Accountancy in the Twitter era
One of the columns I write on a regular basis is for CAMagazine, which goes to about 100,000 professional chartered accountants. My big secret? Despite the fact that I spend my time advising some of the biggest organizations in the world on strategies for innovation and creativity, I'm also a professional accountant. I spent some 12 years way back in the 1980's which one of the world's largest professional services firm.
My June column is out -- and it talks about the challenge of trying to reconcile the emerging demands for more financial disclosure with the short attention spans that come with the Twitter era.
You can access the full article below; but here's a few excerpts:
We stand at a seminal moment - a crossroads as it were - between what we might call the new age of disclosure and the new era of inattention.Read the article Accountancy in the Twitter era....we will see all kinds of new rules and regulations within the financial sector and beyond, including most of the business world. Let there be no doubt, in the year to come we will witness a new, onerous set of regulations surrounding financial disclosure....
On the other hand, while we ponder an emerging need for more detailed disclosure, media reports seem to indicate that the general populace is rushing off to Twitter-ize itself.
So here's the thing: to satisfy the demands of angry investors, the typical 10Q and SEDAR filings will have to quadruple in size, if not more. Pretty soon, a typical public company will need to file several thousand pages of disclosure documents to keep up with regulations. Financial statement footnotes will become complicated enough to deserve their own dead tree. An army of accountants will find itself dedicated to the cause of digging deeper with every single sentence.
At the same time, the audience for whom these lengthy documents are targeted is concentrating on writing 140-character texts.
So, the big question is, what is the relevancy of accountancy in the Twitter era?
Might you instead find yourself one day writing a financial disclosure that goes like this: Qlfd opn'n. Gng Cncrn vr m2m vln on unreal(dude!)ized rvnu.
If you understand that, then your brain synapses have shrunk enough to fit the speed of information in the modern age
.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The explosion of mobile banking! My upcoming Texas keynote ....
I'm off to Austin, Texas today, where I'll be the closing keynote speaker tomorrow for the annual meeting of the Texas Credit Union League.
My role is to motivate and challenge the audience to continue to focus on applying innovative and creative ideas to their businesses, given that there is constant change within the financial sector. Not just due to the financial crisis, but also due to rapidly shifting consumer behavior, the rapid emergence of new technologies, and the extremely fast development of new business models.
Particularly with the idea of mobile banking!
Take the story of Wizzit (which boasts the slogan, "With Wizzit, you have your bank in your pocket"), based in South Africa. 200,000 South African's have signed up for the service, in which they pay bills, store cash like a debit card, transfer funds, and send remittances. Wizzit is completely text messaging based. Accounts can be opened in 30 seconds via a call center, and are sold via Wizzkids (It's based upon the JetBlue model - with these representatives working at home). Plans are to expand the business model into Eastern Europe, according to Bank Technology News.
Then there is the story of Guaranty Bank in Turkey, which boasts $61 billion in assets. They set up a mobile banking portal -- and in the first two months, saw 1 million page views, 50,000 customers, 30,000 transactions and $24 million in transaction volume.
Today, they've got 1.3 million mobile banking customers, and believe that the service is accessible on 5,100 cellphone models.
Quite clearly, mobile is going to play a huge role in financial services, and it's happening NOW!
On stage, I'll be challenging this group to realize that their future success will come from their ability to respond to rapidly changing products, markets, business models, rapid economic trends, and competitive. In that way, innovation isn't just about new products -- it's about responding to the reality that in every industry, faster is the new fast.
More information
- Wizzit Web site
- Innovation in the financial sector - related post
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
What does it mean to innovate at high velocity?
I was the opening keynote speaker for a major credit union conference l : in the room were the CEO's and Board members for several hundred small to medium sized CU's. This coming week on Friday, I'll be the closing keynote speaker for the annual conference of the Texas Credit Union League in Austin. I spend quite a bit of time speaking throughout the financial sector.
One constant is that I always challenge my audience to think about how to become an agile, high velocity, innovation oriented organization. This isn't simply an organization that has a constant stream of new products : it's an organization that also responds to all the rapid change that is swirling around it.
From my slide deck, I'm outline that high velocity innovative organizations prepare for:
- the rapid emergence of new technologies
- rapid shifts in market fundamentals
- the rapid emergence of new business models
- rapid shifts in customer behavior
- a need for rapid scaling to adapt to this rapidity
- constant rapid shifts in marketing outreach methods
- rapidly changing consumer sentiment
I've long been suggesting that the financial sector is soon going to find a tsunami of change as our iPhones, Blackberries and other mobile technologies become the new form of credit card payment technology.
The New York Times reported on the trend this weekend, in an article, Visa introduces a credit card on a phone.
The rush to "contact-less payment technology" is going to happen, and it's going to happen faster than most people in the financial sector think. It's being driven at the speed of Silicon Valley, and some financial institutions -- and many many credit unions -- are still operating at a far slower pace. As a result, they can often be caught flatfooted by dramatic technological change, and end up having their business model disrupted in a substantial way.
