Wow! The Innovation Opening: The Tribe on the Tatami was an amazing start to Sibos, Osaka 2012. This was the first time that Innotribe, since its inception in 2009, has taken to the plenary stage for the Innotribe opening session and boy did they deliver. In the crowded hall Gottfried Leibbrandt, CEO, SWIFT opened the session with a brief overview of Innotribe, and then as the lights dimmed and the music started Aiko Sato, the current Judo Women’s World Champion took to the stage along with Dr Christopher Sier, Director, Financial Services Network. Aiko did what she does best and showcased her maginificant skills by throwing Christopher Sier across the mat several times, much to the delight of the audience but not so sure about Christopher. This signified that small agile players in the banking industry can compete against some of the larger banks and succeed.
A story was played out about a small man over a century ago named Kano who lost many battles due to being small and weak. After many defeats he evaluated the situation, took on board what was wrong and took the time to master his skills. Something many people should follow to achieve their goals. From this he created a new form of martial arts, ‘Judo’ which was based on four key innovations:
1. Maximise efficiency with minimum effort
2. Train safe
3. Sudden death
4. Learn from competing.
Mark Pesce, Founder, FutureStreet talked about maximising efficiency with minimum effort and provided the example about coconut pickers in India, where they have become automated through the connectivity of mobile phones. He described it as coconuts on demand or coconuts-as-a-service.
Kosta Peric, Head of Innovation, SWIFT talked about companies innovating but not being disruptive to the main business. Companies need to take into account the bigger picture and find a way to innovate in a cautious but safe way.
William Saito, Founder & CEO, InTecur, K.K. as an entrepreneur discussed failure and how we must embrace failure and learn from it – if you fail, try again but make sure you learn not to make the same mistakes. He stated “the opposite of success is not failure, but not doing anything”.
Sean Park, Founder, Anthemis Group stated that competition is good, as you learn faster when you’re competing. He described how we have moved from an industry to an information economy and how we have access to huge amounts of data which allows us to try something different.
The session came to close as the audience showed their appreciation for Aiko and Christopher leaving the stage, followed by the Innotribe team marching down the aisle with waving flags directing people to the Innovation tent. This was a fantastic start to Sibos 2012 and over the next few days there will be even more great sessions, including the Digital Asset Grid session and Hyper-economies as well as the Startup Challenge finale. Watch this space and head to the Innotribe tent as there is so much more to come.
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