Innovation Driven Growth

We, humans, are inherently drawn to stories as a medium for learning and accessing information. But many bankers erroneously think that they don't have any good stories to tell, therefore they don't even try to tell storiesEvery small business needs a relationship with its community banks to help them prosper, and sharing examples of your work through storytelling will create a connection that benefits both parties.Efforts to make storytelling a strategic initiative will yield long-term benefits, so think about examples and themes you can leverage.  Show notes:

Having diverse experiences can often lead to better problem-solving and innovation compared to hyper-specialization. In the book Range, there is a cognitive psychological problem that shows how analogies from different fields can help solve complex issues. Applying this to financial services, David suggests that organizations should leverage the diverse backgrounds of their employees to enhance creativity and problem-solving. Businesses should conduct skills assessments to identify all experiences within their teams and form cross-functional groups to tackle challenges, help customers, and ignite innovation.Notes:

Your business' virtual and physical services must be aligned. The frustration caused by the mismatch in data synchronization between these two is huge and should not happen in this day and time. Businesses must ensure their virtual and physical operations are aligned to provide reliable and accurate information to customers. This can be fixed by having an automated routine that regularly checks, multiple access points that you're offering to your customers and validates that the information is in sync.Notes:✈️ David's experience at the airport: how often does a service-oriented business have a sync mismatch between its virtual and physical operation? 00:58

We often make decisions using our emotions, but financial decisions are more likely to be better and more useful if we make them by using our heads. Behavioral science and storytelling can help with crafting the right messages to customers that will regain their emotions and take good care of them in the financial world. How science can help in attracting and acquiring new customers?Notes:

Why banks can't get out of the habit of not using the out-of-branch tools available when they are doing business in the branch? Why is that so hard? Why banks don't value the virtual branch, like the physical branch, and do not enable younger generations to become users of the financial institutions the way they like the best - via digital? These are only some of the questions that financial institutions must work on to get more customers who hold phones in their hands from the age of 2. It is time to innovate! Notes:

In episode 55 we talked about the Neobank phenomenon. Are they taking away younger customers away from the traditional financial institutions? What if traditional financial institutions could tailor the services for small to medium businesses and startups and assist individuals in starting businesses, providing a checklist, classes, mentorship, events, and training. The key is to market your services as effectively as neobanks without the need to create one, fostering a differentiated and valuable proposition for potential business customers. ⚠️ Neobank creates a compelling argument to some targeted groups to move away from their traditional bank and to come "bank" with them. 00:52

 We all love routine, but guess what? It's a disaster for our brains!In this episode, David explores how excessive routine can stifle creativity and problem-solving skills, particularly in organizations such as financial institutions. He discusses how an over-reliance on strict procedures might hinder employees' adaptability in unexpected situations and limit their ability to identify areas for innovation.Drawing from personal experiences and research findings, David highlights the “numbing effect” of routine on the brain's executive functions, emphasizing its potential negative impact on employee creativity and crisis management. He suggests strategies like escape room exercises and continuous thought-provoking activities to counteract this effect and keep employees fit.Tune in for invaluable insights on navigating the fine line between routine and innovation while uncovering ways to maximize creative potential! Notes:

In the ever-evolving landscape of banking, a clash of titans is underway, pitting traditional community banks against the innovative disruptors known as Neobanks.Community banks must revamp digital experiences, embrace storytelling in marketing, and strategically connect with younger demographics.To ensure long-term success, strategic planning involving senior leadership and dedicated teams is paramount, providing these banks a transformative path to compete effectively in today's financial sphere.Notes:

Marketing is an essential part of every organization. Statistics could be more positive when it comes to bank marketing. Bank marketers have a hard job and need accurate targeted data to create very specific campaigns and confidence in their reliability. It's an ongoing problem to resolve. Help focus marketing campaigns that will generate measurable results and outcomes without crossing the creepy line. ⭐ What is Baader Meinhof phenomenon: bank marketers indicated they have access to a lot of data useful for marketing. 01:39

 Big data centers are getting more and more popular, and it's expected for institutions to use them. Are they necessary for banks? David shares his view on this actual topic. There is a need for a data acquisition tool that can connect to external systems without centralizing data. The speaker outlines three key outcomes for effective data management: dashboards, graphical reporting, and targeted marketing lists. The episode concludes by urging banks to focus on outcomes that drive business success and improve customer experience, rather than getting caught up in the pursuit of big data solutions.Banks should be good stewards of their data and not be embarrassed or afraid to use it. Notes:  

