Rebeca Ehrnrooth, Equilibrium Capital and CEMS Alumni Association President

Attending a New Year’s luncheon on 31 December 2019, we played a game that involved predicting the world in 2020. Some of the questions included: would Uber become profitable? Would the three-decade bond rally finally come to an end? Would the US hit a recession?

Unlike any of our predictions based on a traditional approach to business and predicting, we now know that 2020 became the year where business, professional and personal plans were turned upside down, reshaped and put-on hold. The proverbial black swan had arrived.

As revealed in a new CEMS Guide to Leadership in a Post-COVID-19 World, to which I contributed, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed deficiencies in the 20^th Century vision of leadership, giving a rare opportunity to question the status quo.

So, what are the main lessons from 2020?

1. Humans are enormously adaptive.  This is not an extinction scenario. The world is getting used to dealing with global human disaster which may become a recurring event. Life continues guided by new parameters.

1. No sector or country is immune to rapid change. Just as the leveraged finance and equity markets ground to a halt during the Global Financial Crisis, we have seen a disruption in the financial markets (including M&A) in 2020, including a significant redistribution of wealth between sectors; think tech vs airlines and the hospitality industry. When a market is disrupted it has secondary and tertiary effects such as less work for accountants, lawyers, financiers etc.

1. Location is not as important anymore. The belief that finance staff need to be based in one of the financial capitals to be effective has been forever altered. Pursuing a career in finance from anywhere is becoming possible. However, it’s likely that over time, financial controls and human interaction will move the work model back towards the traditional office approach, as work is a critical sanctuary for people. While working from home may allow more time for family, chores and sports, it is mainly effective for people who already have their internal and external networks. For junior employees it presents a notable challenge as they may be forced to spend their formative years without a chance to really build their networks.

1. Change is likely to be lasting. The opportunity for alternative finance and tech focused providers is enormous and 2020 will accelerate this shift. For example, many retail banks are providing rather poor customer service, blaming the pandemic. Even the most loyal customers will be heading elsewhere. For recent graduates and current students this is a major shift; future winners and key employers may not be names we are used to seeing in the headlines.

1. There will be a spotlight on leaders with visionary strategy and understanding of the operations. 2020 showed many politicians and business leaders behaving like they were playing a game of snakes and ladders, rather than executing a thought-out strategy. The next wave of thoughtful leadership is urgently required.

1. Collaboration leads to success. The definition of a pandemic is an infectious disease prevalent worldwide. A global problem requires a collaborative solution rather than each country and industry on their own. Quoting Steven Riley, professor of infectious disease dynamics at Imperial College London: “Once you have the knowledge and you share the knowledge, then you are able to take measures to push transmission much lower”. This principle is transferable to management education. In a world more complex than ever, investing in a degree is hard currency. Combined with the full global alumni network, corporate partners and schools, CEMS is capital that doesn’t depreciate.

1. Resilience has become a watch word. Saint-Exupéry’s quote resonates with me: “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” We are in a new paradigm – so prepare for the next change. For COVID-19, while we hope that the vaccine will soon upon us, the broader long-term positive challenge remains.

By John Hunter, Head of Banking and Fiduciaries, Finance Isle of Man

Reflections on the most surreal year

The Covid-19 pandemic has completely changed the world as we knew it, resulting in catastrophic loss of life and fears of a downturn hang over global economies like a sword of Damocles. In the UK, the new strain has further exacerbated the situation. As I am sure many have already said we are living in what could be called the most surreal times. People have been trying to cope with this “new normal”, by changing their lifestyles and evolving behaviours.

The Isle of Man responded swiftly to the pandemic by closing its borders and enforcing social restrictions which everyone respected and adhered to. Socially and culturally the Island demonstrated all the good things that come from living on a relatively small Island where community still means so much.

The Isle of Man’s financial services sector adapted quickly, seamlessly transitioning to working from home. The banks too adopted flexible remote working practices and continued to support clients around the world helping them navigate the challenging situation and making the most of any opportunities that arose.

Although there is no substitute for face-to-face interactions, we all embraced web-conferencing platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom to stay connected with contacts around the world and build and nurture business relationships, whether it was with financial services firms or high net worth individuals looking to relocate to the Island.

Furthermore, a priority for the Isle of Man has been to reinvigorate the business and cultural ties with South Africa. In a normal world, we would have travelled to the country, held in-person meetings with businesses and industry representatives and talked about building on our wonderful historic ties. However, because of the scale and breadth of disruption we had to change all our plans! We hosted a virtual roadshow which comprised a series of webinars exploring why it has never been more important for South African businesses and individuals to choose the right jurisdiction for long term financial planning.

Looking ahead to the future

We are all hoping that the global rollout of vaccines will provide the pathway to some form of return to normality and all the things people are missing will be back. Like amidst all periods of immense turmoil, interesting, new possibilities have emerged such as the revolution in work culture and a renewed importance of being close to nature and green spaces is. And these possibilities can help reshape society for the better.

