In the last decade, the complexion of the finance industry in Singapore has changed dramatically. With the digital transformation, financial institutions and their clients have embraced technological advances and changed the way that we trade, communicate, and interact with one another.
It is a good time to reflect upon Andrew Grove’s famous book, Only the Paranoid Survive, where he reveals his strategy for measuring the nightmare moment every leader dreads when a massive change occurs and a company must adapt to the new paradigms or fall by the wayside. In the financial world, the paradigm we may face is “customers need banking but may not need a bank; they need stockbroking but not stockbrokers”.
A career in the finance industry has transformed in tandem, and there have been two key drivers for these changes. Firstly, we have seen a geographic shift in the balance of the finance industry, as investors look toward the faster-growing markets in Asia.
These changing tides put Singapore in a prime position to solidify its position as a global financial centre, and financial institutions will need to be quick and agile to respond to new developments in the industry.
As a financial institution, we have made it a part of our ethos to be at the forefront of new developments in the industry. In 1996, we launched Philip’s Online Electronic Mart System (POEMS), an online desktop trading platform, and changed the way people trade. We have consistently innovated and evolved, and in 2017 we launched the redesigned POEMS 2.0, to optimise the user experience.
Secondly, the digital transformation has redefined the role of the financial institution. With customers increasingly going mobile, financial institutions need to adapt their services in kind.
For instance, we launched a mobile-friendly version of POEMS to pre-empt customers’ needs in 2010, and we have continued to listen to the feedback of our clients to improve the user experience. In 2022, we launched POEMS Mobile 3, taking in the feedback from our clients to optimise the user interface and user experience.
Since our early days as a brokerage firm, we have evolved into an integrated financial house with a presence in 15 countries serving over 1 million clients, with Assets Under Management accounting for a total of more than US$35 billion.
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As the complexion of the industry changes with high technology, how do we ensure we are relevant to our diverse set of clients? How can we utilise technology to provide them with the right information so that they can make informed decisions about their investments? How do we, as the financial institution, give our traders, financial advisers, and trading representatives the right tools and skills to give clients the service that they deserve.
The refinement of a ‘high-tech, high-touch’ approach
While we embrace technological advancement, we are constantly reminded that human beings are essentially “social creatures” and we strive for interactive relationship building.
At PhillipCapital, we advocate a ‘high-tech, high-touch’ approach, where we constantly look for innovation to not only provide clients with new and more efficient ways of working but to also build and maintain trust with our clients.
While we have ridden the wave of technological advances, we continue to maintain an avenue for clients to get in touch with a financial adviser or a trading representative to preserve the relationships that are key.
In the world of excess, with thousands of financial products, we need professionals to curate products and present the solutions to clients. The advancement in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence will aid us tremendously in this area.
In more recent times, we have seen a growing trend of investors starting earlier in their careers, around the late 20s or early 30s. Meanwhile, our loyal customers have grown with us, and in the later stage of their lives, they are bringing the next generation of investors to start their journeys with us. As our clientele diversifies, we are constantly looking to adapt our services to cater to their varied outlooks, objectives, and preferences.
As we see different demographics of investors emerging, we also see new roles for our sales force emerging, younger investors may prefer to have a space for constructive debate to make more informed decisions, and the role of the advisor is to educate and advise through these forums.
For older investors, the role of the advisor may be more tuned to building on the trust that we have forged over the years and helping the customers navigate their investments in the digital era. In short, we have seen the rise of influencers and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in many sectors including retail and finance.
The content curation of these KOLs and the delivery to the audience have been widely accepted and appreciated by consumers and clients, as these KOLs continue to educate and engage the investing public.
Evolution of the fintech and financial literacy space
We have seen renewed interest in the fintech space, as well as services such as user interface and user experience support for our mobile applications. We are also working hard to deepen our digital capabilities while supporting our talents to harness their potential to serve the next generation of clients.
We have built a strong local talent pool of over 100 tech specialists, all of whom have been trained to leverage tech-enabled financial solutions to cater to a diverse range of customer needs and goals.
We have also seen a growth in the information and education space. As an industry, we are constantly looking at new ways to promote financial literacy and responsible trading, through new technologies to interact with our customers, as well as experimenting with new platforms or services to give our customers the requisite knowledge and research in a timely manner.