On stage, I challenge this senior level type of audience to realize just how quickly everything around them is changing. In order to be innovative, they need to understand the new technologies that will impact them, and be prepared to ingest them at the rate that the market demands.
That's a critical form of innovation, and sadly, there continue to be a lot of organizations who aren't into that reality. That's why there are so many organizations having me in to talk about how to become an "innovator in the high velocity economy."
More information
- 2009 Texas Credit Union League conference
- Visa introduces a credit card on a phone
- 2009 Financial & banking innovation awards
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Article - "Are you ready for financial mashup widgets?"
My latest CAMagazine article is out.
In January, I was invited to address a group of CIO's and CFO's from some of the world's largest insurance companies -- a pretty heavy duty crowd. My challenge? Get them away from focusing just on the here-and-now, and think a bit about some of the challenges that tomorrow will present.
Part of my voyage took them into a view of what their industry might look like ten years out. Here's a few extracts:
Are you ready to open up your accounting and financial systems to the Facebook generation? In 10 years, that won’t seem like a silly question. But even today, it’s an issue you should think aboutPredicting the future often involves the extrapolation of current trends. Given that mashups are a big part of youth culture, it shouldn't be surprising that we'll find the concept making its way into business in the next several years. Get ready!In the next few years, we are likely to enter the world of the “accounting mashup,” in which customers, suppliers and business partners start to interact with you through online widgets. As this happens, you’ll discover new business models that will provide sales opportunities, streamline customer support and reduce operating costs.
Young people entering the workforce are able to instantly and easily reshape information so that it is more accessible, shareable and far more interesting. They’ve taken to the world of music and video and have learned how to reassemble bits and pieces into something new.
My favourite music mashup, from years ago, came from a DJ group known as The Kleptones. Their "A Night at the Hip-Hopera" remix took a swath of music from Queen, wrapped it around other sounds and songs, all in a story about early attempts by the music industry to shut down music sharing.
So what does this have to do with accounting? Who is to say that the Facebook generation isn't going to look at the Best Buy Remix idea and rethink the whole concept of an accounting system in light of that? Why would we expect them to sit in front of a boring web browser, reviewing data on a boring ERP screen? Why would we not consider the possibility that they might write a tool that gets things done in a different way?
More information
- Read the full article They'll spice up your systems
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The insurance industry in 2015
Back in January of this year, I was invited to address a meeting of insurance executives on behalf of a global consulting company. It was a small but powerful group; in the room were Chief Operating Officers and Chief Information Officers for some of the world's largest property and casualty insurance companies. (The client that booked me prefers to remain anonymous.)
I was asked to provide my views on the challenges and opportunities that the property & casualty insurance industry might face in 2015. These included a number of issues:
- unavailability of niche skills due to increased underwriting complexity. Quite simply, faster change and faster science is leading to unique issues in assessing insurance risk, with the result that skills become far more specialized and unique.
- the likely emergence of "social financial widgets" - this is the focus of an upcoming column for one of the publications I write for. Take a look at BestBuy's Remix project, which allows developers to write code that interacts with the online catalog of BestBuy. Extend that thinking to the insurance in the future: the next generation insurance agent will write their own widgets that allow for the quoting, sale and binding coverage of a policy, within their own social-Website page.
- the implications of pervasive connectivity upon the insurance marketplace. We're entering the era of smart highway infrastructure, and automobiles that increasingly take over responsibility for navigation. What happens with insurance risk as this occurs?
- the impact of computational analytics on risk assessment ; quite simply, we're witnessing the emergence of highly sophisticated analytical programs that can undertake entirely new ways of assessing claims fraud.
- the impact of location intelligence and the re-engineering of the underwriting process. I often tell the story of how how some leading edge insurance executives realize that there is an opportunity to link spatial, i.e. Google Maps information, to public databases on crime, education, accidents, health care, income and other factors, in order to come up with new ways of assessing insurance risk.
- velocity of brand relevance: any brand today, including insurance products, must be seen to be fresh, up to date, and with the times. The next generation of customer are going to demand insurance products that are interactive, constantly changing to meet new needs, and which keep up to date with fast social and technological change.
Right now, of course, most insurance companies are in a "lock down" mode as they navigate the global recession : but savvy insurance executives know that they need to be planning for these and other key trends soon.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Financial & banking innovation awards for 2009!
I just finalized my review of the entries for the 2009 Monarch Innovation Awards; for the second year in a row, I've been one of the panel of judges for the awards.
The awards are presented by Barlow Associates, a leading banking industry market research organization. As their press release notes, "the awards honor innovation in the financial services industry and seek to recognize financial institutions that provide the most innovative products to business customers and to recognize risk takers who create/promote innovation within their organizations."
