DR . ARAFAT EL MOURAD
system into Xbank , a process that took three years to fully implement . The first two years of this journey were spent trying to convince people and stakeholders to embrace this change .
“ It ’ s all in the language ,” he says . “ I cannot present this technology to the CEO in the same way that I could present it to my peers on procurement . I have to translate it into a business case .”
“ I approach the communication in a way that can be understood by every stakeholder because I communicate it in a different way to every stakeholder , or CEO , or CIO . There is no one size fits all to this .”
With technology and transformation there is an unavoidable element of risk involved . Risk of failure , risk of losing customers and perhaps most importantly , particularly from an operational standpoint , risk of significant costs associated with that failure .
This is a fact of life when it comes to implementing technology and it has developed a mindset that is somewhat consistent across the banking industry the world over and not simply within the UAE . “ There is a risk and a concern . I ’ d argue that risk is actually up there as an important discussion with the working out the added value ,” says El Mourad .
“ The question becomes more about what are we actually doing to measure the risk and most importantly mitigate the risk .”
This calls back to El Mourad ’ s strive for clear and open communication . With regular meetings with top tier management and stakeholders , El Mourad ensures that from top to bottom all levels of the company understand the technology implications but also the risk implications in any new venture .
He attributes this to a cost ownership mentality . After all , cost is often king .
196 February 2018