Doha - The Carnegie Bosch Institute for Applied Studies in International Management, Carnegie Mellon University, recently organized the 'Multipolar Innovation Conference' at Carnegie Mellon University - Posner Center, Pittsburgh, USA. The conference focused on customer-centric innovation, next generation global services delivery, changing paradigm in financial services, competition in retail segment, behaviour of emerging market consumers and their growth, catalysts for emerging Europe and case studies.
The conference was attended by presidents, chairmen, chief executive officers of world renowned corporate organizations, and deans and professors of world renowned universities.
R Seetharaman, Group Chief Executive Officer of Doha Bank delivered the special address of the first session titled 'Innovation for Global Delivery', on 'The Changing Paradigm with Globalisation of Financial Services'. The first session included presentations by Satoshi Yokota, Executive Vice President, Embraer, Brazil on 'Innovation: Building a Global Competitive Company' and Francisco D'Souza, President & CEO, Cognizant, USA on 'The next generation of global services delivery'.
Delivering his address, Seetharaman said: "The role of financial services has been completely transformed owing to the changes taking place in the global market space. The dynamic business trends and technology trends have resulted in emergence of a new competitive landscape for the financial services segment. Further, era of globalization, deregulation, technology and consumerism also have been the key drivers for the emergence of this new competitive landscape."
Seetharaman highlighted the paradigm shift that had taken place in the financial services segment from traditional banking services with proprietary products and no differentiation to a collaborative and differentiated mode. Seetharaman said, "Need of the hour in financial services segment is performance, innovation, security and quality, owing to the changing age of consumers from a product focused, location and transaction services centric to 24/7 service delivery and information centric. Further, today's financial services have to understand that customers have taken a global approach to match their needs and requirements and so the financial services industry segment should understand this widespread needs and requirements of its customers to serve them efficiently and effectively. Financial services segment should also provide value-adding services to the various stages in the life cycle of its customers."
Seetharaman discussed in detail the key reasons attributing to customers' dissatisfaction and explained the components of customer relationship management to effectively counter customers' dissatisfaction. On deployment of consumer-centric technology Seetharaman dwelt on the technological delivery channel evolution, enhanced technological conveniences available for today's customers for transacting, easy access points for real time transaction and means to create an integrated financial delivery platform. Further, he explained the new generation financial market place by exploitation of e-commerce to the advantage of needs of consumers.
Seetharaman also drew attention to the fact that financial institutions should no longer be perceived just as a product banker or insurer but as a financial adviser and consultant, converging themselves to be known as a one-stop financial service provider by providing banking, insurance, real estate and asset management solutions to their customers.
Seetharaman also highlighted the importance of establishing an enterprise wide risk management framework to not only comply with the laws and regulations but also enhance the operating performance and shareholders value. On the same subject, he explained the evolution of the risk management framework from 1980s to 2000s, multi-dimensional risk factors and components of enterprise wide risk platform and stressed the importance and need to integrate the enterprise wide risk framework with the requirements of Basel II.
Seetharaman also emphasized on the key components for staying competitive, namely, continuous re-engineering of procedures, processes, methods, looking for improvement opportunities and radical re-definition of performance standards. he also highlighted the key challenges faced and key agenda items for today's Chief Executive Officers including driving the Corporate Social Responsibility agenda.
Talking about opportunities for Business School Graduates for working in GCC region Seetharaman said, "GCC always welcomes talented professionals from all over the world. One can look forward to a challenging and great learning experience in a vibrant multinational environment."
Seetharaman concluded saying, "'Building and managing a strong brand within the financial services industry sector is very difficult and complicated since Financial Institutions offer similar products, and this, along with the highly regulated nature of this industry and the high risk involvement, makes it extremely difficult for them to differentiate their products and services. Therefore Financial Institutions across the globe have to strive for innovation and have an integrated approach to add value to their customers on a consistent basis. The globalization era coupled with mega mergers and acquisitions among Financial Institutions is also redefining the competitive landscape. Therefore, to be successful and sustain creditable performance in the new generation market place, a 360-degree approach is required in developing a new mind-set".
© The Peninsula 2008
