Making technology work for you. The Visa story
Last year there were conversations about mobile phones replacing credit cards. As the Europeans do, several folks thought that soon we’d be using our mobile phones to pay for sodas from vending machines and groceries from supermarkets. In fact, some believed that mobile phones were one step away from becoming virtual banks.
Well last night I heard the CEO of Visa International speak. Firstly, he doesn’t see that happening anytime soon. The reason is simple. Stores of all types around the world would need to “reterminalize” which means that they’d need to invest in the hardware to read the cellphones. Financial laws and regulations would need to change too. The phones would need to become more secure. But he did say that the cell phones play an important role and can be used innovatively. He cited Russia as an example where you get a text on your phone each time you make a major purchase on your card. You’re asked to respond to the text if you want the transaction to go through. It’s an incredibly successful way of limiting fraud.
So what’s the point? You probably have a lot of technology around you in the workplace that’s being used for things that they are supposed to be used for. Nothing wrong in that at all. However, if you think reflectively you may find new uses for the technology that can help your organization. Uses that may not be common to all organizations but nevertheless potentially transformative in their own way. It all depends on your own imagination.
