July 9, 2025 • 37 mins
Summary
In this episode, Enock interviews Tristan Pelloux, a business strategist and FinTech expert, discussing the intersection of innovation, strategy, and sustainability in the financial sector. They explore the evolution of FinTech Review, the importance of execution in innovation, and the emerging trends in payments and automation. Tristan emphasizes the need for businesses to focus on solving problems rather than just adopting new technologies, and highlights the growing appetite for sustainable practices in FinTech.
Speaker Bio
Tristan wears many hats: strategic advisor, fintech influencer, business mentor, entrepreneur, and board member. Chief Pencil Officer at Fintech Review, online media on the fintech industry, and Director at Strategwhy, independent management consulting. Also, a Board Member of Audencia Alumni, the alumni network of Audencia Business School. That's after a few years of international experience. Prior to embracing the entrepreneur life, Tristan worked in Corporate Strategy at Virgin Money UK in London for 5 years. His last role focused on developing strategic partnerships with fintech startups and big technology companies.Contact:
fintechreview.net
www.linkedin.com/in/tristanpelloux/
Takeaways
Innovation in FinTech is driven by execution, not just ideas.
Understanding the business problem is crucial before adopting technology.
The evolution of FinTech Review reflects the changing landscape of the industry.
Automation in finance can lead to regulatory challenges.
Embedded finance is making payments invisible to consumers.
Legacy systems hinder transformation in financial services.
Sustainability in finance must also be economically viable.
Consolidation in the FinTech market is a natural progression.
The focus should be on delivering value to customers.
Strategic clarity is essential for managing multiple ventures.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to FinTech and Sustainability
02:37 The Evolution of FinTech Review
04:58 Understanding Innovation in FinTech
07:50 The Role of Technology in Business Strategy
10:20 Trends in FinTech: Automation and Embedded Finance
12:43 Challenges in Legacy Financial Services
15:26 Emerging Innovations in Payments
18:20 Strategic Transformation in Financial Services
20:39 The Importance of Execution in Innovation
23:19 Sustainable Growth and ESG in FinTech
25:43 Final Thoughts on Technology and Problem Solving
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Sustainability has to be sustainable if that makes sense
from an economic point of view. So it's great to try to push it
from a regulation point of view.However, a business that is
sustainable needs all need also to to be profitable and and to
make sense for the customers. So great, you want to
(00:20):
manufacture a smartphone in France, use a smartphone cost
5000. No one is going to buy it from
you. So it is sustainable.
It's not never going to be profitable.
However, I see businesses are doing sustainable stuff and also
being profitable and having an appeal to clients.
And I think this is where everything needs to go, which is
(00:41):
you embed into your operations. But still it makes sense.
Welcome to Sustainability Transformations podcast where we
discuss bold ideas to drive positive change for people,
community and business. And today, I'm so pleased our
(01:02):
guest is Tristan Pelu, who is the founder of Fintech Review
and Strategy, YA business strategist and Fintech advisor,
who brings a fresh perspective to innovation across finance,
entrepreneurship and sustainability.
And the key goal of our discussion in sustainability is
to see the innovation trends in fintech and how that is so
(01:25):
essential for sustainability. So welcome, Tristan, you wear
many hats from fintech media to boardrooms to strategy
consulting. What connects all the dots in
your career so far? Thanks for having me.
Anok. What connects the dots?
That's that's a good question. So, I mean, I used to work in in
(01:45):
banking and more precisely, I was working in business strategy
and corporate finance, but focused on financial services.
So this is when I discovered fintech and and that's how I
started Fintech review. I wanted to, you know, share my
thoughts about the industry called technologies are
reshaping banking and financial services.
(02:06):
But you know, my job is this strategy.
So basically you have like the industry expertise Fintech and
then that the more the functional expertise around
around strategy. And then in strategy, as as you
said, I do advisory consulting. So do research, I do PhD
research and strategy, what interests me, and this is going
(02:28):
to be the discussion, but how welink strategy to innovation and
how we can find ways to better implement strategy that delivers
better outcomes, including, you know, launching innovative
products, innovative services. Also like a coursing for me is
how can all of this can drive outcome for clients, customers
(02:49):
but also for the words more generally.
When you are delivering the innovation consulting for
companies, how do you or when they are source and your
activities where they see you asa strategist but not as a
fintech review or the other aspect, how does that
(03:10):
conversation come about for new clients?
Yeah. I mean usually unless they're
then the tech sector, I don't even mention fintech, fintech
review. I think I mean with with well,
first as and as a start I separate my week and and I kind
of put like compartments betweenactivities.
And so when it's been took preview, I will have discussions
(03:33):
with with companies about content, about exposure kind of
selling like advertising services and like content
creation. So it's a bit different from
when I took to companies about strategy.
And then the core is gonna be business strategy.
And the fact that I have experience in fintech and
exposure to that is interesting usually.
(03:54):
But I always try to explain to people that whatever is a
sector, business strategy is always the same approach to
innovation at at the conceptual level.
So that's why I worked in in various sectors and it can be
manufacturing, it can be SAS, itcan be Fintech, whatever.
You can be selling potatoes, thecore of strategies.
(04:17):
OK, what are you selling for? Are you selling it to is a way
you're manufacturing or selling your services and innovation, is
it not? What is radical innovation to
innovation incremental. But this can be in any sector.
It doesn't have to. It doesn't have to be this
discussion this morning about someone who was asking me, do I
have experience in legal tech? I was saying no, but I'm pretty
(04:43):
sure that it's going to be always the same.
It's like, you know, as I said, who are you selling to?
What are you selling? What's the price point?
What is your industry, your market looking like?
This you can replicate to whatever sector.
Yeah, I'm a big believer of onceyou have the methodology or the
model, then the model, yes, you adapted to the industry, but the
(05:07):
fundamentals from what you described, the model of
application will be the same. So how did the Fintech review
come about? At what gap where you trying to
fill them up inside the market? So it started because as I said,
I was working in in Straighten Innovation London and I was
(05:28):
creating like internal content. I added I can use lecture
internally like and stuff like this.
Then I saw try not building. Why not having a personal blog?
Initially I saw Dick, I'm going to write on LinkedIn.
And then I said, no, you know what, let's try to build a
platform outside, not inside a platform, but just like properly
(05:50):
outside. It started as a personal blog
where I was just writing about fintech and, and it was fun.
Then over the time it, it evolved because, well, kind of
people reached out and say, Hey,you do interviews.
And I said, well, actually it could be good stuff.
Started doing interviews. I started opening up to, to, to
like other people writing. And then from there, the PR
(06:13):
publications and, and other stuff.
And it evolved into being an actual, you know, news media
platform. The, the, it's been five years
and, and kind of the, the growthand, and the past has been well,
seizing opportunities that were coming up and then also trying
to see where, where I can take it.
(06:35):
And now, now I have a have a clearer vision.
Initially it didn't start as a business, it started as a I'm
going to write about what I think about the industry and now
it's now I take a very differentview on this.
Yeah. And I'm so pleased because I'm
on the 0 in the sustainability. And so I'm so pleased that you
(07:00):
know, you said five years and I think that core parties you seem
to be at the start enjoyed it and then you allowed in time to
then give you the clarity of what the journey is.
