FiWe
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Creating Equal Opportunities
for Financial Wellness
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EY Banking & Capital Markets Leadership Insights
Winter 2023
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As Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of FiWe, Tanu is dedicated to reducing wealth inequality by providing financial literacy education through experiential learning. Fiwe is revolutionizing the educational landscape of life readiness by providing schools the necessary tools to teach fundamental life skills of money management. As the demand from parents for such education increases, Fiwe
is at the forefront, providing a unique experiential program supported by a standard based framework that enables schools to effortlessly incorporate FiWe programs in busy curriculums.
Spending most of her career in the Risk space with EY and in banking, Tanu didn't envision her company yet when she left EY, but she always saw signs that teaching and working within her community would be in her future. Fast forward to successfully founding her company, incorporating classroom teaching, community and bringing the tools she learned at EY along for the ride. Influenced by EY's culture of cultivating innovation and constantly challenging the status-quo she was able to spot an opportunity of an unmet need - An uncomplicated yet captivating personal finance program that can be easily adopted by schools.
Like many of us, Tanu came out of the pandemic with a lot of personal reflection behind her. A few years apart from her parents and family in India, made her realize how limited our time was together. After balancing her full-time career in industry with getting her new business off the ground, she saw an inflection point to solely focus on FiWe.
This gave her the flexibility to work from anywhere as she focused on the business model and getting her learning program into the classrooms. Leaving behind a job and industry that she loved before she was fully ready was a unique experience. She was comfortable where she was, but she knew that being uncomfortable in a new venture would mean personal growth, so she made the move. So far, seeing her education materials at work in the classroom and watching students make financial connections that click for them has been a solid reward.
The energy surrounding Tanu and her commitment to broadening the reach of financial literacy is obvious in conversation with her. While founding a company from the ground up may seem like a far reach from working in Risk at a large global institution, Tanu shared many examples of how her experience at EY plays into her current business and prepared her for her current role as entrepreneur and founder.
1.Relationships, connections and network are everything - it’s the strong soft skills that underly everything you do. She shared how crucial the idea of maintaining strong relationships is and how to
everything you do. She shared how crucial the idea of maintaining strong relationships is and how to adapt to different personalities and work styles has been to her successes outside of EY. Tanu said it best that the relationship comes first, and then strong delivery allows you the opportunity to repeat the business.
2.Confidence in yourself. EY provided exposure to present to high level executives regularly even at a junior level and that experience makes presentations to stakeholders a lot less intimidating.
3.Teaming. Working with all levels on an engagement team was very influential. Senior Managers helped team a certain set of skills while the Partners taught how critical it is to deliver quality work, managing senior executive relationships, profit & loss and motivating the team. The techy staff members were always good for showing the rest of the team how to do things more efficiently. Everyone on the team had a say at the table and all levels worked together to influence and learn from each other. Tanu shares how important it is to spend time in person with your colleagues, managers and colleagues. It's hard to replicate that energy in a room and you won't fully realize what a rich experience you have until you've moved on.
4.Set up your Framework. Building frameworks come second nature at a consultancy, where process and procedures are at the forefront of successful projects. Tanu carries this structure into her business at FiWe as she launches her products into similar frames to keep her organized, flexible and make her work scalable.
5.Flexibility. Tanu's experience to assess risk thoroughly and quickly has come in handy in her business, where changing course over a weekend is often the norm. She recently had to shift gears on how she delivered trainings to allow for scalability and balance that with the school calendar leaving her little time to for execution. Her experience and framework base allowed her to feel confident moving in a different direction quickly and confidently.
6.Building consensus. This crucial skill doesn't end when you leave the consultancy business. When cornered to pinpoint the most valuable lesson Tanu learned during her time at EY it was that building consensus happens before you ever step foot in a decision making meeting. Most of the work to get team members and stakeholders on board is done outside the meeting room. Sharing challenges and anticipated issues ahead of time gets teams better prepared for moving forward once it's crunch time. This skill was immensely beneficial in industry as well as with her work on FiWe. Getting everyone on the same page isn't easy but it is crucial to move forward with key
decisions.
We really enjoyed hearing about Tanu's journey and appreciate her sharing experience and advice with us as we follow along to see what is ahead of her.
Interested in being spotlighted in a future issue? ContactElisha Costigan
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