How to survive the future? Adapt or die
Said
serial entrepreneur, educator and technology futurist Dr.
Howard A. Tullman this week at the EuroFinance International Treasury
Management conference in Geneva.
Every industry will need to dramatically change the
ways in which they deliver their products and services if they expect to remain
competitive in the future. Financial institutions, in particular, need to
understand and appreciate that they are being faced with new types of
competitors emerging and entering from many adjacent markets and industries.
Amazon and Starbucks are already “banks” in many respects and not merely
merchants.
Loyalty, locked-in customers, substantial barriers to
entry, and significant switching costs are all relics of the past which no
longer afford traditional businesses which are unwilling or unable to rapidly
adapt their business models and respond to shifting markets and customer
demands any meaningful protection from new entrants and disruptive
technologies. No one owns the customer any longer; you have an opportunity to
own the moment and to create a compelling experience and you need to deliver on
your promises each and every time. Customer expectations are perpetually progressive
– it’s a “what have you done for me lately world?”. Yesterday’s miracles are
today’s “so whats”.
Everything now is about speed, ready and ubiquitous
access, and consumer convenience. Eliminating transaction friction, improving
availability – “whenever and wherever the customers may be” – and providing a
seamless experience from start to finish is the name of the game in a world
where time is our scarcest resource and where you aren’t merely competing with
your peers – you’re competing with whatever was the last and best experience
your customers have recently had - and you need to measure up or they will
quickly move on.
Attention is the newest currency and competing to
reach and capture consumers’ fleeting attention is an everyday, all day process
which is constantly growing more difficult because of the volume of noise,
clutter and other media which makes it harder and harder (as well as more
costly) to properly and consistently reach and engage your current customers
and your prospects as well. The key to improving margins is to initially focus
on deepening the existing connections you have with your current customers
rather than engaging in expensive and largely unproductive conquest marketing
in vain attempts to acquire new clients.
In addition, the rate of change (driven both by data
availability and technology advances) continues to accelerate and the need to
continually up your game is critical because in the “right now” economy, no one
wants to wait for anything. You need to be there when the buyer is ready to buy
or someone else will quickly take your place. Patience is also a thing of the
past. Consumers want their needs and desires met immediately and they want
things their way. Mass customization – being all things to each person – is now
not only feasible, but also doable in a cost-effective manner due to technology and it’s increasingly becoming a competitive
necessity.
The best businesses today aren’t looking backwards at
where they’ve been; they’re focused on the future and on the need to use the
new data-driven tools which permit them to anticipate and exceed the needs of their
customers in order to keep raising the bar. Getting ahead of the clients
requirements and helping to guide and manage their expectations is crucial to customer retention
and differentiation – especially when so many new automated and low cost
alternatives are being presented to customers who frankly may not really be able to tell the
difference between offerings.
The bottom line for every CEO and CFO to take into the boardroom: make it fast,
make it easy, and show me why it makes dollars and sense for me, or I’ll find
someone else who can.