Director General of the National Bank of Oman

The National Bank of Oman is putting its innovation ideas into practice and has implemented more than half of the ideas put forward during the annual Ibtikar Innovation Day, organized by employees over the past five years. years. Acting CEO Sayyid Wasfi, Jamshid Al Said, told tahawultech.com why NBO is pushing employees to think and work differently.

What do you think of the ideas that have been put forward at this year's Ibtikar Innovation Day?

I think it's the best Ibtikar I've seen so far. The ideas were clear, innovative and simple – very relevant. That's what we want to see. It's about simplicity, ease of the customer and how you can think beyond what the customer might think of themselves. We must take in advance. At the end of the day, we are all banking customers. There is nothing strange about them. We can inspire ourselves and get ideas of what we expect when we deal with a bank.

These ideas can trigger a broader reflection that would never come from a top-down work culture. This helps you to constantly question badumptions. We must not keep the badumptions too long, because we will inquire. As Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan until we hit each other.

How has Ibtikar ever contributed to the transformation process of the bank?

Over the past four years, more than 60 ideas have been proposed, of which 32 have been implemented within the bank, which represents a very good success rate. Most of them serve as enhancements to our existing products.

Our employees who want to improve, who want to contribute and who are excited by the progress are stars in the making. We have seen people come out of their shells because of this initiative. This helps them to play a role in defining what the NBO can be.

Why is it so important to organize events such as Ibtikar, and how do you see it as a single platform?

I'm really happy with what I saw in this year's edition. This is the fifth year we are performing Ibtikar, and it keeps getting better. The levels of pbadion, solidarity and positive energy are clear – and that's what NBO is. This positive energy is not visible in many institutions like ours. Banks are generally considered obsolete and do not really have soul, but what we saw with Ibtikar proves that this is absolutely not the case with the NBO. That's what makes us different.

We also showed our approach to innovation with events such as our external Hackathon and SME Innovation Award, which involves identifying and harnessing energy and positive ideas. When we do this, good things tend to happen.

How does Ibtikar help motivate participating employees?

When you start working from the first day in a new business, you want to engage and participate in something special and challenging. Platforms such as Ibtikar act in this way, engage everyone and remind us who we are as a bank. These reminders are really important because you are often trapped daily doing things or solving everyday problems that inevitably arise. Our culture is changing, but our staff already believes in NBO values, which makes things much easier.

The high number of young employees at NBO should bode well for its future.

This augurs very well. One of the teams participating in Ibtikar highlighted the youth of our population in Oman. The 16 to 35 age group is a high energy age group, and we are very focused on the youth contact test. We must listen carefully to the signals they give us and what they tell us.

How are you going to make sure that NBO does not just deploy technology for the sake of doing it and that you are pursuing the best possible technology projects?

We do everything we think our customers want. We discover this in different ways. We try not to waste energy or money to pursue the bad things. This does not mean that we will not be experimental – we will do it and we do it to encourage a culture of learning from mistakes. We do everything internally and do not use ready-to-use systems that could block us, which can be a problem in this part of the world.

We want to be agile and responsive. Our agility has brought us here and I think that's what will keep us ahead for the next 2-3 years. It's about having the right people thinking in different ways and encouraging the ability to make mistakes. I'm not just saying that people are our greatest badet, but it's something I deeply believe in.

The world is changing rapidly and we must respond to this change as much as possible and ensure our agility. We make sure every project and product we launch matches what customers want.

Do you believe that organizations have to do things differently, and if they do not do it, they will just copy their competitors?

Innovation is important and it's great if you can have innovations throughout your transformation process. Much of what you do will be an activity already undertaken. In our case, this may not apply only to the banking sector. We are very inspired by the industry. Some things are already existing and not new, but we try to apply them to our own context. Doing something new and different from ourselves is good for positive energy and momentum, and good things result.

Could emerging FinTech companies and existing technology giants be the biggest threat to incumbent banks?

I recently read the story of Kakao Talk, a social media site in South Korea that decided to launch a banking platform. Two hours after the launch, it had 300,000 customers. In a few weeks he had received millions of dollars in deposits and now has nearly 10 million customers in a country of 50 million people. When you read that as a banking executive, it's pretty scary. We must be aware of that, but in my opinion, our industry will not be completely disrupted. Some players in the industry may be late or denial, and you end up as a BlackBerry, a Kodak or a Nokia. Some companies will become dinosaurs along the way, but we will not be part of them. I'm pretty sure the industry as a whole will not become a dinosaur, but we have to adapt.

Fintech has its own problems to enter the banking sector. Banking is essentially based on trust, the technical aspects and the underlying processes, so the barriers to entry are very high. That being said, Fintech is definitely bringing something interesting to the table and, rather than considering it a threat, I think we should embrace it and see how we can work with the good guys.

Do you believe that banks often exaggerate their level of innovation and that they are actually very conservative in their approach to change?

I do not know if banks are even famous for their innovation. If you look at the banking sector, we are probably behind many other sectors that have taken digital evolution much faster. I guess it has to do with the old school cultures that exist in the bank and that have always worked. Banks have been successful in making money, so why should they change? I think the answer to this question is about us – the choice they have is to change or die. I imagine that the next five to ten years will see some of the greatest changes we have seen over the last century in all sectors.

When we are thinking of transforming ourselves digitally, we are not competing with other banks, because I do not think they have set a very high standard. We compare ourselves with the actors in other sectors who have done very well and have provided a very good customer experience, which we aspire to.