Reading through the palm of my hand

henry tapper

13 years ago

To suppose that we will be purchasing financial services in 2014 as we did five years ago or even today could be a mistake.

Walk down your high street and the only discretionary businesses are social clubs (coffes shops hairdressers and nail bars) – oh and phone stores.

The rest of the hot traffic is on-line ;- more purchases are made on the pavement than in-store.

Theplatform from which we sell things has utterly changed and the organisations that recognise and adapt to that change will be those that profit from this new RDR auto-enrolling , workplace orientated environment.

Whenever there is a major change in platform, the leaders of the old platform are seldom the leaders of the new platform. For example, at one time, the only way you could use a computer was to use a mainframe. Then, as processing power, storage, and bandwidth increased, our primary computer became a desktop … and then a laptop … and now a smart phone and tablet.

Of course, this does not mean the old goes away. It simply gets integrated with the new to provide greater value. We still have mainframes, desktops, and laptops, but we’re using them in different ways as we shift to a new major platform—smart phones and tablets.

Today, we are in the middle of the fastest and most profound shift that’s ever happened, because it is not just a computing shift.

Your smart phone is not just a computer ; it’s also your main communication tool, this in itself is a platform shift. In the past, phones just gave you access to phone calls. Today the phone gives us an online, multimedia, integrated experience that includes voice and video communications.

Who were the leaders of the computing platform before this shift? Microsoft, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard . Who were the leaders of the telecommunications platform in the past? BT. How about mobile phones? Nokia and Motorola .

Shifting to a new platform is difficult. Of course, it doesn’t mean that these companies will not survive. But it does mean it’s unlikely they’ll be the dominant leaders of the new platform.

And how are all those companies doing today? They’re struggling. We’ve had a major platform shift, but they’re set up to thrive in the old platform, not the new one.

I’ve read and discussed about the challenges facing the financial services and am coming to the conclusion that we will not overcome then working in the ways we currently do

We need new strategic partners, new distributors and we need to be talking to the leaders who are developing the new platforms. Getting the right business partners means stepping outside our comfort zone. This is particularly difficult for business leaders who have worked hard to become comfortable and are looking forward to enjoying their fruits.

So today I will be listening to people who haven’t made it, but are making it. People who have recognised that you cannot go back in time or even sit in time, you must move forward.

Identifying the winners and promoting them can only be done by the winning distributors.

Tomorrows winners are yet to emerge.

Todays losers will be looking lonely , staring from their shop windows onto their high street.

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