Independent Banker - September 2023 - 22

PORTFOLIO INNOVATION STATION
How curiosity leads to innovation
By Charles Potts, ICBA
nnovation is rooted in curiosity and
asking questions like, " How do I do
things better? How can I make this
experience more user friendly? Why
is the market shifting? How do I take
advantage of it? "
Fortunately, the service orientation
of community bankers is born out
of that same spirit of curiosity. How
many times have you asked your
customers what they need or how you
can serve their needs? Asking these
questions is crucial to improving the
customer experience and ultimately
ensuring lifelong relationships.
When it comes to cascading
questions that lead to solutions, that
service nature goes hand-in-glove with
the spirit of innovation. The constant
desire for improvement-enhancing
solutions for the sake of customer
and community betterment-is
what makes community bankers
natural innovators.
And because iron sharpens iron,
ICBA has been focusing on creating
I
spaces where community bankers can
come together and share time, energy
and experiences with one another.
Establishing opportunities for
collaboration, dialogue and ideation
with other bankers, fintechs, small
and medium enterprises (SMEs), and
regulatory agencies enables a more
organic approach to innovation that
benefits the industry. It channels
curiosity into a setting that transforms
ideas into solutions.
Get involved in ICBA
innovation activities
That's the vision behind our new
Innovation Center in Atlanta, where
banks and fintechs can assemble
with representatives of the larger
financial services community to
collaborate and learn from one other.
It's a place where community bankers
can roll up their sleeves and get to
work-transitioning from ideation
to tailored offerings through shared
knowledge, best practices, demos,
whiteboarding sessions and more.
We invite you to join us for this
new experience. This fall, we will be
holding our official opening for the
center to serve as the " welcome home "
for all community bankers. We're also
working on innovation programming
for the fall in advance of the kickoff
of our sixth ThinkTECH Accelerator
cohort, which will be focused on data
analytics and small business needs.
Our ThinkTECH alumni showcases
will feature companies from past
cohorts and our Preferred Service
Providers to remind bankers of the
problem-solving solutions that already
exist. And we're continuing to develop
educational programming through
our " Demystifying " webinar series
in concert with Community Banker
University to further community bank
innovation knowledge.
These events, and future events at
the center, will be accessible both in
person and via livestream, so visit
icba.org to register and learn more.
While the dog days of summer may
be over, things are just heating up
at the Innovation Center. We invite
you to get involved in upcoming
events and visit us in Atlanta to help
advance community banking. Because
innovation is about asking the right
questions and then acting on them.
Community bankers, with their service
mindset, are ideally poised to do
just that.
Charles Potts (charles.potts@icba.org)
is ICBA executive vice president and
chief innovation officer
22 // ICBA Independent Banker // September 2023
Illustration by AI Farm/Adobe
http://www.icba.org
Independent Banker - September 2023

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