Every career has a moment where a single yes opens the door to something more. ‘Yes Moments’ is a blog series that celebrate the choices that sparked opportunities and shaped the professional journeys of our people.

Lidya began her career in banking after graduating with a degree in Architecture. Drawn to OCBC’s forward-looking vision and strong support for young talent, she joined the Graduate Talent Programme in 2017, beginning a journey shaped by continuous learning and growth. 

Explore how purposeful career moves led her to drive transformative digital initiatives and lead teams today as Head of Digital Growth & Acceleration in OCBC Indonesia.

Graduating with an Architecture degree, I never imagined that my career would begin in banking. As the region accelerated towards digital transformation, OCBC stood out to me for its bold vision for innovation and strong commitment to developing young talent.

What drew me in was the possibility of building solutions that make a difference in people’s everyday lives. Even without a finance background, I decided to say yes to the opportunity to be part of OCBC’s digital transformation journey.

Joining the Graduate Talent Programme became my first real Yes Moment — saying yes to continuous learning, mentorship, and opportunities to contribute to how people and businesses experience banking.

The program provided exposure across different functions in the bank, allowing me to experience how various teams come together to deliver solutions for customers. Each rotation gave me a new perspective on the business, and gradually helped me understand how technology, operations, risk, and product all connect within the banking ecosystem.

Learning the Foundations: Financial Planning

My first rotation was in Retail Business Development, where I was involved in the early concept of a life goals feature in OCBC Mobile. The feature was designed to help customers plan for important financial goals such as saving for education, property, or long-term investments, and connect those goals with suitable wealth products.

Coming from a non-financial background, this was a steep learning curve. I had to quickly familiarise myself with banking terminology, financial products, investment instruments, and the way customer risk profiles translate into financial solutions.
More than that, the experience gave me an early appreciation of how digital capabilities can support customers in practical and personal ways. It taught me that behind every feature requires understanding of a real need, a real decision, and a real customer journey.

Understanding Large Scale Transformation: Reimagining Branch Experience

My next rotation brought me to the Network Management Division, where I was involved in OCBC Indonesia’s branch transformation initiatives. The project aimed to reimagine the traditional branch layout into a more welcoming, lounge-like environment where relationship managers could have deeper advisory conversations with customers.

 
Being involved in this initiative gave me early exposure to how complex transformation is delivered in a large organisation. Aside from having a good idea, I had to coordinate across multiple stakeholders and manage details carefully. It was to ensure alignment between senior leadership and the working team so a shared vision could be translated into reality.

That experience stayed with me. It shaped how I think about transformation until today — not as something abstract, but as something that takes discipline, collaboration, and persistence to bring to life.

Building My First Digital Platform

My final rotation in the Graduate Talent Program became a defining milestone in my career. I joined the Digital Business Division as a Product Owner on RM Mobile, a platform designed to equip relationship managers with digital tools to serve clients more effectively, particularly for acquisition and cross-selling.

At the time, RM Mobile was still in its early stages. Building the platform meant more than technical development. It required shaping the user journey, defining the roadmap, and understanding the fundamentals of banking products and operational processes.

The experience came with many moments where I had to learn on the go. There were times I didn’t yet have the answers and had to figure things out step by step. What made the difference was having leaders and colleagues who guided and built it together with me. We worked through ideas, debugged problems, challenged assumptions, and sometimes stayed late to get things across the finish line.

That experience was also where I began to understand what leadership is. It is about standing with the team and solving problems together to learn along the way.

One of the most memorable moments for me was seeing something that started as a simple idea evolve into a real product used by relationship managers during customer visits. What began as a concept gradually became part of a daily tool used in the field.

Saying yes to that opportunity became one of the most formative experiences of my early career.

Expanding Digital Experiences for Customers

After RM Mobile, I moved on to Web Onboarding, a self-service platform that enables customers to open accounts digitally. This experience was different from RM Mobile. While RM Mobile supported assisted banking through relationship managers, Web Onboarding focused on empowering customers to onboard themselves more seamlessly.

