Tre - Due - Aduno: Paying in the digital race

Martin Huldi, CEO of the Aduno Group, explains the importance of digitalization for his company.Office towers have sprung up around the Hallenstadion in recent years - one of these modern buildings houses the headquarters of the Aduno Group. I meet CEO Martin Huldi and can immediately see that the topic of digitalization in payment transactions is both an exciting and major challenge for him and his company. This sets the scene for an interesting conversation.Digitalization as a corporate strategyFirst, I ask Martin Huldi about the importance of digitalization at the Aduno Group. "The topic is explicitly described in our 2014-18 corporate strategy. Due to the enormous market dynamics in 2014, we already made adjustments to the content at the beginning of this year and agreed these again with the Board of Directors. This momentum of change will determine how quickly we move forward in this area. The fact that the entire Board of Directors is fully behind this is very important to me. Based on this, we are making sure that our management, executives and employees understand what the digital orientation of our Group means. Our credo is that our company's success is driven by outstanding customer usability and convenience - the technology we use is only a means to an end." Huldi goes on to explain that security issues need to be viewed much more critically in the digital world.33 million in digital projectsThe second thing I want to know from Martin Huldi is what example illustrates the great importance of digitalization. "We are investing 33 million Swiss francs in digital projects this year, two thirds of which are market and customer-oriented projects. This clearly shows that we are following up our strategic declarations of intent with concrete action. The substantial investments are partly due to the fact that e-commerce is the fastest growing business in distance selling. This calls for appropriate payment options that are easy and convenient for customers to use and at the same time enable high-performance processing. Payments on the Internet must be as simple as Paypal made them years ago. Of course, customers want to be able to use the mobile application with their smartphone in addition to the physical credit card. In the near future, we will come up with a solution that can be used globally and also ensures convenient and secure identification of the payer." Huldi adds that the transaction data generated by payments is of great importance because it can increase application security for the customer and generate added value through information, e.g. for personal finance purposes.High speed requiredAnd at what speed is the Aduno Group driving the digital transformation forward? "With our claim to be an innovation leader, we have to move at a very fast pace. This pace is not directly noticeable for customers, as internal requirements such as technical infrastructure or interfaces must first be created for new customer solutions. At the same time, we place very high demands on convenience and usability and, with a transaction volume of CHF 43 million per day, new solutions must be absolutely secure, but also scalable. In the card business, we are on the road to 90% in indirect business via our partner banks and convince them by means of so-called "value story workshops". This work is so important because in the digital world, payment is becoming the actual umbilical cord of the future business model for banks. Together with our partner banks, we are therefore pursuing a dual innovation strategy."Shaping instead of fightingAnd what are Huldi's initial findings from realized digital projects? "Neither innovation nor technology take account of individual companies and their strategies - the Aduno Group is no different. Fighting is pointless - developments should be followed closely and helped to shape them. In payment transactions in particular, we rely on standards that focus on customer convenience. However, as the assessment of many innovations is associated with great uncertainty, we are deliberately taking a multi-pronged approach. This inevitably means that individual initiatives will not be successful. We therefore need a "trial and error culture" in which failures are not viewed negatively a priori." Huldi adds that, given the rapid pace of technological change, an (opportunistic) "late follower strategy" would not be expedient.Technology as a challengeAnd where does the Aduno Group CEO see the two biggest challenges of digital transformation? "I see the primary challenge in correctly identifying customer needs and then developing solutions that offer tangible added value, convey a sense of security and are also widely applicable. I see the second challenge in the technical solutions, which have to meet the diversity of end devices, security requirements and convenience requirements - and must not be proprietary under any circumstances. And in general: the customer is the key to success - especially in the digital world."Simple, safe and fastAnd at the end of the interview, I want to know from Martin Huldi what else seems particularly important to him when it comes to digitalization: "The Aduno Group stands for "the smart way to pay" - but the customer's primary need is to use a service or buy something. Our task is to offer the cashless payment process as simply, securely and quickly as possible - security and fraud should be our topics in the background."As part of the digital series in Marketing&Communication by Christoph Oggenfuss (markITing ag), the first two seasons were entitled "Digital - not trivial" and "Digital - from Talk to Walk". The third season, "Digital - walk before you run", is about the right pace of transformation. The other contributions are available here.