Given all the turbulence in the financial sector, it might seem like an odd time to be focusing on innovation - but it's not. Cast your mind forward just a few years from now, and think about what we'll see within the business banking sector:
- a good part of our financial infrastructure will have migrated to mobile platforms ; people will think it normal to conduct banking via SMS transactions; a good chunk of the current credit card infrastructure will have migrated into our cell phones, Blackberries and iPods;
- Gen-Y will have a different type of financial relationship, and are likely to use those financial brands that "stay ahead" in terms of technologies, capabilities and other factors;
- existing banks will find their markets and brands increasingly challenged by technology companies, particularly mobile platform organizations, as well as disruptors from other industries such as accounting and ERP software companies
- we'll see increasing financial sophistication in the small and medium sized business sector; the ability to scale internationally financially will become an increasingly important success factor, and this trend will be one of the key drivers behind the coming economic recovery
I referred to them before when I wrote my Memo to the CEO some time back, pressing a message that as CEO's of financial organizations navigate the turbulent water around them, they should ensure they also have a team that is firmly focused on future trends.
More information:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
What's next with financial, insurance and banking services?
This dude to the right? He's about to inherit a whole whack of money.
Indeed, before the financial meltdown in the last month, the slides I used at a wide variety of financial, banking and insurance conferences noted that the issue of inter-generatlonal wealth transfer is a huge challenge and opportunity. Estimates suggest that we'll see $12 to $18 trillion in money moving from one generation to another in the next 12 years ..... put that up against US GDP of $12 trillion. Cut in half for the stock market crash, and it is still a staggering number!
By 2053, the number will total $130 trillion - and the funds will move to a far more independent, financially savvy, technically sophisticated generation.
How do you maintain your relevance to this next generation customer? Through innovation.
Here's something of interest: despite the caustic conditions throughout the global banking and insurance industry, there are still a huge number of senior executives who are focused on the key trends that will impact them in the future. They do know the one thing that I know to be true: one day the volatility in the banking and insurance sector will have gone away. Things will have calmed down, and we'll have a banking, insurance and financial sector that is "back to normal." Or, at least, a "new normal."
And we also do know this: once we come out of "this thing," organizations will be back to the old-fashioned, pre-hedge-fund-derivative-fuelled ways of making money: by coming up with innovative new financial products and services that solve the problems of customers; by excelling at customer service; by launching and nurturing innovative new brands that resonate with customers; through deep, fast and transformative marketing campaigns that form unique relationships with customers. In other words, innovation will be the most critical measure of future success in the banking and insurance sector.
So how do we get there? I've had a few leadership retreats in the last two months with a number of global and national financial groups who are already thinking about these issues; they've asked me in for my thoughts on linking future trends to an innovation agenda as part of a leadership offsite. (Obviously, given fast paced trends, I'm not going into a list of companies. Suffice it to say, there are some senior leadership teams who are busy ensuring that their companies are ready for the next phase in financial services.)
What am I speaking about? Grabbing bullets from a few of the slides that I used:
Agility defines capability
- success is defined by ability to respond to rapidly changing products, markets, business models, rapid economic trends, competitive moves, skills issues
- innovation moves from more than just "products" to process, ad analytics, methodology, structure, capabilities, scalability, collaborative ability .... productivity
- scale faster
- deploy faster
- focus narrower
- business models will be continually redefined
- category dynamics and distribution models will be transformed and subject to external pressure
- products will be re-invented at a more rapid pace, particularly with fast changing actuarial assumptions
- brand perceptions will shift quicker, particular as new "influencers" in branding come to be more prevalent (Web 2.0 etc)
- target customers will be more challenging and far less loyal
Key point: financial services, banking and insurance innovation hasn't gone away. It's going to come back with a roar, and the leaders in this industry are positioning themselves now.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Financial meltdown? Or environmentally responsible reporting?
I don't want to distract from the seriousness of the events unfolding on Wall Street, but check out these headlines:
- American banks face financial meltdown if their reforms fail.
- Mortage Meltdown!
- Bloody and Bowed --- Money Managers Remain Badly Shaken by the Meltdown.
- Market Cap Meltdown --- Billions in Blue Chip Stock Values Have Been Blown Away.
- Congress caught in a bind over bank crisis.
- Crisis Looming As Realty Slump Becomes Global
- Banks face financial meltdown if their reforms fail, The Times, December 1990
- Mortgage Meltdown, Toronto Star, December 1989
- Bloody and Bowed --- Money Managers Remain Badly Shaken by the Meltdown, Barron's - December 1987
- Market Cap Meltdown --- Billions in Blue Chip Stock Values Have Been Blown Away, Barron's, October 1987
- Congress caught in bind over bank crisis, Independent, November 1990
- Crisis Looming as Realty Slump Becomes Global, American Banker, October 1990
The events as they are unfold are tragic, and there are people losing their jobs. We've yet to see where it will all go.
On the other hand, it needs to be put into the context of previous "meltdowns". We've been here before, folks. And at the end of the day, there will still be banks, insurance companies, investment organizations, and a financial system.
I wrote about this a few months ago, and put together a "Memo to the CEO" that examined the issue of innovation. Maybe it's a good time to resurrect for those organizations that are concentrating on getting through this mess and moving on to the next stage. As we come out of it, it will be those focused on innovating within the new marketplace who will come out on top.
More information
- Read the Memo to the CEO
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Extreme skills: what happens when knowledge runs out?
