Meet the Team:
-Niki Ariyasinghe an Aussie banker/consultant and bitcoin aficionado
-Moe Poonja a techie and DJ from Chicago
-Diego Vidaurre a Chilean banker and part-time magician
-Gavin Abreu a Mexican central banker and salsa dancer
We were all selected for this project given our prior banking experience.
The Country
When Singapore achieved its independence, in 1965, the country was battling unemployment and serious social and economic problems. However openness to foreign investment and promoting the creation of new companies helped the country overcome its economic foes and become one of the world’s largest financial hubs. The result? Well today Singapore is the third richest country of the world in per capita terms and the World Bank has ranked them the easiest country of the world to do business.
The Project
Developing a strategy for a large financial institution in Singapore to better engage clients through digital tools allowing them to improve the customer experience. However the project had a catch to it. Instead of one client, we had two clients with two different perspectives and two distinct needs.
*Details of the client and project cannot be fully disclosed due to a signed NDA
The Process
We first started by reviewing the industry. What are the industry standards and what are the innovations that are threatening to disrupt the industry? To do this, we focused on the large financial institutions in North America and Europe and startups in Silicon Valley. After we grew familiar with the industry, we talked to client-facing employees at financial institutions to gain a better understating of the costumers needs along with fintech companies with their latest disruptive innovations. Armed with this knowledge we flew to Singapore, well equipped to offer emerging trends within the industry. Once there, we interviewed numerous employees of the company and identified their pains and areas of opportunity. We ideated (using post-its, of course), identified commonalities and ultimately looked to find efficiencies or enhance the customer or banker’s experience.
And came up with a list of recommendations that could help them alleviate their pains and embrace digital tools.
The Final Presentation
We set up a final document with these recommendations and only days before our final presentation we learned that instead of presenting to our sponsor (the Head of Products) we were actually going to present our findings to the CEO of one bank and COO of the other large institution. We worked diligently to prepare the presentation and tailor it so it is relevant despite having two separate stakeholders with two different recommendations.
We had already taken Cort Worthington’s class so we welcomed the opportunity with confidence and rocked the presentation!
