BNP Paribas has committed several billion euros to transform its customer journey. finews.asia took a tour of their innovation lab and talked to its Chief Digital Officer Vivien Jong.
Viven Jong, how would you describe the innovation culture of BNP Paribas?
Innovation is embedded across the board in our product offerings, platforms and the way we think and work. At our Design Factory Asia, everyone has an assigned role in our innovation ecosystem. At the same time, we cross-train the team to fulfill a myriad of roles. For example, when there is a need for growth hacking activities, the entire team can be activated.
Our pizza team approach sees a diverse group of people from different business units and departments work together to solve a problem statement, continually testing the commercial viability with our team here at the Design Factory Asia. We regularly involve clients in this process too. Together, we develop and bring a solution to life, from ideation to testing.
«The board behaves like a venture capitalist in a start-up scene»
As part of this, colleagues have to commit three days a week or 60 percent of their work time to these projects for six months. At each step of the journey, presentations are done to the board to validate the progress of the initiative. The board behaves like a venture capitalist in a start-up scene.
If you were to distill it into one phrase, what would it be?
It’s definitely «new ways of working». This is really about working collaboratively with an entire ecosystem – our clients, fintechs, regulators and even university students as part of our partnership with the Singapore Management University. The results are new products and services developed in Singapore through close collaboration with all stakeholders that are now being rolled out globally to our clients.
The second part of «new ways of working» is about applying human-centered design – design thinking as a core part of the ideation process. Here, we unravel a problem to its minutest drivers, then we start ideating and building a co-created solution that leverages on the collective wisdom of all involved business units.
«The solutions that came out from our factories are part of the three billion euros earmarked by the Group»
The main principle of design thinking is about perspectives – you are trying to draw the collective wisdom of different business units.
How much has the bank spent on digital initiatives, in particular for Wealth Management?
We don’t give the specifics but the solutions that came out from our factories are part of the three billion euros earmarked by the Group to reinvent our client journeys and banking experience globally from 2017 to 2019.
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