Dame Alison Rose: Advocating for Female Entrepreneurs and Vulnerable Banking Customers

Dame Alison Rose is one of the high-profile guests who has appeared on James Harding’s Thinkin podcast. In 2021, she featured on the business breakfast show to discuss her pivotal work as NatWest’s chief executive. During her tenure at the bank, some of her most notable efforts included implementing Covid-19 support measures for vulnerable customers and producing an influential report of female entrepreneurs’ barriers to business funding.

Harding was keen to interview Dame Alison Rose given how rare it is to dive into a free-flowing conversation with the chief executive of a large organisation. Especially a leader who has shaped not only the business but also the economy and society at large.

Here are some of the insights she shared.

From Graduate to the Woman Behind the Rose Review 

Many recognise Alison as the first woman to lead one of the UK’s four big banks and as the creator of the Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship. This independent review highlights the disadvantages that numerous women face when launching and scaling businesses and identifies strategies to overcome these.

Fewer people know the story behind Alison’s journey into her prolific career. She started as a graduate at NatWest, entering a building that “looked quite intimidating.” Starting this job felt “like the first day of school,” Alison recalls. However, she was able to try out various roles on the graduate programme and “learn a huge amount” about herself.

As an analyst associate, Alison found it helpful to learn from several managing directors during her early career. Each of these individuals adopted different management styles, which sometimes caused challenges because they would ask her to complete the same tasks in various ways.

Although difficult, this proved a “brilliant learning experience.” Alison collected different management approaches like a “magpie” to identify the ways she liked to handle situations. This proved pivotal in her development as a chief executive. She went on to lead NatWest’s commercial and private banking divisions, in which she launched the Free Accelerator Hub Network to support entrepreneurs across the country.

Removing Barriers Challenging Women in Business 

In her new position as chief executive, Alison created the Rose Review. This report raised awareness of — and proposed solutions to — the industry norms that block many female entrepreneurs from accessing venture capital funding.

Many women entrepreneurs aren’t aware that they can apply for financial backing. This lack of awareness, amongst other barriers, is “endemic in society,” with many young girls not even considering entrepreneurship as a career.

Alison believes that major organisations (like banks, venture capital firms, and the government) have a responsibility to remove these barriers. This isn’t possible with a “magic wand” or a “silver bullet.” Instead, Alison compares the matter to “the whole debate on diversity.” A “multifaceted approach” to intervention is necessary.

In the Rose Review, Alison suggested approaches to remove these barriers — and then began launching some of them herself. For example, NatWest deployed around 500 individuals to locate female entrepreneurs and make capital available to them.

The bank also launched a billion-pound fund to signpost available monies to female entrepreneurs. As it was fully drawn down earlier than expected, Alison doubled the fund to support even more women business owners.

Making it simple to access finance “made a massive, massive difference,” Alison says. She explains that “banks are in service of the economy” and “in service of customers.” They must choose where they “want the economy to grow” and locate the underrepresented areas where they can make the “biggest difference.”

Challenges Female Entrepreneurs Faced During Covid-19 

Challenges for women entrepreneurs were especially prevalent during Covid-19. NatWest’s research revealed that many more women endured stress running their ventures throughout the lockdowns than men.

A big reason for this was the school closures, which placed a “disproportionate burden” on women business owners caring for children. Alison also found this was true for many of her employed colleagues. Whether employed or self-employed, women are likely to report a higher burden of family-care or household responsibilities.

However, the pandemic unleashed the remote work trend that has since supported countless entrepreneurs with a flexible business lifestyle. Suddenly, remote work and communication tools became available, making the business-family balance much easier to facilitate.

Overall, Alison found that the country’s business community is “amazingly resilient” and “incredibly entrepreneurial.” Even when the economy came to a “hard stop” during Covid-19, businesses run by people of all genders and backgrounds across the UK survived.

Leading NatWest Through Covid-19 

Dame Alison may have developed her leadership expertise over several years, but no chief executive could have been prepared to lead a large organisation through the pandemic. As Alison was primarily responsible for customer service, she poured efforts into ensuring NatWest upheld this service.

She knew that a company-wide return to the office wasn’t necessary to ensure customers received support. As such, she found that Covid-19 “busted a few myths” about how employees should perform their roles, and she introduced a flexible culture at the bank. While some roles did require employees to work in-house, many could be hybrid or remote.

“If you’d asked me at the start of the pandemic, ‘Could you get 50,000 people working from home in the matter of a week and continue to operate in the same way with the same service?’ I would’ve said, ‘Absolutely not,’” Alison says. “But that’s what we did.”

However, reflecting on her own transformative experience as a graduate working in-house, Alison did require young interns and graduates to work in-house. She wanted them to be able to turn to more experienced colleagues and ask, “How do you do that?” or, “What would you do?” Ensuring they continued to work in-house avoided any stunting of their early careers.

More Leadership Insights From Alison Rose 

During Alison’s Thinkin interview, she also talked in detail about tracking sustainability goals in the banking sector and answered thought-provoking questions from other guests. These questions covered topics such as banks’ profitability, allowing bank managers the flexibility to support customers at a branch level, and managing stress in a high-profile leadership role. Tune into Alison Rose’s leadership stories on the ThinkIn podcast.

About Alison Rose 

Alison Rose changed British history when she became the first female CEO of a UK major bank. After completing a host of industry-defining projects in this role, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2023. This accolade is a reflection of her industry-leading work to support vulnerable customers and help women access the business opportunities and resources they need to scale successful ventures. Dame Alison is now a trustee of the Business in the Community (BITC) board and a senior adviser to the private equity firm Charterhouse.

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