Think "small" and "agile" when devising tech use cases
While it may seem like Amazon and commercial banks are worlds apart, Amazon’s “Day 1” business model offers key success drivers for banks to consider. The Day 1 model, spelled out in CEO Jeff Bezos’ 2016 shareholder letter, in essence means the company continually operates as a start-up. Also, Amazon—like other digital giants and fintechs—is raising customer expectations. And in small business credit, Amazon is competing directly with banks.
Banks, instead, often operate like Day 2 companies and make good decisions slowly based on a maximum amount of data. While banks cannot completely emulate the Day 1 model due to their critical role in maintaining financial stability and security, and meeting attendant compliance constraints, they can adapt and adopt certain aspects of it. Their challenge is introducing agility and experimentation, while maintaining reliability and resiliency.
Amazon’s Day 1 model rests on four pillars: pursue extreme customer centricity (“true customer obsession” and “desire to delight customers”), resist managing to proxies (a common proxy is process), embrace external trends (machine learning, artificial intelligence), and enable high-velocity decision-making.