So it's so nice to see. So what have you learned and
about the evolution of Fintech by creating so many expert
voices? Yeah, I mean, just to to add,
(07:22):
yeah, as you say, it's a long game, whatever content you're
producing. Is it the newsletter or Blogger
podcast? When I started this thing, which
is I read, Are you ready to do 100 or 200?
You know, just letter or blog post.
If you're not, then you're nevergoing to establish anything.
So you always have to think about it and, and that most,
(07:44):
most podcasts or like whatever, it's become like they become
like really good after sticking with it.
So for me, I've seen the evolution, of course, like in
five years from the ups and downs of crypto and like the
inference on, on fintech. And for me, technologies, they
come and go. So there was lots of focus on
blockchain. Now all the focus is on AI, but
(08:07):
it creates a bit of noise always.
But I always take the view because I'm also a strategist as
as we've said, so it starts witha business problem or starts
from the business. And then you go to technology,
which is, which can be whatever,but it always starts with, OK,
what are you trying to do here? And then you're going to find
that the solution. So I've seen various
(08:29):
technologies come and go, trends, lots of fintech
businesses, I've grown and, and I've become quite important
strike PayPal revoluted. I've become quite, quite big
players. At the same time, many companies
that still haven't figured out the right business model because
they got lots of funding. There was lots of funding going
to fintech companies without really figuring out, is this the
(08:53):
business that can generate revenues and profits for like to
be sustainable? Sustainable in the sense, you
know, viable, but but you know, it's been interesting and now
big wave of AI, which creates a lot of noise.
But the discussion is more aboutautomation and and how can you
not replace human, augment theircapability so that they don't
(09:13):
spend time on useless tasks and much more on on actually adding
value. Yeah, that's good.
With the blockchain. I'm curious because I remember
maybe 15 years ago there about where there was the evolution
from DVD's into there was like aBlu-ray that came up and then
(09:33):
Netflix came up and then all of a sudden, I'm not a tech person,
but I didn't hear about Blu-ray anymore.
So I'm curious to know from a blockchain.
I bought a few blockchain books five years ago, which I didn't
really go into, but it was on mylist of catching up and then all
of a sudden is AI. So I'm curious to know what's
the key extinction between the blockchain and AI?
(09:56):
These are very different things,but just, I mean, there are
plenty of technologies that you use in, in in business and
usually people you're a CEO. If you're a business person, you
usually don't care about like how what kind of technology
exactly is being used? You care about, Hey, I have
clients, I need to deliver them the service apart.
(10:16):
So these two technologies have come here like in the, in the
business world and people get excited and, and try to
understand. But for me, they should go back
to like a technology discussion.But like the blockchain is a
distributed database that's in to summarize, right?
And it's exciting because it's in theory inimitable.
(10:37):
So it brings some efficiencies in, in certain areas.
And then on top of that, people have built cryptocurrencies,
which are using blockchain as a technology.
Is it revolutionary? I mean, for now, yes.
But as I said, maybe five years from now, there's something
better and it's it's useless as you, as you were saying, but
(10:58):
there was a DVD, there were Blu rays awesome.
And then streaming. And then who cares about DV DS
and, and, and Blu rays. So there will be always.
That's why I said the important is to focus on the problem and,
and then the solution can be whatever.
Sometimes it's time on a technology solution.
That's why there's lots of noisewith AI and people say, Hey,
(11:19):
let's use AI to do this. And most of the time it's like,
yeah, we don't need, don't need AI.
You need like a simple automation or not even but but
but for me, it's always going back to, OK, what are you trying
to do here? And then they can be whatever.
And right now maybe social is blockchain, maybe social is AI,
maybe it's nothing. And in 10 years it will be
(11:40):
something else that hasn't been invented yet.
And that's a normal flow. Yeah, that's very good.
Starting from what the problem is for what a customer really
wants or needs. Again, if you're choosing the
right word between the ones and the needs and the problem that
needs to be solved seem to be very good point to start.
So what major fintech trends arecatching your attention right
(12:02):
now, Tristan? I think I mean, yeah, obviously
and and how how businesses leverage it, the regulatory push
back or approach to this becauseas you automate and give the
keys to a system without like human intervention or with
(12:23):
little human intervention, it isOK in certain aspects.
You do marketing and you publishon social media fine for credit
decision for managing people's money.
The more you have automation, the more I think regulators are
nervous, you know, governments are nervous about this.
So I think it's an interesting trend and, and I'm looking
(12:43):
forward to see how it shapes up.And then generally, I think
embedded, what we call embedded finance and embedded payments.
So, you know, Karna, all this kind of stuff where or when you
take a Uber and you don't see the payment because it's already
inside the journey. You've already given your, your
details. So this is the when, when
(13:04):
finance and payments become invisible.
It's an interesting trend and it's been shaping up over the
past few years. So you don't have this friction
of like getting your card out. And the more, more and more I
think you will see more complex stuff being embedded in the
customer journey because actually when you buy something,
you don't care about paying for it, you care about buying it and
(13:25):
getting it. And so you go on, you know, you
buy a flight, you buy whatever actually don't want to go
through the process of like, youknow, putting your cards detail
or whatever. So this is an interesting trend
and more and more it's been, it's becoming invisible in some
journeys as as a customer. And I say it will become
(13:46):
eventually more the case. So this is an interesting trend
for me. And then last one, as I said, I
think the industry has matured now and so it's to see the
businesses that come that will survive.
There will be a bit of consolidation in the sense that
everybody can make money in the market and then eventually one
(14:08):
by the other. And you can see this happening
when there is less funding available then the the
businesses that stay are the businesses are more solid
because it can generate money without external funding and
they will be able to buy the other ones.
So this is also something that interests me.
That's interesting. So the last part, is it safe to
(14:30):
say that it's about the growth potential?
It will get to a peak where someof the businesses within the
banking and finance industry or payments industry cannot grow to
the expectations of investors orshareholders.
And if it cannot grow, like mostthings in life, anything which
is not growing is dying. It cannot be both at the same
(14:53):
time. So is it safe to say because the
expectation of business is growing from time to time, if
it's not growing, it becomes stagnant, then that's where
naturally some business may falloff?
Is that a good elaboration of what the last part means from
what you said? Yeah, exactly.
In 2021 was a peak in terms of funding for for fintech
(15:14):
businesses. Then since then it it got down,
got down, got up and now it's it's stabilized.
As you say, it's all based on expectations.
I'm giving money to that business because it's growing,
expecting it to reach a certain value.
And then eventually a few years down the line, in most cases,
you realize that it doesn't reach that value.
(15:35):
And then investors kind of readjust their expectations at
the market level, at the sector level.
Hey, payments companies, yeah, let's put lots of money.
And then you realize, oh, actually, no, the market is not
growing or whatever. So it's always this game of you
try to predict the futures the future doesn't realize or
realize in a, in a different matter.
(15:55):
And then you adjust and we're seeing this adjustment now.
Some businesses have grown faster than others and new
opportunities and others were. You know, for me, for instance,
one segment where I've never understood because I don't think
there is that much money, which is everything to do with
personal banking, you know, yourpersonal bank account, that in
(16:18):
itself, like all the neo banks, that in itself there's not so
much money. There's money at the moment of
selling products like a credit card mortgage, but just having
your money in, in some place, the business that manage your
money, we're not making anythingout of it.
