Susanne Giese began her career in 1991 at Stadtsparkasse Chemnitz and has been working with German Sparkassenstiftung in various assignments for 22 years. Since January 2020, she has been heading a major project of German Sparkassenstiftung in Ghana supported by the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
1. In which institution of the Sparkassen Finance Group did you start your career and what brought you to the Sparkasse?
I started as a marketing manager at Stadtsparkasse Chemnitz in July 1991. In the new German federal states Sparkassen previously had a virtual monopoly. In the GDR (German Democratic Republic) all private customers were obliged to keep their account with a Sparkasse. Therefore, there was no need for marketing until reunification. The battle therefore ensued with the new competitors, who tried to take market share and the most attractive customers away from the Sparkassen. The task was very appealing, because marketing and customer orientation had to be newly introduced (the word "customer" was a kind of swear word at that time - not just in the Sparkasse). For me as a marketing manager, there was a high degree of creative freedom, of course, combined with the corresponding responsibility, which I found very appealing. Working for a financial institution was practically in my genes, as my parents are both bankers and had met at a Volksbank (cooperative bank).
2. How long did you work for this institution? Please describe your Sparkassen-career briefly.
In 1993, Stadtsparkasse Chemnitz merged with Kreissparkasse Chemnitz to form Sparkasse Chemnitz. I had the wonderful task of leading the campaign for the merger and working on the merger team that managed the entire transition. In 1994, I then moved to the Mittelbrandenburgische Sparkasse in Potsdam as deputy marketing manager. In 1995, I started as a management consultant at the Sparkassen Association Baden-Württemberg (SVBW) in Stuttgart. My task was to advise the Sparkassen in Wuerttemberg (and after the merger also the Sparkassen in Baden). The main topic for Sparkassen was the restructuring of the entire sales organization and the conversion from regional organization to customer group orientation. In 2000, German Sparkassenstiftung sent me on two short-term assignments to Uganda and Bulgaria. After that, it was clear to me that I wanted to go to Africa for a longer period of time. I stayed with the SVBW until 2001, when I was given leave to work with the German Development Service (Deutscher Entwicklungs Dienst - DED) for three years in Burkina Faso. Afterwards I returned to the SVBW again.