Welcome back to Disruptive Innovations in FinTech and the Implications for Society. This is our last module, and this is the project, and that's all that's in this module. You've got this video to introduce you to the project, but basically this entire module is about the project. There's nothing else here. So, we're not going to introduce any new ideas, no new concepts. We're going to talk about what we want you to do for the project, and what we're going to ask you to do. Now, for the project, I want you to pick a company involved in FinTech services. That might be banking, it might be insurance, could even be government regulator, if that's who you're really working for, and who you care about. I'd like you to pick a company or entity that you care about because you either work for them, or you're thinking about work for them, or wish you could work for them, or really care a lot about them in some way or for some reason. So, pick an entity that matters to you personally, for some reason. This is important to you. How is this company going to do? I want you to think about not two things with that. I want you to do some Internet searching, and I want you to collect some data, some raw materials about everything you can find easily from public sources. I don't want you to reveal anything secret from inside the company. So, if you know secret information or insider information, don't share that. You can use it to affect your opinion or views. You can summarize something, but don't share anything that's company confidential, even if you know it. But, take whatever information sources you have, whatever you can gather about the company or entity that you have chosen to address. I want you to think about two things with regard to this company. Is the degree of innovation that you see happening in the society that this company deals with likely to be disruptive to this company? Meaning, is it likely to have a painful impact on some aspect of their business? If so, in what areas is this innovation or technology or FinTech or applications going to be disruptive or painful to that organization or entity? So, do some searching, do some data collection, and think about with all that you know about diversity of impact, countries, your company, your strategy, the countries in which you're working, the areas of focus, where do you see pain points? Where do you see implications for this organization, not for society, but for a firm or a entity or a government? Where do you see warnings, danger, caution, possible disruption? Where do you see this is not going to be so bad? This is an evolution, and we look like we're doing things in this firm or this company or this entity looks like they're responding well. If you think that it's not going to be disruptive, you think that it's going to be evolutionary, and this organization is going to be able to adapt, defend your view. Why? Why do you think this entity is not going to suffer pain or disruption or difficulties? If you do think there's going to be disruption, why? Why do you think they're not going to be able to adapt? What is it that worries you, is it culture? Is it a lack of strategy? Is it a complacency about their customer base? Is there something that says to you, "I don't see this changing"? Okay. So, that's part one of the project. Pick a firm. Look at it. As you collect data, as you look at the world, write up a summary of looking at their future. What changes are going to happen? What's going to be out there that may disrupt or cause pain? Is this going to lead to a disruptive impact on that organization? Is this going to be potentially life threatening or could have a significant impact on the value of the firm, the future of the firm, the employment of the firm, or will it not matter? Will they adapt nicely? Now, we get to part two. Part two is about you. The focus is you, not your company, not your industry, the focus is you. What are the implications for you of FinTech? How should you think about your career? How should you think about your employment prospects? How should you think about skills that you might need to develop for you to be successful in the FinTech age, in the FinTech revolution or evolution? That may mean if your part one says, "Holy cow! My firm's in trouble. There are some large disruptions going to happen. I'm worried about my job. I'm worried about my stability." you might want to do some serious self-reflection and ask, "What should I be doing to deal with that risk?" Because that risk may be substantial. Or how can you take advantage of an opportunity? You may be very well-positioned. Your company may be very well-positioned. This may be a huge opportunity. Should you be thinking about in your organization becoming an advocate for change, for transformation? Should you be joining a part of the company working in sandboxes and innovation looking for opportunities to succeed or fail? But, to take some risk and join in a different kind of view of banking than many bankers have in the past. As one banking executive said in a recent FinTech conference, "The problem for bankers of this FinTech evolution is that tech firms are used to failing, and banks don't tolerate failure. They don't like it." So, if you're willing to tolerate failure, you don't fit very well with banking culture, and if you're not able to tolerate failure, you don't fit well with high-tech culture. So, we've got Fin and tech with different cultures and different perspectives on risk and failure. Bankers are used to financial risks. They're risky securities and diversifying or doing other things to reduce risk, but they don't really like failure of systems, or applications, or technologies, or product in the market. They're not real happy about failure. Tech firms are saying, "Well, we'll try five things. If one of them works, great. We'll make money on that one. If the other four fail yeah, yeah. That's the nature of innovation. It happens." It doesn't work as well in techs, but you may look at your career and say, "You know what, I'm a banker, but I'm okay with failure if there's some upside." So, maybe you want to think differently about your career, your positions, your future. What firms you might look to join. So, I'm not asking you to reveal anything secret, or to compromise your career. If there's anything you want to keep private, please do so. Feel free to do so. But, anything you can share and get feedback from peers that you're thinking about, you're not to share with your colleagues in the bank or with your colleagues at work. You can share something that may help you to think through your own future, your own career plans, and get feedback from your peers where they may say, "From what you've said about your strengths or your situation in your company, I think you should be trying something different." You get a chance to see what other people have done. It's not about their firms, or a company they care about or entity, and their careers, and that may also help you in further thinking about what does this mean to you and how should the implications for society matter for implications for you. Because when the bottom line hits, most of us are fairly selfish, and we'd like to care about society, and the planet Earth, and global warming, and many other things. But, we also look and say, "What does this mean to me? Where's the bottomline? How do I make money from this? How do we be successful? How do I have fun? How do I have adventures? How do I use this information for fun and profit?" So, as the final project for this course, I want you to use this information to help yourself, and get feedback from others, and give feedback to others. That's part of the sharing as to help others and help yourself to think through your strategy and your plan. So, that's part two. So, as me to you. Now, for both parts, I recommend that you not spend more than about six hours. You try to wrap this project up in six hours or less. I'm not going to put that as a requirement, and I'm not going to put a page limit as a requirement. You can choose how long you want it to be. You can choose how long you want to spend. I recommend that you spend at least four hours on this. That would be my personal recommendation. I would like to see you do that. But, I'm not going to put a page limit on. I'm not going to pull a requirement on. There is no maximum, no minimum, no set length. Unlike some other projects, you do not have to meet a minimum requirement here. But, I do want you to look at your company, draw in some data, use some information to base your assessments as to impacts and risks. Also, look at yourself and think about your future. So, write as much as you need, I will put a maximum on. If you're going to write more than about eight pages, people are going to get really annoyed and not want to read anymore. So, that's probably too much. But, that's not an expectation. That's a maximum limit. If somebody else's writing more than eight pages, you have my permission to stop reading, After eight pages and say, "I'm done. That's enough. Don't do anymore. I can't read more than that." But, less is fine. Just try to spend four to six hours in total on this project. It's my recommendation of the amount of time you should be thinking about roughly on this effort. Thank you. I hope you've had fun in this course, and I hope it's been useful.
