Innovation as a role: following the Fintech path from outside challengers into part of the Bank
Bank incubators and accelerators are a hype these days. They are the main source of new challenging Fintechs and other financial and banking disruptive business models. They seem to have al the ingredients to innovate in Banking and Finance that are harder to get from the big banking institutions themselves. Interestingly Innovation as a role or department seems to be following the same path as Fintechs themselfs did .Starting outside the Banks direct sphere and then making their way into Banks, Finance institutions and even Fintechs.
It is not hard to understand why. To be the bearer of innovation triggers as a position in an organization is not only disruptive for the Banking industry but also to most of the more traditional industries. With the challenges that the current Fintech scene poses this role is becoming an important part of any Bank's strategy to stay in the front line of innovators.
But the innovation individual is and always will be disruptive and most time uncomfortable for organizations that are mainly risk adverse and for those who seek the status quo as a mean to prolong their position and protect exposure to new knowledge or non-comfort zones.
As anything worth taking risks, Innovation has its amazing value when disruptive, but a price to pay in terms of company culture. For innovation to happen there is a need to challenge, and with challenge comes confrontation, and confrontation is rarely well accepted by all. A good challenge with good arguments and points brings usually the best in all of us and that is what innovation should do. So the role of the innovation bearer is that of continually sparkle challenge but be able to manage the confrontation.
Banks are no exception to this way, with the push of the Fintech revolution banks need to see their innovation roles as something to be leverage and to be pushed. They need not only to address their current and possible future challenges, but also to grow upon the idea that the whole innovation discussion is a part of any service or product development. They need to expand from the traditional business idea to IT department development into new flows and new processes.
There is now single strategy to innovate, and for the bearer of innovation triggers to be disruptive, he or she needs to expand the view of possibilities from Banking and Finance to a multidisciplinary approach without forgetting the focus on solving the existing problems.
But the hardest task is for Banks to be able to combine the grasp that innovation brings into the experience that the other departments have. That usually means to advise other departments on how to innovate on what they do (again to challenge their current status). Management needs to make sure the confrontation is productive and healthy and not just finger pointing or internal political fighting. To achieve such harmony in steering innovation adoption is by itself our days a factor of innovation leadership. That leadership is very present in Accelerators and Incubators in the roles of innovation officers and evangelists where they are allowed to confront.
Bruno Macedo