Vision: What If It Didn’t Have to Work This Way?

A huge part of good strategy is vision. But what does that actually mean?

For me, it starts with being able to look at something familiar and ask: could this work differently?

In the 1950s, Sony’s founders looked at a market where most Japanese households already had a radio. They saw the possibility of a radio for each person.

Think about that. The radio was something the family gathered around. What if you could take your own listening with you?

There were plenty of technical problems to figure out. But first, someone had to see past the way people were already doing things.

That’s the part of vision I find interesting. What have we accepted about our customers, our industry, or our business that might not have to be true?

It’s an easy trap to fall into. We build systems, hire people, and spend years getting good at something. When it works, we keep doing it. Eventually, “this is how we do it” starts to sound a lot like “this is how it has to be.”

Meanwhile, things change. Customers want different things. Technology catches up. An idea that sounded far-fetched a few years ago starts to look pretty reasonable.

Can we see that coming? And can we give it some thought before it’s sitting on our doorstep?

What if I could manage all my money in one place?

I’ve spent much of my career in financial services, and here’s something I keep coming back to: why do I have to jump between a bunch of different institutions to manage my money?

I might do my everyday banking with a credit union, keep savings somewhere else, and have credit cards with a couple of other providers. Each one shows me its little piece of my financial life. Putting it all together is my job.

I think that’s going to change over the next few years.

Imagine choosing one app where you could connect all of it, with your permission. Your banking, savings, investments, and credit cards, together in one place.

You could see where your money was going across all your accounts. Compare your spending with your budget. Figure out whether you’re on track for retirement without pulling together a stack of statements and spreadsheets.

Then imagine being able to do something about what you see.

Pay a bill from whichever account makes sense. Compare savings options. Find a great term deposit at another bank and open it without going through the whole application process from scratch again.

My money could stay with different institutions. I’d just have one place to manage it.

Why does buying another financial product have to mean another login, another app, and another piece of the puzzle?

When I talk about this, I often hear why it won’t happen. People look at the systems we have today and the way the industry works, and they discount the possibility.

I get it. There are real problems to solve. But that’s the conversation I want to have: what would need to change to make it work?

Open banking is one reason I think we’re getting closer. Other pieces will need to come together too. I don’t expect it all to be ready tomorrow, but I do think we should be asking what happens when it is.

What happens when the future shows up?

Netflix could see a day when we’d watch movies over the internet. It was still mailing DVDs, but it was already looking at what would come next.

It didn’t need every piece to be ready before it started preparing.

That’s what I mean by vision. We have to run the business we have today, but we also need to think about where things could go and whether we’ll be ready.

Take my banking example. What would that mean for all the money institutions have spent on their own online banking platforms?

And what about the software companies that build and support them?

If I’m managing my money through another platform, I might rarely open my bank’s app. The bank would still hold my account and provide the product, but someone else could become the place I go every day.

That changes things.

If you provide online banking software, what would your customers need from you then? Could you help them connect to that wider world? Would the thing that makes your software valuable today still matter as much?

And if you’re a bank or credit union, are the investments you’re making now getting you ready for that possibility? Or do they depend on people continuing to come through your own app?

Those aren’t easy questions, especially when you’ve already spent a lot of money. But “we’ve invested too much to change” isn’t much of a plan for the future.

Then there’s the relationship with the customer.

If I could easily find, compare, and buy financial products through one platform, what would make me choose yours? What would keep me loyal?

Who would I turn to for help: the institution holding my money, the platform helping me manage it, or both?

And how would that platform make money? Would I pay for it? Would financial institutions pay to offer me products? If the platform recommended something, how would I know whether it was a good fit for me or simply a good deal for them?

I don’t have all the answers. But I’d much rather be having those conversations now than scrambling to catch up later.

You don’t need every answer to start

Having a vision doesn’t mean being certain you’re right.

You need to be willing to ask questions, listen to objections, and admit when you’ve missed something. You also need to give an idea enough room to explore it before deciding it could never work.

Who would it help? Why would they want it? What’s standing in the way? What could we try?

We don’t need to know exactly how we’ll get there to start exploring. We can figure things out, learn a few things, and change our minds along the way.

Sony saw the possibility of moving from a radio for the household to a radio for the individual.

I see the possibility of banking that brings my whole financial life together, wherever I choose to keep my money.

What do you see in your industry? What do we all put up with today that might seem ridiculous ten years from now?

In this series, I’d love to share some of the possibilities I see across financial services and retail. But I’d also love to hear yours.

If you have a far-out idea about what the future could look like, send me an email. It doesn’t have to be fully worked out. Tell me what you see, who it could help, and why you think it could happen. With your permission, I’d be happy to share it in a future article and explore it together.

And please challenge my ideas. Tell me what I’ve missed. That’s how we get a better conversation going.

Oh, and if you’re a fintech looking for your next idea, feel free to use this one. If you need a hand, reach out.