Aygul Yumagulova

My life before joining Commerz Business Consulting

Should we start at the beginning?! I grew up in a town in the Ural region in Russia. Despite being a big city with a million people, we didn’t have many of these cool foreign stores. With globalization gaining momentum, more and more of them arrived and with them new products as well. Being able to first-handedly experience this development fascinated me, in general how globalization and the economy intertwine. On top of that, the bachelor’s degree in “Foreign Trade Management” added my passion for foreign languages and mathematics to the list and it was a match made in heaven. Thanks to internships and my trainee job in dealer management at Mercedes Benz Russia I saw myself more and more in a job focusing on the topics coordinating, consulting, and problem-solving.

And then the inevitable happened as for many students – my semester abroad. It took me to Germany. The educational approach, the free choice of classes and the autonomy regarding personal development present in Germany created a lasting impact on me. To the extent that I decided to take on my master’s degree in international business in Mainz, Germany. Afterwards I got the chance to gain valuable experience throughout internships at Accenture, PwC and a M&A boutique.

Especially after my internship in financial services consulting at Accenture, it was even more clear to me that I want to enter the consulting world. At the same time, I was following the current market trends and the boom regarding bitcoin and the distributed ledger technology (DLT) with great interest. I was fascinated by the fact that a technology, which most people neither understand nor support, can have such an effect on global markets. My master’s thesis focused on the effects of crypto trading, also to better understand the technology itself and its economic repercussions. I gained further expertise at the DLT Talents Program of the Frankfurt School of Finance and during my time at PwC while supporting crypto trading platforms and companies.

My motivation to join Commerz Business Consulting

The thing I like most about inhouse consulting is the fact that, as a team, we do not only support projects but are able to see its results in the long run. Most of the times, we are on board in every phase of the project, starting at the set up until the role out, and get first-hand experience of the fruits of our labour – I love it.

What I like even more, is that I can apply the external experience and expertise I have already gained in the areas of process digitization, DLT, and regulatory requirements to the world of finance. It is incredibly exciting to dive deeper into the structures and processes of such a large bank as Commerzbank, and to develop a vast understanding for internal operations. On top of the fact that it was a match on the technical side, the people are the key factor that convinced me to join inhouse consulting.

What I enjoy most at Commerz Business Consulting

This is quite easy – appreciation, autonomy and no up-or-out culture. It is within the DNA of CBC, that every single one of its team members is valuable, each and every one has his/her own individual strength and can be his/her own self. Only with the help of diversity we can manage to come up with innovative ideas. You can feel the spirit. Another special aspect to me is the fact that we, as a part of the group, work in a very trustful environment with our clients. They are at the same time our colleagues, too. We meet the management eye to eye and share the same corporate values and pursue the same goals.