Pension-on-the-London-Fintech-Podcast.jpg">Pension-on-the-London-Fintech-Podcast-1024x536.jpg" alt="" width="625" height="327">

Strategy is the heart of all business success. Will Wynne has built two great businesses under his belt which have evolved over 12yrs and 5yrs respectively to be champions in their sectors. Based on this experience he shares with us how Strategy evolves, what the key points are and what you do when you keep succeeding to the point where one country becomes a small market – a rare achievement for a UK Fintech even in 2019.

Wynne-Thumbnail.jpg">Wynne-Thumbnail-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150"> What do you do Strategically when you succeed above your wildest dreams?

Smart Pension which Will co-founded with Andrew Evans are the #2 in the UK auto-enrolment pension fund provider sector – and #1 is a UK Govt backed organisation so that is some achievement. Arena Flowers sell millions of stems of flowers per annum including fulfilling all of Moonpig’s flowers.

Topics discussed in the episode include:

• flying around the world- the glamour and grind of “going global”
• JPMorgan’s recent strategic investment in Smart Pension
• the four biggest pensions markets in the world are the US ~$25trn, UK/ Japan/Australia at ~$3trn each
• Australia’s lead in direct contribution pensions – good side and down side thereof
• changes coming to that market
• “decumulation market” [when you are drawing your pension down, inverse of accumulation phase] unsophisticated
• going to Australia for one 45 minute meeting :-O
• markets’ tendencies to innovate in one or two dimensions only at a time – example of airlines
• defining strategy vs tactics
• strategy and mission statements
• SP’s mission statement: “Our mission is to transform pensions, savings and financial well-being, across all generations, around the world.”
• “broad direction of travel”
• strategy is more specific than that – examples of what is included
• does strategy iterate say annually or does it evolve organically in a startup?
• the risks of leaving a safe, sensible job to create a risky startup
• the analysis of the market and risk at that point
• early stages are very tactical by definition, very execution-focused
• Phases of SP strategy and funding for each stage – demonstrating delivery and trust in the team along with the ability to fill in holes in the coracle as one is paddling along
• SP total capital raised ~£45-50m
• whatever you think will be the case is inevitably wrong
• it’s hard to run and build a business at the same time – but that’s just the way it is, you have to deal with it
• Generalfeldmarschal von Moltke “no plan survives first contact with the enemy”
• strategy meets experience – a case study with SP over what, to their surprise, turned out to be their most successful client acquisition channels
• the success but challenge of running a “whole waterfront” distribution strategy
• incremental deliverables
• bootstrapping – getting to the stage where you have enough funds to hire dedicated strategy teams
• Smart’s business is:
  • auto-enrolment in the UK
    • defined contribution provider
    • going from SMEs to the largest companies in the country
    • do all the pension provision and admin – everything apart form asset management which is handled by Legal and General, JPMorgan et al
  • international
    • starting with a strategy development exercise – geographically
    • elephant hunting for super-large firms as partners
    • being a platform provider
• the management implications of a phase change from purely a domestic business to an international business
• challenges for the management team managing very different phases of growth; not everyone can do that (or enjoy it) but some can
• “the hardest bit was the beginning and this is the fun bit where you get to think about big things and execute big things”
• Revolut’s approach of delegating different aspects to different teams
• comparison with England economic approach in the 1600s of delegating trade/exploration to different teams
• importance of profitability in the core business to expansion into adjacent markets – cf app banking where expansion is in search of profit
• cf Revolut’s and SP’s – difference being expanding under one brand versus partnering in overseas locations with local players
• response to “are you trying to do too much”
• disarming criticism by accepting it and adding a trailing “but…”
• getting beyond dualism as important in strategic growth – eg one can be a Fin-Fintech in one market but a Tech-FinTech in another
• an exploration of the logic behind and full-implications and synergies of the above
• a Case Study of this in Ireland
• implications for UK customers getting greater investment and range of services
• what do you do when you keep surpassing your own expectations? Where is the limit?
• Will’s plans and challenges for Arena Flowers and Smart Pension and the thinking behind them
• commonality of helping people with their lives
• the capacity constraint in the first globalisation phase of how many things can the senior team cope with at any given time
• practical examples of a limit to fire-fighting in oldskool merchant banks
• comparison with the zero marginal cost of podcast being downloaded into a new country
• as strategy evolves and succeeds the management role increasingly becomes strategic
• Case Study of Will’s father’s factory in the Congo to produce Land Rovers
• shoutouts for:
  • FS businesses interested in pensions
  • Governments with pension time bomb issues
  • hiring in tech in particular
  • Mothers Day – Arena Flowers are the #1 ethical flower brand in the UK
    • Arena and their partners came 1, 2 and 3 in two separate surveys before Valentines day – so definitely the flowers of choice for Fintechers!
• the LFP’s application for being the most ethical podcast and the one with the lowest carbon footprint
• despite all the Brexit strife and political problems in the UK London remains a great hub for creating fantastic businesses despite everything…

And much much more

Share and enjoy!