Independent Banker - July 2024 - 58

project. There may be someone we
couldn't see as a future leader who
really makes a diff erence. "
Rewarding bravery
3 TECHNOLOGIES
TO WATCH
According to Shanker Ramamurthy, global managing
partner for banking and financial markets at IBM
Consulting, working out the kinks in your change
management practices is important because of looming
" exponential technologies " -innovative technology that
could significantly transform banking.
" We're no longer in a time when business strategy drives
technology capabilities, " he says. " Exponential technology
capabilities are starting to drive business strategy itself. "
Ramamurthy lists the three following technologies as
those likeliest to keep community bankers " on a change
management treadmill " in the years ahead:
1.
2.
3.
Hybrid cloud computing. The cloud is becoming
" an important part of how community banks
deliver their services and capabilities to customers from a
technology standpoint, " says Ramamurthy. So, banks need
the right technology paradigm to meet customer needs.
Artificial intelligence. AI and generative AI are
worth watching because of their rapid growth,
says Ramamurthy. Today, only 8% of financial institutions
are dealing with generative AI at an enterprise scale, with
almost 80% working on pilots and proof of concepts. By
late 2024, he believes those percentages will flip. " We
think generative AI is going to change pretty much every
aspect of banking, " he says.
Quantum computing. The eff ects of quantum
computing-which IBM defines as " a rapidly
emerging technology that harnesses the laws of quantum
mechanics to solve problems too complex for classical
computers " -may not be felt for several years. Even
so, Ramamurthy urges bankers to keep a close eye on
this technology because of the emerging risks and
opportunities it brings. One challenge here will be making
encryption " quantum safe, " he says.
A well-conceived change initiative
is both specifi c and measurable,
says ICBA's Potts. In the best of all
worlds, savvy community bankers
will establish KPIs early so everyone
knows what success looks like.
Throughout the change process, a
project's leaders can leverage data and
analytics to see how a new technology
is meeting objectives.
" Part of the management of change
is measurement, " says Potts, citing
" When there's a technology
change, no one's an
expert anymore. It can be
devastating, and it rattles
people's self-confi dence. "
-Andrew Silsby,
Kennebec Savings Bank
business guru Peter Drucker, who
famously said " What gets measured
gets managed. "
Alloy Labs' Henrichs agrees that a
clear understanding of strategy and of
what success will look like can serve as
antidote to a creeping incrementalism
that can hijack a change management
plan. " The buzz saw we see people
walk into again and again is that they
want absolute certainty, " he says. " If
you want absolute certainty about
58 // ICBA Independent Banker // July 2024
Independent Banker - July 2024

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