On a regular basis, we curate topics of relevance and currency and conduct webinars for our clients and the public. Every quarter, we hold Strategy Stock Picks webinars. Picking individual stocks is time-consuming and requires expertise.
For our research team to pick a stock, for every company in their respective sector, they will need to analyse the company, prepare a financial model, interview the company management, and weigh the risks of the individual companies.
The process requires extensive time and expertise, and our research team applies the skillsets of a consultant, an accountant, an FBI agent, and an insurance actuary, it’s a lot of effort and work!
In addition, we avail a wide array of educational tools on our POEMS platforms such as market journals, research reports, and videos. Some of these materials that benefit the public are also made accessible on our social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. As such, we have seen a need to form teams to develop and maintain these platforms, as well as curate and package our research in an engaging, yet informative way.
We are also working closely with our innovation team to engage, such as hackathons and financial education programmes. Given our presence in Asia and beyond, and our commitment to promoting financial literacy, we have developed PYTCH, a studio driven by research and strategy established to create financial content focusing on financial news, industry trends, investment strategies and talks, live TV, interactive TV, on-demand streaming TV, and an educational platform for both local and overseas investors.
Building a strong learning culture
With a constantly evolving space comes new opportunities for financial institutions to learn and grow with their employees. Both companies and their employees have a shared responsibility in building a strong learning culture, one that promotes adaptability and resilience among all employees.
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On the part of companies, training and reskilling programmes are beneficial to help employees deepen their expertise and acquire new skills. We have developed training roadmaps across all job functions to meet both current and future skills and competencies, in areas like wealth management, tech-enabled financial services, and data analytics.
This allows our employees to acquire transferrable skills across all domains in the finance industry, and plan long-term careers with us, such as offering opportunities for trading representatives to become portfolio managers.
At the same time, training and reskilling can aid in the development of soft skills in areas like critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, which allows our financial advisers and trading representatives to relate to customers, educate them, and value-add to the digital services.
Having a blend of both hard and soft skills will enable current employees to not only broaden their technical capabilities but also adapt and excel in the fast-evolving industry.
Effervescent skills for employees in the finance industry
All in all, we have seen that employees with the right mindset and ethos have embraced these challenges and found a home with us. We have identified four key attributes that have helped our employees in their careers in the finance industry:
- An eagerness to learn
Whether you are a fresh graduate or looking for a career switch, there is a seat for you if you are open and willing to learn. This industry welcomes anyone with easily transferrable skills, even if they are not from a financial services-related background.
- Being agile and staying relevant
Change is a constant in the finance industry, so it is important to always be on your toes and embrace new developments, especially when innovation continually pushes the sector to evolve. Those with the learning agility to learn, unlearn, and relearn in an increasingly flexible environment will be able to grow with the industry and find a fruitful experience in acquiring new skills, refining their current skillsets, and staying up-to-date with the new developments in the space.
- Being “paranoid” and building momentum
Reflecting on Andrew Grove’s book, it is important that we continue to strive and never rest on our laurels. With the fast-evolving world, we need this type of character and personality in employees and entrepreneurs. Momentum is such a succinct word but in business, we need momentum to keep on building and adapting to the world.
- Putting clients first
The human touch is still vital in understanding and empowering our clients to take charge of their financial future. Our role is to guide our clients along, focus on the bigger picture and recognise how we can optimise the new developments in the industry to serve our clients’ needs. As such, the onus is on us to never lose sight of their ability to effect meaningful change in our clients’ lives. In essence, be “client-centric”.
A service-oriented industry
As the financial landscape in Singapore continues to evolve, a career in the industry can be fast-paced, dynamic, challenging, and enriching. A rising tide raises all ships, and as the global finance industry looks to the East, we need to ensure that we remain at the forefront of change.
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However, at its heart, the finance industry remains service-oriented, and we will continue to put our clients’ needs first, as we adapt to the changing tides.
In addition, we will continue to help our employees to sharpen their skills, develop new capabilities, and keep pace with this ever-evolving industry. However, we cannot lose sight of our purpose, to help our clients achieve their investment goals and objectives.
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