Observations from BAI 2008: Banking, Innovation and the Current Leadership Gap
There is a real sense of fear in the banking industry right now, and at the 2008 BAI Retail Delivery Conference and Expo, a conference at which we just exhibited last week, that fear was almost palpable.
While in any other year the following statement would have encouraged prospective attendees to pay the registration fee without a second thought, the current climate in the banking and finance industry ensured that this year’s BAI Expo would have a rough go of it:
“In these critical times, rarely has it been so important to learn successful strategies for controlling costs and exploring new ideas for staying profitable in the future - using innovative strategies to get the most out of existing resources and ideas to prioritize for the future to ensure greater profitability and performance.”
In times of crisis it is typical for most companies, especially banks to take on a bunker mentality. There was strong evidence at BAI that banks are already doing this, as this year’s BAI show had roughly half the attendees as last year. Unfortunately, this mentality can do more harm than good. Banks don’t need to stop spending; they need to start spending smarter. There are solutions to the serious problems that banks face (i.e. solutions such as those offered by Allegiance) that can add immediate value to banks with a minimal investment, if banks will invest in them.
The good news is that this year’s BAI theme “Return on Innovation” was spot on. It took me a moment when I first saw it because I had been reading it as “Return to Innovation.” I don’t doubt that there is a good amount of out-of-the-box thinking going on right now as organizations scramble to stay relevant in a market where the rules are changing every day. There seems to be a trend right now for banks to do everything they can to innovate their way out of the crisis. But the problem isn’t innovation.
The problem is quantifying it. Are you seeing a return on investment? Innovation for the sake of innovation means nothing unless there are solid numbers to back it up. Banks are one of the most customer-centric industries that exist. Almost everything a bank does is transactional. If there is a way for you to show, in real dollars and cents that keeping even one percent of your customers would mean a significant increase in revenue would you pursue it? Of course you would. We all would.
One of the highlights of the conference was the keynote address by former Secretary of State General Colin Powell. He spoke at length about the need for leadership that promotes good ideas, that rewards creativity, but that is also grounded in common sense. It wasn’t until he was finished and the audience stood to applaud that I saw how starved people were for real leadership. Both people sitting next to me had tears streaming down their face, and as I walked out I noticed quite a few more red and puffy eyes.
So, when it comes to the banking industry, there is a tremendous opportunity for banks to innovate and continue to narrow the leadership gap. And if they do that, not only will their own bank be better off, but so will the banking industry.
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