Welcome to the Transactions 2020the event at which the most important heads of the Digitization-, Payment– and Banking-industry.
This is a series of interviews with this year’s Transactions 2020 speakers – Today we will be Imke Jacob I’ll be available for questions and answers. Imke works as Associate Partner for the management consulting McKinsey & Company in Frankfurt am Main.
We are still in a partial lockdown, the situation is serious. However, our events live from exchange and in the last few months we have learned that many things can also take place in a virtual way. Nevertheless, we feel that personal exchange on site is important and in order to do justice to both, we have decided to leave Transactions 20 to make two events.
The first part took place as “Berliner Runde” as planned on 19.11.20. A completely virtual event with two keynotes from Sasha Lobo and Verena Pausderwho in their keynotes shared with you their vision for a digital Germany and to what extent Covid-19 is shaping our industry. We also had the man as a guest, who contributed significantly to the Wirecard case and who made the Wirecard topic the topic of 2020 in the industry: Dan McCrum. He spoke to us about the revelations in the Wirecard scandal.
Transactions 20.5 as the second event in February
The second part of Transactions 20.5 takes place on 25 February 2021 as a hybrid event, i.e. in stream and (hopefully) as a presence event, as originally planned, in Offenbach in the old steel construction. Of course we hope that the situation will have relaxed by then and that as many guests as possible will be able to attend not only in the stream but also on site. Every ticket purchased is valid on 19.11.2020 as well as on 25.02.2021. One ticket for two events. So if you have a ticket, you can be present at both events.
At the event in February 2021 the most important heads of the digitization, payment– and Banking-industry. Besides the many great participants, an event is only as good as its speakers on stage. The Transactions is one of the few interdisciplinary conferences in the DACH region that offers a stage for lateral thinkers from various industries on the subject of “digital structural change”. We are once again looking forward to national and international stars from the digital business who will give an outlook on the most important trends in the industry.
Who are these great minds #TRX20,5, you can read about this in the following pages, despite the shift in next weeks in our interview series.
Among others, Imke Jacob, Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, will be one of the participants in the coming year. She’s on the panel: Data Driven Banking – Pandora’s data treasure or box
We are happy about your acceptance to Transactions 20: Please introduce yourself briefly.
My name is Imke Jacob – I was born in Bremen, but I have lived in Frankfurt since the end of my studies. And since then I have also been working in the banking sector, first at Deutsche Bank and now for several years at McKinsey. I am more than happy to be part of Transactions 20 this year. I am especially pleased to be able to talk about my great passion, Data & Analytics for banks.
Since when have you been dealing with the topic of your panel and why are you enthusiastic about it?
Data Driven Banking – data treasure or Pandora’s box…. This is the question that drives many of my clients. They are all looking to make their processes better, faster, more efficient and offers more personalized. I am convinced: Data & Analytics can really help here and make the difference between success and failure. But it is not an automatism:. Data & Analytics is not a project that you can just do on the side. It requires so much more: from the business, organizational, people and tech side. It is precisely this multifaceted nature that makes it so exciting for me.
I myself started early in my career to deal with new technologies such as IBM Watson at that time. I always had contact with the topic in various strategy roles and then turned my hobby into my profession at McKinsey. Now I probably spend 70-80% of my time on it.
“Imke Jacob: The 2019 season opened with a bang”
What expectations do you have as a speaker for the upcoming TRX?
This year is my first time as a speaker and I am simply very much looking forward to the event as a whole. Then I’m really looking forward to my two co-panelists in February. Of course I’m also very curious to see who can win the FinTech Awards this year.
The TRX takes place for the second time: What relevance did the event have for you and the industry?
Last year’s kick-off was brilliant – both in terms of range and line-up. William Cohn had described it in his incomparable, exaggerated way with “other events are no longer needed”. It was and will be a great place again this year to network across the banking industry and beyond and to get new ideas and inspiration.
“‘No need for other events”
Adapted to the situation, this year’s TRX will take place for the first time as a hybrid format. What experiences have you had so far with such digital event formats?
Very good experiences! Of course, you are always happy to see colleagues and friends in real life, but you are so much more flexible and it also makes it easier to participate. You can easily dial in and take the burden of travel. But it helps if you have at least one “hub” where some people meet, so that there is a natural center around which everything orchestrates. In the future, hybrid formats will probably play a big role, although I personally imagine that many people would like to meet again in person at some point.
What questions would you like to ask your fellow panelists yourself?
Many ? But I would be particularly interested to hear from both of them how they weigh up any opportunities offered by the greater mobility and digital affinity of customers against the trend towards more regionalism. And how, in their view, regionality (with data?) can be taken into account more strongly in digital business models.
Innovative strength to be found everywhere
The TRX takes place in Offenbach. Why should FinTech also be an issue beyond the big hubs?
Berlin still has the largest FinTech scene, but in recent years cities like Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich have followed suit. These are the metropolises that are generally regarded as innovation centres across all industries. They also have an advantage due to the continuing influx.
BUT: Innovative strength is everywhere, for example, about 40 percent of the hidden champions can be found in non-urban areas. And Corona has shown that you no longer have to come together locally for networks.
Looking back over the year – what has changed massively in your particular sphere of influence? Which of these is positive, which negative?
The way I work is already new – I meet my clients virtually much more often. Surprisingly, the contact has become more intensive as a result. You just call each other briefly instead of making an appointment for coffee in three weeks. This allows you to act much more globally without being separated from your family for days on end. Both very positive for me.
I see one challenge of the current situation in being creative “remotely”. Coaching young colleagues on the job is also more difficult. Virtual formats still have their limits.
