FELIPE DAGUILA – Global Executive

When Cultures Collide: Leading Global Teams. My interview for the Business Innovators.

2015 MIT Sloan CIO Symposium: Leading Digital/ A Manifesto for IT and Bu...

FinTech Influence on Today’s Generation

The rise of FinTech and the social impact it implicates on Traditional Banking Institutions.

The rise of FinTech and how it took traditional banking institution by storm struck a strong chord of resemblance to the movie, “Desk Set”.  Much like the movie, “Desk Set”, technology became the cause and fear for many incumbents in traditional banking institutions.

Anxiety began to rise as study by Accenture reported that global investments in financial technology ventures tripled from US $928 million to US$2.97 billion, between 2008 to 2013.

This has led to a “jump on the bandwagon” reaction by a few traditional banking institutions. However can we really fault FinTech for its rapid successes in just a short amount of time?

Among one of FinTech trends that have caused a huge social impact on today’s generation is: Bitcoins.  Bitcoin's first emerged in the FinTech industry in 2008, as a part of an online payment system. Its peer-to-peer system has benefited a lot of people; particularly foreign workers who have to pay remittance fee for every transaction made, which could be costly.

Bit sparks, a Hong Kong based remittance start up company, shared its social impact success story that took the world by storm. Co-founder and CEO, George Harrap cites instances when the company made it possible for foreign workers to remit small amount of money to cover their family’s medical fee in just an hour’s time – free of excessive costs and restriction, which would be impossible via traditional remittance service.

Perhaps it’s time for incumbents in traditional banking institutions to ease the fear towards FinTech, and embrace the strong positive social impact that it radiates. Take a cue from Richard Sumner in “Desk Set” and let technology do its work.

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I have written and submitted this blog entry to FINTECH Book, which will be included in one of the chapter of the book, “FinTech Social Impact”. In order, to be selected for the final publication of the FinTech book, I would need you to help me to “like” and “share” my entry! You can do so, by clicking on this link:https://medium.com/the-fintech-book/fintech-influence-on-today-s-generation-e899639dbfd3

Editors' Notes: This entry has been submitted to the FINTECH Book, the world’s 1st globally crowd-sourced book on FINTECH. Readers can see over 187 abstracts on https://medium.com/the-fintech-book

Twelve Angry Leaders

What does it take to be a great leader?

Back in the day leadership was based on gender,  birth order and the socioeconomic status of a family as the determining factors of what it takes to be in charge; in modern times, its definition has shifted to one’s personal qualities and character. There seems to be a consensus that most leaders are a combination of both ‘born and made’: the former meaning they possess innate motivational characteristics and behavioural leadership drive and the latter meaning they are shaped by external experiences to become more effective at leading others.

In the classic movie, Twelve Angry Men, a juror is quoted saying: “it’s not easy to stand alone against the ridicule of others, so he gambled for support and I gave it to him.” Many leaders were often ridiculed when they were starting out. Take Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs or Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg as prime examples. They have both independently exhibited a tendency to hold grudges and be cold in manner, just one of the several personal and unconventional managerial traits the two leaders have shared. Steve Jobs was unapologetic about his brusque management style and Facebook employees have described Mark Zuckerberg as robotic. Jobs was even quoted as saying: "If something sucks, I tell people to their face. It's my job to be honest. I know what I'm talking about, and I usually turn out to be right." Having confidence in one’s own vision and expertise in the workplace is great, but an awareness of the frustration this can cause is equally necessary, clearly this detachment can translate into great results as well as garnering slight animosity.

Great leaders need to be courageous. People will follow someone who can watch over the good of the group and make the difficult decisions. A leader needs to be someone who will stay the course when things get tough. Great leaders are those who do not just take care of themselves but like a captain will never abandon their sinking ship, as well as being open to adversity  as this often means you are doing something innovative!  Henry Fonda who played Juror No. 8 in cult classic Twelve Angry Men was the only one who was set against the rest of the group in their decision. He exhibits how elucidating the truth fact-by-fact in a pragmatic discussion could convince people to think in a different manner. He takes things slowly and allows time for internal differences to be ironed out. In the film, the team’s dynamic comes under a microscope and the power of personal motive and prejudice and their ability to inhibit a team’s performance and outcome is examined. Juror No. 8 does not simply steamroll over everyone else’s views with his own but rather manages to expertly talk them over to his side with an advocate-like logical precision and skill.

