers, Devoteam who shape technology for people.
Andrews joined Devoteam in 2019 and was appointed UK Managing Director in October 2020.
“I would describe my leadership style as collaborative and empowering. My job is to enable the success of others within Devoteam and what we're trying to achieve with our clients,” said Andrews.
“I started my career in retail banking at Barclays and then moved into digital 1.0 at Razorfish where we were writing the book on how to create digital engagement across channels, brands and their customers. And after that, I went into consulting, working in transformation and outsourcing.
“I was delighted to be part of a very talented team that launched the world leading Open Banking ecosystem in the UK. That success led to leading a portfolio of transformation and regulatory change initiatives at the Financial Conduct Authority which led me to Devoteam,” he said.
Reflecting how his previous experience has shaped his approach to his current role with the Paris headquartered company, Andrews said it is the understanding that no one person can do it all.
“A common theme of my career is the creation of high performing teams. We operate in an ecosystem, so the ability to identify where the best minds, the best resources are placed and being able to mobilise a multidisciplinary team to deliver projects and services are absolutely critical for Devoteam and also our customers,” he said.
Innovative, tenacious, resilient and considering the social impact of decisions are the leadership traits Andrews identified as being key during the past 12 months as companies around the world coped during the pandemic.
“What stood out for me is the way that communities have come together to help and support each other in difficult times including the way that organisations have collaborated, shared data and insights in order to help in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This includes everything from medical interventions to the way research institutions and pharma have come together to fast track innovations and get their vaccines out there. I think that's been quite inspiring and hopefully that ecosystem and working collaboratively with a common social purpose is something we'll see more of.”
Focusing on Devoteam, Andrews pointed out that as a digital company they had a headstart in the way they coped during the pandemic. “Devoteam is a digital firm. Using leading technology to deliver successfully anytime, anywhere is how we do business. We certainly implemented more touch points with our people to make sure they stayed connected whilst working remotely.
“We adjusted our working patterns to enable our people to meet their personal and family commitments while making sure we were still delivering outcomes that would delight our customers.” he said.
Prior to joining Devoteam, Andrews was Managing Director of Crogdene Consulting Limited where he consulted on transformation and regulatory change initiatives. He describes himself as “passionate about the delivery of business outcomes by empowering people and leveraging creative tech. “Work with people to agree on the direction of travel, give them what they need to succeed and they will fly”.
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