Should crypto take leadership lessons from fintech?
by Natalie Zingo
Who are the leaders behind the multitude of crypto companies out there? Is that even important? Does such a disruptive industry even care about a traditional leadership model?
There is a leadership deficit – in both numbers and experience – in an industry that desperately needs to play its best cards to maintain its credibility to shape its future.
The industry of ‘huh?‘
A decade ago, crypto wasn’t really an industry, it wasn’t an asset class, it had no credible experts but was seen as the new fintech “kid-on-the-block”. Everyone liked to talk about it – because it seemed cool – but few in the traditional space truly understood it or got it. Because the establishment didn’t understand it, they were scared of it. On the flip side, the original “crypto natives” wanted nothing to do with the traditional financial services world and the fintechs that supported them. They were the disruptors taking down the centralised control of the major players. Hoodies, jeans and sneakers were the de-rigueur uniform with not a pair of slacks, shirt, jacket or tie in sight.
Now things are different, we know it’s the ever-rising star of fintech and it’s become acceptable to talk about crypto, to use and deploy it to solve traditional technology infrastructure problems, reduce risk and create new revenue-generating opportunities. We are now maturing our terminology and more often using the term “digital assets” in the place of crypto and DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) in the place of blockchain. I even saw someone wearing a jacket and tie at a recent crypto conference and the list of attendees from the banks, hedge funds and asset managers far outweighed the crypto natives.
And this where we are today. Traditional financial services institutions are massively investing in this technology to gain the edge and cement their futures – and they want to work with talent that both understands their traditional culture and needs, but who can help them on their journey into this brave new world. The early movers from what we “crypto hipsters” now call “TradFi” (Traditional Finance) into digital assets (we’ll leave DeFi for another day) are highly sought after and valued.
Talent shortages
While crypto firms are in hypergrowth mode and the total market value is up 400% over the past year alone to about $1.4 trillion, there is actually a huge shortage of talent and crypto firms are struggling to find the right candidates to keep up with the surge of client demand, and to keep their VC investors happy.
Lessons learnt from fintech
When taking on briefs from crypto firms we can see a progression which fintech has so carefully navigated over the past decade.
In the early days, fintech sales went from relationship-based opportunities to now data-centric structured and process driven operations – with a huge degree of trust now in place. It’s gone largely corporate from entrepreneurial, new, and on the fringe, and this has shaped its maturity. These companies now have a data-centric approach to scaling sales.
The nature of crypto firms, however, is the dealing with a volatile asset, yet unpinned by a hugely powerful blockchain – the full potential of which we haven’t seen.
The B2C shift
It’s already happening, but major crypto wallet operations have realised they need to act and behave like widely adopted fintechs we use on a daily basis. The emphasis now is on being marketing-led rather than sales-led. The market, whether brokers or end users will be looking to partner with companies with accountable leadership, those embracing and sharing best practice, good governance and those demonstrating how digital assets are there to be a force for good.
Today, the digital asset market is valued at $239 billion, as measured by total crypto currency market capitalisation. It has the potential to unlock billions of dollars of real capital among the lower socioeconomic classes and underserved communities through decentralisation, smart contracts, identity management, and the monetisation of “trapped assets”. Many government agencies are working collaboratively with industry associations to look at the viability of such tools – whether crypto, or digital payment platforms, or blockchain applications, to consider the socioeconomical impact associated with the mass adoption of this technology within Financial Services.
Leaders behind crypto firms have a window of opportunity to shine and set examples rather than hide behind technology and can bridge the gap in connecting up broader financial eco systems.This seismic shift requires unique talent who can talk and converse in both languages but have that risk-taking mindset and curiosity to the create this new world, but then mature it so that their clients were right when they invested their trust in them.
Being a leader in crypto, but one who has that demonstrable experience and expertise gained in traditional finance technology and services is a huge valuation-multiplier for compensation in this fiercely competitive technology sector which we are seeing every day with our clients to source, and then secure this unique talent.
The Great Resignation may just bring fresh blood into the leadership of crypto. Those seeking a new challenge in bringing a burgeoning industry to greater levels of consumer acceptance and adoption.
Natalie Zingo is partner at TritonExec, the global executive search firm, which hires C suite leadership for technology services, and fintech clients.