Unlocking Creativity - Branka Nesterovic Haining

Tell us about your career journey, and what attracted you to Ashurst?
My career began in a global organisation, Association of Certified Charted Accountants (ACCA) in 2000 when I joined as an Admissions Assistant and moved into various roles throughout eleven years with the ACCA.

In 2011 I took redundancy with ACCA and struggled to secure another role in my profession for two years. However, my friend who at the time managed Glasgow pub/restaurant/hotel, Rab Ha's (quite a Glasgow institution), offered me a waitressing job which I accepted with a spring in my step. During my stint as a waitress, is where I realised that my career had to be based around serving people, problem-solving and exploring opportunities and solutions.

In 2013 I secured a Business Analyst role with a software development company called KANA, now Verint Systems. This is where I truly developed my Business Analysis career and worked with a wide range of sectors. Travelling took its toll on me, so I decided to have a quieter life and started working for public sector organisations. Although these were rewarding roles serving the community, I craved the buzz and global working, so I joined Ashurst in 2019 as a Business Analyst in IT. A year ago I moved into the CBI function where I feel I found myself again. As a child, I dreamed about being a lawyer… so working for a legal firm is as close as I will get.

Why do you think organisations like Ashurst need a purpose?
Purpose brings people together, creates space for collaboration, unlocks creativity and sets the direction towards a common goal. I hear people say I don't like to do something for the sake of it. When people feel like this, motivation and morale get low, so understanding the purpose of doing something and how it contributes to the overall success lifts spirits up and delivers better results.

In your view, what makes working at Ashurst extraordinary and why?
Inclusion, Diversity and Belonging for sure! I am not embarrassed to say that this was something that I never believed would be actioned, as it felt like it was just another policy filed away to a tick box. In Ashurst, we live and breathe IDB, and that is extraordinary.

What does 'Together, we create the extraordinary' mean to you?
Apart from that it always reminds me of the High School Musical song 'We're All in This Together', to me it means that we are all equipped with different skills, we all have different life experiences and backgrounds. By recognising and drawing on each other's strengths and weakness we create the extraordinary.

My brothers favourite phrase is 'no one is Superman', and that is so true, together we make each other successful.

What is the one action that we can use to bring our purpose to life, and create the extraordinary?
Keep demonstrating our Values!

What has been your most memorable experience at Ashurst? And what made it memorable?
In 1993 I came to the UK as a refugee and did not speak one word of English. In 2019, after being in Ashurst for under 6 months, I was leading a workshop in front of our Partners in a meeting room in the new London office. Before going into the workshop, I felt overwhelmed, scared, small, honoured, brave… But I walked out of the meeting room proud, feeling listened to and respected for the skills I have in my role.

How can we create extraordinary experiences for clients and each other?
Listen, reflect, connect and act!

Have you seen/witnessed any good examples across the firm where we are already creating the extraordinary?
Most recently. I sent an email to my colleague to review and amend as appropriate, you may have noticed that my English language still has plenty of room for improvement, and my colleague came back to me and said 'I could change a lot of it, but if I do it will not be Branka speak'. I cannot explain how much that meant to me – I felt accepted as I am - I am me, I am Branka. That is an extraordinary colleague for whom I have huge respect.