They said it couldn’t be done, but we held the latest installment in Celent’s series of innovation roundtables in Tokyo recently. Our innovation roundtables put the focus squarely on interactive discussion among the participants. This is a relatively untried model in Japan, where events typically take the form of conventional conferences with presentations. We’re glad we tried it though, because we got a very interesting line-up of firms. Participants included the whole spectrum: banks, capital markets firms, and insurers; Japanese and foreign firms; traditional mega-institutions and alternative new entrants.
The discussion was lively; below are some quick notes I took of some of the more interesting comments made, to capture a bit of the flavor of the day.
Why Innovate?
“Innovation is not the goal, it is a method and a tactic.”
“We need to innovate because it has become difficult to differentiate us from our competitors.”
“In today’s environment, innovation is necessary if you want to stay profitable.”
Paths to Innovation
“Incremental innovation is an axymoron. You can’t innovate by increments; innovation requires a big bang change.”
“It might be possible to rearrange existing elements to create something new.”
“When to innovate? If our clients think a new service is interesting, we try and create it for them and see if it succeeds.”
“Innovation needs to be business driven.”
“Financial institutions need to have an innovation division; an incubation unit that accumulates ideas from throughout the company.”
IT and Innovation
“IT is not the impetus for innovation, but because IT inevitably evolves, that creates need for innovation.”
“Legacy is a barrier: it is hard to throw things away.”
Cultural Challenges
“We need to justify ROI on any investment each fiscal year. It is hard to show this on an innovation project.”
“If you think about it, financial institutions don’t even have R&D departments.”
Quote of the Day
“Changing company culture is really about changing oneself. I personally enjoy innovation and change. Innovative culture is about getting a bunch of people together who enjoy change.”
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