2. let’s make it happen.
I love to learn, I love to dream, I love to do.
These three actions are the pulse of every project I work on,
they‟re the beat of my decisions, the rhythm of my approach.
As a full-time MBA student at the Rotman School of
Management, I‟ve had incredible opportunities to learn, dream
and do in entirely new ways. The scope of my thought has
broadened, and my ability to execute has deepened.
The following pages are a snapshot of three projects I‟ve
worked on in the past year, where learning, dreaming and
doing came together in various combinations and
permutations for each.
I‟m passionate about applying these three actions to projects
that make a difference in the world. I want to move the
needle at least a few notches towards a better place. And, I
want to be surrounded by fellow learners, dreamers, and doers
to make it happen.
3. Foresight & Innovation
PROJECT: Banking Moments – future state of banking
RBC Journey – banking innovation
CONTEXT: RBC “Next Great Innovators” National Contest
TEAM: Gillian Almy, Chris Ross, Sabrina Sdao,
Asha Srikantiah
RESULT: Finalist, Top 15 nationally
DATE: Fall 2011
4. Instead of using a
bank to save money,
what if you could use
a bank to save time?
5. Insight: it’s all about time
“ DescribeServices organizations help Canadians achieve
Financial
an innovation that will transform how
financial security.
”
SCOPE:
In the fall of 2011, Royal Bank of Canada posed this challenge to
students across the country. Which led us to ask ourselves: What does
financial security actually mean?
USER-CENTERED RESEARCH:
To find out, we interviewed four „young Canadian families‟ – married
homeowners with kids under the age of 16. Through the process of
synthesizing our data, creating user personas and mapping out their
behaviors, we learned that what young Canadian families most desire is
to live a life full of joy.
INSIGHT:
It‟s not money that constrains them - it‟s time.
6. Mapping user insights
Using the behavior mapping framework below, we synthesized the raw data from our interviews to identify the core needs of our users,
and the specific value proposition that our new solution (or “Media,” below) would need to deliver. The users‟ desire, goal and motivation
stayed consistent throughout our process – everything else evolved as we worked first on Banking Moments, and then RBC Journey.
DESIRE
Live with joy
GOAL
Savour the moment
MOTIVATION MEDIA BEHAVIOR
Make the most of time “Banking Moments” Living life with an eye for
platform; time = currency precious moments
ACTION RELATIONSHIP
Saving, trading, spending People trust the bank to
moments (through bank) help them live better
VALUE AS MEDIA
Living and re-living life
with more meaning
BEHAVIOR BUSINESS BUSINESS SATISFACTION
DISRUPTION DISRUPTION ACTIVITY
Easy, smart tech to transact
Moments now have Standardized valuation of Expert advice, transaction
moments & access info
tangible value and experience. Moments & depository services,
hierarchy. Extrinsic become an exchangeable relationship brokerage-
motivation to live “well” currency users; relevant brands
8. Foresight: shifting currency
What is a bank really in the business of?
Answer: Transaction and security of valuable assets.
So what happens when an actual moment of time becomes the new currency?
In RBC‟s new world, time can be captured in discrete moments of real value.
Moments will be saved and traded, sliced, diced, swapped, spent and if you're
lucky, earned.
Some people will create moments, while others consume
them, and RBC is the broker.
In Mark and Eileen’s old age, they'll be able to feel, once again, what life was like
when their bodies, minds and hearts were much, much younger.
--excerpt from our “Foresight: Banking Moments” report
Is this possible?
“all new memories have to go through this gateway [in the brain]
and you can simply tape record impulses and later reinsert the
recorded message. In the coming decades as we get better at this
we may be able to insert full memory sequences.”
--Michio Kaku*
*NPR‟s Fresh Air with Terry Gross: Physics of the Future – How We’ll Live in 2100. Aired11.29.11
9. NEW WAYS OF MAKING
Mapping the future state REAL TIME VISUALIZATION WIDENING GAPS
DEATH OF OLD INSTITUTIONS TIME CAPSULES
HUMAN NATURE URBAN INNOVATION
NEW LEARNING PARADIGM SHIFT
The phrase “Banking Moments” was a nugget of inspiration, born out of our user insights. We created maps like CONSUMPTION
EMOTIONAL the one below to help us
PERSONAL AGILITY
build an entire ecology around this one disruptive idea.
