CANADA
The art of the possible Armstrong emphasized the importance of aligning Lifeco ’ s strategic business plan and technology vision .
“ I consider myself to be living in the future , my job is to envision what could be and then partner with my business colleagues to define the art of the possible ,” he says . “ We have a clear business vision , but marrying that vision with emerging technologies often drives new possibilities that weren ’ t previously considered .”
“ Working this way requires a major cultural change , operating model re-alignments and a more flexible organisation structure . This has been a major part of our transformation journey . It ’ s vitally important to know where you ’ re going and having everyone aligned towards that goal . That congruence of vision , action and technology is how you start to move from where you are today , to your destination in the future .”
A transformational journey For Lifeco ’ s Canadian companies this latest transformation represents one of the biggest turning points in their illustrious history . They ’ re working to reinvent the organization ’ s core technologies and business processes , many of which have been successfully operated for decades .
With every major component of technology now in a state of flux , being replaced , modernized , moved to the cloud , or retired ; surely this creates a higher level of operational risk ?
“ I think it ’ s far riskier not to change ,” says Armstrong . “ Indeed , we are acutely aware of how well these transformation activities and risks need to be managed , but we ’ re also aware of our industry ’ s future direction . We know its advancement will be largely fuelled by technology innovation . We ’ re not going to wait for the industry to change , we want to be proactive and drive this change .”
“ I don ’ t know of a larger technologybased transformation happening within financial services across Canada right now . Our digital and business transformation will differentiate our company
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