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Two big consulting firms just released interesting reports about technology trends: McKinsey and Bain. McKinsey’s report focuses upon the technologies that matter most, and found 14! As usual, being consultants, they had to put them into a complex chart. And then they assess the impact of these 14 technologies by industry. For financial services, the…

For those who follow my thinking, you will know that the latest theme is how can we use technology to make the world a better place (if you don’t, read Digital for Good). The themes are about ESG, climate change, purpose and more, but it came home to me when thinking about children. Children are…

I regularly come back to a theme, which is how cloud computing and the smartphone have changed the world of banking. Why banking? Well, the world of entertainment, flights, shopping and more were changed by the internet in the 2000’s, before these technologies appeared. But when the smartphone and cloud landed, banking was disrupted. Why…

Fifteen years ago, I had a presentation entitled All Bankers Are Criminals. It’s a great title, and was basically all about corruption in the City and how to stop it. Corruption takes place every day. Just as criminals and cybercriminals are trying to steal the money, so are employees and partners. These are the things…

Although the comments were made in April, I only just found this article about Peter Thiel’s presentation at the Miami bitcoin conference. Peter Thiel is a billionaire friend of Elon Musk, who both founded PayPal. Peter’s more behind the scenes investing these days, with SpaceX and Stripe amongst his key holdings as well as a…

The main blog discussions this week include … Sell when everyone is buying; buy when everyone is selling The world has reached a bit of a weird place. For years, the only way was up. Suddenly, it all seems like it is down. In fact, it seems to have gone off the rails and, in…

The world has reached a bit of a weird place. For years, the only way was up. Suddenly, it all seems like it is down. In fact, it seems to have gone off the rails and, in the classic phraseology stop the world, I want to get off. When times are good, markets are going…

I listened to the new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, speaking at her Conservative Party conference. She mentioned “growth” 29 times. I know what it is like to live somewhere that isn’t feeling the benefits of economic growth … Low growth isn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. Low growth means lower wages, fewer opportunities and…

The BBC just shared a report about Cruise, a self-driving company that has launched a commercial taxi service in San Francisco. The driverless future is here today. It made me reflect on where we are at. Where we are at is at a juncture where most menial tasks will be run by software. Taxi rides,…

I picked up a great quote the other day: “Money isn’t about value … it’s about values”. It resonates with my own tagline for the last book (Digital for Good) which is: “Stand for something or you will fall”. The point of the latter is: What is the purpose of your life and work? The…