The disruption opportunity: an expert opinion As head of Innovation and Strategy at Spanish financial group Bankia, Ignacio Cea is at the heart of one of the fastest moving and most digitally disruptive industries on the planet. Here, he shares his view on the results of the global survey. “For me, these results closely represent what we see on a daily basis. At Bankia, digital transformation is definitely a board and management team level concern. It is being driven by three people: our President, our CEO and our COO. As the head of Innovation and Strategy I meet the President very often to discuss digital transformation, how it affects us, and how we can use all of the technology at our disposal to improve our customer service and make our processes more efficient. “All of our digital initiatives are led by a desire to better serve our customers. Even if we are transforming our internal processes, those changes are driven by the results of focus groups that explore how we can improve our offering to our customers. Our online presence has been designed entirely around our customers, and specifically around different customer groups to ensure that we are giving them all the best service that we can. “When you look at some of the concerns that people seem to have around digital moving too fast, or their industry or business changing, it’s easy to see that as a negative. But really, I think it just means that they are conscious of that change, and that’s a good thing. It would be worse if they suggested that they didn’t see that change coming, or that it wasn’t going to happen, because it very clearly is. “I think that the idea of co-creation is one that is really important to innovation. In my opinion, if you’re trying to create something genuinely new, something groundbreaking, it isn’t possible to do that on your own. Looking for new approaches, new points of view, new partners - that’s how you help your business improve. “Some of the new products and services that we are testing with the market aren’t ideas that you’d expect to come from a bank. That’s “All of our digital initiatives are because they’re based on the insight and experiences of partners from outside of the finance industry, and that adds huge value for led by a desire to better serve us.” our customers.” Ignacio Cea Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Bankia 15