Podcast Archives - Page 3 of 3

On Episode 3 of The Disruptive Mindset Podcast we had the pleasure of sitting down with Panagiotis Kriaris, the Head of Business Development at Unzer. He’s had a fantastic career, starting off in banking and then moving across to the FinTech industry. With a deep understanding of the relationship between technology, this is a man who works hard and plays hard, in business and sport. We picked his brain about the state of the FinTech industry and his insights into its future. Read on for some of the highlights from our conversation!

Within the industry there’s been a slowdown, like somebody has turned the tap off overnight. What’s your perspective on that?

We are living in maybe the most challenging macro situation of incineration in the UK. I think this is influencing not only the FinTech space and financial services, but everything in general. The whole economy is affected. Now, you could say that this is something that was done overnight, or that was not expected, or that was taking place in a short amount of time, because the industry has been experiencing a boom. The only way seemed to be up, right? And then all of a sudden, you have a pandemic. After the pandemic, you have the adjustment, which is causing some problems, and all of a sudden you have a war, then you have inflation. If you had tried to describe to somebody a couple of years ago that you would have a global pandemic so nobody would be able to go out, you would have inflation to double digit numbers, you would have a war in Europe, they wouldn’t believe you. Despite that it’s still happening and it’s influencing all sides of the economy, including FinTech.

We are now experiencing a sort of a period whereby you have to go back to the basics. When you go back to the fundamentals, growth still remains a factor. Profitability and sustainability for companies has now become much more important, whereas financing is much more selective. On the other hand, that’s a challenge for everybody. For the companies who have a sustainable and viable plan, they might benefit from this, but it goes without saying that within this journey, or within these chains, a lot of companies are going to go out of business. Companies might have to change the planning, or they might have to pivot, as we say, but at the end of the day, that’s something that you cannot do a lot about. The only thing that you can do is to adjust to the new reality. It’s not the strongest that are going to survive, but the ones that are most able to adjust. I think that’s what the industry has been experiencing over the past months.

What advice would you give a company or candidate, looking at the road ahead?

If you look at companies, the challenge now is to look at their business model and try to understand if this is a fit for what they’re now experiencing. It might have an effect a couple of years from now, or it might have been affected during the pandemic, but might not be fit for right now. The question is, how long can you survive without changing your model? How can you change your metrics from from a growth based approach to a profitability based approach? Many of the things that you would do to expand or add other products or segments might have to take a backseat at some point. So I think this is a point where you have to review your plan, your strategy, your clients and your product. Now you’re sitting in a very different macroeconomic situation, and we don’t know if this is going to last. Decide what kind of changes are needed for you to make progress, then at some point, you’re gonna have to make decisions that are not easy. You might have to restructure. It’s going to affect the employees. You’re seeing many companies that are laying off people because they don’t need them anymore, or they cannot afford having the same codebase as they used to have before.

Now, on a personal level, this is also something that one has to take into account when considering a change. On the one hand, it might be a bit more risky because the macro situation has changed, so there is no guarantee that things are going to continue going up. The option of going down now is a real one. Of course on the other hand, you have opportunities, right? For some people the crisis might be the trigger that they were missing to jump and to change places, because they have maybe been thinking of doing something or seeing an opportunity in a certain segment, but they have always been very reluctant in taking certain initiatives. The crisis might be the trigger that they needed to do something that otherwise they might not want to do. It depends a lot on the personal situation, but that might be one of the considerations happening right now.

What’s going to take your energy moving forward for the next year? Where are you going to focus?

I spend my days solving problems. It might be something that came up as a challenge or that it’s not working well, and somebody has to deal with it. You take up the job, or let’s say you take up an initiative, or you might want to start on a new product, or a new service for a segment that is not addressed by the company right now. It’s about solving a problem for the company, right? At the end of the day, it’s how you look at it, but for me, it’s mainly about improving things and addressing pain points. It can be on a macro level such as the changing economy, or it can be on a micro level such as a process in your company. If you spot something that needs improvement, you need to take action. It might be something that is not working on a bigger scale. I am doing my best as far as I can to influence things, but I usually don’t worry about things that I cannot make sense of. Let’s say you’re spending energy and resources on something that is fine, right? If you’re trying to hit a wall that is not moving, then you’d better realise that it’s a wall. Then you can go and spend your resources and energy on something that you can impact. Go and open a door instead. If you don’t have a key, you just have to look for the key. Solve the problem.