And then lots of companies popped up and, and started like,
(16:38):
hey, I'm the, I'm a neo bank. Yeah, come with me.
And I was like, sure, but your guys are too many of this
segment and there's not enough money to be made from the
customers you're looking, you'relooking for.
But it's a process and and we'rewe're getting out of it now.
It's positive. Anyway, this kind of change in
(17:00):
in the market because everybody steps back and say, OK, you
know, let's let's chill. Actually there's no value here.
You know, let's let's move on. So.
If the market banking is gettingsaturated, where what is the one
or two areas that are having emerging innovations in, in the
(17:24):
pavement? I know you mentioned about the
River League, you know business,but I'm curious in general,
where has the growth potential and innovations to deliver a
more sustainable financial system based on the challenges
and the possible trends you've mentioned?
I think that a few companies arewell placed.
(17:44):
The payments companies are, you know, just Stripe, Stripe for
instance, is, is quite well placed in which the competitor
to Stripe, everybody that is doing payments like embedded
payments, what I mentioned they are powering a lot of businesses
as again, to that point, if a business says, hey, I want a
solution to make my payments invisible, then you have this
(18:06):
guys providing a solution. So because there is a business
demand for finance to become invisible, then the guys that
are playing in that field are, are going to win and, and you
know, are going to grow. So this is when 1 area where I
see continuous demand because business are demanding this.
And then more generally businesssolutions.
(18:26):
So financial services for small businesses, small medium
businesses, financing, lending, I think there is there are
opportunities here. However, it is hard, it is much
harder to play in the small and medium enterprise segment than
in the personal segment because personal it's easier to
(18:47):
understand because it needs our are a bit more marginalized.
So between people, whereas businesses by nature to
businesses will be quite different.
And so they will be, they will have different needs.
And so it's, it's a segment thatis quite complicated to tackle.
And what we've seen is lots of fintech companies launching to,
(19:08):
to go after personal after individual because it's easier
to, to target than small businesses.
Even those are millions, but I Isee value here, but it's just
it's, it's harder, it's harder to to do.
Yeah, that's good. So what does strategic
transformation look like today, especially for legacy industries
(19:31):
like the financial services? Trying to the the problem what
many old companies have is that they're sitting on lots of
legacy technology that they eventually need to upgrade and
change but it's not that easy I could see lots of banking CE OS
saying hey you know let's use AI, but then it's all a message
(19:54):
of the data organized they don'thave anything organized
transformation. The issue is sometimes it's
technology, but most of the timewhen you do a business
transformation, the problem are the people because.
In the sense you have a businessof 10,000 people, this 10,000
(20:17):
people have all the jobs, they are doing certain tasks.
You know, I'm doing marketing, I'm doing sales.
If you're trying to to change your business from a technology
perspective, completely reshaping it, it means looking
at the people, what they do, looking at the processes, get
the tools that they use, lookingat exactly what they do
day-to-day. And this is much harder, you
(20:38):
know, to figure out how to reorganize this and at the same
time trying to convince the people internally that it's a
good change and that they're willing to do that change.
So that's the biggest challenge when we do a transformation.
The technology is readily available.
Tomorrow you can deploy API in your business.
(20:58):
You know, you just go and, and, and play around with the GPT.
You can access the API and you can plug in your business, the
GPT models and, and use it. But first, what are you trying
to do? Then secondly, you need to
figure out the processes, what people are doing.
For me, that's, that's all. But it's also what I find quite
(21:19):
interesting from a strategy perspective.
It's not so much about the technology, it's about like how
you organize your business. What is your vision for the
future business? How do you go from where you are
now to where you want to be in three years?
What are the steps that you're going to take in order to change
your business? Implemented these two
(21:39):
technologies to deliver better products and services.
Be more efficient. Now, I'm so pleased you've
mentioned about the core challenge of the people because
in my space of sustainability, where I do strategy is something
which I've discovered lately. In fact, I'm going every stuff,
you know, change the culture, you change the game, which I've
(22:02):
been reading within the sustainability space from a
strategy point of view. So it's always nice to know that
in a separate industry of business transformation that is
an issue. So it's not just peculiar to
sustainability where lots of companies have duty 400 page
reporting and it shows that the coach aspect, the behavior and
(22:24):
there's lots of research. We show the knowledge, you can
give as much knowledge as possible.
As you mentioned, big companies can bring transformation at a
bigger scale and that transformation with AI.
But you still need the the behavior because people have
done it and habits. So what mistakes do companies
still make when trying to innovate without reinventing
(22:44):
their core? I think what the biggest mistake
people make when it comes to innovation is thinking that it's
about the idea. And this I see times and times
again, which is, hey, I'm gonna have a great idea and it's gonna
be innovative. You can have whatever idea today
(23:05):
doesn't mean that it's gonna getyou like the right outcomes or
again, transforming the in a business or product.
What matters is the implementation is execution.
How do you go from idea to to business, which is you know, so
for me, this is the issue with, with innovation people saying,
oh, let's generate ideas and let's test ideas.
(23:28):
I'm like, fine, but these ideas will be worthless.
What matters is your ability to go from idea to execution.
Very well. And that's where if you see
businesses that we deem to be good at innovation, what they're
really good at is, is that ability not so much to generate
(23:48):
ideas, but just to take an idea and execute it better than
everybody else. I'm a visiting professor and I
teach innovation and I always take the example of Apple as a
business, which is they haven't invented anything.
But of course everybody thinks as a starter they did.
But the iPad wasn't the first tablet, the iPhone wasn't the
(24:11):
first smartphone, but they took an idea and executed much better
than than anyone anybody else. And you obviously have external
factors, but the The thing is it's always about your ability
to execute that idea. And I see many businesses not
being good at why because they don't have a structured way to
do it. They will go from the management
(24:32):
will define a strategy for the business as they will say let's
do innovation. People will come up with it or
even come up with ideas. And then how do you push that to
the business is messy and probably, I would say my
estimate maybe 20% of the business do it well.
The rest are doing it more or less efficiently and some are
doing it very, very badly. Yeah.
(24:53):
I've always been very keen on innovation because there is a
lot of lessons. I say innovation has been around
longer than sustainability. And so since innovation has been
around, the common challenges that innovation faces,
sustainability can learn from. I'm not saying every single one
of them, but a sustainability, we suffer with those and we have
(25:14):
an idea and sometimes the challenge with the idea is to
look good for customers, to lookgood for investors.
And the idea is not actually to implement it, Yes, to implement
it, but some companies get the results or the appearance of
wanting to do sustainability andthat level of achievement may be
(25:35):
enough to not actually, you know, deliver the 95%.
So just announcing that we want,we have this idea, we want to be
more sustainable. It may get a lot of awards or
may get a lot of appraisals. Again, sharing why there is a
lot to learn from innovation from what you discussed for the
purpose of our discussion. So you're running multiple
(25:57):
ventures. What systems?
All mindsets help you manage them.
