Chief SaaS Transformation Officer & Head of Specialized Finance strategy – James Powell

Caroline Béguin: So before we dive in, how would you present yourself at a dinner party, and what do you do? 

James Powell: How would I present myself? As James, that’s my name. I think your personality is the best way to present yourself. So you present yourself with the way that you behave at that dinner party and the things you say. And what would I do? I know it’s pretty obvious, but a dinner party should be fun, whether it’s a formal one or informal one. So I think I like to tell stories. I like to keep it light and I also like to listen to stories. Some people might not know me for listening, but I like to listen to stories, and maybe I even use people’s stories in the future, particularly if they’re funny. So storytelling. 

Caroline Béguin: I’ve interviewed a lot of C-levels, and I’ve noticed that they all have a defining trait, a kind of superpower, that shaped their journey. Could be empathy, could be determination, et cetera. Would you say humor is your secret weapon? 

James Powell: I do like to use it. I think I like to use it in serious situations and in less serious situations. So, maybe. You’ve, you’ve given me a leading question there. I think it’s more about being able to relate to people. So you mentioned empathy, I think understanding other people’s feelings and how they’re feeling, and then you can use your humor in the right circumstances. Every now and then, I get it wrong. But yeah, maybe you’re right, maybe you’re right. 

Caroline Béguin: How do you leverage humor in your professional life, and do you have an example where you used humor in a professional meeting, and that went well? 

James Powell: That’s a really good question. So I think you  can use humor at the beginning of a meeting to kind of create some rapport, the icebreaker is the classic one, always, but I think it, in, within a meeting, you can use it sometimes. As long as you’re not overusing it, you can use it to break difficult situations. And so, sometimes rooms get tense in a business environment, and humor just can break that down. Giving examples, that’s a really difficult one, Caroline, and I’m not sure I can give you a good example right now. Maybe we’ll come back to that later, yeah? 

Caroline Béguin: Okay, let’s do that.

Carlone: I always like to hear how people find their way into this world. So was there a moment early in your career where you thought, “Wow, this is exactly where I’m meant to be,” or, “Oh, gosh, what have I gotten myself into?” 

James Powell: I think to answer the first question, I realized quite soon coming into software and IT, you don’t think it’s a people thing, naturally. You think it’s a technical thing, and I think I realized really soon in the roles that I came into, I was always looking after customers, I was engaging in projects, I was involved with people, and I realized it was a people, relationship-based business really quickly. So I was comfortable with that and that was the answer to the first part of your question. The second part, I think is directly related when you’re younger in your career, the first time you get into customer interaction where it’s difficult, you have tough conversations, that’s the moment where you go: What have I got myself into? But obviously, that becomes something that you understand is natural, and then you just, you know, you get used to it. But yeah, certainly, I, you know, I’ve really enjoyed my career because of the people nature of it. It’s fantastic. Difficult conversations come by, but they get outweighed by all the good interpersonal relationship stuff you have. 

Caroline Béguin: Was there a particular moment or a challenge that shaped your career? 

James Powell: I don’t think so. I mean, I would say that I think you get shaped by all of your experiences through your career, good or bad, and that we’ve all had good and bad situations. So I don’t think that I would point to any one situation. I’ve had a lot of good scenarios. I’ve had a lot of big successes that I’m really proud of. I’ve also had a lot of failures that you like to learn from. So I think it’s more of an evolution rather than a single point that shapes you. I think you get shaped constantly. 

Caroline Béguin: Okay, so no turning point? 

James Powell: No, no real turning point. I mean, one potential milestone for me was back, I’m showing my age now, but back in the late 1990s, I took the opportunity to go and work in Canada for the organization I was working for, but a complete change of role, and it was a very different thing for me. That was a big thing for me in terms of the guy who got me to go there became my first mentor, and secondly, also got me the buzz about doing business internationally and experiencing different cultures and different ways of doing business. So I think that was probably the first key milestone for me in the late 1990s. 

Caroline Béguin: Okay, I’ve seen that you used to be a salesman. Do you remember the first major deal you were proud of? 