To hear more of Panagiotis Kriaris’s insights into the current state of the FinTech industry, tune into the full episode of The Disruptive Mindset Podcast on Spotify here and Apple Podcast here.

On Episode 2 of The Disruptive Mindset Podcast, we welcomed the legendary Gary Harrison to the show and asked him all of our burning questions about the FinTech industry. Gary is the CEO of OARO, a global IAM solutions provider. We spoke about everything from Gary’s passion for FinTech to his biggest pet peeves. Read on for some of the highlights from that conversation.

What’s really grabbing your attention at the moment?

Technology has always been very interesting. Digitalisation is happening so rapidly out there, and the wave we’re going through at the moment is moving at a speed that we just haven’t seen before in our generation. The use of blockchain, API, cloud AI and robotics, and the way they’re being applied is absolutely phenomenal. The take up of this new technology in 2022 is just moving at a speed that I’ve never seen before. Within OARO, we’re pretty excited about a couple of aspects within it. One is around our eco friendly credentials within blockchain. As we know, one of the biggest issues that we have within the world at the moment is climate change and co2 emissions. If you look into the blockchain world, the amount of co2 that a blockchain creates is enormous. We’re leading the way in terms of having a carbon Net Zero blockchain, nobody else has got anything else like it within the marketplace. We’re particularly proud of our ESG credentials around our carbon net zero footprint. That and what we’re doing around it are what I’m particularly excited about.

What’s working well for you at the moment?

The tech space that we’re in is moving at a rapid rate of knots. That’s both a challenge and an opportunity. One of the propositions that we launched about 12 months ago was around non fungible tokens, or NFTs, which lends itself to the blockchain infrastructure very well. Now, I don’t know about you, but 12 months ago, I hadn’t really kind of come across NFT’s. Now you go and ask your hairdresser or your barber, or your cleaner, about an NFT and they will all know about NFT’s, they’ll all have a view around what an NFT is. I think it’s amazing. I’ve never seen a take up of a particular kind of technology proposition so quickly. The maturity of the NFTs is phenomenal too.

I think for OARO, it’s about creating highly valued and disruptive propositions within the NFT space. So yes, we do some tokenization around artwork in gaming, it’s a huge area of spend and interest within NFT’s. For me though, that’s not really what the technology is about, for me it’s about where it’s going. We’re trying to make lives easier and take friction out of processes. We’ve really applied the tokenization elements of NFT’s around the digitalization of certificates from all of them, for want of a better word. A couple of examples of where we’ve deployed it and where we’re rolling it out are the banking and capital markets, particularly in the structured products commodity section. It’s a really interesting kind of asset class within banking, which is very paper driven, very manual, very legacy-based or very high touch-point oriented. We’ve taken eyes off those contracts, so you’re able to trade those contracts openly on an NFT platform. Say for example in agricultural commodities trading, we’ve tokenized the crop in the field and that crop yields and grows. So does that NFT token, it grows, then you’re able to change that token on an NFT trading platform. What it really does is turn a relatively illiquid asset class into a liquid asset class overnight.

The other areas where we’ve applied that process is in the real estate space, especially for first time buyers where it’s much more difficult to get onto the property ladder. There was a time when it wasn’t too difficult to get onto the property ladder. Now, as a student coming out of university, trying to get on there is remarkably different. But imagine if you could fractionally tokenize a property, so you could own a percentile of that property. It gives you a foot onto that property ladder. But again, you can also trade on that percentage of your ownership for particular property as well. So for example, 1 Hyde Park is completely out of our pricing range, but imagine if you fractionally tokenize 1 Hyde Park, you could own 1000ths or 100,000ths of 1 Hyde Park in the centre of London. You had that as an investment vehicle to move forward with, you’re able to have that foothold within the property sector. We’re seeing a huge area of demand going out in the last year with a first of a kind proposition, and both of those examples that I’ve given you are in two very high growth markets. We’re seeing a huge amount of take up within those types of propositions.

It sounds like the investment world is completely changing, it’s not just for the few that know about it anymore, it’s actually enabling others to get involved. Would you say that’s accurate?