I'm in Vancouver, about to deliver a keynote to a global professional services firm, with the working title, "Extreme Skills Specialization: What Comes Next with Global Talent, Global Organizations?"
The working description goes like this: "The future of every career is either extremely specialized, or massively general. Most professions are fragmenting into dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of specialities. Someone needs to understand all this, and help organizations tap into narrow bands of knowledge."
This is a major trend, and perhaps one of the defining trends of the next 10 years. Here's how I'm presenting the challenges to my audience today:
- the ability to assist your clients with high-velocity change will be a key success factor
- because of this, the ability to find, attract utilize and retain ever more narrow niche skills will be critical, for both your clients, and yourself.
- the ability to scale up and scale down your resource base will define your clients success, and your own.
- our ability to access and deploy unique skills at high velocity, globally, forming project oriented teams that last but a short time, will be key.
Think about these challenges in the context of your own organization. Ask your this questions: "what's the depth of your bench strength?"
Then ask this question: "what do you need to do, from a unique structural perspective, to increase and improve your bench strength, particularly as skills become more specialized, scarce and hard to access." There's probable room for lots of innovative thinking there!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Computational analytics is another new plastic!
At my keynote to the US Association of Actuaries this week, and for a keynote to LOMA last week (an insurance association conference), I played a series of maps that showed the rapid emergence of obesity in the US population from 1995 to the present day, The maps were provided by the Insurance Information Institute.
I challenged the audience to think about what will happen through the next five years: we will see the emergence of "location intelligence dashboards" that will allow such professionals, to examine in real time, the emergence of new risk factors in their industry.
Location intelligence is coming about as organizations learn to link massive stores of information and research to spatial -- or map oriented (i.e. Google Maps) information. An entire new profession is emerging at the same time -- location intelligence professionals.
This is part of an overall sweeping trend, in which computational analytics play a massive role in the emergence of new careers, businesses and industries. We are entering a time that involves the rapid processing of massive stores of information and unique new ways of analyzing information.I talk about this extensively in my future oriented keynotes and is a topic that is covered in several trends documents on my site.
More information
- Read about "location intelligence" in Five More Trends To Define Your Future
- Analytics is hot : "What comes next?"
- Insurance Information Institute report 0- Obesity, Liability, and Insurance
- Directions Magazine - The Worldwide Source for Geospatial Technology
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Who's hot? Actuaries are hot!
I just came back from delivering the opening keynote for the annual meeting of the US Association of Actuaries. This crowd is the risk assessment side of the US life insurance industry, and given the rapid pace of change, their job has become much more difficult through the last several years.
- Read about "location intelligence" in Five More Trends To Define Your Future
- Analytics is hot : "What comes next?"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Text message polling - on stage with instant interactivity and feedback
Over the last several months, I've been incorporating some live text message polling into my onstage presentations.
- Quickmobile Web site
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Financial industry innovation - change the game!
Here's something to think about: we are going to see $12 to $18 trillion in intergenerational wealth transfer in the next 12 years in North America. (US GDP is $12 trillion). By 2053, $130 trillion will have moved from one generation to the next, in rolling waves of wealth transfer. All this will involve monies moving to new customers who are far more independent, financially savvy, and technically sophisticated.
In other words, tomorrow's customer is going to be completely unlike the customer of today. That's why innovating -- keeping up with the future - is critical!
Tomorrow I keynote a group of professionals in the life insurance industry. Next Monday, I keynote a national Association of Actuaries; the following week, an international accounting and professional services powerhouse. Last week, a major bank and a number of wealth management firms. The heavy duty theme this month is the world of finance!
Here's the thing about anyone doing business in financial services: you can drown in all the noise and short term hype and hysteria that involve markets and economies in rapid change.
Or, on the other hand, you can manage through that, and think about the innovations that are set to occur through the next five years. Focus on those, and there's your future strategy.
Here's what's certain in the insurance industry: someone will do one or more of these things, in a big way, that will cause significant and long lasting market disruption and transformation.
- they will redefine the business model (particularly in insurance): for example, health care costs worldwide are set to explode, and the system will implode. Someone will ride this obvious trend and do something transformative that forever changes the industry. It's not about managing health costs; it's about redefining the concept of health care. Think bio-connectivity, and health care rearchitecture.
- they will transform how business is done in the industry.Today, it's still an industry that is still about brokers and distribution. Insurance is sold, not bought, based on fear of the future. That's set to change. Tomorrow, smart widgets on top of a legacy insurance platform? The concept of "disintermediation" has been around for a long time, but here's a certainty: tomorrow's 50 year old is a very different animal from today's 50 year old! Gen-Connect expects much more!
- they will redefine the product
. Today, we buy life insurance and health care insurance and other "products." Someone will figure out that people don't want products: they want their own unique, self-defined, self-managed solutions, that likely include multiple solutions from multiple sources. Think "iPhone meets the life policy!" - they'll change the brand perception: fast movers will transform the product and services that are offered, by offering faster-paced, more relevant brands to consumers who aggressively self-manage every aspect of their daily life. Think Geico.
