In the World of today, many a Credit Society pays
lip service to innovation, but to truly unlock the power of being a Credit
Society, there is a greater need to influence the status quo, of yesterday – be
a disruptive first. I believe this notion should be deeply embedded in our
operations, and our strategies to grow.
Rethinking the concept of Credit Society, should
go beyond imagining what a Credit Society should be and how it should work. Our
method should not be to impose change or dream up new gimmicks. Rather, it
is to get ourselves to rethink what we are expected to do, by applying processes
more akin to starting up, every single day. It is not just about new products,
but rethinking how old products work and redesigning them with members’ aspirations-to-be-met
approach.
The impetus for innovation does not come from a
desire to jump start, what other Credit Societies are pursuing, but rather
springs from a fear that what we know today, as traditional functions of a
Credit Society, could be disrupted as fundamentally as other industries – and we
ought to be the disrupter. It is not about inventing the latest product
offering – although there is a role for that. It is about relevance and
application; agility and losing the fear of failure; and, ultimately, changing
our culture.
I see Credit Societies having an extended value
rather than just being providers of basic credit facilities or running a
traditional product. We need to broaden our reach, from leveraging our
strengths: It is a drastically different way of viewing the world from a
traditional mentality that demands everything be done in-house. When we earn a
rupee, we have to drive co-operative growth, of our partners and our members. Thus,
we become an ecosystem and a platform, to create and innovate, where we have
lots of people from both within and outside our system, trying to make our
Credit Society successful.
Together, we innovate and thrive, thus influence
productive disruption.
- Abhijith Jayanthi CEO @ ABC-CS
