Exploring the One KBTG Culture Ep. 2: One Step Ahead
Always innovate beyond boundaries
Be curious, be observative
Learn fast, fail forward
And finally, welcome new challenges and new ways of work
Innovation has always been one of KBTG’s main focuses. Take the lead in creating the future! Always go beyond and think one step ahead! This is the culture that we foster at KBTG. We live in an age of disruption where the rise of new digital technologies is rapidly transforming our everyday lives. Which technology is still relevant and which has become obsolete? Those notions change as often as the wind and the tides. Therefore, for any organization to survive such unpredictable times, innovation and creativity are undeniably necessary qualities.
How then can we cultivate innovative minds? How can we be “one step ahead”? Throughout history, many incredible innovators came up with groundbreaking ideas and used them to completely transform our perception of the world. There are many great examples to learn from such as Thomas Edison, Marie Curie and the Wright brothers. However, when I think of the words “one step ahead”, a particular name comes to mind.
Leonardo da Vinci
Known as one of the great men of the Renaissance, Leonardo was a philosopher, engineer, inventor, painter, sculptor, writer and mathematician whose ideas were so far ahead of his time that it’s as if he could see the future.
Although Leonardo is most famous for his artworks such as Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, he also made tremendous contribution as a scientist to the evolution of knowledge in fields such as anatomy, astronomy, civil engineering, and hydrodynamics. In his journals, Leonardo left behind more than 13,000 pages of immaculately detailed drawings of his inventions and innovations. This includes some of the first concepts for devices across a variety of fields such as helicopters, diving suits, parachutes, calculators, musical instruments and weapons of war such as the tank. However, due to the technological limitations of his time, most of his designs were never built, which goes to show just how forward thinking he was: he envisioned many ideas long before the technology required to construct them actually existed, a testament to his outstanding creativity.
The Universal Genius
Born in 1452 outside of Florence during the peak of the Renaissance period, Leonardo da Vinci is a classic archetype of the Renaissance man (also known as a polymath), a person with extraordinarily wide-ranging and comprehensive knowledge, skilled in many areas of expertise. However, his talent and accomplishments were not handed to him on a silver platter. Geniuses are not born: they are made. As Will Durant once said “we are what we repeatedly do”, excellence is a habit, not an act.
Insatiable Curiosity
The key that unlocked Leonardo’s mind is nothing extraordinary. It was simply his intensely curious character. Throughout his entire life, Leonardo’s mind was on a relentless quest for knowledge. People may accredit intelligence and talent to fortunate educational backgrounds but interestingly, Leonardo never went to university and his main education was from being an apprentice painter in 15th-century Florence. He did not allow his lack of formal education to limit his potential. His life is proof that nothing can stop a mind that seeks to grow.
Instead of relying on educational institutions, he used everything in his surroundings as a source of knowledge. He self-taught anything he can find. By watching builders work, he studied the mechanics of their cranes. He talked to soldiers about the latest weapon designs and he observed the way birds fly. In fact, precisely because he did not attend a formal school, he extricated himself from any prevailing dogma that could have shaped his way of thinking in a certain way. Instead, he was able to develop his own unique method of learning which focused on experience, observation and experimentation. He approached the world with a sincere and uncontrolled curiosity, showing us that self-guided learning is democratic. It’s universal and accessible to all people. We can tap into our creative genius not by looking somewhere far away, but right in front of us.
Connecting the Seemingly Incompatible
The essence of creativity is the ability to connect one thing to another. Therefore, to push our creativity to the next level, we should challenge ourselves to experiment with making unusual connections. By placing together diverse things that are unlikely to have any relationship with each other, we can expand ourselves to new perspectives we never thought possible. Leonardo was a master at doing this.
Throughout history, art and science have been traditionally separated as two different disciplines. However, when studied together, they have incredible impact on each other. What makes Leonardo’s artworks so timeless and stand out from his contemporaries is his ability to recreate his observations of nature in his work. For example, in one of his most famous artworks, Mona Lisa, his knowledge of human anatomy helped him position the torso and head in a slightly turned posture, while making the eyes in direct alignment with the viewer. Known as the three-quarter view, this pose deliberately pulls the viewer’s attention away from the body and spotlights Lisa’s eyes as the main focal point of the painting, creating lifelike realism.
