Many years ago, I had the privilege of attending a sales offsite organized by the CEO of a Global Transaction Bank. The highlight of the event was a keynote speech by Sir Chris Bonington, a charismatic mountaineer and the leader of the successful 1975 British expedition to conquer the summit of Mount Everest. His remarkable story holds valuable lessons for fintech leaders growing and scaling their business. Read on to find out how you can take the first steps to implement these learnings in your own organisation.
Sir Chris Bonington’s ascent of the world’s highest peak was not just a tale of triumph; it was a saga of resilience against seemingly insurmountable odds. The treacherous conditions included frostbite, oxygen shortages, vertical walls of ice and terrifying avalanches which not only threatened their chances of making it to the summit, but also the lives of Sir Chris and his distinguished team of mountaineers. Their journey was fraught with danger and uncertainty.
Yet, equipped with determination, the support of local Sherpas who knew the terrain and technical experts who meticulously planned out every aspect of the mission, Bonington’s expedition reached the summit of Mount Everest in September 1975.
The parallels between Bonington’s mountaineering expedition and the journey a fintech business undertakes when scaling their business are striking. It would be understandable if entrepreneurs were to focus solely on the climb—the exciting pursuit of new customers, delivery of new products and features to market and hitting revenue growth targets– but that’s only a part of the equation to achieve scaling success.
What Bonington’s story underscores is the importance of having the right team, the right expertise and meticulous planning behind the scenes to achieve a founder or company’s mission.
One way to prepare your organization, for your journey to scale, is to conduct a comprehensive assessment of your company’s state and readiness to scale, including focusing on the following areas:
People
Do your have the right skills and experience within your leadership team to manage both the journey and the business when you get to your destination?
Will team members who played a generalist role in the start-up phase adapt well to a specialist or leadership role as the business increases in size and complexity?
Have you engaged different types of advisors to help guide you along the way. For example, advisors who have scaled companies in the past, or advisors with experience of operating at scale or with specialist knowledge of the market you intend to operate in – to help you navigate obstacles and fill knowledge gaps?
Are your internal communication policies adaptable to keep all teams informed and aligned?
Risk and Regulation
Will licensing or regulatory requirements change as you enter new markets or launch new products or grow?
Do you have a robust risk management framework in place?
Do you need to hire additional legal or compliance staff to negotiate commercial client contracts or address AML/KYC queries?
How will an increase in volume, deposits, clients, revenue or new markets impact other risks?
Client Interfaces
Are your onboarding processes automated?
Do you need to scale up client-facing teams to handle increased onboarding and client service requirements?
Are systems in place to provide product-related information to address client queries?
Are staff and procedures in place to handle complex/enterprise sales and onboarding?
Do you need to establish new locations or local language capabilities for client interactions as you expand into new countries?
Are new products ready for sale and launch and have they been appropriately reviewed?
Do changes in client communication approach need to be made, e.g. if you are expanding from consumer activity to business-to-business or vice versa?
Technology
Are you utilizing modern technology and techniques to remain agile whilst bringing new features and capabilities to market quickly?
Are you harnessing AI to augment your workforce and manage costs efficiently?
Does your full technology stack (up and downstream of your payment system) have the capacity and resilience to handle increased volumes?
Do you have alerting in place to provide real time notification of issues before they impact your clients?
Operations
Are there new demands placed on operations as you expand into new products, markets, or segments?
Do manual processes or handoffs between teams need to be automated to reduce operational risks?
Will increased volume affect existing product servicing or require automation or additional staff?
Is your operational and onboarding team ready to support new business coming through the door?
Projects, Capital and Funding
Do you have the resources to manage new developments in terms of product management, project management, testing and development?
Do you need additional funding or capital to support your expansion plans?
Are there additional ongoing costs such as higher liquidity costs due to increased volumes or changes in the business mix?
Business/Product Management and Data
Is a robust structure in place to track financials and costs to support decision making for pricing and profitability purposes?
Do key performance indicators need to be adjusted in line with scaling ambitions and changes in the business?
Is data reporting automated to support more real-time decision making?
Does your product strategy account for increased competition as your market share grows?
Partners
Do you have the right banking partners or vendors to support higher levels of activity?
Will their solutions scale with yours, and do they have the capabilities and geographic coverage you will need?
Are there opportunities to improve pricing, and do higher volumes warrant direct or indirect participation in payment systems?
By considering these factors, and others, you will gain a thorough understanding of your ecosystem and how it may be affected by increased volumes. You will anticipate potential risks that could otherwise derail your scaling efforts or degrade the service experience for your clients or result in regulatory fines or financial losses.
Just as Sir Chris Bonington and his team reached the summit successfully, by anticipating and scaling critical aspects of your organization, you can increase revenue growth in a way that drives profitability (not just higher costs). Ultimately that means you too can achieve the great heights that Sir Chris Bonington reached all those years ago, and enjoy the breath-taking views from the top!
To find out more or get help with your scaling journey give us a call