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Digital payments in a post-COVID world

I recently saw the announcement from Santander of a foreign exchange service called PagoFX. It’s a service that goes head-to-head with TransferWise and is an interesting example of fighting back. As a result, I asked Victoria Yasinetskaya, CMO at PagoFX to tell me a bit more about what’s happening and she kindly wrote this piece for…

Who needs management theories? Give me practicalities …

I remember someone made a comment at a conference a while ago, and it got a big laugh. An academic is someone who looks at something working in practice and wonders what it looks like in theory Hmmm. Does that mean: A practitioner is someone who looks at something working in theory and makes it…

Does management theory work anymore?

After blogging the other day that big banks will never be replaced and they’re just playing a game of Pac-Man, I was watching this two-minute explainer of Michael Porter’s five forces from Harvard Business Review (a two-minute video):  The five forces are buyers (customers), suppliers, substitutes, new entrants and existing rivals. It’s an old concept…

Why big banks get bigger (it’s all about Pac-Man)

I’ve spent a long time writing about how bad banks are with technology and digital transformation … but I’ve never said banks will be eaten by technology. So many other companies and industries are destroyed by technology, but banking is not one of them. I laugh when I read about The End of Banking, Banking…

New Research Finds Banking Industry Positive on Effects of Covid-Crisis

During the summer I teamed up with a colleague, George Ravich, to research views on the crisis amongst the financial community. We published the results in August, and here’s an update guest blog from George on the process.   New Research Finds Banking Industry Positive on Effects of Covid-Crisis Chris Skinner and I set out…

The 11 P’s of Banking and 4 P’s of the Banking Mix

When I was growing up with learning management skills, one of those I focused upon was marketing and Kotler’s 4 P’s. If you’re not familiar it’s all about product, price, promotion and place. It’s something easy to remember, but then most folks are hard pushed to remember more than three things. That’s a shame as…

Neobanks battle on the path to profitability

Regular commentator and contributor Ajit Tripathi wrote a brilliant piece the other day, discussing the path to profitability for neobanks. He’s kindly allowed to share his insights here, so enjoy! Neobanks have Jobs to Be Done Abstract: Covid19 has changed the capital and market environment for neobanks and challenged the strategic assumptions underlying a #blitzscaling approach. In this article…

Are challenger banks doing anything different?

After the last two blogs, various comments highlight other questions, with the commonest one being: will any of these new banks make a profit? The answer to that is yes. Some already are, such as Shawbrook, OakNorth, Aldermore … the ones you hear less about. Monzo, Revolut, N26 and others are more sexy because they’re…

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