Helping WOWs Take Flight
It takes a village to run a successful accelerator programme. The inaugural WOW Accelerator launched in June by the DBS Innovation team brings together the bank’s project teams, tech interns, internal mentors and external industry experts. And it’s these collaborations — powered virtually in these Covid-19 times — that are essential in driving innovation and real solutions in the accelerator.
The WOW Accelerator partnered with technology industry expert Capgemini to provide mentorship to the WOWTech interns working on the projects. We caught up with Capgemini’s Tech Lead and Labs Manager Isaac Steinberg and Senior Fintech Adviser Fabien Lamaison to find out more about their WOW Accelerator journey so far.
Hi Isaac and Fabien! It’s been about a month since the WOW Accelerator started. How has your experience with the WOW Accelerator programme been so far?
Fabien: The WOW Accelerator programme has been a uniquely fun and rewarding experience! As a Capgemini mentor, my role is to coach the interns on emerging technologies and methodologies.
Isaac: Likewise, I think the WOW Accelerator is a great initiative and an exciting experience! The team that I am mentoring has been great to collaborate and ideate with. It’s been a joy to see the progression of my particular project that delves deeper into Natural Language Processing and Understanding (NLP/NLU), which has been very rewarding. Through this collaboration, I’ve immersed myself in innovative models and new architectures for building software with emerging technologies.
Fabien: The first WOW moment for me surfaced when the interns started to gather some preliminary data and then discovered that they could design a solution to solve the customer’s pain points. From then onwards, more ideas started to pop in their minds, as well as a clearer path to enhance and improve the ongoing process of ideation and implementation.
Sounds really interesting. And what are your thoughts on launching an accelerator virtually?
Isaac: Collaborating virtually has been rather seamless. It’s great to be in a highly productive environment which is taking place outside the typical physical office setting. I’ve found that meetings are timely, concise and clear. Interestingly, everyone occupies the same amount of screen space, which creates an evenly distributed engagement.
Fabien: I find that the virtual program works extremely well. Online meetings are well-prepared and straight to the point, which encourages people to chime in. Personally, this is an extremely unique opportunity as I get to mentor and interact with the interns who are across the globe, located in a different geography and time zone. While I bring the Capgemini innovation and Silicon Valley fintech point-of-view, I find that I am also learning about and discovering a new financial market that operates with different dynamics and regulations.
Isaac: Having said that, remote work does present some challenges such as barriers to fostering a localised culture. This organically takes shapes when we find ourselves in office spaces and lounge areas during scheduled coffee breaks and impromptu meets with colleagues in a physical location.
What emerging tech trends do you think will be driving the future of fintech and banking?
Fabien: I believe the future of fintech is purpose-driven and that banks will play a key social role to facilitate exchange, investments, and guarantee trust. Blockchain and quantum computing are key emerging technologies. In addition to that, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) will change the way we bank, while quantum computing will open a new era for trading, highly personalised content, and security among other use cases.
Isaac: Fintech is disrupting large financial firms and legacy profiting models, opening up new channels to create revenue and accessibility to markets for more people. We are seeing a proliferation of amazing start-ups and experimental business models. I am most excited about helping the under-banked or unbanked and providing better financial tools and services at low cost. In fact, a lack of resources can be motivation to innovate. When frugal innovations are realised and industrialised, they change not just the user but also the innovator on their journey.
To you, what does it mean to be an innovator?
Fabien: An innovator comes up with new ideas and builds new products that impact our lives. To do that you must be able to unlearn, learn, and re-learn… fast! While you navigate with uncertainty and explore different futures, you also need to apply concrete methodologies and technologies to make it happen now to create better experiences for society and the planet. At the Capgemini Applied Innovation Exchange, we developed a full framework to help you develop innovator skills since they are like a muscle that you need to train.
Isaac: Innovators do — they create ideas or objects that make the current state better. Usually we think of innovation as creativity that accelerates the world into the future or by lowering cost and increasing efficiency. These are important ways to innovate. However, innovations can also mean slowing things down and deepening our connection to the world. For instance, with video calling, I get to work and be more productive remotely. Likewise, through video calls, I can remotely spend time with my family and friends. While video calls may take up more of my day, it also enriches my relationships with physically distant family and friends — that is innovation and tech for good.
Lastly, can you share an innovative product or solution you’ve encountered that really made you go WOW?
Isaac: Virtual reality and augmented reality have always been mind-bending to me. While the headsets are still being refined, the potential is extraordinary. As we focus more and more on human centered design, what could be more human centered than a product or software where the human is physically and metaphorically at the center of the experience? Spatial computing also enables new user interfaces and experiences. I look forward to surfing the internet spatially in a simulated fourth dimension!
Fabien: A quantum computer! Today it looks like an incredible machine, out-of-time, like a sci-fi movie. But we can imagine how much smaller yet more powerful it will get over time.
The DBS WOW Accelerator is a three-month virtual accelerator programme focused on addressing challenges faced by various business units in the bank. Launched by the DBS Innovation team, the programme unites DBS talent with external partners to develop game-changing and human-centric solutions that drive innovation in the bank.
The WOW Accelerator is collaborating with the Capgemini Applied Innovation Exchange (AIE), which has a robust ecosystem of partners — including venture capitalists, startups, academia, accelerators, incubators and the public sector which delivers immediate exposure to ideas that are shaping the world and driving business transformation.