James Powell: Oh, yeah. I mean, I could point to quite a few. Hopefully, I’ve been successful with sales over the years, but I think the main one for me, and it still resonates nowadays, and it was in the mid-2000s-ish, we did a really big deal with Lombard. It was actually a small deal when we did it, but we knew that it had potential to be huge, and I led the whole deal. I won’t bore you with the details, but they became our biggest customer within two years. The way that we did the deal with them and the business that we were supporting for them, it disrupted the whole market, so it felt fantastic and they remained the biggest customer revenue-wise in the specialized finance business. So I’m particularly proud of that, and we just renewed with them, and we’ve just moved them to the SaaS version seven as well. So really proud of that one. 

Caroline Béguin: Did you have an, “Oh, no,” moment, where something almost went off the rails?

James Powell: Yeah, again, you know, I’m gonna go back to my project management days, but it wasn’t really project management because I was working on big projects in the early days of my career doing some project management business analysis. And I do remember a circumstance with a UK car importer into the UK, where it was the first moment, cause I’d had lots of good experiences of successful projects. It’s the first moment where we got into real difficulty, and there were three parties involved: the importer, the lender, and us, and everybody started blaming everybody, and the project got into a really bad state. It was the first time I’d seen a crisis project, and I think, you know, it sticks in my mind because I think what you had to do, what we had to do was be calm, and we had to work it through, and we had to stand our ground against difficult pressure. So, that sticks in my mind. And ultimately, the project was put on hold for a while, and then it came back on, and we successfully delivered it. That’s probably the first moment where I realized what a difficult project was like. 

Caroline Béguin: So we’ve talked about how you came to be Chief SaaS Transformation Officer and Head of Specialized Finance Strategy at SBS. But can you tell us what you do exactly? 

James Powell: It’s a difficult question. My son asked me what I did recently. He’s a very smart, science brain guy, completely opposite to me. And he asked me what I did, and when I explained to him just my regular day, he said, “That’s not a proper job, Dad.” He thought it was crazy.

But what do I do? In both of those places, I think my main objective and goal when I turn up every day is to lead people, is to give people direction to create the space and the environment for the people around me to be successful and to do their jobs properly. So that’s the key thing for me, and particularly in the latter stages of my career, that’s been a really important thing to me, is leading people and allowing them to do their jobs. So I’m helping people to make decisions. I’m mentoring people. I’m dealing with, you know, those types of things. But I’m also in both of those places, building and executing on strategy. So if you look at the SaaS transformation, I was taking the experience that I’d had inside of my previous organization and in specialized finance, as being kind of early SaaS adopters, and taking that and trying to define what that looked like for the whole organization, accepting that the organization was in various stages of maturity, and then trying to build a strategy that we could all be consistent around. So that’s strategy. And then on the specialized finance side, a bit of a similar thing, really, because we’ve adapted our strategy as we’ve gone on, as we’ve grown geographically, and we’ve brought new product, and it’s about ensuring that you have a good direction for that, a good strategy, and then you’re able to execute on it. And then a lot of what I’m doing is, as I say, with the rest of the team, is helping to execute on that. So I think that’s what I do. 

Caroline Béguin: Okay. 

James Powell: But I seem to do lots of PowerPoints, Word documents, all the usual stuff And lots of talking.

Caroline Béguin: Now, let’s tackle some of the big ideas floating around about specialized finance. I will throw out some common assumptions about specialized finance, and you tell me, myth or reality? 

James Powell: Okay. 

Caroline Béguin: And why? 

James Powell: Okay. 

Caroline Béguin: First one: specialized finance is just traditional lending with a fancy name. 

James Powell: Myth. Definitely a myth. The reason for that is that a lot of types of lending, let’s take just general consumer lending, personal loans, you’re not lending against an asset, or you may be, but the asset is not right at the front. Whereas specialized finance is really about lending against an asset. That’s what financing is. And that means it’s very different because the asset becomes very important, and that’s about understanding that asset in detail and then even tracking that asset, making sure that it’s not deteriorating in value. So, that makes it quite different, but fundamentally, it’s the same. 

Caroline Béguin: Okay. Fintechs are disrupting the space, but banks will always dominate. 

James Powell: Oh, that’s a good one. I think I’m gonna call it a myth and the reason I’m gonna call it a myth is because the banks will always play a role. In my opinion, they have some distinct advantages around scale and safety. When we give our money to people, we want it to be safe. I think I would also say the Fintechs are gonna continue to play a huge role and probably grow and will take a portion of the wallet that the banks already have. So the banks will potentially continue to dominate, but Fintechs may take a bigger portion of the wallet. 