You know, you mentioned about the compartmentalization of your
time, but how do you balance that strategic clarity with
entrepreneurial curiosity? I think that you need to be, I
mean, very clear about the, the vision for, I mean, if you're,
(26:18):
if you're going for one businessand you need to be clear about
what do you want to do with it? Like where do you want to take
it? An exercise that I do for myself
and I tend to tell people the same, which is OK one year from
now, it's been very successful. What have you done?
Where are you was this, you know, project business, personal
(26:38):
life. So this is what I, I try to do
for each of those things that I do if I go into something and I
also try to put myself some, some a milestones, you know, in
order to know at which point I will re evaluate.
This is kind of the strategic direction that I need for
clarity. Or do I take a fintech review or
(26:59):
do I take my consulting advisorybalanced against what do I want
to do? What do I like to do now?
What is likely that I will want to do in a year, three years,
five years, you know, kind of mixing this as a filter to do I
want to do advisory in five years?
Maybe, maybe not. Do I want to manage a media
business? It's fun.
(27:20):
Will it be fun in year? Will it be fun when you've
scaled it and trying to take allthis into account?
And then day-to-day, as I said, I'm very organized.
So I, because it's also my, my nature, like it's what I advise
people about execution. So I need to be good at this.
So I'm, I'm, I always know what are the parties in different
(27:42):
areas that's allows me to do many things at the same time.
I know, like, you know, I have alist of 200 things that I need
to do. It's a bit more than 200.
And then it will be split by different, you know, areas and,
and, and projects. And I know at what point do I
need to do what's saying what will take time, What do I need
(28:04):
to activate now to get results in a week?
What do I need to, you know, different deadlines.
And on this I have the layer of OK, this brings more money, this
brings less money and this is long term, but I need to
activate it now. So I try to try to have these
different filters in place in, in my head.
But for instance, I start everyday looking at what do I
(28:27):
need to do now? What is, you know, upcoming
week, how do I reorganize? What do I push?
What do I prioritize? But I, I always talk like this
and also like one thing that obviously it is obvious, but I
spent a lot of time that's of hours.
The days are long. There's no way like if you want
to build many things. And also I feel I need, I want
(28:52):
to build things now so that fiveyears from now I have to work
less. But you need to spend a lot of
time at some point. There is no way around it.
Yeah, that's amazing with the overall view, but also the micro
view of the weekly planning. So you sit on boards and advise
founders what are the big blind sports leaders often miss around
(29:15):
sustainable growth? What's, what are the issues with
with founders? I mean, when you eliminate
already the ones that think the idea is, is important thing and
understand actually it's about the execution.
Then a lot of the time I see businesses being too niche in
the sense they're in the, in thesmall market and they don't
(29:38):
realise that they're saying their market is big, but
actually it's not. And so, you know, taking a
bigger picture or going after something else, that's one
thing. And then people are trying to do
it too complicated. So trying to launch something
that is too many things at the same time.
So they lose they lose focus. So the secret is trying to be
(30:00):
somewhere in the middle, not going into like a market that is
so small that you're never goingto make money in the sense that
your business is never going to be profitable to reach a certain
scale. And will that want to launch
something 5 different products And I'm like just go for one in
that market and try to establishbefore building up something a
(30:21):
bit bigger. So this view of trying to scale,
I mean, it's great. You want to scale very fast, but
you know, one step at a time, launch something, get some
clients, get some revenues. Awesome validate and then you go
and you build instead of trying to go full on because you will
eventually fail. But but yeah, I mean I I meet
(30:42):
lots of founders have great ideas.
The problem is getting this ideainto a business and not
realizing what what does it take.
I think the successful entrepreneurs also realize
quickly that they can't do everything themselves and that
they need to bring in the right people and rely on externals.
Always avoid I mean if you can you know Co founder is always as
(31:03):
a complementary skills is alwaysa good idea.
And then I always advise if you don't need external funding,
don't get external funding because it will come with
strings attached as in it will tell you what to do or to take
your business. Maybe they will influence you
and tell me. But still, if you really don't
need to, just don't do it because it's not free money.
(31:24):
Yeah. You know, someone told me the
easy way to be in that position of not needing an external
funding is to speak to customersand grow as quick as you can.
Perhaps is one way. I know it's probably not your
area, but is there a growing appetite in fintech for ESG?
I made innovation or ethic of fintech out of curiosity.
(31:49):
Actually, I got more and more involved in that space since
helping on well the COP 22 yearsago.
And then last year I worked on an initiative called the Banking
Coalition for the Green Economy.So there is, there is growing
appetite. There is more to be done,
especially in the way you link funding and ESG projects in the
(32:13):
sense that helping people that have capital better invested
into ESG projects, understandingthe peculiarities around but
footprint around like looking atthe project in a different ways
than than a traditional project.I think that here.
So it's plenty of things to do. Of course, there's a bit of set
back right now with the current administration in the US that is
(32:37):
that is pushing back on, on a lot of initiatives that were in
motion. However, for me it's just a tiny
bump in the sense first in your in Europe while there is no like
going back and and the economiesare turning into into
sustainability anyway. I think for me sustainability
has to be sustainable if that makes sense from an economic
(33:00):
point of view. So it's great to try to push it
from a regulation point of view.However, a business is
sustainable needs all need also to to be profitable and and to
make sense for the customers. So great, you want to
manufacture a smartphone in France, it's a smartphone cost
5000. No one is going to buy it from
(33:21):
you. So it is sustainable.
It's not never going to be profitable.
However, I see businesses are doing sustainable stuff and also
being profitable and having an appeal to clients.
And I think this is where everything needs to go, which is
you embed into your operations. But still, it makes sense.
Maybe it can't be like everything right now, but over
(33:43):
time you build and and then you develop a different supply chain
if it's a product and then it's fine, you know, like, but I
think we're getting there after the first wave of sustainability
at all costs. I mean, awesome, but customers
don't want it. It's sustainable and also you're
not paying a lot more or you know, it makes sense from a
business point of view. We need to look at the
(34:04):
definition sustainable. Maybe we have to change because
if sustainable can mean economically sustainable,
environmentally sustainable, people sustainable, then why
should we separate it? We have to discuss and bring
all, if you look at it on one side in a different room, but
you go to a different room, you talk about the different
aspects, then it's no way to help bring all of these
(34:25):
discussions in the room. So and there's a lot of
companies as you mentioned have succeeded like the Tesla where
they've looked at, you know, thehigh end market, maybe over time
they can come in. There are alternative burgers
which are plant based, but you know, when you taste it, it's
not the same as the meat based, but you wouldn't know the
(34:46):
difference. And so a lot of customers are
buying it and they find it's still sustainable as well.
So yeah, there's huge opportunities for a lot of the
sustainable companies, impact based companies to explore.
So what is your final thoughts based on all the discussions
we've had for business leaders that need key transformation
(35:06):
around using tech or data LED innovation, What is your final
thought for these key categories?
So. My my final thought and advice
is forget about the technology thing about the problem you're
trying to solve. And then you will explore a
range of solutions, but don't start with the solution because
(35:27):
then you're, you're you're losing focus.
Start about the business problem, your idea, and then
focus on the implementation. Don't get, you know, too cocky
about your idea in your head. Maybe it's great, but actually,
you know, it's probably not great.
So fine, talk to people about it.
(35:49):
You don't have to be secretive. What matters is what you do is
your idea. Someone will steal your idea.
