The landscape of financial services is changing

The landscape of financial services is changing?fast. The blog that I’ve linked to below (see end of post), that colleagues have been sharing, is very much worth reading as it highlights what more is to come regarding not just the expectations of customers, but also the tectonic shifts that will impact the cost structures of the financial services and partner industries, as organisations wisely blend customer-centricity with digital, big data, and automation. None of these alone is a panacea and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Intelligent execution and the ability to partner with the right organisations will also be key.

One can debate the implications of the automation example shared in the link below?pundits will certainly be able to demonstrate pros and cons. However, the key message is that as a financial services example, it highlights a possible future reality that many have yet to fully embrace. Furthermore, it emphasizes that, more and more, leaders who are able to connect the dots within and outside organisations, to break down silos, and to intelligently embrace an agile approach to delivery, moving the focus from the structures, layers, and committees focused on the 'inside' of organisations to the needs of customers on the 'outside', will be required.

This is easier said than done. As during any shift, most people will fall into one of three groups: those unable to embrace this new reality quickly enough, and perhaps even aim to stop efforts to change the comfortable status quo; those who will wait and see (fence-sitters); and those who will work to not just harness the opportunity, but build movements in organisations to help shape the landscape. Support by the C-suite and executives of this last group is key. However, even with this support, there exists the challenge of overcoming the natural antibodies often embedded within the organisational and incentive structures of many large legacy and product-focused organisations that, by their makeup, often work to resist the needed change.

Given the increasingly fast pace of change in the customer landscape, this will require the right leaders who are able to not just be comfortable in this evolving world, but embrace and shape it. For success to be achieved, developing the right culture to tackle the challenge is paramount. This remains the ultimate responsibility of management to enable teams to sustainably execute and deliver, thereby beating competitors in the escalating war to win the hearts, minds, and loyalty of customers, staff, prospective partner organisations, and shareholders.

Read the story at the link below to see how an insurance company made three seconds the record to beat from the time of a claim submission to payout. Regardless of how one interprets the message in this story, it highlights something once mentioned by Klaus Schwab in relation to business and economics: going forward it is no longer the big fish that eats the small fish; it is the fast fish that beats the slow fish. 

https://blog.lemonade.com/2017/01/01/lemonade-sets-new-world-record/?utm_source=pr&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=firstinstantclaim&utm_content=waitlisters&contact-form-id=321&contact-form-sent=576&_wpnonce=4ada25910a#contact-form-321

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