IDEA REVOLUTION COMMUNITY CODE
MODERN CRAFT EMPOWERMENT BRANDING
URBANIZATION
THE BASICS OCCUPY BITCOIN GLOBAL/LOCAL
VIRTUAL EMOTIONS LOCAL SOURCING
KEEPING IT REAL
LOWER INCOMES
THE GOOD ‘OL DAYS RENTING ONLINE INTERACTIVITY SUSTAINABILITY
INNOVATE THRU US TRANSITION GEN Y
UNCERTAINTY VALUE
FACEBOOK MULTIDIMENSIONAL THINKING
ECOLOGY OF COMMERCE NEUE CANADA ECONOMY
TIMELINE TIERED MORTGAGES RECESSION NO BRAND LOYALTY
SOCIAL BANKING INFLUENCE UNDERBANKED EMPATHIC ENCOUNTERS
REMINISCENCE CUSTOMIZATION
MIGRATION MY CURATION
CONTEXT AWARE MOBILITY NEW PLAYGROUNDS
GENOMES COMPUTERIZATION
CONSUMER
CREATIVE CLASS KICKSTARTER BANKING SIMPLE
IN CONTROL
CONTENT CREATION DEBT DIGITALIZATION STANDARDS
USER
HAPPINESS NEW METAPHORS YOUTUBE CULTURE OF FEAR
MY PROFILE FACEBOOK TRANSPARENCY VIRUS
THE GIRL EFFECT TIME MANAGEMENT HUMAN NATURE
FEMALE FOCUSED IDENTITY
INNOVATION PLATFORM
SPACE MANAGEMENT INTUITIVE APPS INTEGRATION PERSONALIZATION GLOBAL/LOCAL
WELLNESS
SAME SEX FAMILIES FEEDBACK SOCIAL MEDIA GLOBAL VILLAGE
HUMAN POTENTIAL CONNECTEDNESS
DIAGNOSTICS INTELLIGENT DEVICES DECENTRALIZATION
VIRTUAL MONEY
PEER REVIEWS VIRTUAL SELF
MAGIC MOBILE BANKING NEW CURRENCY HEALTH
PORTALS DYNAMISM VIRTUAL BANK CARBON DIOXIDE
ROBOTICS
EVALUATION
TABLETS
INFORMATION ACCESS POTENTIAL
CONSUMER GATEWAYS GOOGLE WALLET MORALLY MANDATED
AVATARS
POWER MINT.COM
QUICKEN JAWBONE DEMAND FOR TANGIBLE VALUE
ADAPATIVE INNOVATION MIND BANKING
ACTIVE
NEW WAYS OF CREATING ICONS
POWER OF COMMUNITY
HISTORICAL RECORDS
GROW WITH YOUR CONSUMER PERSONAL TRENDS NO GIMMICKS
SOCIAL INNOVATION EXPERIENCE OVERLOAD
COLLECTIVES INSTINCTIVE VS. DELIBERATE THINKING
10. Innovation: the journey now
Banking Moments could serve users in the future, but
what about NOW?
Answer: RBC Journey.
RBC Journey is an online personal tracking platform that lets customers
make the most of RBC‟s wealth of data to save money, but more
importantly, time. RBC Journey connects users with brands they love and
deals they need, freeing them up to enjoy life‟s more important moments.
Users input their short and long-term life goals, and RBC Journey helps
them track their habits against these goals. A built-in rewards system offers
Eileen free tickets to the symphony, just for meeting her goal of getting
back into piano lessons.
Like Banking Moments, RBC Journey assigns real value to
living well. But now, the currency that drives the
platform is data.
By combining the power of purchase-based
algorithms currently used by retailers like Amazon
with the personal tracking capabilities of Jawbone
UP and the kind of software intelligence found in
Google‟s search engine, the experience of RBC
Journey gets better and richer with each use.
11. Mapping the business model
Alexander Osterwalder‟s Business Model Canvas helped us map RBC Journey, a multi-sided business model with revenue generated
from two sources: brand partnerships and user fees.
KEY PARTNERS KEY ACTIVITIES VALUE PROPOSITION CUSTOMER RELATIONS CUSTOMER BASE
• Users: input data and control • Manage and synthesize user • To the User: RBC Journey • Most interactions are • Primary targets are those
access to it data in real time helps you live your ideal life, through online and mobile comfortable enough with
now. The online platform technologies. The more the technology to use an online
provides an easy way to make platform is used, the smarter personal tracking platform
and achieve personal goals by the tech gets.
• Brand partners: provide • Use the data to create helping users track the way • The platform feels as trusted, • Existing and new customers
valuable and exclusive offers to dynamic user profiles that they spend their time and knowledgeable, and personal of RBC are all users of this
users improve over time money and helping them make as a small town hardware service
the most of both. RBC store owner.
• Retail partners: provide • Broker relationships between Journey connects users with • Real “human” customer
valuable and exclusive offers to users and brand / retail brands they love and deals service experts are on hand
users and honor offers partners to optimize (not they need, and makes life easy anytime, adding to the small
provided direct by brands overwhelm) decision making by getting smarter and more town hardware store feel.
efficient with each use.