By showing us the interconnectedness of art and science through his work, Leonardo leaves behind an empowering message that we don’t have to compromise anything important in our life. We may have passions or interests that seem incompatible with each other like literature and science or sports and music. However, we can always find a way to connect and use them to contribute to each other.
Greatness in Failure
The world today celebrates Leonardo da Vinci’s timeless masterpieces and his numerous accomplishments. However, part of the story that is often left out is how much failure he experienced along the way. For example, in 1481, the early stage of his career, he worked as a freelancer and was asked to paint a fresco called the Adoration of the Magi, which he was unable to finish. He then struggled to get hired and ended up painting dead criminals to make a living. Meanwhile, other big painters were invited to paint the Sistine Chapel, one of the most prestigious jobs painters could be offered at the time. Leonardo was already 30. Based on the shorter life expectancy of the period, this was already considered middle age. And he would spend the next 16 years of his life persevering through setback after setback.
Yet during those difficult years, he kept going. Day in, day out, with every chance he gets, he kept drawing, studying, writing and prototyping his work. And in 1498, after over a decade of painstaking efforts, he completed one of the greatest artworks of the Renaissance: the Last Supper. The painting’s unprecedented combination of realism, dramatic power and attention to detail was revolutionary and set a completely new standard artistic excellence that inspired countless further works of art.
However, what makes his story even more incredible is upon close examination, we can see that many parts of Leonardo’s previous unfinished work such as the Adoration of the Magi or his paintings of dead criminals were implemented into the Last Supper and other successful artworks. It was precisely his experiences of setback that gave him invaluable techniques and skills to create some of the world’s most timeless masterpieces. In other words, what seemed liked failure actually became the necessary jigsaw pieces for his accomplishments.
One Step Ahead
At KBTG, we fully believe that capable people like Leonardo da Vinci will emerge from our organization. That’s why we place so much importance on creating a culture of innovation:
- We designed our workstation with creative boxes, recreational areas and meeting spaces to create a unique environment that encourages creativity. The Kasikorn Innovation Campus on the 11th floor of our KBTG building was designed to give an “industrial city” atmosphere. With the ceiling towering 19 meters up into the air, the work area feels spacious and has plenty of room to experiment different design ideas. And we inspire our people by naming our office rooms on the 11th floor after history’s greatest innovators. And without a doubt, Leonardo da Vinci is one of them.
- With support from our Academy team, and an abundance of educational online resources like Udemy, KBTG people are constantly nourished with fresh ideas and knowledge.
- When working in teams, we don’t have a fixed work approach but give each individual freedom to take initiative in developing their own unique way of thinking. P’Krating often says that our workplace must be like a playground where everyone can explore and play with childlike curiosity. KBTG gives each person a stage to take the lead and fully experiment their ideas. In fact, that is how our young talents were able to initiate some of our biggest projects like KhunThong and MAKE by KBank.
- A lot of people who join KBTG have no background in finance or technology. We have people who majored in performance, liberal arts and mechanical engineering. However, the differences in perspective isn’t our weakness but our strength. The diverse backgrounds of KBTG people allows us to see new connections and innovate at a rapid pace.
- We welcome failure. Mistakes are highly encouraged at KBTG. Because it is the fastest way to learn and grow.
Being one step ahead does not mean creating new inventions each week. If that was the case, then Leonardo da Vinci was the furthest thing away from being ahead. For 16 years, he struggled to make significant progress while his competitors became successful way before him. The real reason why Leonardo da Vinci was so far ahead of his time is because he never gave up and kept trusting in his own potential. It was his silent and earnest efforts out of the limelight, his enduring patience and hard work day after day that made his work shine for centuries. His final victory was brighter than anyone else. In the same way, KBTG is one step ahead because we treasure the minds of our people. We have complete faith in their capabilities. There may be days where we struggle to make progress, but we believe that in the end, the world’s greatest innovators will come from KBTG.
With such diverse talent and unique minds, how are we able to transcend differences and work together in unity?
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