'Leading a company is like trying to master judo'

Bianca Zwart is chief of staff at Amsterdam-based Bunq, the second largest digital bank in Europe, valued at $1.8bn (£1.37bn).

We really have great ambitions as Bunq. We want to become a global neobank and in order to do that you need to aim high. Ali Niknam, who founded Bunq in 2012, expects everyone around him to do the same.

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In that sense he's always there to see if we can push a bit further, if we can achieve more. Ali just gives you the idea that you can do anything you want as long as you set your mind to it. And that to me is very special.

I had joined Bunq in the early years as a support guide and helped with questions our users had. What’s special about Bunq is that you can grow really fast as long as you put in the work. I grew to be head of PR and I guess Ali saw a strategic mind and I could apply that in the role.

Ali leads in quite a particular way and I now see a lot of myself in that too. He is very result driven, ambitious, structured and to the point.

He has also created this environment where a lot of people have an entrepreneurial mindset. I had left Bunq for a couple of years to start my own business and then rejoined two years ago as chief of staff.

It is a role that originates from politics and is gaining more traction in the tech sector. It's a very broad role, but you could basically see me as the co-pilot of the CEO and support strategic decision making.

I'm not the only one who returned to Bunq after leaving to work elsewhere. We’re now over 20 ‘boomerangs’ — those who have returned because they went to other places and then realised that there's really no place like Bunq.

We were founded in the wake of the financial crisis in 2008. We put a lot of love and time into building the best product out there. And to be honest, it has paid off.

We're now live in over 30 European markets. We're the first EU new bank to report a full year of profitability. And we're making lives easy for millions of users every day.

It's by no means rocket science, but if you look at the business model of a traditional bank focused on making the best margin on your money, it's a logical consequence that your experience is not at the centre of every decision that's being made.

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So we truly wanted to change that and show people what a bank could be and how great an experience they could have.

Ali is really good at running his own race and this is not his first rodeo. This is his third unicorn and instead of scaling at a rapid pace he wanted to build a healthy, profitable business before taking those next steps.

When it's a founder-led business, a lot of the DNA of the company culture comes from the founder and that's really ingrained in our company culture. What that means is that the best idea wins, whether that's for someone who joined with 30 years of experience or an intern. That really creates a feeling of common purpose.

Any business case starts with one question at Bunq: ‘What's in it for our user?’ And if you can’t answer that question, we won’t be doing it.

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One of the things I learn from him daily is being able to truly understand the problem that you're solving. That may sound obvious, but it isn't. I noticed that it's human nature to focus on the solution first rather than understanding the problem first.

I discussed with Ali recently that leading a company is like mastering judo. It’s about earning adaptability, balance and being able to adapt to your opponent. Or in this case changing circumstances and being able to balance between strategy and execution but also short-term gains and long-term vision.

Ali really taught how to deal with the constant flow of information, too. In leadership roles, it's a constant influx of information that comes your way and that can be overwhelming. I remember that when I started, I wanted to pick up everything myself.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from Ali is that the best idea wins over ego or years of experience. He has taught me to focus on the content: “Let your work speak for itself.” And I’ve trained my mindset to adjust to that.

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