According to Forbes, leaders such as the late Nelson Mandela had so much influence because people knew that they could trust him. Employees want the same sentiment to be carried over to the workplace, where their leaders are trustworthy and transparent. Inspirational leaders metaphorically and often literally walk with purpose. They have a plan and excel at sharing that plan and motivation. The most detailed of visions will not be of any good without enlisting the help of one’s staff, an impactful idea like Facebook for example, often involves community. Furthermore, the workplace atmosphere plays a big role in how well everyone performs. A leader who encourages optimism or is themselves optimistic, will look for positive solutions to problems and face them head-on.

All things withstanding- watch out for toxic leaders. Merely being in a position of self-imposed power and authority does not make a great leader. A toxic leader is easy to spot, they are one who does not listen to others, support their employees’ rights or accept the nuance that other’s opinions can bring to the table. The last three jurors were dead-set in their decisions and nothing could sway them, similar to how a tyrannical leader is immobile in thought that can lead to unfair treatment, public humiliation in the workplace and other forms of threatening behaviour.  A toxic leader may produce results but usually at the highest cost to the business, one that doesn’t directly relate to money but instead a decrease in employees’ morale and engagement resulting in negative public relations; high turnover; a loss of customer loyalty and perhaps the eventual cost of replacing the appointed leader.

Overall, by definition the process of becoming a great leader does not mean that one must possess every positive trait from the get-go. Every incremental improvement will make for a more effective team. The more one puts these known traits into practice, the more instinctive they will become, eventually resulting in the  internalisation of a new and improved leadership style.  

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It is an enormous pleasure to have you read my post and provide some feedback. I regularly write about IT, Innovation, Leadership and Management with a personal touch. Please feel free to connect.

We aren't in Kansas Anymore;Scaling a Global Customer Service Business

Global challenges in reaching customers in emerging markets / emerging channels.

The world of customer service used to be a bit like Dorothy in Kansas in the Wizard of OZ.   It was a grey, boring, straightforward world of answering phones and questions.  The customer service world of today is like the colored world of OZ full wonder and innovation. If the 1-800 number of yesteryear is still your customer service approach you will not be in business much longer.

According to Wikipedia customer services is “the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.”  Traditionally this was done face to face at retail or via correspondence or the phone for non-retail purchases.   

Now and into the future it is all about interacting with customers via the media and channel of their choice.  The evolving world of technology requires customer service groups to be flexible not only on the type of information offered but also on how it is delivered.  There is still room for human interaction face to face or over the phone if requested but customers today demand choice.  That could mean FAQ’s on a website, predictable email answers message boards, social media pages or mobile apps to assist.  Businesses today need to address them all.  Achieving consistency across channels can be a big challenge according to a report by Zendesk in 2013 (http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/new-report-examines-global-trends-in-customer-service-022999.php)

Another trend picking up speed is customers looking to help themselves.  This “customer self service” is a reflection of customers looking to answer the question or fix the problem themselves before calling a hotline.  Whether this is due to poor hotline service or a self service desire is hard to say.  But the impact on companies is clear.  Channels to offer this type of service need to be offered.  Use of mobile devices is also on the rise as more customers use their mobile to assess information and conduct transactions.  So being online today is not good enough, you also need be on mobile.

Scale is another new challenge as now businesses are global.  Ecommerce and global expansion makes it critical to be able to speak different languages and to reach customers in far flung places.  Culture can impact the media as well.  If you are big in the Philippines you better be on mobile.  If you are selling in Kenya you better be able to take mobile payments.  There are vast differences in what customers expect in different parts of the world and customer services groups today need to address these differences seamlessly.

A quality interaction will continue to be the gold standard for customer service no matter the channel in which it is delivered.  In designing the overall customer service structure companies need to be mindful of consistency across channels.  Just as customers expect sellers to “pick up the phone” they will also expect an email to be answered in a reasonable period of time.  Of course the information must be accurate, useful and helpful no matter the channel.  

Finally, here were the top 10 Customer Service Trends in 2014 according to Comm100 (http://www.comm100.com/blog/customer-service/10-customer-service-trends-watch-2014-infographic.html), expect these to continue in 2015:

1.  From Cost Center to Differentiator
2.  Moving into the Cloud
3.  Going Mobile
4.  Going Social
5.  Going Proactive
6.  Big Data
7.  Self-Service
8.  Crowdsourcing
9.  Omni-Channel Experience
10.  24/7/365