Deliver value to your client through data excellence, or prepare for ruin

COVID-19 crunch is coming

According to Statista [1], because of COVID-19 the whole UK economy will shrink by 35% in Q2 2020. In fact, from a sector point of view, the hardest hit is Education with a 90% drop, Information & Comms with a 45% and even Real Estate down by 20%. You may be thinking that with only a 5% drop, Financial Services (FS) has weathered the storm.

Similarly, according to the UK Profit Monitor from Link Group [2], FS has only a moderate risk to their profit vulnerability due to the lockdown. More broadly they predict a 75% decline in UK company profits by Autumn 2020, before a bounce-back in 2021. Again, is FS sitting pretty?

I really don’t think so. These financials mask underlying truths that can kill any industry faster than ever before. So, what’s the problem?

Good firms die when they take their eye off their client

It’s all about the customer, the end customer. And data is how you get there.

For example, whilst in conversation with McKinsey [3], even mass burger manufacturers acknowledge that “mobile is how people engage now in every part of their lives, and there’s no reason why they would expect it to be any different with McDonald’s.” Interestingly, they also mention that given their improvements “we’re seeing customers reward us, because if we offer a technology solution that doesn’t work for them, we can quickly pivot.” Commercial agility in action, no less.

Given this focus on client, what tech is needed? Again, leaning on the strategic excellence of McKinsey, they advocate that your data architecture upgrade starts with:

1. Cloud-enabled data platforms, followed by
2. Real-time data streaming

Unsurprisingly, we’re really good at these things. We know what works, how long it takes and we know how much it should cost.

Now, I know that real-time data streaming is a typical of vast swathes of the FS industry, but that’s exactly the point. Do you want to be the first to see your clients, the first to deliver your value and the first to work with them in evolving your best solutions? Or are you the also-ran, the last-to-the-party or the commercial dinosaur?

Focus on your clients. Enable your data. Evolve to survive.

Interested in talking about this further? Get in touch.

Reference List:

[1] — https://www.statista.com/statistics/1111177/coronavirus-uk-output-losses-by-sector/

[2] — https://www.linkassetservices.com/our-thinking/uk-profit-monitor

[3] — https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/modernizing-technology-in-the-service-of-the-customer

[4] — https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/how-to-build-a-data-architecture-to-drive-innovation-today-and-tomorrow

Originally published at https://6point6.co.uk.