IBS Journal October 2016
49
had the privilege of designing and delivering the FCA’s first ever hackathon, focused on improving access to financial services. To our knowledge this was the first event of its kind by any regulator worldwide. The trust that the FCA placed in DWC when they asked us to plan, manage and deliver this event with our network of banking and tech partners was humbling, to say the least,” he comments.
The venture has since attracted such clients as Canon Business Services, who it supported with a major bid from one of their global client banking clients seeking to transform their digital customer experience, as well as providing insight and consultancy for some of the big four consulting firms. It has also worked with FinTech venture SOSafe which has launched a new API paving the way for its first service, Pocket Reset. This will create a mobile/online interface for the transfer of card details, speeding up and simplifying the process of cancelling cards for both customers and their banks.
“SOSafe, a client that has received a lot of press lately, we are helping in a comprehensive manner from building their pioneering and API-based product Pocket Reset, to providing consultancy on their future products and innovation roadmap, as well as creating the company and product branding and social media strategy. It’s a fascinating client, very agile, ambitious, well-funded and backed by a successful entrepreneur in its founder Hamish Ogston, CBE.”
Additionally, the company searches out mutually beneficial partnerships, where both DWC and its partners can benefit from complementary skills sets, and acquired knowledge and experience. “A great example of this is our partnership with Lean Consulting, which applies Lean Six Sigma disciplines to optimise core business processes, delivering customer experience improvement and cost savings through the identification and elimination of unnecessary tasks and events within a process chain. This collaboration empowers us to better address our clients’ priorities of digitisation, service improvement and operational efficiency. As you might guess, the last nine months has seen us scale very quickly and we are now a 15-person team based in Bath. Which is a wonderful location I might add!”
The business model revolves around providing experienced consultants, designers and engineers who are able to evidence prior experience leading and implementing complex change
and development projects in highly regulated environments. Everyone in the team has prior experience in banks and/or retail environments. “We are all very bright and able visionaries and problem solvers, but I believe experience counts. I don’t hire academic commentators that have yet to make critical decisions and changes, often with less than ideal cards in their hands and with the scrutiny of a Board in front of them. We offer this experience at sensible prices and we move fast, building smart propositions and products with a large network of partners behind us to contribute further, when needed. In the digital age of collaboration and API based platformication of services, I think it makes sense to adopt these principles into one’s business model.”
This being a startup, there have been challenges along the way, a major one revolving around the fear of failure and the constant questioning of whether one is doing enough. This, Wilkinson believes, is the greatest strength of an entrepreneur. “Those assets can be misinterpreted and cause you to retreat to the comfort of what is familiar, safe and proven to be achievable within your current boundaries, or they can drive you forward to think, act and navigate yourself towards personal and professional growth. The challenge, for everyone I would imagine, is to recognise that fear is a temporary/impermanent emotion, a voice communicating something of importance requiring you to stop, think and make some key decisions. It’s not a command to stop, retreat or bury your head in fear. Ultimately one needs to decide how to interpret and respond in these moments and unfortunately it’s all too easy to believe that you are being instructed by instinct to move away from danger. I believe this holds true to the individual entrepreneur as much as it does to executive management committees and main Boards of global companies.”
As for the future, the aim is to continue to build upon previous successes, supporting a number of clients in exceeding their business goals. “I expect to have a team large enough to react with agility to new client requirements, whilst remaining small enough to retain my finger on the pulse of the needs of my colleagues.”
FinTech startups come and go, some crash and burn, some get snapped up by big hitters, some blaze their own trail. But Wilkinson insists he is in it for the long run. “I have no grand plan to scale and exit the business in five years’ time. I’m creating a business here that I enjoy, and with people that I hope will become ever more attached,” he says.
www.ibsintelligence.com
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