Building a new ecosystem: A bank’s journey through sustaining digital transformation, understanding AI and managing the galaxy of continuous change

Abstract

In October 2019, I delivered the keynote address to a room full of banking and financial services professionals on what to expect on a journey towards digital transformation (DT). At the outset I asked my audience if their business was in any of the following three categories — advanced stage of DT, somewhere in between or warming up to it. There was only one show of hand for ‘somewhere in between’, while the majority identified themselves as being at the starting stage. It did surprise me. Since then, however, the evolution towards DT has been rapid. Digital disruption has created a level-playing field for various ecosystems, with its own subsidaries offering services and generating real business value. If your business is an early adopter of digital disruption, then you already know the value, but if you are among the early majority, the conservative or even the sceptic willing to cross the chasm, I really hope that you can find at least one useful takeaway from this conversation. I am bringing the spotlight back to ‘where to start’, ‘why digital principles are required’ and ‘understanding and building your own strategy for data, platforms and machine learning’ to rebuild your organisation by facilitating the use of agile methods by important players across your organisation. Find your ‘why’ to connect customers, business and technology seamlessly through an opportunity well guided by data and machine learning.