‘Do, fail fast, then adapt’ to help drive value amid digital shift: StanChart’s Grace Chan

HAVING an agile approach – quickly implementing changes, failing fast, then adapting to failures – can help banks navigate the ever-changing retail banking space, said Standard Chartered’s general manager of personal banking, Grace Chan.

As the retail banking space is constantly transforming and facing disruptions, banks should develop an iterative process to fine-tune services to meet customer needs, said Chan, who is also head of cards and personal loans.

“I don’t believe in silver bullets, because nothing is easy. But I believe in doing, failing very quickly if needed to, and then adjusting,” she said.

Chan noted that her experiences living and working in several cities globally have allowed her to develop diverse perspectives on issues to drive further growth.

“I’ve seen many different cultures and models of working. In an industry like ours that’s constantly changing, these experiences are really critical to… drive that transformation, because every company is a bit different,” she said.

Here are some excerpts from her conversation with The Business Times:

How did you end up here?

I have had over 20 years of experience in retail banking, private banking and fintech, working with banks, merchants, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), corporates and governments across the United States, Asia-Pacific and China.

The role at StanChart attracted me, very much because this brand resonates with me.

I grew up in Asia, so I know very much that StanChart has a strong brand.

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And similar to my background, the bank is localised, but yet connected globally.

If there is a term I could use to describe myself, it would be “glocal”, or having local and global perspective all tied into one.

I grew up in an Asian society – raised in Singapore – but I’ve lived and worked in more than 15 cities globally.

Can you elaborate on a key trend you see within your area?

Digital adoption has accelerated in recent years, especially with Covid-19.

Consumers are not only used to it, but they expect it. It’s table stakes to deliver these products and services seamlessly and integrated.

Forming synergies and co-creating with partners and clients, while leveraging digital innovation, is key to not just deliver personalised client experience but to deliver it at the point in time where clients need it most.

Everyone is working very hard to improve the experience of their own ecosystem, but now it is about going beyond your own ecosystem and working with partners.

And that is where you can co-create products that will be better than what we can do single-handedly.

Partnerships are also key in the value proposition space. The company, which is able to bring in this sort of unique value proposition that resonates with consumers, will be able to really drive the spend to cards.

How does this affect your role?

Given that more than 88 per cent of our retail services are already digitalised, we can then more easily build application programming interfaces and embed them into our partner ecosystem to capture clients at the point of entry.

We need also to be very selective in the partner that we pick, and we need to do a lot of due diligence.

Also, in an environment where consumers’ voices are very key, being able to hear directly from clients is an exciting step in product creation.

I believe in doing, failing very quickly if need to, and then adjusting. And that is the sort of the agile, transformative approach that I also hope to continue in StanChart.