Bank chief seeks flexibility in ‘tech world’

Business organisations, including banks, will fall behind except they are compliant to or become platforms that create access and collaboration in the digital world.

This is because technology is fast facilitating changes that were considered impossible about 30 years ago, and causing companies to grow exponentially rather than linear.

The Managing Director/chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust Bank (Gtbank), Segun Agbaje, made the disclosure on Tuesday, in Lagos, at the ongoing Social Media Week Lagos (#SMW Lagos).

According to him, while there is no permanent solution to the challenge of fraud with the technology world, the “percentage of transactions that are susceptible to fraud is clearly immaterial to the larger level with the same technology. So, I don’t think that people should be scared.”

However, he said that “flexibility and adaptability” are now the basics for banks and other business organisations to keep at par with the technology-driven business trends.

Agbaje, who addressed the forum on “Making Sense of a World in Motion,” said “the currency today is access, not capital,” just as “collaboration and partnership are now critical and strategic to success,” hence they have to become a platform to survive.

Stating that innovative concepts drive today’s business world, he urged entrepreneurs to shun the fear of failure, adding that every new business concept must take change as a given.

According to him, the only legacies that do not change but give businesses edge are values of “integrity, transparency, hardwork and discipline.”

The banker said the second value that does not change is the customer, who will remain “king, special and at the centre of everything. You have to begin to think of bespoke solutions to a lot of people’s needs.”

He further stressed the need for the entrepreneur to drive a value-centric business model, adding that when all these are factored in, the fastmoving world will actually come in slow motion, making adaptability and innovations easy.

The bank chief said he was building a business model where one could “create a platform and partner anybody who has a service to offer.