Banks’ leadership teams are fatally flawed

I was chairing a conference with various speakers, when Gartner Group stood up and talked about their annual bank survey.  They found that of the senior bankers surveyed, 76% don’t believe that digitalisation will affect their business model.

Gartner found 76% of banks don't believe their business model has to change because of digitalisation #MEFTECH <- shocker

— Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) March 13, 2017

I can tell you that 76% of banking respondents are wrong.  Of course digitalisation is affecting the business model, and if you don’t think it is then you just need to read this blog’s many entries about platformification; back office overhaul through cloud and machine learning; the blockchain impact of shared databases; the rapid cycle change of microservices organisations; the rise of innovation economies in Africa and growth economies of China; and more.

In fact, I would be amazed if anyone who reads my blog could honestly say that digitalisation doesn’t change their business model.  After all, the business model of banks was built for face-to-face interactions backed up by paper documentation; the business model of digital banks is for device-to-device interactions backed up by data.  The two are completely different.

It doesn’t worry me that bankers think their banks business models don’t need to change – after all, banks are run by bankers and it’s their problem – but it does worry me that people in charge of such systemically important aspects of our lives could be so dumb.  I think it just reflects the lack of insight into how digital transformation is impacting the world, and the lack of balance in the banks boardrooms.

This was evidenced by the Accenture analysis of the boardrooms of the 100 biggest banks in the world:

Accenture research, analysing professional technology experience in boardrooms of more than 100 of the largest banks around the world, shows that:

• Only 6% of board members have professional technology backgrounds.
• Only 3% of these banks have CEOs with professional technology backgrounds.
• 43% of the banks analysed don’t have any board members with professional technology backgrounds.
• 30% of these banks have only one board member with a professional technology background.
• In North American banks, 12.1% of board members have professional technology experience, compared with 5.1% in European banks and 5% in Asian banks.
• Though boards of banks in the United States and the United Kingdom have higher percentages of directors with professional technology experience than others, the numbers are still low—at 16% in the US and 14% in the UK.

Banks are led by bankers even though banks are FinTech firms.   That is the fatal flaw here, as FinTech firms are led by technologists and bankers.  Most FinTech firms I meet have a healthy balance of young, bright technology experts and seasoned financial people.

That is why it’s interesting to see that the biggest banks are gradually reconstructing their boardrooms for more balance, or so this year’s trends predicted.  When I think of a bank’s boardroom, I tend to have a picture in my head like this.

Lots of old men in suits (and the numbers prove this).  In fact, I use this picture in my presentations now and, when this appears in a public forum, it actually gets applause.  I guess it is because I am making a point about both leadership and diversity.  If a bank's leadership team is a bunch of old men in suits, how can they understand the needs of millennials and women?  If they have no leadership that has technology vision, how can they compete with FinTech's who have far more balance?  If a bank's top team does not know the difference between a blockchain and a distributed ledger, how do they know thy are investing in the right things?

I sometimes feel sorry when I use these slides in internal meetings, but only sorry for the executive leadership who have been enjoying my banter up until this point.  Their youthful underlings are normally snickering at this point, whilst the CEO is giving me the evil eye.  I just don't care though as a bank will be led over the cliff if it does not have a balanced boardroom that is half tech and half finance.  That is what FinTech's leadership teams demonstrate.  When I think of a FinTech Boardroom, I think it’s more like this:

It’s an awesome room of young, diverse people who are excited and visionary.  It does have some old hands on board, but it’s balanced.  And the vibe in the room is one of change the world rather than stop the world.  So what I really expect in the next decade is to see a bank boardroom become just a little bit more awesome.

Still a bit grey, but also a little younger, more diverse and a healthy mix and balance of financial acumen and technology vision.  Please.

This article was originally published on FinXTech.