- they'll constantly change the target customer. Today, insurance is sold to groups of employees, directly to individuals, and to affinity groups. Tomorrow, it will be sold to rapidly evolving, temporary fast-moving customer targets. Think portability: if the typical person will have 30 different careers and 50 different jobs in their lifetime, they're no longer a captive customer!
Is that a bunch of babble? Not really. Five, ten, twenty years out, the insurance industry will look unlike anything that we know if it today. Market transformation is everywhere, and its' going to sweep this industry faster than fast.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A new era of "social wealth management?" Innovating banking at high speed!
I'm about to head out the door to keynote a leadership team, business analysts and IT staff for a leading multinational bank. The theme of my luncheon talk is, of course, innovation in the high velocity financial sector.
There's been a tremendous amount of new research undertaken in the last day, so that I can add to the insight that I've already accumulated through the years as to the innovations occuring in this sector.
There are a couple of key observations that I'll share with the crowd. I start out with a list of pretty scary headlines. American banks face financial meltdown if their reforms fail. Mortage Meltdown! Bloody and Bowed --- Money Managers Remain Badly Shaken by the Meltdown. Market Cap Meltdown --- Billions in Blue Chip Stock Values Have Been Blown Away.Congress caught in a bind over bank crisis. Crisis Looming As Realty Slump Becomes Global
Most of these headlines are from 1989-1990.
Key point being, we've been here before. Whenever there is market turmoil, there is also opportunity for growth through innovation.
And that's what I'll concentrate on the talk. How banks are transitioning staff from tactical to strategic roles so that they can provide the consultative services customers are demanding. How bank branches are becoming the "new Internet" as financial institutions rediscover the power of rejuvenated bricks-and-mortar networks. How the new era of Web 2.0 is going to have to drive a new form of "social wealth management," particularly as we witness a massive intergenerational transfer of wealth from baby-boomers to the Twitter generation. And how maintaining brand relevance is critical when products and customer service expectations continue to increase at a furious pace.
Several months ago, I wrote a Memo to the CEO of banks worldwide, imploring that they don't kill innovation it's tracks as they scramble to deal with the subprime mess. It drew quite a bit of attention: and the comments and sentiment are still critical today. It's worth a read.
More information
- Read the Memo to the CEO
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A memo to the CEO: Innovation matters more than ever
Memo
To: CEO's worldwide,
(particularly in the financial sector)
From: Jim Carroll
-------------------------
I know things are extremely busy, particularly given our economic climate, but I think there's a key issue that you need to make sure is on your agenda.
The most important thing that you can do *right now*, as you work to navigate your way through the challenging economic shoals that surround you, is to make sure that you don't kill innovation in its tracks.
In the last few years, you've nurtured and created a core group of people in your organization who have become relentlessly focused on innovation. They've been obsessively focused on process, service and product innovation. They're matching the needs of customers, are taking you in to new markets, and are figuring out what to do in an economy that changes at a furious pace.
In the months and years to come, these executives are going to be some of the most important and critical individuals on your team.
Leaders set the tone. The tone you need to set for your leading innovators is that innovation matters now more than ever.
I know it's a tough sector to be in right now; there's a lot of bloodletting underway, and there's likely more to come as hundreds of billions of dollars of losses are absorbed. Yet you'll likely get through it, and you are going to have to be relentlessly focused on meeting customer needs, open new markets, and continually re-orient your business models to continue to focus on growth.
In January 2008. I was honored to be one of the judges for the annual Monarch Innovation Awards. We examined various innovative service and product offerings from such major financial institutions as Wachovia, SunTrust, USBank, Bank of America, WellsFargo and others. The key goal of the awards, sponsored by Barlow Research, was to "recognize financial institutions that provide the most innovative products to business customers" and to "recognize risk takers in the financial services industry who create/promote innovation within their organizations."
Throughout the financial sector, there are innovation heroes like those who won the Monarch Innovation Awards. These are the folks who are willing to stick their heads up, take a risk, and do something new and dramatic.
It's your innovation heroes who will help you open the future.
You must ensure that they still have the courage to take risks. To open new markets. To do innovative things that will solve customer problems. To realign the business for the future.
Celebrate them. Elevate them. Make their contributions known.
As the CEO, you set the tone for your organization. You have a momentary chance to ensure that you stay focused on the opportunities that come from your innovation heroes.
If you want to chat about this, give me a call. I'm at 905.855.2950. Or just send me an email: innovationmatters@jimcarroll.com
Sincerely,
Jim Carroll
--------
More information
- Print A memo to the CEO: Innovation Matters More Than Ever
- Marketwatch press release: Barlow Research Monarch Innovation Awards
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
High velocity e-commerce: a keynote for VISA
I'm about off to keynote a conference for Visa. With executives in the room from Apple, Sony, Ticketmaster, HomeDepot and other organizations that are e-commerce heavy hitters, I'll be focusing on the message, "what do high velocity companies do to stay innovative?"
