“To accelerate your achievements, give more passion to the purpose!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Archives for May 2017
Article: Innovate now—the future is coming quickly : Five strategies for successful innovation.
Credit Union Magazine just ran a great article on my keynote yesterday in Las Vegas for Drive 17, the annual conference from CU Direct on trends in the automotive lending space for credit unions.
Self-driving cars, drone technology, Apple Watch, and even FaceTime.
It’s technology we see depicted in “The Jetsons,” a cartoon from 1962 that depicted the life of a futuristic family. But we’re already seeing much of the technology today, more than 40 years before the cartoon takes place in 2062.
“It’s staggering to think how quickly the world around us is changing,” says innovator and futurist Jim Carroll, who addressed CU Direct’s Drive 17 Conference Wednesday in Las Vegas.
The technology in The Jetsons is just another reminder that credit unions need to innovate and not only develop new products, but also transform to keep up with the speed of change, Carroll says.
Given the fast pace of change, more than 80% of conference attendees believe their current business model will not stay the same in the next 10 years due to the significant disruption.
“We need to deal with the innovation killers which hold us back from pursuing the opportunities of the future. The future is coming at us with a greater intensity and great speed,” Carroll says. “We need to think big, start small, and scale fast.”
Carroll offers credit unions five strategies for successful innovation:
1. Think big
Innovators need to make big, bold decisions to be transformative. This is the only way credit unions will be able to counter the impacts that disrupters, such as fintech companies, have, Carroll says.
Think of Tesla, Carroll says, which has transformed the auto industry by manufacturing vehicles on demand and have placed their dealerships in retail shopping areas rather than in stand-alone structures. Some 400,000 people have signed up for these vehicles, he adds.
2. Presume that everything will speed up
Credit unions are not the only industry struggling with the speed of technology.
Technology is rapidly changing in vehicles, says Carroll, who believes Siri or Alexa buttons, augmented reality screens, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and payment technology embedded in the dashboard may be features in vehicles by 2020.
For credit unions, think about how biometric scans can be used at ATMs.
3. Align to Moore’s Law of innovation
This law says the processing power of a computer chip doubles every 18 months. Technology is constantly changing and is becoming embedded in more items, such as garage doors, ceiling fans, and even grills, Carroll says.
Hyperconnectivity is becoming the rule.
Credit unions need to be aware of the expectations members have for personalization, their use of technology, and a desire for real-time support or interaction when needed.
“You need to be prepared to innovate quickly,” he says.
4. Align changing business models and consumer behavior
Mobile devices have a huge influence on people’s purchasing and financing decisions. Research shows the average consumer scans 12 feet of shelf space in a second, and 80% would leave a store if they must wait more than five minutes to pay.
Determine ways to grab your members’ attention and provide solutions faster, in addition to providing a way for members to interact online, Carroll says.
5. Realign to the impact of generations
Recognize how younger generations live their lives. Don’t cling to a routine or process just because that’s the way your credit union has always operated.
Millennials, for example, have been weaned on technology, speed, and innovation, and are open to transformations and changes that take this into account, Carroll says.
Keynote: Drive 17, CUDirect, Las Vegas – The Future of Automotive Lending
This event took a look at the future of automotive lending with a particular emphasis on the credit union sector, which is the line of business that CUDirect is focused on.
I had a bit of fun at the sound check the day before, with Vegas being Vegas after all – you’re always guaranteed a great stage! Here’s an infinite me!
Of course, the next morning I was on duty, outlining the many ways in which the era of self-driving cars, intelligent highways, the sharing economy and many more trends would come to challenge the very idea of automative lending in the future. The auto industry is accelerating fast — and I’m doing numerous talks for industries and companies affected by this trend.
Daily Inspiration: “It takes time for the future to arrive, but when it does, it arrives all of a sudden! That’s why you must always be prepared for anything!”
“It takes time for the future to arrive, but when it does, it arrives all of a sudden! That’s why you must always be prepared for anything!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
I keynote a credit union conference in Las Vegas this morning — and that industry is in the midst of fast technological, demographic, market and financial services change.
They need to be prepared for anything — and in my talk, I’ll focus on the issue of what world class innovators do to deal with a world of instant, fast change!
Daily Inspiration: “Expect velocity. Plan for acceleration. Structure for intensity. Execute relentlessly.”
“Expect velocity. Plan for acceleration. Structure for intensity. Execute relentlessly” – Futurist Jim Carroll
“I had my DNA profile done some time back, and the news is all good. The interesting thing is that I carry the gene which is common to high-speed sprinters — in other words, my body is engineered for speed! (LOL – those who know me would known that’s an anomaly!” But in today’s fast changing business world, being structured for speed is critical!’’
A Keynote on Credit Unions and the Future of Automotive Lending
Tomorrow morning, I’ll keynote Drive 17 — it’s a conference for credit union executives around the topic of the future of lending. Particularly, automative lending. This is similar to a keynote I did in January of this year for the American Financial Services Association — same topic and issues, except for banking executives.
It’s a challenging time to be in this space, as we witness seismic changes in both the very nature of automotive ownership and the manner by which lending decisions are made. Particularly with the next generation, who are very different from their forebears:
- they don’t have a job for life – they freelance
- their banking is mobile – they don’t use cash
- they don’t think long term – 25 year mortgages are a foreign concept
- they don’t stay at hotels – they use AirbNb
- they don’t use taxis – they Uber
- and 1 in 10 works in the sharing economy…. and so they don;’t have the typical risk profile of an employee
The biggest challenge? They might not even buy cars, but rather will take advantage of all the opportunities that the sharing economy presents. Of course, if you are in the business of lending money for the purchase of automobiles, this can be a problem, and requires some innovative thinking.
If they do, however, buy a vehicle, the manner by which they will seek financing will be very, very different. It will be done through their mobile device; they’ll expect instant options, and instant approval. We’re talking 30 seconds here. If you can’t meet their expectations in terms of the time for the transaction, they’re gone. Which means you need to challenge yourself in terms of interface, risk assessment and more.
In my keynote tomorrow, I’ll cover these trends and more. The reality? Every credit union and financial institution today needs to comprehend the speed with which transformative change is occurring, and how they must focus on innovation as a means of turning those challenges into opportunity.
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