Professional Adviser: Mindset, talent, and culture: How to leverage disruptive technology for growth

Organisational transformation and innovation require teamwork, writes Sneha Shah.

There are many articles about the importance of leveraging disruptive technology for business. Not discussed as often is a vital differentiating factor of disruptive tech leaders.

Organisations that win and grow significantly faster than their competitors are able to shift their mindset, embrace diverse talent, and build change-ready culture so that they can leverage disruptive technology to reimagine business models and industries.

We know that the pace of change in the world has never been faster. From demographics to economics and social factors, several macro trends are coming together to accelerate change.

Emerging markets are expected to contribute roughly 65% of global economic growth by 2035. Women are projected to inherit 70% of wealth being transferred over the next 20 years.

Employees and citizens of all generations (not just Gen Z) want to be seen and heard and are taking action when they don't feel valued.

The economy is no longer fueled by cheap and free money, and data indicators traditionally used to predict crises and bubbles are no longer reliable signals. Enter cheaper data, with the price of one GB of data falling from $437,500 in 1980 to about $1 in 2023, and suddenly every industry can be powered by data and technology.

And this is before we even talk about artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and other emerging technologies.

More questions than answers

For financial services companies, all of this change is driving more questions than answers. What is the direction of the industry? What are fads and what are systemic shifts? How do organisations balance tactical revenue pressures with the strategic investments needed to be competitive in five years?

How are the planning needs of our current clients changing? How can we solve for challenges, like serving the mass affluent, financial literacy, or building meaningful multi-generational relationships?

Leaders pointing to technology as the answer are focused on one part of the puzzle. Technology is a tool, but without the right environment and application, it will not have the desired outcomes. A disruptive mindset, talent, and culture are critical to harnessing technology that can help organisations be more effective, scale, and drive growth.

Creating a transformative mindset

Mindset is important when considering emerging technologies like AI. If a leader only uses AI to plug into their existing workflows or business models, they will get incremental value but not transformational benefit. History shows us why.

When steam power was replaced by electricity, most workhouse owners replaced their steam pumps with electric pumps and went on as usual. A few visionaries realised they no longer needed a labyrinth of pipes to transport power around the building, reimagined the building, and freed up space for production. Today, this concept is recognised as mass production, but at the time, it was revolutionary—and the visionaries created an outsized competitive advantage.

With a mindset shift to designing for a world for all of the demographic, social, and technology trends discussed above, wealth management organisations have an opportunity to reimagine how disruptive tech can close the advice gap in emerging markets and the mass affluent, personalise the wealth management experience for women, and cater to the needs of the next-gen workforce.

For example, learning from apps like Spotify or TikTok, where Gen Z is engaging in the things they love, with community. Imagine an experience, powered by AI, that allows young people to learn about and manage their wealth in personalised communities.

Convening diverse talent

Talent with a diversity of perspectives, experience and background is critical to challenging conventional thinking and exploring new frontiers. Many believe technologies are a good replacement for human talent, and for all its powers, an AI-augmented human is still much more effective than AI on its own. It's a tool that can help humans reach their full potential—and enable the industry to be more human, not less.

Surgeons, scientists, and mathematicians are some of the professionals that are often viewed as some of the smartest people in a room. They push the boundaries of their success by unlocking and leveraging the diverse talent surrounding them.

A surgeon can only do surgery on one person at a time, but by working with the entire team, they create a hospital where more treatments and programs are possible, with potentially fewer needed surgeries.

Creating a learning mindset in an organisation, empowering people to share their ideas and challenge conventional thinking, and welcoming people with diverse perspectives and experiences, will fuel and accelerate the collective power of talent to capitalise on trends, meet the industry's demands, and reimagine the future.

Cultivating a change-ready culture

Organisational transformation and innovation require teamwork. Moving together is critical when changing direction in order to avoid chaos or dissipated energy.

As important as diverse talent, a collaborative culture is critical. When moving fast, it's easy to miss something that could be a major issue but is not visible to leadership.

If the culture does not allow for people to speak up when the company is moving in the wrong direction or there's a looming risk, the impact can be devastating.

Therefore, nurturing a culture in which leaders actively model this skill by soliciting and acting on critical feedback, as well as building tools for people to feel safe sharing and receiving feedback, can meaningfully impact speed and growth.

Providing access to personalised advice, and serving current and future customers in an impactful way is core to the value propositions of most wealth management organisations.

Emerging technology and disruption will unlock ways to do this more effectively and with scale, and the leaders of this next chapter will be those that embrace a mindset shift, diverse talent, and a collaborative culture.

Important information

The following information can be sourced to S&P Global:

• Emerging markets are expected to contribute roughly 65% of global economic growth by 2035.

The following information can be sourced to Rethinking65:

• Women are projected to inherit 70% of wealth being transferred over the next 20 years.

The following information can be sourced to Proof Point:

• The price of one GB of data was $437,500 in 1980.

The following information can be sourced to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

• The price of one GB of data was about $1 in 2023.