Insights from the Inaugural Standard Chartered Business Leaders Forum

I had a great afternoon at the inaugural Business Leaders Forum hosted by Standard Chartered Bank in London. Simon Cooper summed up the day brilliantly with his selection of three keywords - Complexity, Adaptability, Network - CAN. Together we CAN build a brighter future!

Key messages from SCB:

(i) Bill Winters hopes that you will see SCB as the "Straight Through" bank - whether this means efficiency in your interactions with us, or viewing us as a strategic partner to deliver best results for your business.

(ii) Karin Flinspach would remind you that 175 million people in Standard Chartered's footprint markets remain unbanked. Digital innovation will be key to solving this, and SCB is at the forefront of this, particularly through delivering new payment platforms and digital banking services.

Panel 1 - Challenges & Opportunities in a Complex World

A really upbeat panel, presenting an optimistic message that regardless of the challenges that face us, the private sector will always find a way to navigate them. Whether it was Kay Swinburne's assertion that companies will always find a way through trade corridors, or Simon Peckham's observation that companies take far more risk on currencies than tariffs, there was a sense that we can manage the risks and are excited by the opportunities ahead. I think we can all learn a lot from Dr Gerrard Lyons' observations about how important it is for the right incentives to be in place to drive desired behaviours.

Driving Organisational Transformation - The Right Way

We all thoroughly enjoyed Dr Costas Markides light-hearted delivery of some serious messages about innovation and transformational journeys. For me two lessons stood out:

(i) We cannot deliver anything without taking people with us - whether it is "selling" our purpose, or the positive reasons to change things. We can achieve very little if we either try to scare people into changing, or fail to help others to share our vision.

(ii) Diversity remains important - with the most innovative ideas now coming from markets in the developing world, it is important that we attract talent from those markets, and listen to the ideas of all of our colleagues to deliver results.

Panel 2 - Building New Networks: Growth in the 21st Century

Another lively panel with key messages about the importance of promoting the City of London, and celebrating our successes. The Lord Mayor of London, Peter Estlin, reminded us that London is a world leader in Fintech, and we should celebrate the innovation that we see all around us. Alpesh Patel and Uche Orji had really interesting perspectives on the opportunities that people from India and Nigeria see from cooperating with the UK after Brexit, and Uche Orji hopes that we will all collaborate with Nigeria's Sovereign Wealth Fund as they seek to finance a move away from biomass to LPG in Nigerian households, to help tackle climate change.

All in all a really informative afternoon, and great to see so many high profile people sharing our enthusiasm for the future - of SCB, of the City of London, and in the many markets around the globe in which Standard Chartered operates.