Russell Johnsen, Provident Financial Romania: It has been hard work here, the hardest I have ever worked

Russell Johnsen, the general manager of Provident Financial Romania, has been attracted to bringing change in the organization ever since joining it 28 years ago. A Jack of all trades, as he says, he has been at the helm of the Romanian subsidiary since 2009. The most intense activity so far, he tells romania-insider.com. By Corina Saceanu When Russell Johnsen started out with Provident Financial in UK in 1982, the company was not handing out cash directly to customers, as it does now. Instead, it was offering them checks which they could cash in at the bank. Russell, who started out as development manager with the company- low in the hierarchy, where people were not often heard- proposed a change stemming from what the team of agents had been telling him, which eventually lead to a shift in the way Provident Financial was doing business. Based on his proposal and on a successful pilot project, the company started to take the cash repaid by its clients on a weekly basis and offer it to new customers directly, instead of sending them to cash checks from the bank. This is the thing Russell Johnsen is most proud of, he says. Not the promotions. “Promotions have been great, I had lots of promotions along the way, but that really changed things.” Jack of all trades “As I have evolved I have done lots of different things – in the UK you call this 'Jack of all trades and the master of none,” Russell says. He has held several positions with the organization and has made sure to change tracks from time to time. At 24, he was managing a team of 14 agents in his home city Liverpool and the accounts of several thousands customers. He went up the ladder to cover more of the country, up to divisional manager. He then switched to something new – managing security for the group, at the company's headquarters in Bradford. Then came another change – he switched to managing finance. It has never been boring for Russell – IT and business change followed. The latter proved to be the most productive period. “I was able to make quite a few changes in the organization and I got qualifications in project management,” he says. With no background in IT or finance, Russell chose positions in these areas to develop himself, as opportunities came up.

“Opportunities presented themselves in time; the organization was looking to develop me and round me and I was also very keen to pick up new knowledge. I wanted to develop in the organization within the hierarchy. The GM role was what I had fancied for a long time.”