Where failure is discouraged, much less rewarded, why would anyone stick their neck out on the line, bringing a creative idea? Innovation occurs when failure is an option.Challenging the status quo and allowing failure, will initially lead to disruption, however, ensuring failure leads to learning will allow for improvement in banking as a whole. There is much to be learned about the challenge of allowing failure within your organization.Notes:⛹️‍♂️ Innovation occurs when failure is an option: the players who lead baseball leagues and home runs almost certainly lead that league into strikeouts - apply that to your business. 01:20✅ Not only should bankers stop punishing failure, but encourage it using the fail-fast fail-often model. 03:00

 In the world of faster payments, fraud is a hot topic. But is it the technology's fault? Not really. Fraud can happen with any payment method. It's about individuals making mistakes.Learn more about App Fraud and its implications in the latest episode of our podcast. We dive into the industry's response and the possible changes ahead.Notes:

 Having the right leadership in place for your digital channels is extremely important. If you want your branch to have long-lasting success, it's time to find leaders who will bring your virtual branch up to the same level as your physical branch. A successful future needs innovative and open-minded leadership that is ready to push the strategic vision for your virtual branch forward and treat it with the same level of scrutiny as a physical branch. Show notes:✅ 9 key points about virtual branches in banking that sum up Pinkston's article and the previous podcast episode. 01:14

Setting up proper accounting for your virtual branch is crucial for future success. The value of your online presence must be clear and concise in order to foster the support and funding it needs from the leadership in your company, so it's time to start strategizing how to measure this. The truth is that it's very likely that your virtual branch is much more profitable than you think, but is being underrepresented in your general ledger. The future of your business may depend on the quality of the digital solutions that you offer, so start investing in your online services today!Notes

You can elevate your level of service with the way you use data mining. Targeting customers with suggestions and recommendations based on mined data needs to be done paternalistically and carefully to avoid being seen as creepy. The goal is to offer a higher level of service that maximizes convenience and personalization, but these personalizations must be communicated appropriately. If you have the customer's best interest at heart, find out how you can better serve them by utilizing data mining.

The SWOT analysis tool is an excellent way for your business to take advantage of opportunities. It's critical to regularly assess your business in order to be competitive in your market. By analyzing your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, you can develop crucial offensive and defensive strategies. When done right, you can minimize the damage from external sources and find great opportunities to invest in. Take strategic control of your business, and focus on the "O!”Notes:

To think outside the box, you have to know what the box is. Change your perspective on what the main focus of your business is, and start to think outside the industry norms. When you shift the perspective of the services you provide, this changes the branding of your business, so you can deliver a more profound and appealing message to your customers. Get outside your comfort zone and change the dynamic of your box!

Thinking outside the box is essential for cultivating innovation in the workplace, and sometimes the craziest ideas can lead to the best results. When we can escape the limitations that we often think with, it can lead to profoundly creative solutions. Exercise your ability to think outside the box and produce ideas in great volume to achieve success!

 Once your business is committed to innovation, the next step is focusing on the problems that require innovative solutions. This should involve picking a trending or pertinent problem in your industry and engaging your new innovation-driven workforce. Gather data, brainstorm and explore even the craziest of ideas before preparing the final strategic recommendations and putting them into action. Implement your new ideas, overcome obstacles and boldly move forward with success! Show Notes:

 Implementing an innovation mindset into your business is crucial for its future success. Building the foundation for this may be a harrowing task, but the steps in this quick start guide are a great place to begin. There must be a desire and commitment to building a culture of innovation from all levels of leadership that is backed by actionable processes. Integrate these values into regular communications within the workplace and support innovative ideas with encouraging facilitation and incentives. Make innovation a mission-critical value in your business and transform your workforce into inspired problem-solvers! Timestamps:

Converting an unused space into a “Thinking Room” will add great value to your business. This is an inexpensive strategy for increasing innovation and creativity in your workplace. Create a functional safe space that promotes innovative thinking and get the ideas flowing!

Investing in new technology is a complicated process that requires expert strategy. No matter what industry you are in, investing in new technological systems can be a time-consuming and overwhelming experience. With so many vendors competing for your business, it's important to do a full review of their products to see exactly how they will work for your needs. Remember that strategy is key, and these investments will be impacting your business for years to come, so spend your money with specific growth and expectations in mind. Inertia is not a strategy, so review your business's tech needs today!

Employ modern digital marketing techniques to ensure your advertising budget reaches your target audience. Banking is a highly competitive industry, so banks must aggressively pursue new customers with great precision. It's time to revisit your marketing budgets and allocate funds toward targeting the new generation of prospective customers in the digital world. Utilizing services and marketing strategies that find and target new customers with engaging story-based media and curated articles is the key to modern advertising.Spend your money wisely in the places your future customers are reading and listening!

