And. Athanasopoulos (Eurobank): All employees are invited to share their ideas for improvement throughout the organization

“Innovation is not just technology. It’s new ways of thinking and doing things. To some extent, digitization and innovation have become synonymous, although this is not entirely true, as innovation can come from a simple idea. “even on issues that seem insignificant to us at first,” said Andreas Athanasopoulos, Deputy CEO of Eurobank, from the podium of the Delphi Forum conference.

“A key factor that differentiates transformation and innovation is speed – or lack thereof – and the order in which they occur. Transformations take time, they are a process. Innovation usually refers to something sudden, to a creative idea and in the actions that follow to implement this idea as part of the company strategy.

For example, recognizing that data is one of our most important assets, we broke the silos and created an open analytics community, through which data, algorithms, tools and solutions are open to everyone. Thus, the open platforms are utilized by open teams with an expanded implementation horizon and innovation tools “, said Mr. Athanasopoulos.

Referring to Eurobank, Mr. Athanasopoulos said, among other things: “At Eurobank we use the Transformation Challenge Box, a common platform through which all employees are invited to share their ideas for improvement throughout the organization, no matter how radical these ideas are.” We have already implemented many of these ideas, they like them very much – and we do – and it gives them even more impetus to become part of the progress of the whole bank. “Prosperity needs pioneers. Innovation is in our DNA, it is in the minds and hearts of our people and we have proven it in the past.”

“For example, dealing with non-performing loans by our Bank is at the core of the concept of corporate innovation: we had to manage a major problem that was unprecedented in size and difficulty. The Bank had to devise a de novo approach, which later was adopted by the entire banking system in Greece “, he added.

Innovation requires networking

As he said there are different sources of innovation: customers, employees, academic research, innovation labs or central research and development departments and strategic alliances. “Here we have our new friends. Fintechs, who have the freedom to innovate and the flexibility to create personalized solutions for the special needs of their customers. Living with fintechs means that we can combine the best elements from two different worlds: banks “They gain access to the flexibility and innovation of fintechs and in return offer access to customers with decades of loyalty to the bank, knowledge of the risk management framework, a wide range of applications, well-established networks and, above all, trust and reliability.”