Who cares if you're better at executing your idea?
So focus that's to focus on that.
And for people that already havea business and you know, already
executing, look at the way you are doing strategy execution.
(36:12):
So strategy implementation, try to find the frameworks that you
like have to be better at going from the strategy to pushing to
your teams and making sure thereis a good alignment here.
So this would be this would be my my advice to.
Huge thank you to Tristan for giving us your incredible time.
(36:32):
And inside I've learnt a lot from a systematic point of view.
It's giving me a lot of confidence in some of the
challenges, which from a strategy point of view, as I
mentioned, there is a lot of crossovers that we can learn
from innovation, but I'm sure the listeners from founders to
establish businesses. So if listeners want to find
more of your work, Tristan, can you tell us where to find more
(36:53):
of your work? On Ding, Ding is probably the
central point where from there you will see stuff that I do in,
in strategy and and and research, research on, on OK Rs
and as well. You can link back into the stuff
I do with fintech here. That's great.
All right. Thank you so much, Tristan.
Thanks. Thanks for having me.
Sustainability has to be sustainable if that makes sense
from an economic point of view. So it's great to try to push it
from a regulation point of view.However, a business that is
sustainable needs all need also to to be profitable and and to
make sense for the customers. So great, you want to
(00:20):
manufacture a smartphone in France, use a smartphone cost
5000. No one is going to buy it from
you. So it is sustainable.
It's not never going to be profitable.
However, I see businesses are doing sustainable stuff and also
being profitable and having an appeal to clients.
And I think this is where everything needs to go, which is
(00:41):
you embed into your operations. But still it makes sense.
Welcome to Sustainability Transformations podcast where we
discuss bold ideas to drive positive change for people,
community and business. And today, I'm so pleased our
(01:02):
guest is Tristan Pelu, who is the founder of Fintech Review
and Strategy, YA business strategist and Fintech advisor,
who brings a fresh perspective to innovation across finance,
entrepreneurship and sustainability.
And the key goal of our discussion in sustainability is
to see the innovation trends in fintech and how that is so
(01:25):
essential for sustainability. So welcome, Tristan, you wear
many hats from fintech media to boardrooms to strategy
consulting. What connects all the dots in
your career so far? Thanks for having me.
Anok. What connects the dots?
That's that's a good question. So, I mean, I used to work in in
(01:45):
banking and more precisely, I was working in business strategy
and corporate finance, but focused on financial services.
So this is when I discovered fintech and and that's how I
started Fintech review. I wanted to, you know, share my
thoughts about the industry called technologies are
reshaping banking and financial services.
(02:06):
But you know, my job is this strategy.
So basically you have like the industry expertise Fintech and
then that the more the functional expertise around
around strategy. And then in strategy, as as you
said, I do advisory consulting. So do research, I do PhD
research and strategy, what interests me, and this is going
(02:28):
to be the discussion, but how welink strategy to innovation and
how we can find ways to better implement strategy that delivers
better outcomes, including, you know, launching innovative
products, innovative services. Also like a coursing for me is
how can all of this can drive outcome for clients, customers
(02:49):
but also for the words more generally.
When you are delivering the innovation consulting for
companies, how do you or when they are source and your
activities where they see you asa strategist but not as a
fintech review or the other aspect, how does that
(03:10):
conversation come about for new clients?
Yeah. I mean usually unless they're
then the tech sector, I don't even mention fintech, fintech
review. I think I mean with with well,
first as and as a start I separate my week and and I kind
of put like compartments betweenactivities.
And so when it's been took preview, I will have discussions
(03:33):
with with companies about content, about exposure kind of
selling like advertising services and like content
creation. So it's a bit different from
when I took to companies about strategy.
And then the core is gonna be business strategy.
And the fact that I have experience in fintech and
exposure to that is interesting usually.
(03:54):
But I always try to explain to people that whatever is a
sector, business strategy is always the same approach to
innovation at at the conceptual level.
So that's why I worked in in various sectors and it can be
manufacturing, it can be SAS, itcan be Fintech, whatever.
You can be selling potatoes, thecore of strategies.
(04:17):
OK, what are you selling for? Are you selling it to is a way
you're manufacturing or selling your services and innovation, is
it not? What is radical innovation to
innovation incremental. But this can be in any sector.
It doesn't have to. It doesn't have to be this
discussion this morning about someone who was asking me, do I
have experience in legal tech? I was saying no, but I'm pretty
(04:43):
sure that it's going to be always the same.
It's like, you know, as I said, who are you selling to?
What are you selling? What's the price point?
What is your industry, your market looking like?
This you can replicate to whatever sector.
Yeah, I'm a big believer of onceyou have the methodology or the
model, then the model, yes, you adapted to the industry, but the
(05:07):
fundamentals from what you described, the model of
application will be the same. So how did the Fintech review
come about? At what gap where you trying to
fill them up inside the market? So it started because as I said,
I was working in in Straighten Innovation London and I was
(05:28):
creating like internal content. I added I can use lecture
internally like and stuff like this.
Then I saw try not building. Why not having a personal blog?
Initially I saw Dick, I'm going to write on LinkedIn.
And then I said, no, you know what, let's try to build a
platform outside, not inside a platform, but just like properly
(05:50):
outside. It started as a personal blog
where I was just writing about fintech and, and it was fun.
Then over the time it, it evolved because, well, kind of
people reached out and say, Hey,you do interviews.
And I said, well, actually it could be good stuff.
Started doing interviews. I started opening up to, to, to
like other people writing. And then from there, the PR
(06:13):
publications and, and other stuff.
And it evolved into being an actual, you know, news media
platform. The, the, it's been five years
and, and kind of the, the growthand, and the past has been well,
seizing opportunities that were coming up and then also trying
to see where, where I can take it.
(06:35):
And now, now I have a have a clearer vision.
Initially it didn't start as a business, it started as a I'm
going to write about what I think about the industry and now
it's now I take a very differentview on this.
Yeah. And I'm so pleased because I'm
on the 0 in the sustainability. And so I'm so pleased that you
(07:00):
know, you said five years and I think that core parties you seem
to be at the start enjoyed it and then you allowed in time to
then give you the clarity of what the journey is.
So it's so nice to see. So what have you learned and
about the evolution of Fintech by creating so many expert
voices? Yeah, I mean, just to to add,
(07:22):
yeah, as you say, it's a long game, whatever content you're
producing. Is it the newsletter or Blogger
podcast? When I started this thing, which
is I read, Are you ready to do 100 or 200?
You know, just letter or blog post.
If you're not, then you're nevergoing to establish anything.
So you always have to think about it and, and that most,
(07:44):
most podcasts or like whatever, it's become like they become
like really good after sticking with it.
So for me, I've seen the evolution, of course, like in
five years from the ups and downs of crypto and like the
inference on, on fintech. And for me, technologies, they
come and go. So there was lots of focus on
blockchain. Now all the focus is on AI, but
(08:07):
it creates a bit of noise always.
