Episode Details

Little more than a couple of decades ago IT was a very back office function in large FS organisations. Now it has completely inverted to become centre-stage in roughly every dimension of being in business, FS included.

Tony Clark, serial entrepreneur, founder and CEO of NextWave Consulting has over thirty years experience of large City  FS projects and takes us on a tour of the all-encompassing challenges facing all large incumbent FS players in not just reacting to but in leveraging the digital technologies and digital ecosystem to ensure they are at the leading edge not the trailing edge of the 21stC digital revolution so changing business right now.

Tony’s premise is that FS institutions need a phase change of approach to successfully leverage change. Topics discussed include:

• losing weight – Intermittent Fasting and the importance of insulin – see short (02:40) YouTube from Dr Jason Fung
• the value of personal trainers in delegating the need for willpower – which is necessary in so many dimensions esp during lockdown – and responsibility for your own fitness
• the importance of self-care in the long term career of an entrepreneur or indeed anyone in a stressful job, FS or otherwise
• Tony’s career journey from starting as a Cobol programming at Anderson Consulting (the predecessor of Accenture)
• iterations of consulting firms
• a great tale about organograms, submarines and City Consulting
• a brief history of CIty IT projects and major phase changes from Cobol and Client-Server as being the leading edge
• “the sector is continually reinventing itself”
• the amazingly rapid pace of the introduction of new computer technologies
• parallel changes in organisation and organisational practices and challenges cascading these across the organisation
• “the environment has completely changed”
• the importance that the market is also changing in parallel – eg and esp customer expectations re interactions with companies FS or otherwise but also Fintechs being competitors/suppliers/customers often all at the same time
• the new IT tools lead to the ability to create new products and distribution – therefore knowledge of technology is now essential to understand the basics of buying and seeing that comprises business
• how should FS MegaCos approach the multiple-dimensions of challenge that digital brings
• how to bring component technologies into the organisation’s stack
• onboarding innovation partners
• the first step is finding guidance and advisory to help one navi