Global big tech companies have dipped their toes in the water with payments and some in China are now expanding into the provision of credit, insurance, savings and other investment products, either directly or in cooperation with established financial institutions.

With the exception of Netflix, the so-called FAANG companies (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google) and their Chinese counterparts BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), are all exploring or offering financial services.

The Royal Commission into the Australian financial industry has unearthed some nasty truths about the nation’s Big Four banks including revelations that they provided shoddy home loan, credit card and financing information, charged fees for no service, intentionally misled the regulator and lost customer data.

Customers of the financial services industry (FSI) have become exceptionally fickle. They expect to interact with their banks and insurance providers, among others, on their own terms – through their preferred channel and at their preferred time. Furthermore, the value of brand loyalty has diminished, with research firm YouGov finding that 34 per cent of Australians would abandon their banks following a bad experience.

Sydney, 3 November 2016 – No partnership can potentially have a more immediate impact on business performance than Chief Financial Officers and Chief Human Resource Officers joining forces to work collaboratively together.  Yet human resources (HR) departments and the Chief Financial Officer’s (CFO) office have historically not worked as collaborators.  

This week, Fifth Quadrant's Head of CX Research, Dr. Steve Nuttall, sat down with Flamingo.io founder and CEO Dr. Catriona Wallace for a one-on-one chat about her experience starting up Flamingo.io and taking it to the US and globally.

Listen as Steve also dives into how Flamingo is redefining the intelligent assistant and what the rise of AI means for FinTech both in the US and Australia.

Business Game Plans For Success

A recent report released by American Express with research conducted by ACA Research (our sister company) revealed that nearly one out of four mid-sized companies do not have a game plan. Considering that more than half of these businesses predict no growth in the immediate future, it is clear that businesses can no longer afford to focus only on their short-term goals. According to the survey, companies that have a long-term game plan tend to perform the best. Growth is the most popular priority amongst game planners, and it is closely followed by improvements in technology, better operational efficiency and more skilled staff. But the fact that Australia ranks 21^st amongst the 32 countries surveyed for innovation by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows that there is a long way to go.