Much of the conference so far will have focused on the high velocity change that swirls around the issue of e-commerce: the rapid emergence of new payment technology (i.e. cell phone payment infrastructure), continued market growth as e-commerce becomes a routine part of daily life, and internationalization of market and opportunity (China now has the largest Internet population, with 250 million users.) There's also a significant platform shift as mobility takes on an increasing role: Investors Business Daily just reported that already, 16% of US cell phone users do online banking with their device, and 25% shop online. Such numbers pale in comparison to even more rapid change in Asia and Europe.
How do you stay innovative in a world of fast change?? I have several messages:
- prepare for market / product / infrastructure rapidity: fast innovators make sure they have a collaborative team structure that can assemble into fast-teams, ready to tackle new projects, demands, market shifts and other changes. It's all about corporate agility.
- structure for intensity: prepare for the rapid emergence of new technologies, and organize yourself with partners to help you nail implementation. Mobile payment technology is going to have a sweeping impact, and it's rollout will occur in but a few short months. That's the new intensity of business cycles.
- empower for quality: if you shop online, you expect operational excellence, no questions asked. You can only do that by empowering staff to act on the ground, making quick decisions so that quality of experience is not compromised. Read my When FedEx Fails post of a few days for an important lesson on today's empowered consumer.
- enhance capability from generational diversity: Older generations are still struggling with fast pace change: that's one of the key trends I identified in my most recent Future Trends report. Savvy organizations are learning to implement fast by combining the different talents of different generations; by providing for cross generational collaboration, they are drawing upon a set of unique skills to act even faster, thus managing to stay ahead of the pack.
You stay innovative by structuring yourself to stay just one step ahead of the future.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Credit Suisse Bulletin: Success Comes to Those Who Evolve
Credit Suisse, headquartered in Zurich, is global financial powerhouse operating in 50 countries; 48,000+ employees, assets of $75 billion US, and net assets under management of $1.345 trillion.
They've just released their 2008 Bulletin magazine, a publication provided to key investment banking, private banking and asset management clients worldwide.
They've include a fairly lengthy Q&A with me, in an article titled Success Comes to Those Who Evolve, in which they wanted wide-ranging views on the word "growth." It came out well: my key message has always been that we must always link the concept of innovation to rapidly emerging trends in order to constantly change what we do -- often simply to keep up, or attain competitive advantage.
Here's the key point: So what's the recipe to kick-start innovative thinking? I think it's about having your entire organization understand everybody is responsible for constantly figuring out how they need to change to keep up with the rapidly changing world. They need leadership that supports and encourages them to be open and share ideas, and that leadership needs to hammer home that message on a regular basis."
More information
- Read: Success Comes to Those Who Evolve
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The disappearance of change management?
I'm off today to Montreal, to keynote the 2007 International Financial Leaders Forum. This is a gathering of several hundred senior financial leaders from throughout the private and government sector.
One of my key messages in my opening keynote today is that as CFO's and CEO's, they must ensure that they are putting in place a culture of agility and flexibility, such that their staff are able to deal with rapid change that comes with the high-velocity economy.
Enter the new boarding pass bar code, as seen on the right: I'm using this Blackberry enabled boarding pass on my flight to Montreal. This is an initiative set-up by Air Canada -- you check in online with your mobile device. You are then sent a text message/SMS that contains a 2-dimensional barcode. At the airport, ostensibly, it will be wanded at security, at the gate, and I'll be on the plane. (The bar code shown will have expired by the time you read this.)
The reaction of my 14 year old when he saw it? "It will never work dad! I don't have good feelings about this."
His reaction, he explained, comes from his belief that the security people won't know what to do with it; that I will get some cranky gate agent who wasn't aware of the new technology; that simply, from what he has learned while travelling with us, is that this simply represents too much change, too fast.
I promised to text him along the way with any updates!
He does have a valid point though : today, we live in a world in which change management is a big issue. I've run (and continue to do) workshops or keynotes where I am addressing issues of how to cope with change. It's a big issue that I cover off in my new Ready, Set, Done: How to Innnovate When Faster is the New Fast book.
Yet a big question looming on my mind these days is this: what happens when the need for change management goes away? Twenty years out, we will have a generation in charge which has embraced technological change from their birth. They are attracted to new ideas, innovation, and new ways of thinking, like bugs drawn to a light. Their world will continue to involve a flood of new technologies, new ways of working, constantly shifting work structures, rapid micro-careers, and all kinds of other things that involve what we would consider to be rapid change.
What happens when change management disappears, and change occurs even faster than it happens today?
The airline involved in today's flight is quite focused on innovation. The big issue to watch is whether they are keeping the change-process up-to-date with their innovation process. Or whether the issue of change-management is starting to disappear and go away....
Nov 5 update
- the security people knew about it, but
- the first gate agent freaked out, muttered about management and new technology, and printed me a paper boarding pass
- the flight attendant didn't like it, and wanted the paper pass
- returning, it took 3 minutes for them to get the security line guy who had the bar code wand
- the gate agent flatly refused to accept it. She complained, complained...
Just about what I expected!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Outsourcing transitions from cost savings to strategic necessity
My latest CAMagazine column is out ; in it, I focus on the role that financial executives should be thinking about in the context of the massive rates of change occuring in the globla financial economy.
