The recent trends of the e-market industry have created a perfect storm in the financial industry that has been one of the key players in business and technology, with the rapid development of digital information and rise of the big data, the impact dwells on sustainability and cost-efficiency of each business decision made by business leaders while keeping their level in the field with their competitors.
The finance sector has been good in keeping up with the advancements of transactions to provide more ways of monetary exchange. From cash to cryptocurrency, the continuous improvement of banking and financial services are deliberately rising, demanding a fast-paced and secured negotiation that can keep up with the spontaneity and expectations of customers. As an executive, keeping an eye on the underlying factors that drive changes in the industry can help you decide on what suitable steps can be taken to provide a clear customer-led and cost-efficient strategy for your business.
Here are some factors that may influence the allocation of assets:
- Macroeconomics – the current situation of the variety of economic concerns such as increase of price levels, national income, gross domestic product (GDP) and supply and demand of services can affect the distribution of resources and may create an additional organizational workforce to gather relative data for your strategy.
- Technology – keeping up with technology is a need than a want in terms of accounting and safety of your assets. A leader willing to adopt in these changes is the one that stays on top.
- Organizational Needs – in a survey conducted by PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), 74% of CEOs have started rethinking their hiring strategy that can be more aligned according to the demands of high technology and those who have skills that are quite irreplaceable by today’s machines.
- Investment and investor relations – Investors come from a wide spectrum of origins, while all of them has their preferences of service, they share the same expectation when doing transactions: That terms, products, and banks deliver transparency and clarity which might affect interest rates from the investor.
- Customer Impact – This comes from the experiences from potential and returning customers that leave feedbacks after each transaction. The changes of your assets according to distribution might affect the focus of your objective.
The factors that affect the financial industry are both external and internal in value, it requires information and communication technologies to be able to manage and gather necessary materials in building up appropriate business models with adequate financial supply.
It is a critical step for an e-leader to seek ways in dealing accounting and finance without necessarily sacrificing a huge number of resources, however, being a leader open to possibilities of problem-solving believes collaboration is also a solution, thus, the rise of outsourced financial services.
Outsourcing as defined by entrepreneur.com, means “the practice of having certain job functions done outside a company instead of having an in-house department or employee to handle.” It can be another corporate affiliation or an individual.
Businesses have been increasingly collaborating with third parties to carry out financial services that usually normal business organizations would single-handedly undertake, however, according to a comprehensive study by PwC on outsourcing, collaborative partnerships deliver 30-40% year-over-year revenue growth, and beyond cost-saving and access to quality talents, one of the benefits of getting outsourced financial services frees your own physical resources, improving flexibility in allocation, and changing the rules of competition.
Reasons why firms outsource:
- Resource efficiency
- Business flexibility
- Outsourcing specializations
- Improved customer relationships
- Expansion probability
Connected thinking and cooperation is a key to transformation. As written in an article by Mckinsey on CEO’s role in leading transformation, it is about “Building a strong and committed top team. To harness a transformative power of the top team, CEOs must make tough decisions about who has the ability and motivation to make the journey.” A finance leader is responsible for driving effective risk management strategies, equipped with the latest technology and trustworthy partnerships; he is known to provide the best analytical insight for business decisions.