IT’S HUMAN NATURE TO RESIST CHANGE
Accelerated change is the clarion cry of entrepreneurs and the Achilles heel of large organizations and industries. Many entrepreneurs today use the mantra: “Go big or go home,” and so it is with innovation. Innovation by its very nature needs to sit, enabled by technology, at the very heart of the organization without being buried under the strictures of R&D.
For the past 34 years, my career as the CIO within large global organizations has seen me travel the world to enable the vision of some of the foremost global brands. The challenge is that business vision generally sits way behind the technology curve and therefore an innovation diffusion-gap exists as ideas or the vision of the company has become diffused through the lack of implementing technology effectively. In a way, CIOs are required to wear many of De Bono’s “Thinking Hats”. Added to this role is the dynamic of a tumultuous and relentless customer, market, geopolitical and technological change environment in which we exist.
An exciting example of the above is demonstrated in our latest project involving the design, development and launch of a unique Fintech company. In TradeAce, we asked the question: “What would an innovative bank of the future look like given a clean slate to start with?” Using Millennials and GenZ’s to answer that question we came up with a novel do-it-yourself (DIY) financial platform and service. It utilizes Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) employed backend technology to automate customer workloads and assist in developing long-end financial returns. The platform stabilizes risk, minimizes the user workload, and reduces the time and knowledge necessary for a successful experience in banking, trading and investing markets.
The mission: To place Banking, Investment, Insurance and Transaction products and services online or on one mobile DIY platform which uses cutting-edge technology to act as a viable alternative to the outdated, complicated and expensive banking systems that currently exist.
Market impact: The net result is that because traditional banks have been so excruciatingly slow to pivot their archaic processes, it has opened them up to rapid cannibalisation of their markets by Fintech companies and Challenger Banks such as ourselves.
Putting young imaginative and innovative minds to work to pursue a cause, in this case, to disrupt the banking world has been a wonderfully inspirational experience. Through superior system design, intuitive interfaces and real-time processes on mobile platforms there has been a rapid shift in customer loyalty especially among those who view banking as a “grudge pursuit”. They want DIY banking and wealth management capability that is user-centric and simple – a five-minutes-a-day process. And change is happening at light speed as evidenced by the hype around Generative AI. Add a touch of the business maverick to the mix and one can see actionable-innovation in its prime.
All that said it is wise to take heed of the innovator’s dilemma embedded in the Machiavellian saying:
“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones.”
In conclusion, new imaginative minds are certainly required to advance innovation in any area of endeavour, add to this the sage advice of Boomers who have “seen it all” and you have a winning combination.
