Marco, 30 November 2011
Singapore , Bedok 32°

Innovation

I have been a frequent visitor to conferences and events around the globe for many years now. Some things have changed during these years; some things are different depending on the geographical location you are in. But some items keep coming back… one of them is the term “innovation”.

But what are the companies that really innovate; Amazon and Apple? (Just to start with the ones on alphabetical order…) And if Innovative companies are so successful why don’t all companies start to innovate? From an HR perspective I am sure that as an innovative organization you are able to attract the right talents in the organization. Who wouldn’t like to work for an innovative company? And clearly some of those innovative organizations have become very successful financially so Financial Stakeholders will also be happy with this. Don’t we as “consumers” love innovative organizations and products? Especially as the combination of Innovation, quality and price is right. Am I right?

So what is happening in the Financial Services Sector? All the events I went to where all in the Financial Services Domain so surely after decades of discussions on Innovation they should be very innovative by now. Or have they been too busy with managing the Financial Stakeholders on short term during these past volatile years?

In the market you see some great stories of “greenfields” that are being setup by financial institutions. Here in Singapore the OCBC concept named Frank is one of them targeting the young students and professionals in a non-bank manner. http://www.frankbyocbc.com/ But let’s be honest the pressure is on, financial institutions are losing grip on their consumer base so it’s time for them to change. Occupy Wall Street is a good example for this indicating that consumers are demanding a different model. There is clearly space for new models as well as more and more competition is nowadays coming from 3rd parties taking the traditional role from banks.

Paypal and many other payment initiatives are changing the way consumers handle their finances. Airlines are even becoming banks and they take their own approach on Banking. Richard Branson from Virgin is not positive on calling their bank Virgin Bank. Options like Virgin Money or Virgin Rocks are things he is considering http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog/should-a-bank-be-called-a-bank Crowd funding like for example via www.symbid.com is also such an interesting phenomenal in the market driven by the risk averse banks, more risk taking consumers and business owners with bright ideas. The money that flows into these companies via crowd funding was traditional money that went to bank investments.

Consumers are clearly in for a change and if the banks don’t come up with appealing propositions for them, other organizations will..! More people see this and there is actually an event coming up April 2012 in Singapore to have discussions about this “next bank” model. www.nextbankasia.com You don’t have to be in banking to join and I’m not sure if ties are allowed actually…. Maybe they can also do a quiz to see who comes up with the best name for the “next bank”. I personally like “Pecunia”, still a link towards money but it sounds more like it’s the name of a beautiful flower. Do you have any alternative ideas?