My observations come from a talk and research I undertook for a global financial conference in Grand Cayman back in January.
In the article, I note that "....there is a subtle and distinct shift in the location of "global money," due to oil wealth and the industrialization of Asia. A recent article in Barron's suggested that there is now about $1 trillion in excess reserves in these two regions. The likely result is that while more of the world's wealth moves away from North America and Europe and into these new economic centers, the skills will follow."
I also go on to note that "a recent comment in Asian Banker in December 2006 is instructive of the impact of this trend, noting that in the future, "...outsourcing will become less about cost containment and more about accessing the best skills and expertise....""
The issues are important, because it is all part of the increasingly complex war for talent occuring in every industry sector.
You can read the article
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Banking and furniture industries -- coping at high velocity!
It's been a busy week, with keynotes for the American Community Bankers Association and the National Home Furnishings Association. This gave me an audience of several hundred CEO's and senior marketing/sales VP's of some pretty big organizations.
And I can tell you this: the undercurrent of the mood within both conferences was one of being "overwhelmed" by high velocity change! New methods of marketing, a constantly higher bar of expectations from customers, a need for relentless customer oriented innovation to meet those expectations, an accelerated product innovation cycle with a need for a faster time to market. Web 2.0, collaborative networks, social networking, new media spending, YouTube, Google! What the heck does one do!?
The mindset of many senior executives today is "where do we start? My keynotes approached this by indicating the three organizational capabilities they must adjust for:
- velocity: they must evolve their organizations so that they can operate at the very fast pace that today's market demands
- instantaneity: they must be prepared for rapid shifts in market, style, demand, fashion, product, service, and just about everything else!
- short term spontaneity: the consumer has no attention span left; they must learn to market, support and sell to the “continuous partial attention customer."
My advice to them for the short term? I suggested to both audiences:
- focus on upside down innovation: turn existing innovation models around, by learning customer focused innovation. I've written about that on this blog before; it is a trend that is sweeping the world of retail, and is coming to impact financial services
- use the “new influencers” : some people are overwhelmed with product/service decision making : what should I get? What should I buy? They are increasingly turning to someone to help; in the case of furniture, parents seeking a home theater are turning to their kids for help! Re-steer your markeitng campaign to get the kids to get the parents in the door!
- develop knowledge agility: sales staff are overwhelmed too. Help them cope, by focusing on just-in-time knowledge on new products, services, campaigns and other customer focused efforts.
- focus on location-intelligence capabilities: online search increasingly drives customer decisions. It's become extremely narrow and specific in the last year: you need to boost your ability to make sure you show up with very specific location information.
- build your experiential capital: take risks. Make mistakes! Do things! Learn from it -- that's your experiential capital, and it is the most important asset in the high velocity economy! You can't just sit around and hope this rapid change will go away. It won't -- and it's going to get faster.
I think the feeling of being overwhelmed is a common one. Based on the comments post-keynote last night, I think I hit the right mark with the observations, and the guidance.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Corporate banking at high velocity
I spoke last week at a senior level banking conference; in attendance were C and VP level executives from such major banks as JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Harris NA, Wells Fargo, RBC, HSBC Bank USA, MasterCard Worldwide, Bank of America, Citibank, and SunTrust Bank. The conference, sponsored by global banking research firm Barlow Associates, was built around the broad theme of "Just in time business banking," and focused on trends and innovation within the corporate banking sector.
My keynote took a look at the major trends that will impact corporate banking relationships in the years to come. I also hosted a panel discussion featuring senior executives from Merrill Lynch, Zurich North America and US Bank, examining the broad theme of "how do we innovate in a world of high velocity change?"
What's going on in this sector of the economy mirrors so many others, as we are seeing:
- Demographic driven velocity. Huge change is coming about in the ‘corner office’ as a generation of change-adverse boomers' is set to retire…Gen-connect as bankers embrace velocity, are born innovative, and are fundamentally impatient with the "rest of us!"
- Gen-connect as business bankers? The YouTube / IM generation will demand a different type of “customer interaction” in corporate banking. Rapid adoption of new business models, structure, methods, markets, products, ideas……. and constant new forms of service delivery / interaction will emerge!
Will they even “do” banks, or is their banking future around PayPal?
- Rapid idea cycle = rapid market shift. The bar of expectations is constantly rising. The skin to stay in the game is volatile, increasing, and instant. Customer expectations are evolving at high velocity.
- Rapid product / service development. Time to market is the key operational focus; the ability to respond to massive, sudden market / product shifts is now key the success factor. Awareness of emerging challenges / opportunities is critical.
- Externally focused innovation. Partnership oriented collaborative efforts goes critical (“what can we do to run your business better?”). Rethinking the real strategic role of IT from a different perspective -- tactical to strategic transitions are the magic!
- War for talent goes supernova. Skills access becomes the next corporate battle ground – those can get it and lock it up are the winners. Complexity partnerships, infrastructure offloading, next wave outsourcing (“core competencies, not cost”) provide opportunity. Innovative retention, attraction and engagement strategies becomes critical.