But I always take the view because I'm also a strategist as
as we've said, so it starts witha business problem or starts
from the business. And then you go to technology,
which is, which can be whatever,but it always starts with, OK,
what are you trying to do here? And then you're going to find
that the solution. So I've seen various
(08:29):
technologies come and go, trends, lots of fintech
businesses, I've grown and, and I've become quite important
strike PayPal revoluted. I've become quite, quite big
players. At the same time, many companies
that still haven't figured out the right business model because
they got lots of funding. There was lots of funding going
to fintech companies without really figuring out, is this the
(08:53):
business that can generate revenues and profits for like to
be sustainable? Sustainable in the sense, you
know, viable, but but you know, it's been interesting and now
big wave of AI, which creates a lot of noise.
But the discussion is more aboutautomation and and how can you
not replace human, augment theircapability so that they don't
(09:13):
spend time on useless tasks and much more on on actually adding
value. Yeah, that's good.
With the blockchain. I'm curious because I remember
maybe 15 years ago there about where there was the evolution
from DVD's into there was like aBlu-ray that came up and then
(09:33):
Netflix came up and then all of a sudden, I'm not a tech person,
but I didn't hear about Blu-ray anymore.
So I'm curious to know from a blockchain.
I bought a few blockchain books five years ago, which I didn't
really go into, but it was on mylist of catching up and then all
of a sudden is AI. So I'm curious to know what's
the key extinction between the blockchain and AI?
(09:56):
These are very different things,but just, I mean, there are
plenty of technologies that you use in, in in business and
usually people you're a CEO. If you're a business person, you
usually don't care about like how what kind of technology
exactly is being used? You care about, Hey, I have
clients, I need to deliver them the service apart.
(10:16):
So these two technologies have come here like in the, in the
business world and people get excited and, and try to
understand. But for me, they should go back
to like a technology discussion.But like the blockchain is a
distributed database that's in to summarize, right?
And it's exciting because it's in theory inimitable.
(10:37):
So it brings some efficiencies in, in certain areas.
And then on top of that, people have built cryptocurrencies,
which are using blockchain as a technology.
Is it revolutionary? I mean, for now, yes.
But as I said, maybe five years from now, there's something
better and it's it's useless as you, as you were saying, but
(10:58):
there was a DVD, there were Blu rays awesome.
And then streaming. And then who cares about DV DS
and, and, and Blu rays. So there will be always.
That's why I said the important is to focus on the problem and,
and then the solution can be whatever.
Sometimes it's time on a technology solution.
That's why there's lots of noisewith AI and people say, Hey,
(11:19):
let's use AI to do this. And most of the time it's like,
yeah, we don't need, don't need AI.
You need like a simple automation or not even but but
but for me, it's always going back to, OK, what are you trying
to do here? And then they can be whatever.
And right now maybe social is blockchain, maybe social is AI,
maybe it's nothing. And in 10 years it will be
(11:40):
something else that hasn't been invented yet.
And that's a normal flow. Yeah, that's very good.
Starting from what the problem is for what a customer really
wants or needs. Again, if you're choosing the
right word between the ones and the needs and the problem that
needs to be solved seem to be very good point to start.
So what major fintech trends arecatching your attention right
(12:02):
now, Tristan? I think I mean, yeah, obviously
and and how how businesses leverage it, the regulatory push
back or approach to this becauseas you automate and give the
keys to a system without like human intervention or with
(12:23):
little human intervention, it isOK in certain aspects.
You do marketing and you publishon social media fine for credit
decision for managing people's money.
The more you have automation, the more I think regulators are
nervous, you know, governments are nervous about this.
So I think it's an interesting trend and, and I'm looking
(12:43):
forward to see how it shapes up.And then generally, I think
embedded, what we call embedded finance and embedded payments.
So, you know, Karna, all this kind of stuff where or when you
take a Uber and you don't see the payment because it's already
inside the journey. You've already given your, your
details. So this is the when, when
(13:04):
finance and payments become invisible.
It's an interesting trend and it's been shaping up over the
past few years. So you don't have this friction
of like getting your card out. And the more, more and more I
think you will see more complex stuff being embedded in the
customer journey because actually when you buy something,
you don't care about paying for it, you care about buying it and
(13:25):
getting it. And so you go on, you know, you
buy a flight, you buy whatever actually don't want to go
through the process of like, youknow, putting your cards detail
or whatever. So this is an interesting trend
and more and more it's been, it's becoming invisible in some
journeys as as a customer. And I say it will become
(13:46):
eventually more the case. So this is an interesting trend
for me. And then last one, as I said, I
think the industry has matured now and so it's to see the
businesses that come that will survive.
There will be a bit of consolidation in the sense that
everybody can make money in the market and then eventually one
(14:08):
by the other. And you can see this happening
when there is less funding available then the the
businesses that stay are the businesses are more solid
because it can generate money without external funding and
they will be able to buy the other ones.
So this is also something that interests me.
That's interesting. So the last part, is it safe to
(14:30):
say that it's about the growth potential?
It will get to a peak where someof the businesses within the
banking and finance industry or payments industry cannot grow to
the expectations of investors orshareholders.
And if it cannot grow, like mostthings in life, anything which
is not growing is dying. It cannot be both at the same
(14:53):
time. So is it safe to say because the
expectation of business is growing from time to time, if
it's not growing, it becomes stagnant, then that's where
naturally some business may falloff?
Is that a good elaboration of what the last part means from
what you said? Yeah, exactly.
In 2021 was a peak in terms of funding for for fintech
(15:14):
businesses. Then since then it it got down,
got down, got up and now it's it's stabilized.
As you say, it's all based on expectations.
I'm giving money to that business because it's growing,
expecting it to reach a certain value.
And then eventually a few years down the line, in most cases,
you realize that it doesn't reach that value.
(15:35):
And then investors kind of readjust their expectations at
the market level, at the sector level.
Hey, payments companies, yeah, let's put lots of money.
And then you realize, oh, actually, no, the market is not
growing or whatever. So it's always this game of you
try to predict the futures the future doesn't realize or
realize in a, in a different matter.
(15:55):
And then you adjust and we're seeing this adjustment now.
Some businesses have grown faster than others and new
opportunities and others were. You know, for me, for instance,
one segment where I've never understood because I don't think
there is that much money, which is everything to do with
personal banking, you know, yourpersonal bank account, that in
(16:18):
itself, like all the neo banks, that in itself there's not so
much money. There's money at the moment of
selling products like a credit card mortgage, but just having
your money in, in some place, the business that manage your
money, we're not making anythingout of it.
And then lots of companies popped up and, and started like,
(16:38):
hey, I'm the, I'm a neo bank. Yeah, come with me.
And I was like, sure, but your guys are too many of this
segment and there's not enough money to be made from the
customers you're looking, you'relooking for.
But it's a process and and we'rewe're getting out of it now.
It's positive. Anyway, this kind of change in
(17:00):
in the market because everybody steps back and say, OK, you
know, let's let's chill. Actually there's no value here.
You know, let's let's move on. So.
If the market banking is gettingsaturated, where what is the one
or two areas that are having emerging innovations in, in the
(17:24):
pavement? I know you mentioned about the
River League, you know business,but I'm curious in general,
where has the growth potential and innovations to deliver a
more sustainable financial system based on the challenges
and the possible trends you've mentioned?
I think that a few companies arewell placed.
