The Centre for Future Banking blog

Over at the Centre for Future Banking, which is a joint initiative between Bank of America and MIT Media Labs, work is going on to "invent the future of banking". That may or may not be aspirational, but the fact of the matter is something else is happening over there as well.

They just launched a blog, written by the people working at the labs, about what they're working on. They did it with a "powered by Bank of America" logo on it. And it sits at a URL which is very definitely owned by Bank of America.

This, in my view, is very interesting.

It is a pretty open secret that I work for a major UK bank. For good and proper reasons, myself, and my colleagues who blog about our work, do so with a perceptual distance between ourselves and the institution. I don't have any corporate branding here, neither do I ever mention my institution by name. There are good reasons agreed with our management for these precautions, and I think many other bank bloggers are in pretty much the same boat. We are trailblazing internally, and caution in how we present our views is essential if we want to keep writing.

Oh, I know there are lots of other bank blogs nowadays with the corporate brand on. But have a look at them: they are more often than not opportunities for professional communicators to put messages into that demographic which reads online. There is this lack of reality in most: where is that personal voice that social media pundits say is so important for the customer intimacy which social media is supposed to engender?

The Future Banking Blog seems to be different though. It may have corporate branding, but the people involved are real people. You can see their photos, and know who they are. They even – get this – accept guest bloggers. That, as far as I know, is unprecedented for a corporate bank blog.

Here is something else different: the pieces being published are thought leadership style things, the products of smart brains sharing. That's quite different to the fare you normally get in bankers blogs, excepting those in the banking echo chamber. Most of the time, banking blogs are thinly veiled advertorial targeted at lowest-common-denominator customers.

In any case, this effort is a bit of step up for the rest of us. And perhaps it will provide some impetus for the rest of us to associate ourselves more closely with our brands as well.

Good on you Jeff, and colleagues. Can't wait to see what you do with it.

Comments

[Jeff Carter]

James - appreciate the kind words. You say, "In any case, this effort is a bit of step up for the rest of us. And perhaps it will provide some impetus for the rest of us to associate ourselves more closely with our brands as well."

It is fair to say that your blog and the many other internal traiblazers around the globe were the inspiration for the Future Banking Blog.

When we not only discuss new forms of collaboration but actually collaborate in new ways together, I believe it will raise the bar for all of us.

-Jeff

[James W]

I'm in the same boat as many - I blog with the permission of my employer, but never reference my employer or brand my blog.

TDECU have a good corporate blog that references real people and have real messages. It's @ http://tdecu.wordpress.com/

[Daniel]

I think more research is needed to better understand open innovation in the financial services. Many participants of this blog may have observed the recent paradigm change - from closed to open business models in banking. This is discussed in the book "Open Innovation in the Financial Services: Growing through Openness, Flexibility and customer Integration", to be published by Springer on January 29, 2009. The research is grounded in a PhD from the University of Nottingham, supervised by Professor Ken Starkey. However, it is a management book that hopefully contributes to the many interesting discussions on the Bankervision.

[Robert]

Great article, James

re: "advertorial targeted at lowest-common-denominator customers" see Seth Godin's presentation at the recent TED Conference in California (long, but worthwhile):

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/seth_godin_on_sliced_bread.html

Godin builds a case for *intentionally avoiding* targeting the "safe" center of the bell curve.

[singh from intellect banking]

Thats a great idea keep going and proliferate..