22 Oct QUALITANCE advocates digital innovation at the Romanian Economic Forum

On October 18, QUALITANCE hosted an energetic panel discussion on digital innovation at the first edition of The Romanian Economic Forum, an event organized by Finmedia.

The Digital Innovation panel run with much enthusiasm by our Chief Innovation Officer Mike Parsons brought together experienced innovators from BCR, Vodafone, Sodexo and QUALITANCE in order to paint an accurate picture of the digital innovation phenomenon in its own context. The ultimate goal was to see how inspiring leaders across various verticals approach innovation and learn more on the methods and principles they stand by in their pursuit for digital transformation.  

There was a lot of talk on the importance of agility, the test-and-learn culture, user-centered design, customer empathy and rapid prototyping, as well as on what stays in the way of innovation. You can find all that in the recording below.

In the meantime, here are some of the most inspiring insights that stayed with the audience.

“In banking, innovation does not happen overnight, therefore you need to stick with the team and constantly remind them of your vision. You’re not doing some small tweaks here and there, you’re changing the market, changing the customer’s philosophy of life, changing their behaviors. So, it’s important for the team to remain aware of the impact of their work and enjoy the results.”

“Innovation is about offering the best solution for a future need. That’s something you can only find out if you ask your customer about their pains, their needs and how they foresee their future. Hence, you need to listen to them well. Otherwise, they won’t buy your product, even if it’s the most beautiful in the world.”

“Today everyone expects an Amazon-like experience from every product or service out there. With expectations that high, you can’t afford working with assumptions. The only way to avoid wild guesses is to initiate customer interaction at an early stage. The bonus is that putting your product in the hands of the customer as early as possible will also give back to the team. It’s highly rewarding and motivating for them to see that their work creates value, that building for customer feels and is real.”

“Innovation starts with what customers want – a good life. We develop technologies and products to offer them a better life. When we take on a business partner, we ask them about their objectives and then we share what we think technologies can do to help them achieve those objectives. From that point onwards, a lot of ideas keep coming up.”

If you were not at the Romanian Economic Forum or missed our LIVE stream, you can still watch the discussion in here.