The digital transformation playbook has yet to be written
The Future Finance Forum at this year’s FundForum in Berlin started off with that most misunderstood and sometimes contentious of subjects – digital transformation, culture and leadership.
In the 21st Century as consumer behaviour, corporate structures and even geopolitics are being reshaped by digital forces – how can companies formed and established during the analogue age (or even before that) respond and survive in the digital era?
Samantha Ghiotti, a partner at the Anthemis Group, who served as moderator and keynote speaker for the session, came out with the definite answer for 2017. “The playbook hasn’t been written.”
During her keynote, Ghiotti outlined three key areas companies need to be aware if when embarking on digital transformation.
One was digital stewardship, which looks at bringing people into the organisation who have deep sector knowledge of new ways of thinking and working. This new mind set includes lean methodology, design thinking, a willingness to hack and experiment with projects.
A second area concerned creating a customer-led culture. According to Ghiotti, “Culture is the operating systems of an organisation. If it runs well, an organisation runs well.” Unfortunately, many traditional financial firms are running a culture no more advanced than “MS DOS”, she added.
The third area was what she described as followship – which means getting an organisation to rally around and follow the ‘best answers’. She warned the current and future digital leaders that the ‘best answer’ may not be one that originate with them.
Ghiotti followed her keynote with a panel of leaders to continue the discussion on digital transformation. Some of the panel went no further than to comment that ‘digital transformation is important.’ However, given that the asset management industry is often seem as lagging behind in digital adoption, even within the financial services industry, the debate needed to go further. And several of the panellists did dig deeper.
Fiona Frick, CEO Unigestion spoke about the holy trinity, which any organisation seeking to instil transformative and entrepreneurial culture within their organisation, needs to understand. That holy trinity included ‘allowing projects to fail’; relying on data to fuel decision making’ and ‘initiating a feedback loop to learn and explore each project’, she said.
The key to any project at the firm, according to Frick is three fold:
- Does it have a purpose?
- Is it good for clients?
- What worked in the past, may not work in the future.
Nuala Walsh, global head of marketing and client relations at Standard Life Investments, again, brought the conversation back to the customer. As an industry, asset managers are focused on change, “how the markets are changing’, for example, but “we are slow to change as an industry,” she said. “As an industry, we are not client-led - [Standard Life Investments] start with the clients.
Laurence Wintermeyer, CEO of Innovate Finance, reiterated Ghiotti’s assertion that the digital playbook has yet to be written. However, as CEO of a FinTech member organisation, Wintermeyer has witnessed many financial services organisations who are seeking to write that playbook. He mentioned the Barclays Bank association with the TechStars accelerator and the RISE incubators, as well as Lloyds Banking Groups digital and innovation lab, as two examples in the UK that are currently adding chapters to that playbook right now.
The panel ended with a discussion on the challenges in enacting a digital culture – what failed?
Walsh warned against the assumption that everyone will have the same definition of what is digital. Most of the panel agreed that education, training and communication were key to get all areas of the business and various skill sets in each organisation on the same page.
According to Walsh, any digital playbook, once it is written, should include a digital definition that lets people understand:
- What is it?
- What isn’t it?
- How long will it take?
The digital transformation playbook is currently being written. The fund management industry should seek to add best practice to the first edition, rather than wait for the publication.
Liz Lumley is a global independent FinTech commentator. For more commentary visit her blog Girl, Disrupted.