I used the title mainly to get attention. The sub message was that its not sustainable for Banks to continue with online Banking as a simple automation of services application. They must address the social aspect, and learn how to work with that environment. I used examples of; – Verity CU – Wells Fargo – Vancity – UFirst CU As examples of bank disrupters, I focussed on Wesabe, Prosper, Zopa, FYGO, and CircleLending. Actual deck attached here. Can Bankers can be Bloggers too – LIFT 07 PDF version: bankers-can-be-bloggers-too-final-1.pdf LIFT 07 speakers notes Continue reading LIFT07 – Bankers can be bloggers too

I’m still reflecting on Lee’s (Headshift.com) presentation yesterday. Quote Wasting brainpower in large orgs – turning people into idiots /Quote He captured how large organisations manage work in a way that contradicts how people think. This makes it hard to absorb new patterns and concepts. A brilliant example of that is Web 2.0, and associated concepts; – simple – incremental change – start small – focus on core, and build out & tools; – blogs – wikis – tagging – feeds – feed aggregation, clipstreams – social networks In aggregate each of the above are powerful, but where to start, … Continue reading LIFT 07 – banks are handicapped by perceptions

Laurent Haug is opening the first main conference day. 550 attendees from 30 countries. 1st Speaker; Florence Devouard, Cahirman of the Board, Wikimedia Foundation. – 727 Million internet users in the world – Wikipedia is 6th with 155 M. Top 5 are Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, ebay, and Time. Principles; – collect local, collect global. – Manipulate huge amounts of data – Reactivity Florence sees 4 global trends; – virtually unlimited space – nurturing a critical mind – empowering people – A priori trust – opening the gates rather than closing them. That last point is harder fro Europeans. 2007 – … Continue reading LIFT 07 – Day 2 – Conference day

Day 1 was a workshop day. I participated in one facilitated by Dave Cockbane, a Prof from Stanford, and Nicolas Nova. Subject was “Designing the Future Cities”. It was quite fascinating, and I learned some new tools for thinking through really hard, new problems, and I can use on this blog. Themes that came out in the workshop regarding future cities; – Population Density – Virtual reality – Integration of virtual and real in peoples lives – Population aging – Population Diversity – Co-working – Virtual ownership/ renting everything – Fee based lifestyle Highly thought proving day. The evolution of … Continue reading LIFT 07 Day 1

I must say, Shel has captured in a simple question, the key strategic issue we all face, no matter whether we are aged 55 or 25. It will be an evolution, but the pace of that shift may surprise us. What happens when the Online Generation replaces the boomer generation in the workplace? Source: Global Neighbourhoods: Whatever happened to that book I’m supposed to be writing? Shel is writing a book with that premise.   Technorati tags: demographics, boomers, GenY, GenX, consumer+trends Continue reading Brilliant question – "What happens when the Online Generation replaces the boomer generation in the workplace?"

There has been a fair bit of discussion on Banks, and branding recently amongst a few of us.  Scotiabank in Canada is trying something that I think is quite new in the world, and certainly new in Canada.  First off they were offering a cell phone plan to their customers and that was about 9 months ago.  The plan was branded ScotiaBank. The other day I noticed the local Cineplex on Richmond St is now branded Scotiabank.  Apparently this is part of a larger play.  I saw that on the 23rd, and then on the w4th, out came this press … Continue reading Scotiabank tries a different branding approach

 I echo Jeans point here, based on experience that I have watched with Banks misguided attempts in this approach.  It usually stems from some internal research that proves the usual stuff about 80% of profits emanating from 20% of customers.  In fact its often more like 95/5. Recently UnionBanCal announced that they were moving away from pursuing a broad consumer base in order to go after more high-end, profitable clients and small businesses (American Banker, January 9, 2007). However, I have my doubts that shrinking the retail base will actually help UnionBanCal grow its deposits. Source: Javelin Strategy and Research … Continue reading Focusing on high-end consumers may not always pay | Javelin

For those bloggers, or readers performing research this tool that I only came across today, is quite remarkable, and could have saved me time in past research. Waybackmachine holds archived copies of web pages back to the 90’s.  I was amazed (and embarrassed … at the quality) to find stuff I worked on from 96. Its also useful to find earlier editions of pages that have been since edited.   Technorati tags: web+archive, waybackmachine, www Continue reading Waybackmachine: great research tool

email and its role hit me twice in the last few minutes, so thought I would update the things I have seen lately.  William over at VanCity asked about the role of email. I don’t pretend to know it all, but the reading and examples I have seen, point to email as a relationship tool. Pertinent communication that is useful to the receiver. Anything marketing related at all should still meet those criteria, but always with the opt in/out preferences in the hands of the customer. I’ll do up a post with the links I have seen on this, including … Continue reading Update; the role of email for Banks

News from Natwest, and Lloyds with introduction of Polish Banking.  This is in keeping with the earlier pieces we had on addressing immigrants’ needs and seeing that as an opportunity for market protection.  I don’t see this so much as innovation, because anyone can do that.  However failure to implement such services, will doubtless result in reduced market share over time, as the population becomes more mixed. Natwest says its new Welcome Account comes with a related money transfer feature that enables Polish customers in the UK to send money back home. Customers can transfer funds straight from the current account into the … Continue reading Finextra: Natwest launches Polish account in the UK