The Oscars Debacle Shows That Disruption Is Inevitable
For more than 80 years, PwC, one of the so-called “big four” accountancy / consultancy firms have taken charge of “all aspects” of the Oscars’ voting process – and of course, that includes handing out the right envelopes on the night.
You can probably guess where I am going here. For 80+ years, things worked out fine, but this year, it all went spectacularly wrong.
The two accountants assigned to hand out the winning envelopes got their briefcases in a twist and presented announcer Warren Beatty with the envelope for Best Actress, when they should have handed him the envelope for Best Picture. Cue pandemonium.
The cast, crew and director of La La Land all made it on stage before the mix-up – Emma Stone had indeed won an Oscar for her part in La La Land – but the best picture Oscar had actually gone to Moonlight – was revealed.
It just goes to show how we can become so reliant on a process or procedure that we forget how prone to mistakes it has become, only realising when it is too late.
In a nutshell, that is what is underpinning the rise of Fintech disruptors. For years, the “big 4” high street banks have gotten used to doing things their way.
When it comes to arranging overseas money transfers, for example, the fees that banks charge have been considered the norm, but with the rise of systems automation, entrepreneurs have found better, more efficient ways of doing things, and, crucially, have passed the resultant savings over to the customer.
It has made all of us sit up and take notice – are we doing things as quickly and efficiently, and cheaply, as we can?
To use the example of overseas money transfers, again the answer is a resounding “no”. At The Money Cloud, by leveraging the latest tech innovations we have found that we can save customers up to 85% of the fees they incur when they rely on high street banks to arrange our overseas transfers.
In the past, it may not have been possible for a small “agile” team to match the level of service provided by much larger organisations, but thanks to modern technology, now, we can.
So there really are no more excuses for “dropping the ball”, or in the case of the Oscars, the envelope. Because, waiting in the wings, there are a whole host of replacement services capable of providing the same service, with a disruptive modern twist.
Where checks and balances, or even cheques and account balances, are concerned, high street banks should be very aware that they are not the only players in town.
Complacency is never a good look, and on Oscar’s night, of all nights, PwC showed what can happen when we rely too heavily on one service provider, without considering what alternatives may be out there.
When it really matters it’s always best to shop around and see what’s available. At The Money Cloud, we feel increasingly confident that we are the next generation of competent, and certainly not complacent, service providers showcasing the best money transfer service to suit your needs.