The platform introduced capabilities such as e-KYC and digital payroll onboarding, which later received recognition for strengthening the bank’s digital onboarding capabilities.

This phase of my journey broadened my perspective. It showed me that digital transformation can take different forms — sometimes through tools that empower front-line staff, and sometimes through platforms that put greater convenience directly into customers’ hands. In both cases, the goal remains the same: making banking simpler, more accessible, and more meaningful.

Seeing Operations from the Ground: One Web

My next role brought me to One Web, an internal platform used by staff across the bank, particularly service advisors in branches. Working on One Web gave me a much deeper understanding of the complexity of branch operations, and how front-line teams manage different processes while serving customers daily.

Seeing how things work on the ground gave me greater appreciation for banking services. It reminded me, once again, how meaningful digital solutions can be when they simplify operational workflows — by improving the experience of internal staff and delivering a better experience for customers.

That experience also helped me connect product thinking with operational reality. It reinforced the idea that good solutions are not only elegant in design, but useful in practice.

Learning to Lead

In 2023, I said yes to becoming a people manager and led a team of five responsible for key digital platforms supporting assisted banking channels, including RM Mobile and One Web.

That transition required a shift in mindset. Earlier in my career, success was often defined by the work I personally delivered. As a people manager, success meant something different — how well I enabled my team to do their best work and how I supported their growth.

It was a humbling transition, but also a meaningful one. It taught me that leadership is less about having all the answers, and more about creating the conditions for others to thrive.

Growing Beyond Platforms: A New Perspective on Impact

In 2025, after several years of building digital platforms across the bank, I said yes to an opportunity to move to the business side. In my current role in Digital Growth & Acceleration, my focus is no longer only about building capabilities, but also about shaping strategy and ensuring meaningful business impact through adoption, engagement, and growth.

The transition was another humbling experience. Moving into the business side meant stepping into rooms where I was not always the most technically knowledgeable person. Over time, I realised that leadership is not about knowing every detail, but about bringing the right people together, aligning perspectives, and ensuring the team moves in the right direction.

This role has given me a broader lens on transformation. It is not just about building the solution, but about making sure it creates value.

Building Networks, Serving Communities

Outside of work, OCBC has also given me many opportunities to expand my network and build genuine connections. Whether through simple moments with colleagues or shared activities outside the office, these experiences have helped me recharge and reminded me that work is also shaped by the relationships we build along the way.

I also had the chance to give back to communities. Early in my career, I joined an OCBC Cares initiative at Desaku Terang, where we helped bring sustainable solar power to underserved villages. Seeing how this transformed daily life for residents grounded me and reminded me that transformation should always serve real people with real needs.

That experience stayed with me. It reinforced a belief that has become increasingly important throughout my journey: progress only becomes meaningful when it creates real impact for people.

Reflections & Looking Ahead

Moving across roles and initiatives throughout my career has exposed me to very different perspectives — from operations and front-line realities to business priorities and strategic decisions. I often found myself in the middle of those perspectives, connecting ideas with execution and learning from the people around me.

Throughout this journey, I have also been fortunate to build a network of mentors, supervisors, and colleagues across the OCBC Group. These relationships have shaped how I think and work. Senior leaders challenged me to think more critically, not only about how things work, but also about the “why” behind decisions. At the same time, colleagues across teams were always generous in sharing their expertise, whether in operational insights, business perspectives, or practical ways to navigate complexity.

Even today, whenever I face a complex challenge, there is often someone within this network I can reach out to for advice or perspective.

OCBC is a place where community and sustainability are part of how we pursue our aspirations. As a bank that continues to invest in its people, I find myself continually learning and growing. I look forward to building solutions and strategies that create meaningful impact for both customers and the organisation.

Every journey starts with a choice. When was the last time you said yes? Opportunity Starts Here.