The global economic recovery and rebuild might seem further away in the current environment especially amidst the new lockdowns. But we are confident in the resilience of economies and are hopeful that different industrial sectors and governments working together would result in green shoots.

The financial services industry has an important role to play in getting the world economy back on its feet. It is a core component of the solution to continue facilitating the financing of corporates, as well as to develop sustainable finance and nurture digital technologies which have proven to be vital during the pandemic. The sector should continue its cooperation and collaboration with governments and regulators to ensure efficient capital flows and financial stability for businesses and individuals.

Banks too have a crucial role to play as they are instrumental to the effective transmission of monetary policies and stimulus packages. As mentioned in a report by EY: “Financial insecurity in the wake of COVID-19 will require banks to boost consumer confidence and help build a more resilient working world.”

We expect the Isle of Man’s financial services sector and banks to continue navigating the situation with resilience as they have been doing thus far and contributing to the global recovery process. Also, we truly hope this will be our busiest year ever (subject to our ability to travel), with an extensive global schedule of planned activity to promote the Island as an international financial centre of excellence and innovation. Personally, I had planned to be in South Africa for the British & Irish Lions tour, but regrettably, it might not take place and as such we will look forward to catching up with friends there as and when we can.

Conclusion

No doubt, there are significant challenges for the world ahead but as Albert Einstein said: “in the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity”. And it is this opportunity that we all need to work together to identify and make the most of. We are confident that in 2021 the Isle of Man will continue to support financial services businesses help their clients, employees, and the wider society through these surreal times. We are all in this together.

By Jack Shepherd, Legal AI Practice Lead, iManage RAVN

Despite all the challenges of the past year – the COVID-19 pandemic chief among them – global banking and finance did not come to a grinding halt in 2020. Many finance professionals switched to remote working at the drop of a hat, and operations were largely unaffected.

2021 looks to continue in a similar vein in the short to medium term. With people having undergone such a radical change of behaviour in 2020, it is the perfect time for everybody to embrace the opportunities presented by this for knowledge management (KM). As different approaches to KM consolidate, people are realising that KM and innovation are two sides of the same coin. At the same time, knowledge sharing is occurring less frequently in unstructured forums such as “popping your head around the door” and structured processes are now emerging. This is a very exciting time for KM.

The Methods Have Merged

Until recently, two distinct approaches to KM have been taken. European businesses, for example, have long relied on creating content and knowhow, while the US has tended to favour technology, search, and data.

These approaches are now starting to come together. The content creators are realising the importance of capturing structured data to inform their content. The data curators are realising the importance of feeding their data into a tangible end-product. By combining the two distinct approaches, business have made the first important step towards the next generation of KM.

Those who consume knowledge are ready for these two approaches to merge. A decade ago, many working in banking and finance took pride in saying “every transaction is different”. Now, thanks to the business imperative to reduce the time and cost of transacting, there appears to be recognition that even the most complex banking and finance projects have repeatable elements.

Jack Shepherd

By being rigorous around capturing past experiences, creating taxonomies, and establishing a knowledge curation process, businesses can start to leverage their data to improve their knowledge content – and ultimately, their service delivery. Deals are no longer created from scratch; there is always a starting point, no matter how complex a deal appears to be.

Is KM the New Innovation?

Technology and innovation have very much been seen as “game changers” in the banking and finance world. In contrast, people who leave client-facing roles (such as being a practicing lawyer) to take up KM positions have been seen as “taking a step down”. Given the opportunities KM presents for businesses – particularly by coupling data with content – this is starting to change.

There is a growing recognition that innovation doesn’t happen in isolation. It requires an in-depth understanding of internal processes, and KM is ideally positioned to provide this in-depth understanding.

Businesses have rightly asked themselves, “if modern KM is about process, content, and data, what exactly is the role of innovation?” After all, even the most talked about technologies do not happen in isolation. They must affect a process and drive an outcome, both of which are within the domain of KM. In short, KM is innovation, and the two should no longer be considered as discrete areas of expertise.

“No Office” Shouldn’t Mean “No Knowledge Sharing”

More than any other factor, the importance of KM has been brought into the spotlight by the wholescale changes in working practices observed over the last 12 months.

Successful knowledge management systems rely on data being captured, structuring that data, and fitting it into a taxonomy that enables people to find it. Since time immemorial, the primary method of knowledge sharing has been “having a chat with somebody”, or “popping your head around somebody’s door”. Those kinds of information sharing are unstructured, bilateral, and not conducive to a KM process that prioritises capture and re-use of information.

Remote work has caused people to interact differently. People are communicating in structured forums such as messaging platforms. This presents an opportunity for “information sharers” to be directed to a specific place to ask their questions and obtain answers (e.g., a “knowledge channel” in Slack or Teams). By structuring the process through which people seek and obtain knowledge, KM teams can tap into a wealth of information that previously laid to rest in office corridors.

What 2021 has in store has yet to be seen, but one thing is certain: KM has an important role to play in the coming year, and increasingly, it will be seen as the vital function it truly is, helping financial services organisations to efficiently tackle the challenges they face.