The greatest banks of the future will be technology companies which offer banking services. Indeed, irrespective of your sector, you must acquire and develop the capabilities to use technology to TRANSFORM, and not just RUN your business. When your information technology (IT) becomes a department, you are using IT to RUN that business. But when your business becomes a technology enterprise, you are natively transforming that business, souping with the elements to become a category-king.
Nigeria’s largest financial institution is a tech company which offers financial services. Most traditional financial instructions in the nation (like some banks) are merely using IT to run their operations and remain un-transformed.
Accordingly, in the ocean of customer data, they remain thirsty, asking for more data even though they have everything. Yes, like Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” where those lines were dropped: “Water, water everywhere, / Nor any drop to drink”. They have data but they cannot make sense of it because their IT runs, not transforms.
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There are fundamental constructs which define companies that run and then TRANSFORM their sectors. The reality is that succeeding as a business requires reinvention as customers’ needs evolve with time. Companies that transform are good at staying ahead of customer needs expectations and perceptions: no matter what comes, they tend to be ready. #transform, do not just #run.
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Sounds great in theory or lab work, but we have had a taste of this reality in the last few weeks here. Ordinary reduction in cash transactions, and there’s kata kata everywhere, with everything melting before our eyes. We are talking about IT Infrastructure servicing less than 50 million unique individuals, how much more when the number triples…
The fintechs with high valuations cannot hold the fire, the traditional banks with trillions in physical and digital assets can’t hold the fire either, but we were meant to believe that we are almost up there, having handshakes with some celestial beings.
Whether we still run financial services entities powered by tech, or tech entities that offer financial services, the bottom line remains that we are still incapable of guaranteeing that whenever one initiates a transaction, it will get to the recipient in a record time, without holding some ejaculatory prayers in between.
Our deliverables must surpass our beautiful presentations this time, if we are to win new converts anytime soon.