Caroline Béguin: AI and automation will make specialized finance irrelevant. 

James Powell: Myth, definitely. And the reason behind my answer is, I think, as with any other business really, loan, lending or finance or banking, people will leverage AI and automation to give better customer journey, customer experience, and also to do things more efficiently. So the good lenders in this case, I think, will do that. So I don’t think it will remove the need for specialized finance. It will enhance it potentially. 

Caroline Béguin: SaaS platforms can never fully replace traditional financial services in specialized finance. 

James Powell: Can you guess my answer? 

Caroline Béguin: Myth? 

James Powell: Yeah, absolutely. You’ve heard me talk about this before, it’s a question of time for me. What we need to be thinking about is how quickly it can be adopted and how we move beyond SaaS, how we start to go beyond SaaS, because that’s the big topic for me, is how AI is changing even the need for SaaS. But I think, I personally feel the work that we’re doing right now with SaaS becomes table stakes. SaaS, cloud, AI becomes table stakes, and by that I mean, without it, you won’t survive. So I think the things that we’re doing important now around our transformation are gonna set us for the future in terms of being more agile, do things quickly with data at the heart of it, and those things are gonna become essential. 

Caroline Béguin: Last one, the specialized finance is only relevant for large enterprises, not SMEs or startups. 

James Powell: That’s a myth, definitely and we’ve already proved that. If you look at our customer base, we deal with large entities like tier one banks and large global manufacturer captives, where we’re working with them in multiple countries. And we also deal with small startups, where we’re helping them to grow their business because they’ve just got to the point where they need a system to manage it. And both of those have their places, they both have their niches in the market and they’re both gonna be relevant in that space for a long time to come, unless something fundamental changes that we don’t know about at this moment in time. 

Caroline Béguin: Okay, so that would be a full myth. 

James Powell: Myth across the board, apart from one where it was kind of in the middle.

Caroline Béguin: So now that we have busted a few myths, let’s look ahead. The industry is changing fast, so which trends excite you the most, and which ones worry you? 

James Powell: An obvious answer is AI. The answer to both of those questions is AI. And I think it’s simple, I think organizations that embrace AI in the right way to both deliver value for themselves and they’re managing their business and deliver value for their customers are gonna succeed, and the ones who ignore it, there’s a good chance they’re gonna struggle. 

Caroline Béguin: If you could fast-track one change in financial services, what would it be? 

James Powell: Oh, this is predictable from me as well. Tier one banks are adopting public cloud. Fast-track that one, please. That would help us. 

Caroline Béguin: Why? 

James Powell: Because then they would be more open to the types of products that are in our strategy, which is SaaS, cloud-based products. 

Caroline Béguin: Okay. 

James Powell: Still, we have these types of conversations with people where they say, “Our policy is private cloud or on-premise,” and then you have these difficult conversations about how you’re trying to sell the benefits, which are great conversations, but it is an obstacle to some of the sales processes we’re involved in. 

Caroline Béguin: Speaking of change, let’s put you in the driver’s seat. Imagine you are advising a mid-sized financial institution that still relies on legacy systems for specialized finance. They are hesitant about moving to SaaS because they fear losing control, regulatory challenges, and high transition costs. What would you do? 

James Powell: I can probably answer this one because it’s been what I’ve been doing for many years now. But the first thing you try to convince them of is to focus on their core competencies and trust an external partner to do the difficult job of running the IT and everything that goes around it. You talked about compliance or regulatory compliance, managing data, doing all those things. I encourage them to trust somebody else to do that, whose core competence it is. And you can do that through a discussion around service levels, because often what happens with a bank and a financial institution is when they’re running a system in-house, you get talking to them, and when they’re very honest, they talk about the poor service level they get internally. So we can provide a good service level to them because we can sign up to them, and if we get it wrong, we’re in trouble, whereas they have less leverage internally. So that’s the first thing I would do, is try and convince them of that. And then I think the second thing I would try and convince them to do is just buy SBS. Well, SBS’s products, I mean, not SBS. 

Caroline Béguin: Okay.

James Powell: Very different. 

Caroline Béguin: How would you convince them SaaS is the right move? 

