The Opinno office in the Southern Cone country of Colombia assisted an important Bank to push towards innovation in its banking strategy in the vital early stages. Today it stands out in the field as a reference in banking innovation for the entire region.
The initiative came from the president of the bank but the challenge was to create a two-fold strategy for innovation at the bank’s cutting-edge innovation center; the first, for its internal community of users; the second, for open innovation, still a trendsetting concept everywhere. The bank takes a special interest in small to medium-sized businesses, the so-called pymes in the Hispanic-speaking world. Environmental sustainability in and social welfare are also among its values as an institution.
Our client is a market leader in Latin America, it is also a dynamic banking institution with its finger on the pulse of technological development. It invited Opinno on to advise on its vision for the future at its innovation center, one of the first in the Southern Cone.
The first step was to meet with the bank’s president to discuss the strategic design for the new center for innovation. This was a complex stage in proceedings: agreements had to be drawn up on each line of business the bank offers so that a plan of action could be devised.
Next we mapped out the initial measures to establish state-of-the-art technology for the hub, already operational in some of the world of banking elsewhere at that time. We created a range of workshops in strategic alignment for the directors of the bank so that all concepts could be coordinated within one overall strategy.
We then designed each detail of the innovation center’s strategy for the next three years as well as its entire development plan.
The results, after three years, are rewarding: Bank’s innovation centre is one of the most successful in Latin America, a benchmark for the sector.
Dozens of banking products have been developed as a result of the activity at the center and it has collaborated with dozens more start-ups in the push towards more open and inclusive ventures with small to medium-sized businesses in Colombia.
