Irina Chernousenko on her career journey

We were lucky enough to catch up with Zalando’s inspirational Director of Finance Operations, Irina Chernousenko, and talk about fizzy drinks, finance and female empowerment.

Irina, you have a spectacular career — you worked at Coca Cola during its global boom, you’ve founded your own company, you coach… Could you talk us through some of your career highlights?

In 1993, when Coca Cola had just arrived in the Russian market, I joined the company as a financial analyst. There were only 20 people in the office, and we had to build the branch from scratch. It was a good learning experience. As the company grew in Russia, I grew too. I became the first Russian expat to move to Atlanta. At first, it was exciting, but soon, due to various reasons, I started losing my interest. I spoke to my boss, and the company offered me to relocate to Belgium for 18 months — I ended up staying for 14 years. Within Coca Cola, my career was taking turns about every three years. I like getting my hands dirty, I enjoy resolving problems. But it takes about three years to build a good team, deliver efficient processes, and get things going. After that, it becomes less interesting. So, every three years, I would go to my boss, and say: “Alright, what’s next?”

In 2014, I decided to leave Coca Cola. I was working in Singapore, and hadhad built good teams across APAC, but I just missed my family too much. So I made the difficult decision to leave the company I loved (and still love). I ended up being on my own for seven years. I did consulting, studied and I went into coaching. I have always been passionate about building efficient teams, and, in fact, I owe a lot of my own success to my teams. I believe nobody’s perfect, but you can build a perfect team, where people complement each other. I am also convinced that no one wants to underperform and everyone can flourish — this belief led me to becoming a coach. When someone doesn’t perform, it often means that they are either not motivated, or wrongly placed. Sometimes managers and companies are responsible for not providing motivation. And sometimes people just need to move teams.

Then the most recent chapter of my career is Zalando, where my curiosity led me. Remarkably, I was invited to the final interview with the company when I was waiting for my grandchild to arrive, and during the interview I became convinced that I wanted to be part of Zalando.

Could you talk a bit more about your team?

I run the Finance Operations. We are 180 people in total, and we deal with all accounts payable, receivable, master data, banking operations, as well as standard reporting. We collect cash from our partners, we do most of the accounting, process every single payment on behalf of Zalando. We’re a big, truly diverse team and an amazing one.

How do you feel at the helm of this team?

It’s not the first time I led a big team. What you need to give your team is a sense of purpose. At the very first all-hands meeting that I moderated, I asked: “What happens to Zalando, if tomorrow our Accounts Payable doesn’t show up?” Now, that would mean we wouldn’t be able to pay our bills, get our merchandise, and we’d have nothing to sell. You see, what I try to do is shift the team’s focus from their daily tasks towards a bigger purpose. As Zalando grows, we are constantly contributing to its growth. I want my people to have the attitude that, at all times, we are working on something bigger than our daily tasks.

In my team, people get managerial experience very early on. It’s a young team — for many, it is an entry point to Zalando, and I am proud to see people develop and step up in their careers even when it means they move elsewhere. We can take people with little experience and train them, so their mindset is what matters most.

You’ve mentioned that any person can flourish, given the right circumstances. But for your own team, is there a kind of professional that you look for? What qualities do you look for in people?

Well, a person will flourish and succeed, if they want to. In my team, we look for professionals who understand that, eventually, our job is about people, our clients. We need to understand this in order to do a good job. We need strong customer focus, willingness to understand the client’s needs, and readiness to provide great service.

Of course, it’s also up to me and my leadership team to instil the sense of purpose in the team, but as for the growth opportunities, Zalando offers lots of them. Personally, I remain a big fan of finding individual strengths in people. I believe that we should nurture people’s natural strengths, creating teams where people complement each other are team players.

Let’s delve a little more into your interest in coaching. What inspires you to coach?

What really motivates me in my work as a coach are the achievements of my coachees: 75% of them get promoted, while 25% change jobs. I help people understand why they feel stuck and what they really want to do. Sometimes, what stops people from growing is a small blind spot that needs to be removed — It’s like removing a stone from the shoe. My curiosity also drives me. I think you get old once you stop learning and stop being curious. And there’s a lot I learn from coaching. From every single coaching relationship, I learn as much as my coachees.

Recently, I’ve also started reverse mentoring within my team. We work today from home, so I can’t do my usual office rounds at the beginning and the end of the workday. I need to know what is happening and how my team feels. Reverse mentoring helps.

And how does it feel, switching to online?

It’s an interesting experience, it has good and not very good sides. I personally love to meet people in person, but sometimes it’s good to work from home. To meet more people I initiated Female Leadership Lunches in Finance. It was amazing to meet my colleagues face to face, and we will be having our second lunch — online — this month. I’m looking forward to it because online we can do a poll, we can do parallel chats… It allows for new ways to connect.

That’s a positive way of thinking!

I’m a big supporter of the hybrid office-remote work model. On-screen, people seem closer, which makes you feel more connected to them. And then there is the question of convenience and efficiency — sometimes, you just don’t have the time or mindspace to travel to the office. I think we absolutely need a combined approach to working online and offline.

Speaking of the Female Leadership lunches, how did it start and how is it developing?

Funnily enough, this awesome initiative was born out of a time shortage. After a few presentations I did at our All Hands, young women started asking me to lunch. There were a few invites, and I decided to have lunch together with all of them. It was absolutely fantastic! It was such a warm atmosphere. With the Female Leadership Lunches, I’d love to create a safe environment where women can connect, pitch ideas, support each other, and facilitate each other’s projects.

As a woman in finance, do you think the sector has become more inclusive over the past years?

Yes, absolutely. I also want to add though that I never felt discriminated against or treated differently because I’m a woman. I never wanted preferential treatment on the basis of being a woman, but I also believe that it’s deeply unfair when women are denied opportunities because of their gender.

Is there any advice you could share with our readers?

From my own experience, I can say that as a woman, sometimes you feel cornered, like you have to choose between the things you want to achieve in life. But you don’t: we can and we should have it all.

When I worked in Singapore, at some point I was close to a burnout. I had never asked for help and had never admitted to needing help. It took me a long time to accept that asking for help and getting help is normal. It’s healthy, it’s good, and it’s not a sign of weakness. One year into my job as a Director at Coca Cola Bottling Investments (BIG), I had a female mentor, who taught me a great lesson. She once asked me how I would celebrate my work anniversary, and I said: “With a glass of champagne?”. And she replied: “But what about celebrating your career achievements?” She pushed me to write a message to the BIG CEO, whom I only met a couple of times in big meetings, enlisting all I had achieved in a year. After six drafts, and gaining Denise’s (my mentor’s) approval, I finally clicked “Send”. And, when the CEO replied with appreciation, cc’ing all his direct reports around the world, there remained no door that wouldn’t open for me in the company. So, my point is — do claim the credit you deserve. We, women, are reluctant to do so, but you have to claim what’s yours. And to celebrate your success!

Why do we need more diversity in Finance?

To me, diversity also means diversity in thinking. As a group, people who come from different backgrounds and bring in different experiences, are more creative, they have a more varied approach to problem-solving. Diversity makes teams stronger, more creative, and more flexible. We need that.