A Recap of Celent’s Recent Innovation Form on Innovation and Digital Strategies in Tokyo, Part 2: Panel Discussion

This is the second and final installment recapping the Celent Innovation Forum in Tokyo held on October 17.

In the panel discussion following the keynote address, titled “Digital Strategies in Financial Services: Challenges and the Future Landscape," three expert panelists from the financial and IT sectors enthusiastically shared their thoughts on innovation initiatives, their implementation, and the outlook for the future. Although focused on banking services and retail payment services, the impassioned discussion drew on their respective expertise in mobile banking, M-POS (mobile point of sale), and cloud services, reflecting their enthusiasm for innovation and progressive initiatives.

After providing a brief overview of their companies and business operations, discussion turned to topics including digital banking payment services as well as factors accelerating and hindering the adoption of digital services. Below are some of the many noteworthy panelist comments.

“The more innovative services are the more prone they are to trigger friction with existing values. Overcoming the resulting this conflict and unease is a very important element. Innovative services with a capacity to disrupt are to be offered after the communication and similar efforts necessary have been taken to resolve these.”

“There are limitless ideas and hints that can be found, but often the biggest obstacle to achievement is inside your own company or yourself. The key to success is how organizational leadership and individual passion can be sustained to achieve specific goals.”

“The position of banks gets increasingly challenging as diversification continues in the payments business. Banks need to take into consideration the entire ecosystem and consider group partnerships and synergies in light of their roles and strengths. The yardstick for making decisions should be whether taking an action will create added value for customers.”

“A company’s business domain is the key to success. The refrain ‘make commerce easy’ means enhancing the all-around efficiency of a customer's business by increasing the time spent discussing products and communication with customers—two factors traditionally at the core of doing business. Moreover, as new services are designed one after another, companies should ensure that they do not stray from their area of business.”

“Our company is a technology company and we design payment services rooted in innovative technology. The spread of advanced technology to all corners of the industry will make it possible to offer services to everyone. That is the vision of our company.”

“The keys to success will be the pursuit of convenience, security, and superior design. Toward that end, you need to look at things from the simplest perspective and build services from scratch. In financial services, people tend to think that if an approach differs from historical ways of doing things, then it is inherently dangerous. That is a mistake. Why assume that existing methods are safe?”

“Cloud services have the potential to dramatically impact the world—dramatic in the sense of fundamentally changing the people’s lives and making them wonder how they ever lived without them. We can learn about these possibilities from other industries.”

“Companies that move from the theoretical and the drawing board to implementation are the companies that will succeed. In that process, companies can confirm the core value and effectiveness of their business. In today's world, a company can't maintain competitiveness without technology driving the business.”

“The cloud is an avenue for initiatives to tackle current-day business challenges, such as tackling unforecasted surges in traffic and global expansion in addition to the initial core-value focus, in particular from the perspective of mitigating failure costs.”

“Apple Pay will be embraced as a payment service that has sought to provide added value. At the same time, it is fair to expect that it will also highlight differences between social and commercial practices internationally and in Japan.”

“The establishment and destruction of ecosystems are key. Apple is always undertaking new challenges. Disruptive innovation in the music industry has changed more than the structure of the industry—it has also fundamentally altered the lifestyles of consumers. What is going to happen when it comes to retail payments?”

Celent believes that the three panelists embody the spirit of what it means to be an innovator in that they do not rest on their laurels or grow complacent after success, instead looking ahead in pursuit of the next project, heightened improvements, or further growth. The panelists were visibly united in their passion for innovation. Moreover, the panelists’ shared enthusiasm for implementing innovation and leading their teams to innovate helped to shed light on the essence or the “DNA” of what it means to be an innovator. Innovation is people-driven evolution. The event proceedings all served to reinforce anew that skillfully harnessing digital technology and developing digital services innovation are people-driven endeavors and that the “expectations and ambitions” of people are of the utmost importance.

Finally, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to everyone who participated in the event and particularly the panelists who took time to share their opinions and expertise. Celent hopes that this event was both educational and inspiring, and that it will prove a catalyst to further innovation.

The discussion in Tokyo was carried over to innovation roundtables in Singapore and Australia. Celent will continue to work with leaders in financial innovation in Japan and in Asia to discover and illuminate cutting-edge thinking in the industry.