Page 22 - GS161002
P. 22
Views
Reboot your payments The same can be said for sales techniques. "As a general
outlook industry observation, when I look at email blasts pushing
80 percent splits and $500 upfront bonuses, I feel we've
By Dale S. Laszig lost all creativity and become a race to the bottom," said
DSL Direct LLC Jared Isaacman, founder and Chief Executive Officer of
Harbortouch Payments LLC, a POS systems and merchant
I n a company meeting in 1998, Hypercom Corp. services provider. "These promotions are setting us back a
Senior Vice President John Marshall warned sales decade. Without a compelling value proposition, even a 90
directors against thinking of the T7P as an annuity. percent split isn't going to help you sign a new merchant."
Orders for the product were through the roof, but
Marshall was saying it was over. And he was right. The Iterative, disruptive innovation
shift didn't happen right away, but the payments industry
has evolved into a long tail, bring-your-own-device envi- Joe Cincotta is Director of Sydney, Australia-based Think-
ronment. ing Group, which includes Thinking.School, Thinking.
Studio and Thinking.Ventures. He concurs with numerous
As countertop terminals approach the end of their useful experts who advise against bringing analog thinking to the
lives, merchant level salespeople (MLSs) are using mobile digital world.
and digital tools to help merchants solve complex problems.
Machines have adapted to the networked world, but have "Over the last 20 years, I have worked with fast-paced
humans? Have we sufficiently rebooted our thinking, or American and Australian startups, global corporations
are we bringing an analog mindset to the digital payments like P&G, Intel and Facebook, financial institutions and
landscape? government agencies," Cincotta stated. "As I observed the
different approaches and cultures, I saw patterns emerge. I
Analog tools, digital world started mapping this with research in the fields of cognitive
psychology, the psychology of creativity, design thinking
Upgrades like Windows 10 and iOS Sierra can simplify and even the lean startup movement to understand the
tasks and improve efficiencies, but may require a return deeper structure of these patterns."
to basics, where we learn new settings and navigational
shortcuts. The payments industry has received a similar In defining innovation, Cincotta distinguishes between
upgrade, one that requires us to re-evaluate tried-and-true iterative and disruptive processes (which ideally co-exist
sales techniques and products. in pioneering companies) as follows:
To some extent, humans have always brought old ideas to • Iterative innovation: Similar to Toyota's "lean pro-
new products. It's how we roll. Douglas Rushkoff, author of duction" process, business owners focus on improve-
Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, wrote, "The first television ment (what Toyota calls kaizen, which means change
shows were simply stage plays with a camera in the for the better in Japanese), relentlessly modeling,
audience. The first graphical computer interfaces imitated pursuing and demanding it from themselves, their
the real-world office desktops they replaced. Likewise, our colleagues and suppliers. The lean process also rec-
digital economy is still more in its 'horseless carriage' phase ognizes subject-matter experts, frontline employees
than in that of the automobile." who know what is broken and can make recommen-
dations that yield huge results.
Rushkoff warned against the pitfalls of thinking of the
digital world in terms of the previous landscape, rather than • Disruptive innovation: Disruptive innovation per-
considering the vast potential of the new one. Similarly, tains largely to immediate impact. Consider your
those who think of payments as auth and settlement are strategy. How much risk are you willing to take with
rooted in a horseless carriage mentality. Square Inc., PayPal new products and services? Not all disruptive inno-
Inc. and others have moved on, using payment technology vation requires massive investment. Determine how
in vastly more interesting ways. to measure the success of your innovation at an early
stage, and invest in your innovation projects accord-
22 ingly. Focus on metrics to understand how to get a
simple prototype to market quickly and ensure that
benefits outweigh risks.
Focusing on iterative innovation while having a few
measured, disruptive projects allows you to make sure
you're maximizing your value today while setting yourself
up for future "horizons of innovation," Cincotta said.
Change your mindset
Cincotta sees value in understanding why and what makes
your organization unique. "Try using the 'five whys' tool –