• Provide fail-safe security of • To the brand / retail partner: • Brand / retail client
data (and money). Both have RBC Journey connects you relationships are managed
equal value as assets with your valued target through tech (data sharing)
audience: the people most and human client mgmt.
likely to buy.
KEY RESOURCES DISTRIBUTION
• Information technology to • RBC‟s existing customers =
store, manage & distill data first distribution base
• Human capital and • RBC‟s current corporate
technology to build key clients = first client base .
brand/retail partnerships
• Human capital and • Distribution is online and
technology to support mobile, through the platform
customer relationships itself
COST STRUCTURE REVENUE FLOWS
• R&D / Technology / Data Storage / G&A costs (major fixed cost) • Users pay fees for the platform; many opportunities for price bundling
• Cost of software (economies of scale large, marginal costs very low) • Brands pay heavy fees for access to targeted user data
• Software / server maintenance (minor marginal step cost) • Network effects: as users increase, brands increase, and vice versa
• Cost of labor / customer service (ongoing, major cost esp. upfront)
12. Strategic Growth
PROJECT: Consulting engagement for a family-owned
furniture business based in Toronto, Ontario
CONTEXT: Client of Impact Consulting Group
TEAM: Sabrina Sdao, Asha Srikantiah
RESULT: Very satisfied client who immediately
implemented key recommendations
DATE: Summer 2011
14. A growth challenge
“ Our customerscompetitor,sensitive, our keylooking tois
becoming our
are price
and our staff is
supplier
retire. How can we grow sales?
”
SCOPE:
This past summer, the owner of a family-owned furniture business came to
Impact Consulting Group seeking a revenue growth strategy to bring his
company back to its all time sales high from 2007.
RESEARCH:
To understand the business, we spent 15 hours interviewing their 5
employees and dug into10 years of historical sales data, We also met with
three of their customers to gain an outside perspective.
INSIGHT:
We discovered a few key things:
1) The company didn‟t track profitability, they tracked revenue. When we
compared them against their peers, their revenues beat the average
while their return-on-sales fell far below.
2) They make significantly more money per unit through the products they
manufacture in-house; 60% of their sales was tied to one key supplier
who was planning to compete directly against them.
3) Though their sales team was talented, the company‟s sales methods
were not keeping up with evolving customer needs.
15. Track what matters
Among our recommendations, we advised our client to:
1) Reweight sales portfolio to favor high margin products
by implementing an automated record-tracking system
2) Prioritize sales hours on customer segments most likely to buy
based on historical sales trends and future market indicators
3) Revamp channel strategy to acknowledge changes in customer
needs and buying behavior
We also provided a detailed analysis of two new market opportunities within
Ontario that the company could explore in order to capture more share.
Their supplier did not currently have a strong presence in these markets, so
there was a window of opportunity for our client.
“ Iyou‟ve believe how wellfor one month. our company –
can‟t you understand
only known us
”
The client is in the process of implementing several recommendations we
provided and plans to hire Impact Consulting Group again in the near future.
16. Academic Writing
PROJECT: Case study: “Against the Grain: TD Bank and the
Little Bang of 1987”
CONTEXT: Commissioned by a Rotman School of
Management professor for a new MBA course
TEAM: Flying solo
RESULT: Will be published by the University of Toronto
Press, 2013
DATE: Summer 2011
17. In 1987, banks from New York,
London and Tokyo were permitted
to enter the Canadian market and vie
for Canadian customers. Canadian banks
would have to do something to stay
competitive. The question was: what?
18. New course, new case
SCOPE:
In the summer of 2011, Professor Joe Martin at the Rotman School of
Management asked me to write a case study about Canada‟s “Little Bang,” the
1987 deregulation that allowed for universal banking in Canada.
RESEARCH:
The research started during my first meeting with Joe. He‟s a notable
businessman old enough to have lived through most of Canada‟s business
history. And at the time, I barely knew what “securities” were.
It was on me to find the story between the lines of
legislation.
By diving deep into secondary sources, and historical periodicals, patterns
started to emerge. I followed this with 6 in-depth interviews with C-Suite
bankers and government officials. Through the process, I uncovered
information that even Joe hadn‟t known before.
INSIGHT:
I found my story in TD Bank. While all the other big banks of Canada were
buying investment banks, TD blazed a completely different trail. They started
a discount brokerage, a groundbreaking new model in Canadian banking. Since
that time, TD has been the only Canadian bank to consistently outpace the
market.
19. 06.21.2011 Start
research
wide
TD
banks
draft 1
all other
focused
research
write
and
rewrite
Process: research, write, revise, repeat
revise
