How Do You Reinvent Banking?

Banking is increasingly ripe for disruption. Digital giants are edging into financial services, while digitally native banks are gaining market share. But while many are heralding the end of legacy banks, Publicis Sapient is helping them to reinvent themselves.

So how exactly do you reinvent banking?

Reinvention is not simply about creating a digital replica of existing organizations. This is a full-blooded transformation, taking banks from product factories to network orchestrators that enable customers to do the things they care most about.

The journey starts with three simple yet essential questions:

1. What’s the big idea?

To answer this, we need to know:

• The customer problem
• How our solution will be not only useful, but loved
• The model that will become more powerful over time, not more commoditized
• The competencies that will be required to bring the idea to life

Undertaking this process forces organizations to go beyond what they think they know about digital transformation to how their offering is going to contribute to, or even lead, the reinvention of the industry.

2. How do we build it?

When first thinking about bringing the strategy to life, the natural inclination is to look at which architecture, systems and solutions will deliver.

But before diving into these details, banks need to identify their distinctiveness and differentiation. What sets the operation apart from everyone else and why? From this, we can define the capabilities the bank will need to deliver the greatest impact, emphasizing uniqueness and the flexibility to evolve.

With the idea and framework in place, we move onto the third big question.

3. How do we become it?

This requires a top-down examination of the bank’s ability to adapt its culture, invest in its people and embrace the new model.

Leaders will need to change their approach to planning, performance and decision-making, shifting to a dynamic that will challenge prevailing ways of working and levels of comfort. Managers and colleagues will need to be empowered to make front-line decisions and take on a much more collaborative relationship with customers.

Getting this ‘people part’ right is crucial to the reinvention process. All the planning that has gone before will count for nothing if the will to implement change and make it work is not there.