During the post-coronavirus period, the success of fintech companies will relate to how well they work with and provide value for big institutional financial firms. And conversely, how the larger firms can integrate smaller players’ technology they require for innovation. Apple Pay works well because of the fintech software provided by an outside firm, and this dynamic will continue after COVID-19, as big firms need nimble operators to create streamlined processes that match shifting customer behaviors.
As we emerge into the post-COVID economy, fintech companies—big and small—need new ways to connect. Additionally, enhanced collaboration among fintech players increases inclusion. Not just for underbanked customers, but also in terms of providing far better access and participation rights to more professionals, businesses, and aspirers than ever before.
COVID-19 is the unwitting catalyst for digital transformation, which bodes well for fintech and small businesses that dared to look ahead and innovate pre-crisis, only to find that they had reinvented customer experience for a post-crisis world. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella put it best on the importance of innovation: "Ours is not an industry that respects tradition — it only respects innovation."
Thus, it is time for small companies to offer concrete benefits and solutions for their customers and collaboration partners, to make their lives easier and better through the smart usage of technology tools and platforms. To that end, and for larger firms desiring to do more and reach more, there are now ready-to-go platform solutions and growth partners available that have already done all the hard work.
In the current economy, all of us — individuals and businesses alike — are looking for a new way forward, a solution to the challenges of the current crisis. Perhaps the silver lining to this crisis will be the “big guy”/” little guy” collaboration model. Like what Match.com famously did for dating, connecting and integration, big players, too, can do by being at the forefront of a global movement that transforms and grows their business and helps solve the greatest crisis of a generation.
Albert Einstein said: "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." That statement has never been truer than today.
