9: The Evolution of Commercial Roles in Financial Services

Episode description 

Jen Adams, Chief Commercial Officer at Virgin Money Investments, and Michelle Booth, Head of Growth, Activation and Innovation at Lloyds Banking Group, join our hosts to discuss the evolution of commercial roles and team dynamics within financial services. The conversation will explore how breaking down silos between commercial and customer departments leads to success.

Show notes
Key takeaways 

• Tremors: Historically, commercial departments in FS firms were hierarchically and functionally siloed. Each individual department often had their own sometimes conflicting silos to contend with, before considering those that existed on a broader level between departments. Hierarchical structures also resulted in many layers of communication to accommodate and multiple stakeholders to manage, bringing inefficiencies which negatively impacted collaboration, planning and forecasting, adoption of digital transformation, and customer satisfaction. The emergence of progressive FinTech startups with agile operational models, together with the need for existing firms to meet new regulatory requirements, stress-tested these traditional operating models, and forced businesses to start evolving their approach. 
• Epicentre: With many large teams used to working in a more linear and siloed way, there is a focus now on how firms can foster good behaviours as much as skill sets within their teams to break down departmental barriers, encouraging an integrated, multi-skilled and collaborative approach to working. By embracing diverse perspectives and skill sets of different teams around a common purpose or task, within a more workshop-oriented environment, it not only creates stronger outcomes but also builds team confidence to use AGILE ‘learn by doing’ methodologies.
• Aftershocks: Moving forward, firms should encourage a broader range of cognitive diversity within their teams, including creatives and experts from non financial industry verticals to drive stronger outcomes for the business and their clients. Firms should also aim to align the right efficiency tools, platforms and processes, alongside human skill-building, to truly maximise team value creation. Prevalent issues such as sharing information effectively, adapting to hybrid work settings, and balancing specialised skills within go-to-market teams need to be resolved to ensure better organisational efficiency. Finally, to drive the most effective working environment and empower talent, firms should create a culture that always encourages innovation, fosters continuous improvement, and promotes the testing of new ideas even if they fail.

Jump into the conversation:

[02:30] The Evolution of Financial Services
[04:28] Challenges of Traditional Structures
[06:09] Customer-centric Transformation in Organisations.
[09:20] Modern Approaches to Team Building
[12:13] The Role of Diversity and Inclusion
[20:42] Breaking Down Internal Silos.
[24:23] Future of Integrated Teams
[36:16] Integrated Team Collaboration in Banking