(17:44):
The payments companies are, you know, just Stripe, Stripe for
instance, is, is quite well placed in which the competitor
to Stripe, everybody that is doing payments like embedded
payments, what I mentioned they are powering a lot of businesses
as again, to that point, if a business says, hey, I want a
solution to make my payments invisible, then you have this
(18:06):
guys providing a solution. So because there is a business
demand for finance to become invisible, then the guys that
are playing in that field are, are going to win and, and you
know, are going to grow. So this is when 1 area where I
see continuous demand because business are demanding this.
And then more generally businesssolutions.
(18:26):
So financial services for small businesses, small medium
businesses, financing, lending, I think there is there are
opportunities here. However, it is hard, it is much
harder to play in the small and medium enterprise segment than
in the personal segment because personal it's easier to
(18:47):
understand because it needs our are a bit more marginalized.
So between people, whereas businesses by nature to
businesses will be quite different.
And so they will be, they will have different needs.
And so it's, it's a segment thatis quite complicated to tackle.
And what we've seen is lots of fintech companies launching to,
(19:08):
to go after personal after individual because it's easier
to, to target than small businesses.
Even those are millions, but I Isee value here, but it's just
it's, it's harder, it's harder to to do.
Yeah, that's good. So what does strategic
transformation look like today, especially for legacy industries
(19:31):
like the financial services? Trying to the the problem what
many old companies have is that they're sitting on lots of
legacy technology that they eventually need to upgrade and
change but it's not that easy I could see lots of banking CE OS
saying hey you know let's use AI, but then it's all a message
(19:54):
of the data organized they don'thave anything organized
transformation. The issue is sometimes it's
technology, but most of the timewhen you do a business
transformation, the problem are the people because.
In the sense you have a businessof 10,000 people, this 10,000
(20:17):
people have all the jobs, they are doing certain tasks.
You know, I'm doing marketing, I'm doing sales.
If you're trying to to change your business from a technology
perspective, completely reshaping it, it means looking
at the people, what they do, looking at the processes, get
the tools that they use, lookingat exactly what they do
day-to-day. And this is much harder, you
(20:38):
know, to figure out how to reorganize this and at the same
time trying to convince the people internally that it's a
good change and that they're willing to do that change.
So that's the biggest challenge when we do a transformation.
The technology is readily available.
Tomorrow you can deploy API in your business.
(20:58):
You know, you just go and, and, and play around with the GPT.
You can access the API and you can plug in your business, the
GPT models and, and use it. But first, what are you trying
to do? Then secondly, you need to
figure out the processes, what people are doing.
For me, that's, that's all. But it's also what I find quite
(21:19):
interesting from a strategy perspective.
It's not so much about the technology, it's about like how
you organize your business. What is your vision for the
future business? How do you go from where you are
now to where you want to be in three years?
What are the steps that you're going to take in order to change
your business? Implemented these two
(21:39):
technologies to deliver better products and services.
Be more efficient. Now, I'm so pleased you've
mentioned about the core challenge of the people because
in my space of sustainability, where I do strategy is something
which I've discovered lately. In fact, I'm going every stuff,
you know, change the culture, you change the game, which I've
(22:02):
been reading within the sustainability space from a
strategy point of view. So it's always nice to know that
in a separate industry of business transformation that is
an issue. So it's not just peculiar to
sustainability where lots of companies have duty 400 page
reporting and it shows that the coach aspect, the behavior and
(22:24):
there's lots of research. We show the knowledge, you can
give as much knowledge as possible.
As you mentioned, big companies can bring transformation at a
bigger scale and that transformation with AI.
But you still need the the behavior because people have
done it and habits. So what mistakes do companies
still make when trying to innovate without reinventing
(22:44):
their core? I think what the biggest mistake
people make when it comes to innovation is thinking that it's
about the idea. And this I see times and times
again, which is, hey, I'm gonna have a great idea and it's gonna
be innovative. You can have whatever idea today
(23:05):
doesn't mean that it's gonna getyou like the right outcomes or
again, transforming the in a business or product.
What matters is the implementation is execution.
How do you go from idea to to business, which is you know, so
for me, this is the issue with, with innovation people saying,
oh, let's generate ideas and let's test ideas.
(23:28):
I'm like, fine, but these ideas will be worthless.
What matters is your ability to go from idea to execution.
Very well. And that's where if you see
businesses that we deem to be good at innovation, what they're
really good at is, is that ability not so much to generate
(23:48):
ideas, but just to take an idea and execute it better than
everybody else. I'm a visiting professor and I
teach innovation and I always take the example of Apple as a
business, which is they haven't invented anything.
But of course everybody thinks as a starter they did.
But the iPad wasn't the first tablet, the iPhone wasn't the
(24:11):
first smartphone, but they took an idea and executed much better
than than anyone anybody else. And you obviously have external
factors, but the The thing is it's always about your ability
to execute that idea. And I see many businesses not
being good at why because they don't have a structured way to
do it. They will go from the management
(24:32):
will define a strategy for the business as they will say let's
do innovation. People will come up with it or
even come up with ideas. And then how do you push that to
the business is messy and probably, I would say my
estimate maybe 20% of the business do it well.
The rest are doing it more or less efficiently and some are
doing it very, very badly. Yeah.
(24:53):
I've always been very keen on innovation because there is a
lot of lessons. I say innovation has been around
longer than sustainability. And so since innovation has been
around, the common challenges that innovation faces,
sustainability can learn from. I'm not saying every single one
of them, but a sustainability, we suffer with those and we have
(25:14):
an idea and sometimes the challenge with the idea is to
look good for customers, to lookgood for investors.
And the idea is not actually to implement it, Yes, to implement
it, but some companies get the results or the appearance of
wanting to do sustainability andthat level of achievement may be
(25:35):
enough to not actually, you know, deliver the 95%.
So just announcing that we want,we have this idea, we want to be
more sustainable. It may get a lot of awards or
may get a lot of appraisals. Again, sharing why there is a
lot to learn from innovation from what you discussed for the
purpose of our discussion. So you're running multiple
(25:57):
ventures. What systems?
All mindsets help you manage them.
You know, you mentioned about the compartmentalization of your
time, but how do you balance that strategic clarity with
entrepreneurial curiosity? I think that you need to be, I
mean, very clear about the, the vision for, I mean, if you're,
(26:18):
if you're going for one businessand you need to be clear about
what do you want to do with it? Like where do you want to take
it? An exercise that I do for myself
and I tend to tell people the same, which is OK one year from
now, it's been very successful. What have you done?
Where are you was this, you know, project business, personal
(26:38):
life. So this is what I, I try to do
for each of those things that I do if I go into something and I
also try to put myself some, some a milestones, you know, in
order to know at which point I will re evaluate.
This is kind of the strategic direction that I need for
clarity. Or do I take a fintech review or
(26:59):
do I take my consulting advisorybalanced against what do I want
to do? What do I like to do now?
What is likely that I will want to do in a year, three years,
five years, you know, kind of mixing this as a filter to do I
want to do advisory in five years?
Maybe, maybe not. Do I want to manage a media
business? It's fun.
(27:20):
Will it be fun in year? Will it be fun when you've
scaled it and trying to take allthis into account?
And then day-to-day, as I said, I'm very organized.
So I, because it's also my, my nature, like it's what I advise
people about execution. So I need to be good at this.
