Innovation is all about solving problems

Kevin Johnson is head, Innotribe Innovation Programs, SWIFT. Innotribe was created to identify emerging trends in financial services innovation and generate discussions about how these trends could impact the industry going forward. He speaks to Banking Frontiers at SIBOS 2016 in Geneva.

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Babu Nair: Your definition of innovation?

Kevin Johnson: When people speak about innovation, they go straight into technology. However, if you look from our perspective, it’s all about business. It’s about enabling business. Every technology is fine and shiny but if it does not solve fundamental business problems, it is a distraction. IT should fundamentally transform the way we do business. Inside SWIFT, the case in point is the Global Payments Innovation, or GPI, initiative where we have a deep look at our customers and their problems and then work with the community to address it. It’s about security, speed, green initiatives,transparency, scalability and how do you use that in the industry. It is not about re-inventing the wheel. It is about doing incremental innovation to bring dramatic changes. It’s not the end. If we wanted to start it afresh grounds up, it would take 3 to 4 years to get there and business would lose its advantages. Instead of releasing anything that is 100% right, prioritize the benefits and features.

We are inspired by startups working using green methodologies and working incrementally, trying to solve business problems. If you look at where the industry will be, it will be ideal to know where we will be 5 years from now and how to get there. From Innotribe’s perspective, it is not technology at all. It is business model innovation to identify where we will be 5 to 7 years from now and then reach there incrementally with our community. We don’t do in a single leap. Industry has huge level of investments and capabilities and these capabilities can be used very well to get you to the objectives.

What are the key innovation trends across the world?