In recent years, changes have swept through the financial services industry, requiring firms to think about how they operate. To adapt, firms have had to become more responsive and ‘agile’.
The Asset & Wealth Management sector is facing a range of challenges, which are also creating the need to think about how similar ideas can be applied.
Factors driving the need to design an agile organisation
- Firms face a continued squeeze on margins as the industry responds to structural changes, increased fee pressure and the shift from active to passive investment management
- Impacts from regulatory changes continue to play a role, with a growing focus on regulatory reporting, liquidity and risk management set to impact margin at the turn of the decade
- Heightened competition, the consolidation of managers and the changing demand of clients mean that firms are focusing on how they bring propositions to market and how they develop compelling offerings
- Firms are focusing on managing their scarce resources and technology spend whilst aiming to develop lean and agile operating models
We know it takes time and effort to transform a firm to meet these challenges. Our research shows that over 90% of Asset & Wealth Managers are exploring Agile ways of working, but only 5% believe that they have made significant progress. Our experience tells us, that simply taking part is not enough and that transformative endeavours need vision, drive, structure and commitment.
What can we learn from others
The good news is that we can draw on many examples of what works well, and avoid the pitfalls that other firms have fallen foul of. Some of the hallmarks to look out for;
Lots of sizzle but no steak
Firms often fall into the trap of going agile in name but failing to fulfil the level of cultural & structural change required to realise the full benefits of the methodology. The inevitable outcome is a return to old habits; a costly experiment gone wrong.
Taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut
At the other end of the spectrum, opting for a bulky enterprise-wide transformation approach without having the necessary foundations and best practices in place will lead to the ‘busy fool’ syndrome where a mass of work is being done in the name of agile, but very little value is being delivered.
Alpha’s Enterprise Agility Framework
If you’d like to know more about setting up your Enterprise Agility journey then please get in contact with us using the details below.
You can also download our Digital Readiness Survey to see how you compare to your peers in the industry or read further insight from our experts in our article on ‘Driving Enterprise Agility’.
About the Author
Kevin O'Shaughnessy
Director and Head of Digital & Agile
Kevin is a Director at Alpha and leads our Digital & Agile practice. He has over 20 years of experience of driving digital transformation across the Financial Services Sector and in particular in the Wealth and Asset Management space. His experience covers the full range of digital topics which he has deployed across a mix of channels including Direct to Consumer, Intermediated and platforms.