So I'm, I'm, I always know what are the parties in different
(27:42):
areas that's allows me to do many things at the same time.
I know, like, you know, I have alist of 200 things that I need
to do. It's a bit more than 200.
And then it will be split by different, you know, areas and,
and, and projects. And I know at what point do I
need to do what's saying what will take time, What do I need
(28:04):
to activate now to get results in a week?
What do I need to, you know, different deadlines.
And on this I have the layer of OK, this brings more money, this
brings less money and this is long term, but I need to
activate it now. So I try to try to have these
different filters in place in, in my head.
But for instance, I start everyday looking at what do I
(28:27):
need to do now? What is, you know, upcoming
week, how do I reorganize? What do I push?
What do I prioritize? But I, I always talk like this
and also like one thing that obviously it is obvious, but I
spent a lot of time that's of hours.
The days are long. There's no way like if you want
to build many things. And also I feel I need, I want
(28:52):
to build things now so that fiveyears from now I have to work
less. But you need to spend a lot of
time at some point. There is no way around it.
Yeah, that's amazing with the overall view, but also the micro
view of the weekly planning. So you sit on boards and advise
founders what are the big blind sports leaders often miss around
(29:15):
sustainable growth? What's, what are the issues with
with founders? I mean, when you eliminate
already the ones that think the idea is, is important thing and
understand actually it's about the execution.
Then a lot of the time I see businesses being too niche in
the sense they're in the, in thesmall market and they don't
(29:38):
realise that they're saying their market is big, but
actually it's not. And so, you know, taking a
bigger picture or going after something else, that's one
thing. And then people are trying to do
it too complicated. So trying to launch something
that is too many things at the same time.
So they lose they lose focus. So the secret is trying to be
(30:00):
somewhere in the middle, not going into like a market that is
so small that you're never goingto make money in the sense that
your business is never going to be profitable to reach a certain
scale. And will that want to launch
something 5 different products And I'm like just go for one in
that market and try to establishbefore building up something a
(30:21):
bit bigger. So this view of trying to scale,
I mean, it's great. You want to scale very fast, but
you know, one step at a time, launch something, get some
clients, get some revenues. Awesome validate and then you go
and you build instead of trying to go full on because you will
eventually fail. But but yeah, I mean I I meet
(30:42):
lots of founders have great ideas.
The problem is getting this ideainto a business and not
realizing what what does it take.
I think the successful entrepreneurs also realize
quickly that they can't do everything themselves and that
they need to bring in the right people and rely on externals.
Always avoid I mean if you can you know Co founder is always as
(31:03):
a complementary skills is alwaysa good idea.
And then I always advise if you don't need external funding,
don't get external funding because it will come with
strings attached as in it will tell you what to do or to take
your business. Maybe they will influence you
and tell me. But still, if you really don't
need to, just don't do it because it's not free money.
(31:24):
Yeah. You know, someone told me the
easy way to be in that position of not needing an external
funding is to speak to customersand grow as quick as you can.
Perhaps is one way. I know it's probably not your
area, but is there a growing appetite in fintech for ESG?
I made innovation or ethic of fintech out of curiosity.
(31:49):
Actually, I got more and more involved in that space since
helping on well the COP 22 yearsago.
And then last year I worked on an initiative called the Banking
Coalition for the Green Economy.So there is, there is growing
appetite. There is more to be done,
especially in the way you link funding and ESG projects in the
(32:13):
sense that helping people that have capital better invested
into ESG projects, understandingthe peculiarities around but
footprint around like looking atthe project in a different ways
than than a traditional project.I think that here.
So it's plenty of things to do. Of course, there's a bit of set
back right now with the current administration in the US that is
(32:37):
that is pushing back on, on a lot of initiatives that were in
motion. However, for me it's just a tiny
bump in the sense first in your in Europe while there is no like
going back and and the economiesare turning into into
sustainability anyway. I think for me sustainability
has to be sustainable if that makes sense from an economic
(33:00):
point of view. So it's great to try to push it
from a regulation point of view.However, a business is
sustainable needs all need also to to be profitable and and to
make sense for the customers. So great, you want to
manufacture a smartphone in France, it's a smartphone cost
5000. No one is going to buy it from
(33:21):
you. So it is sustainable.
It's not never going to be profitable.
However, I see businesses are doing sustainable stuff and also
being profitable and having an appeal to clients.
And I think this is where everything needs to go, which is
you embed into your operations. But still, it makes sense.
Maybe it can't be like everything right now, but over
(33:43):
time you build and and then you develop a different supply chain
if it's a product and then it's fine, you know, like, but I
think we're getting there after the first wave of sustainability
at all costs. I mean, awesome, but customers
don't want it. It's sustainable and also you're
not paying a lot more or you know, it makes sense from a
business point of view. We need to look at the
(34:04):
definition sustainable. Maybe we have to change because
if sustainable can mean economically sustainable,
environmentally sustainable, people sustainable, then why
should we separate it? We have to discuss and bring
all, if you look at it on one side in a different room, but
you go to a different room, you talk about the different
aspects, then it's no way to help bring all of these
(34:25):
discussions in the room. So and there's a lot of
companies as you mentioned have succeeded like the Tesla where
they've looked at, you know, thehigh end market, maybe over time
they can come in. There are alternative burgers
which are plant based, but you know, when you taste it, it's
not the same as the meat based, but you wouldn't know the
(34:46):
difference. And so a lot of customers are
buying it and they find it's still sustainable as well.
So yeah, there's huge opportunities for a lot of the
sustainable companies, impact based companies to explore.
So what is your final thoughts based on all the discussions
we've had for business leaders that need key transformation
(35:06):
around using tech or data LED innovation, What is your final
thought for these key categories?
So. My my final thought and advice
is forget about the technology thing about the problem you're
trying to solve. And then you will explore a
range of solutions, but don't start with the solution because
(35:27):
then you're, you're you're losing focus.
Start about the business problem, your idea, and then
focus on the implementation. Don't get, you know, too cocky
about your idea in your head. Maybe it's great, but actually,
you know, it's probably not great.
So fine, talk to people about it.
(35:49):
You don't have to be secretive. What matters is what you do is
your idea. Someone will steal your idea.
Who cares if you're better at executing your idea?
So focus that's to focus on that.
And for people that already havea business and you know, already
executing, look at the way you are doing strategy execution.
(36:12):
So strategy implementation, try to find the frameworks that you
like have to be better at going from the strategy to pushing to
your teams and making sure thereis a good alignment here.
So this would be this would be my my advice to.
Huge thank you to Tristan for giving us your incredible time.
(36:32):
And inside I've learnt a lot from a systematic point of view.
It's giving me a lot of confidence in some of the
challenges, which from a strategy point of view, as I
mentioned, there is a lot of crossovers that we can learn
from innovation, but I'm sure the listeners from founders to
establish businesses. So if listeners want to find
more of your work, Tristan, can you tell us where to find more
(36:53):
of your work? On Ding, Ding is probably the
central point where from there you will see stuff that I do in,
in strategy and and and research, research on, on OK Rs
and as well. You can link back into the stuff
I do with fintech here. That's great.
All right. Thank you so much, Tristan.
Thanks. Thanks for having me.
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