- Rapid emergence of fundamental change. Complacency is a dangerous thing…Constant, relentless external innovation from unexpected competitors – “as goes Ford and GM, so too go I….” There are *no* barriers to entry and no loyalty beyond this generation to the concept of a bank?
This event comes on the heels of my recent talk in the Cayman Islands, on the broad theme of globalization of the financial services industry. You can read more about that event here.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Globalization of Financial Services in the High Velocity Economy
I'm now in Grand Cayman, one of the top five financial centers in the world, where I'll be speaking to the Cayman Business Outlook this morning.
I'll be taking a look at the rapid rate of change in the global financial industry -- which is really going from fast to furious, given the confluence of a number of factors:
- New business models in the financial services sector are emerging faster than ever before. There is an increasing volatility with global money. Witness the rush to private equity: those organizations who were able to quickly respond and come up with innovative new financial products were the ones who benefited most from the private equity boom.
- Unique challenges are emerging in the world of global finance from a skills perspective. As the financial services world becomes faster and more complex, the skill set of those involved in high end banking services is becoming ever more precious and scarce.
- The unique attitudes and perspectives of Gen-Connect will further challenge the industry. Those aged 25 and under now becoming actively engaged in the workforce, albeit in an entirely different way: in that they work really hard to not have to get a career. Instead, they focus on a multiple set of skills and careers over a short period of time.
- Offshoring is going strategic: It's not just about saving money any more. Outsourcing activities will increase, because it will become one of the key ways to establish a competitive advantage: if you can get the right skills at the right time for the right purpose in a financial marketplace, you might survive the challenges of the future.
- Existing financial centers will be impacted by the rapid emergence of new competitors: Asia is afloat on buckets of cash. Continued political uncertainty means that volatility remains with oil, with the resulting massive excess oil wealth in the Middle East. Barron's indicates that Asian and OPEC countries accumulated about $1 trillion in reserves in '06. That's a huge amount of surplus monies that will be put to active use, and we can expect to see both Dubai and Singapore taking on an aggressive role, working to establish themselves as the global financial powerhouses of 2010.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Some background on the work I've done in this area
Partial Client List - Banking and Finance Clients
International Financial Executies Conference • American Community Banker Association • US Farm Credit Cooperative • Fidelity Bank (Cayman) Ltd. • DataCard • AICPA • Credit Union Management Association • Electronic Transaction Association . Insurance Institute of Canada • IREV (Swedish Accounting Association) • Investment Funds Institute of Canada • KPMG • Deloitte's • E*Trade • Financial Management Institute • Great West Life • Price Waterhouse • RBC Financial Group • Society of Management Accountants • Treasury Management Association • US Committee on State Taxation • VISA . American Express • CIBC World Markets • BMO Financial Group • Credit Union Directors Association • Financial Management Institute • GBC Asset Management • TDBank
Focus areas
. business case issues, particularly with distribution channels - broker/agents/sales agents/staff . kickoff / keynote for staff/broker/agent events . sales force training and motivation . innovation -- new business models, exploiting new opportunities in the financial industry . Top 500 sales conferences -- encouraging your top producers to adapt to the future . a industry specific look to the future . spurring broker/agent/staff distribution channels to adopt new business systems put in place by a financial organization . a look to the future -- a futurists view of the financial service industry
Financial Industry Highlights
- provided the keynote for the global Electronic Transaction Association conference held in San Diego
- ran a workshop for senior executives of CIBC World Markets focussing on customer management /retention issues, competitive challenges, industry change, and how they can spark innovation in order to meet a variety of emerging opportunities and threats
- KPMG booked Jim Carroll to keynote their annual partners conference. They liked him so much, they rebooked him to keynote four client, industry specicific conferences (including one on the hotel industry, insurance industry and IT), as well as booking him for a six-city client breakfast tour
- provided four workshops for CEO and senior management team of Blue Cross / Blue Shield Florida , focusing on business strategy issues, and dealing with issues related to the culture of change. The event was so successful, Jim was immediately rebooked for three subsequent sessions, and ended up providing workshops for 500+ senior mangers
- provided the opening keynote for countless financial association conferences. In each situation, I undertook detailed research to hone in on specific industry issues. This has included . mortgage broker and lending . credit unions . medical insurance . accounting and professional services . insurance . taxation . mutual funds . financial products . online trading . financial management . treasury management and more
Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:13 AM...April 17, 2006
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"....an outstanding presentation..."
I've had a very busy few weeks -- keynote presentations for SAP in New York City, the International Asset Management Council in Tuscon, the Health Care Industry Distributors Association in Jacksonville, Urban Systems in Sun Peaks, SAP in Calgary -- and a few more things! These organizations have sought my insight on trends, the future, innovation and change, either for their management meetings, client events or for corporate strategy sessions.
Are the presentations effective? Read this recent letter from a credit union client, after I provided a full day workshop that looked at future trends, and how financial services might be impacted by a wide variety of issues
(PDF)Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:55 AM...March 23, 2004
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