It's time to change public opinion on the role of a banker. It's no secret that the role of bankers is largely underappreciated and seen as an unexciting career. The truth is that bankers perform an essential service for people and their businesses. We can work to shift the paradigm by highlighting the importance of banking in our business language and shamelessly recognizing ourselves as facilitators of hopes and dreams. Emphasize your value and help change the narrative on banking!

You must ensure that you are adequately protected from hackers and data breaches. In the digital age, your company must have the plan to deal with cyberattacks. Working with an insurance carrier that offers coverage that is right for you is vital, and be sure to follow their protection plans carefully. Getting your employees trained and ready to handle the preparation and aftermath of a potential attack is also crucial. Ensure your business is sufficiently protected for your business and your client's sake.

Resistance is a formidable opponent to your business, but you can fight back. Resistance is that barrier to all innovation and creativity within your business, it is strengthened by fear and it wants for us to stagnate and do nothing. The key to overcoming this aggressive force is professional-grade virtues like persistence, patience, and a strong dedication to doing the hard work. We can climb the mountain of resistance and make gains in innovation within our business by ensuring that progressional attitudes are adopted and encouraged at all levels of our organization. You can't afford to stagnate, so take the professional approach and make innovation an essential part of your business.Show Notes: 

❗ Innovation eludes organization when: we are too busy, thinking is not valued, there's resistance to change, and it requires effort. 00:52✅ We let artificial constructs about innovation limit our creativity: tackle bite-sized innovations and ideas: how employees can help. 02:45✌️ Two ways to deal with inquisition: encourage employees to be inquisitive. 07:19⏳ Save time by eliminating unneeded steps: how to take a fresh look at your processes and procedures.  11:37

Aviv Shalgi—a CEO of Solar Simplified has been thinking a lot about harnessing the power of solar and bringing it back to consumers by providing guaranteed discounts and negative amounts on power bills and credits. Aviv's startup has an innovative way of connecting local solar farms with people who want to promote and support renewable energy. Even he started his company at the pandemic peak, Aviv is a great example of how good ideas build revenues even in difficult situations.

Getting out of your comfort zone is not easy but is very important. It boosts your self-esteem, brings you joy, and affects others around you. Becoming more skilled or experienced in something is a way to face your fears and grow. David chose to get out of his comfort zone and he is preparing to play background music for his sister Linda at her upcoming art show in Dayton, Tennessee on March 27th. David also shares tips and steps that can help you get out of your comfort zone. Grab a pen, you will need it.

David's guest today is Ryan Green, the CEO of Gridwise. Ryan shares his story on innovation within a gig economy and his path in creating an app for supporting ride-share and delivery drivers by helping them maximize their income.

What is the value of mistakes in innovation and why people do not innovate more? They teach us to be the best in everything from the early days in our lives, but being a successful innovator means that you have to fail multiple times in order to get an excellent product or idea. Innovation really means that you're not afraid to fail, so let's talk about the values of mistakes.

Hemp is more popular every day among farmers. The problem begins when they need banking products, and bankers need to help their customers with high-risk agribusiness. People who are getting into the hemp business have difficulties like all business owners do, plus higher risk because of legislation. In order to make this easier for banks and their clients, my guest got some real innovation. Today I'm speaking with is Justin Fischer a CEO of RiskScout, a company that focuses on helping financial institutions to bank higher risk businesses (Hemp, CBD, MJ, MSB)

Today David talks about re-innovation and collaborative innovation that can make a huge difference regardless of a person's occupation, whether it is made for a hobby, working place, or a whole company. David enhances a need for growing creativity and Innovation Challenges in companies as a great step for each HR department but also a path to achieving a higher gross margin.

Today Davids' guest is Binna Kim, the president and co-founder of Vested Communications. As an expert communications consultant, she worked with financial service brands and major tech companies. She explains what being channel agnostic means, discusses how the current crisis will change marketing and PR. She and David have an in-depth discussion on how personalized data, algorithms, and innovation is impacting her industry.

In this episode, we examine how opportunity and necessity intersect and provide a chance for sparking innovation. What is your attitude towards innovation during the pandemic months? Do you see innovative young people around you and do you know you can help them flourish? Listen to the few amazing examples of innovation sparks.

Summary: David's guest today is Wayne Miller, an experienced innovator and executive director of Venture Center. The Venture Center is an entrepreneurial resource center. where the technology and entrepreneurial communities come together to learn and connect. ThinkTech Accelerator Program is a fintech program Venture Center has developed with the aim of helping community banks to directly engage and partner with early-stage fintech companies focusing exclusively on product development and innovation.