That’s right. Another great example would be if you’re into wine, we’ve just set up an NFT white wine trading platform for a very large Argentinian Vinyard. You can invest in the crop for new yields of wine or in bottles of high end wine that’s put into storage, and you can use those as an asset or a funding vehicle. There’s lots of different areas and cases in which you can apply this from an ESG perspective. We’ve just done some really exciting work with a large global real estate business. That’s also a huge chunk of the Amazon Rainforest that’s been fractionally tokenized, so you’re able to buy a piece of the Amazon rainforest now to try and protect it and stop the further development and building of it. There are so many different use cases around it. One of the biggest issues around real estate is financing it. What we were also able to do through NFT technology was set up a financing platform. So if you wanted to own number 2 Hyde Park or if you wanted to go and invest in the Amazon Rainforest, you could help finance it and fund an infrastructure project programme, which is achievable through tokenization.

It also has wider applications. Canada is using our blockchain and the NFT technology and biometrics that we call a seamless ticketless travel experience. I don’t know about you, but when I go through an airport, it can be quite tiresome. You go through the doors, you get your passport out, you show it to the check in desk, you fumble around trying to find your ticket, you then go through security, your passport comes out again, your ticket comes out again, you get to the lounge, your ticket comes out again… In our process we’re using our biometrics so you can now travel seamlessly through most of Canada’s airports by only stopping once to show your passport as you go into that airport. The use of auto technology is creating a huge amount of value for lots of people out there through the use of our technology, which is quite exciting.

To hear more about Gary Harrison’s insights into the development of technology in the finance sector tune into the full episode of The Disruptive Mindset Podcast on Spotify here and Apple Podcast here.

Our brand new podcast started with a bang! The Disruptive Mindset Podcast is hosted by Emma Jones CEO at Disruptive Hiring, who takes a deep dive behind the scenes of executives and leaders in the IT and the tech industries. We tap into their models for success, lessons they’ve learned and what makes them disruptive in their businesses and sectors. On our first episode, Emma Jones was joined by a great guy who is a natural leader in his field of expertise, who has a vibrant past, and is now sitting on the board of a leading financial services and digital transformation consulting firm.

Read on for just some of the highlights from our fantastic conversation with John Gaunt!

What was your planned destination when you left school?

I think the reality is I didn’t have a plan. After I left school, I ended up doing three things. I was conscripted so I went to the military. When I got out I hitchhiked around Europe and the United States for a year. Then I went to university. I went to university later than most people would have gone to university but I had these two life experiences that other people didn’t. In terms of a learning experience, I think the most important experience for me was what I would now call a gap year, that year in Europe in the United States. It taught me that I could survive anywhere, which was a very empowering moment in my life, because I learned that I didn’t need anybody else. In the military, having to be disciplined and get up and be shouted at and do all that sort of thing gave me a sense of inner strength. Add to that my academic experience at university, l learned from those three things that I could execute my intellect and ideas in a confident fashion, and I wasn’t going to be bullied or be beholden to anybody because I knew I could survive. I had no plans for my destination, I just got there. 

Where did you go from there?

I was offered a position at a mining house to join their leadership development programme. It was right at the height of the apartheid wars, and what was happening was because there was intransigence on a political level, everything was being brought to the workplace. Trade unions were making hyper powerful demands that were almost excessive in terms of what a business should have to bear. You had no option but to deal with these things because there was a logjam at a political level. I found that opportunity to be really motivating, so I joined ran mines at the time. It was really interesting to be part of the South African transition journey and see it from the ground level in that sense. It was a really interesting time to be a very small cog in a very large machine. 

When did success start for you, and what did it look like? 

Success is getting a job. It’s getting your first paycheck. It’s getting promoted. I think people are often a little unrealistic in their expectations of what success is, they see it as a big thing that you’re always aspiring to, but there is success in every day. I suppose much like coming out of school, I don’t really have a goal. I’m not one of these people that has a five year career plan, I’ve never had that. I think that’s offset against the issue that I’ve understood for my entire working life – I’m going to get nothing for nothing. I am my own career manager. I need to manage myself irrespective of what’s going on in the organisation around me. Having a holistic view of what my career might be without any preconceived ideas of ‘I must be earning x by that age or doing y by age z’ gave me the opportunity to walk through open doors which I might not have seen otherwise.

