‘Nimble’ advisers can beat the instos: adviser

Speaking at the 2017 Adviser Innovation Summit yesterday, Caboodle Financial Services managing director Peita Diamantidis called on advisers to “stay nimble”.

“Our ability to implement quickly is the single largest competitive advantage we have over the big institutions and the faster change happens the bigger that advantage is,” Ms Diamantidis said.

However, the advice sector lacks in strong project management skills – a pain point that is stifling the ability to innovate, Ms Diamantidis said.

“We are in a constant state of renovation,” she said.

“What innovative projects need is really strong project management skills – these are skills, I would argue, this industry simply doesn’t have.”

Ms Diamantidis said it is surprising how many advice practices lack a clear sense of the type of business they want to run and fail to constantly measure the projects they embark upon with their business values.

"Static websites are a perfect example of how advice practices go wrong in the way they implement projects. Practices will get a designer in, hand over the brief, and the designer will come back with a website. That is not how you run a project,” she said.

"Sure, you hire the expert – but you constantly check in with them because you need to constantly be sure that the project meets your values and your vision – this is fundamental – this is success in implementing projects.”

Advice practices that want to innovate must combine a clear business vision with expert staff and effective project management tools, she said.

“We have such an advantage over [the institutions] because we can implement well and we can implement fast, so I would ask you all to think that way and make sure when you're dealing with the rush of technology you do it well and you do it fast, because that is our biggest advantage and it's how we can transform this industry,” Ms Diamantidis said.