Innovation

I did a speech about innovation yesterday. As usual, the opening question was: “which is the most innovative company in the world?” and, as usual, the answer shouted back was: “Apple”. Apple. The firm everyone wants to be like because they are cool, successful, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalisation and because they are what…

Spent most of this week at a payments conference. The theme was relentlessly around mobile payments, as this area of the market has truly kicked off as a major focal point for banks, telecommunications firms, retailers and merchants. There was a particularly interesting debate about contactless payments, as this is also something that is being…

Several people pinged me yesterday to highlight the fact that Bitcoin has now become a target of the major payments processors. Not for acquisition. Not for partnership. Not for joint ventures. Not for support. No. Bitcoin is obviously becoming a threat to mainstream operations as it is now an active shut-down target. This was demonstrated…

Several people pinged me yesterday to highlight the fact that Bitcoin has now become a target of the major payments processors. Not for acquisition. Not for partnership. Not for joint ventures. Not for support. No. Bitcoin is obviously becoming a threat to mainstream operations as it is now an active shut-down target. This was demonstrated…

The Financial Services Club is one of the major media partners with Finovate Europe, which took place last week. Last year I chaired the event, but my Ricky Gervais edginess proved too much for the American organisers at NetBanker, so this year was a slightly more dry affair, with a beauty parade of 35 companies demonstrating…

I haven’t written much about social media lately.  The reason is that it’s now mainstream and dull.  When you're scanning future views, you’re not as bothered about Facebook and Twitter when everyone’s familiar with and using such services. Facebook's pervasiveness is well illustrated by the Facebook IPO  announcement, which gave a raft of good stats about how…

I haven’t written much about social media lately.  The reason is that it’s now mainstream and dull.  When you're scanning future views, you’re not as bothered about Facebook and Twitter when everyone’s familiar with and using such services. Facebook's pervasiveness is well illustrated by the Facebook IPO  announcement, which gave a raft of good stats about how…

Following on from my discussions of solutions versus product people and vertical alignment versus horizontal, the question came up as to how to think strategically. How can you really get inside the customer’s head? What keeps the CEO awake at night (literally in the case of Lloyds Banking Group)? And all those other strategic account questions…

Following on from my discussions of solutions versus product people and vertical alignment versus horizontal, the question came up as to how to think strategically. How can you really get inside the customer’s head? What keeps the CEO awake at night (literally in the case of Lloyds Banking Group)? And all those other strategic account questions…

PwC conducted research with almost 3,000 banking customers from a range of segments across markets to discover their expectations of banking in the digital age. They selected both emerging and developing markets including China, India, Mexico and the UAE, as well as developed markets like the UK, Canada, France and Poland. The research revealed that…