If you look at any successful person, they never get there on their own, you have to have a support network. What’s your support network like?

My wife is my number one supporter. I’ve always been a relationship person, so I’ve always engaged with people and spoken to people. I’ve embraced maintaining relationships and friendships, wherever they were, before it was cool to do it. Once a week I reach out to 10 people that I hadn’t spoken to that week and just kept that connection alive. It’s amazing how much friendships can impact you. But it’s not all easy and I struggled a little bit as well through these moments. I’m lucky I come from a very multicultural family. My grandparents on my paternal side were Irish and English, then on my mother’s side they’re Italian. I grew up knowing the requirements to respect cultural differences between my mom’s side of her family and my dad’s side of the family. Those skills have helped me a lot. 

The part of me that struggled during my career was that I’ve always been quite direct. 20 years ago, 25 years ago, bosses didn’t take well to subordinates telling them in an honest and candid way that they messed up, we didn’t agree with them, etc. I struggled a little bit with relationships with one or two bosses, because I seemed to be a little bit insubordinate, maybe a little bit too direct, that sort of thing. But I learned very quickly that if you speak the truth when you can, even if you get put aside, you gain respect from the individual that you told it to. 

Have you got a favourite story that’s happened at work?

I got fired once. I was working for a company in South Africa who had just been through a merger. The chief executive of the company that did the acquisition actually wanted someone to manage their relationships with trade unions, which is where I’ve been and how I’ve grown and said I was technically a good fit for it. This would have been a major step up for me in an industry and the very direct conversation was that we have someone in the union that we pay, and they get us the results that we want. I took on this person who was the chairperson of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed company and I told them that what they were doing was unethical, so I was basically escorted off. I was fired the next morning. 

We all make mistakes. Yeah, I probably could have been a little more subtle without compromising the watch, but now I’ve got no regrets about getting fired. It affords you the opportunity for reflection. Are you going in the right direction? Was this the right thing for you? Have you become too complacent? Should you do this? Should you do that? You get that old cliche which says, ‘everything’s for a reason’, so maybe this is gonna be the best thing that ever happened to you. The other side of that coin is that people who work with me and work for me love my candour because I never make things personal or argue so they can come and ask me any question. Unless it’s something which is top-secret I’ll just tell them. Actually I’ve had comments about speaking truth as a power from subordinates, and they’ve been some of the most fulfilling moments in my day.

I’m not scared to call bullshit when I see it. The reality is that everybody – me, you, everybody in the world – makes mistakes along the way. Some of us are less good at admitting it and getting out of it and we sometimes need to be told. Don’t be scared to go to, ‘Joe Bloggs, what the hell are you doing?’ As I became more senior, in terms of years and experience, that ability to be candid with Chief execs, directors and other C suite people has been one of the really enriching elements of my life. It allows you to have really meaningful conversations. It’s been really interesting in terms of coaching people in that space.

Have you got a final destination in mind for your career? 

I’m gonna continue to walk through doors. I’ve lived an absolutely blessed life with the job that I got. It took me around the world, allowed me to meet remarkable people, and gave my kids my family life experiences which they could never have dreamt of. I’m a very lucky human being and I don’t take that for granted. I think the future has to be that I want to help  nurture people to go on the same or similar type journey. Hopefully I can do a little bit of that. An ex-boss of mine, when he decided to retire, said ‘I want to do three things; stay relevant business wise, I want to do some charity work, and I want to teach. He went away, and he became a board member of a tech company and a board member of a fashion retailer. He did that for 10 or 12 years after he retired, then he became the finance director or governor for a global religious group. He became a teacher at his local business school for like 10 or 12 years. He had a really fulfilling life. He earned money. He stayed relevant in what he knew. He gave back to society, and he gave back to people through that. So I think that if I could do half as well as him I would be happy with where I end up. 

We hope John’s stories and unconventional ideas of success have inspired you to think differently about your own career path. If you’re looking for your next adventure in the tech industry, reach out to a member of our team today. To listen to the full episode of The Disruptive Mindset Podcast, click here for Spotify or click here for Apple Podcasts.