James Powell: I think in simple terms, you convince them by explaining to them giving evidence as well, obviously that SaaS, in both in terms of implementation and run, is cheaper, quicker, and less risky than doing it on premise. And again, you have to convince them that you have the skills and capability to make it that way. But if you can convince them of that it’s a no-brainer. And then the other part of it is to convince them, again, by evidence, that they will get a piece of software that evolves, rather than something that they have to upgrade every six months, twelve months, or in the future, so they get evergreen software. So they take advantage of the evolutions without having to go through costly, time-consuming, disruptive projects. 

Caroline Béguin: And what’s the first step in the transition? 

James Powell: Buy SBS. 

Caroline Béguin: Buy SBS, haha

James Powell: No, on a serious note, it’s really a mindset change. It goes back to that original point, tier one banks and others, They have their own IT department. They’re used to running things themselves. They’re used to having an IT vendor delivering software on a license basis, on-premise, on their side. It’s that mindset change to trust the software vendor partner, get into a strategic partnership, get a decent contract in place so that we take that burden, and they trust us to do it. I think that’s the first step. 

Caroline Béguin: And what’s the biggest mistake they could make in the process? 

James Powell: In relation to buying a SaaS product, you mean? 

Caroline Béguin: Yeah. 

James Powell: Oh, I think that’s to go down the traditional route of saying: This is what I want, this is what I need, and try to adapt the software. I mean, the mentality has to be the software. You adapt your processes around the software, don’t change it. So again, coming back to my original point, you can then implement fast with a decent cost and reduce your risk.

Caroline Béguin: Before we wrap up, let’s do some quick takes, fast answers, gut reactions to enjoy. So finish my sentences. The biggest misconception about SaaS transformation is? 

James Powell: I think that’s solely a technology, technical, transformation. And by that I mean that SaaS transformation touches the whole organization. It’s an organization-wide thing. So firstly, it’s a mindset and culture thing. It affects the way that you design and build your products. It affects the way you market and sell them. It affects the way you then deliver them from an implementation perspective and the way that you run them and the way you support your customers. So definitely, it being just a technical thing is a misconception. 

Caroline Béguin: One thing I wish more people understood about specialized finance is… 

James Powell: Most of us will benefit from it in our lifetimes. When we buy a car or we buy a big piece of furniture or any big item, we’ll probably, unless we’re really rich and you don’t need finance, we will use specialized finance. So the example is, I walk into a car dealership, and I like my fancy new car, and then I can’t really afford to pay for it in cash. So one of the ways you would deal with it is you’ll get a loan at the point of sale. That’s specialized finance. 

Caroline Béguin: One piece of financial advice I wish more people followed is? 

James Powell: I’m gonna use an example in my space again. Never pay cash for a new car. They’re fantastic financial products. Leasing, and in the UK, PCP (personal contract purchase), where you can get a new car with a much lower payment, and you don’t have to pay for the depreciation of the asset. I would never advise anyone to buy a new car. 

Caroline Béguin: Okay, good to know. 

James Powell: With cash.

Caroline Béguin: The best career advice I’ve ever received was? 

James Powell: I think it’s probably to remain calm in adversity and to stick to your principles. I think that it’s really sometimes under pressure in business, it’s really easy to be pushed in a direction away from your principles. And then the calmness thing, we all need to be calm in difficult circumstances. And I was told that by the guy I mentioned earlier who was my original mentor. 

Caroline Béguin: If I weren’t in specialized finance, I would be doing…? 

James Powell: Good question. I think I would probably be doing something that involved bikes, I think. 

Caroline Béguin: Okay. 

James Powell: Yeah. 

Caroline Béguin: Do you ride bikes? 

James Powell: I ride bikes, yeah. I’m not sure I could make any money out of bikes, but yeah, I’d like to make some money out of bikes if I could.

Caroline Béguin: Do you do races or…?

James Powell: Yeah, some. The bikes for me are a money drain, not a money maker.

Caroline Béguin: One last question to wrap up the episode. I’m asking you that question since you are a leader. What do you think leaders truly want? 

James Powell: I alluded to it earlier, I think as a leader, what I want is I want all the people who I’m leading to be successful, and that’s because I want them to be successful. But there’s a selfish thing about that as well, is if all the people around you are succeeding, then you’re gonna succeed as well as an organization. So I think about the success of others around you, and I think a good leader is thinking about the people they’re leading and their success. 

Caroline Béguin: To be fair, that’s not the last question. Haha

James Powell: Haha

Caroline Béguin: I have one last. Andrew Steadman is my next guest. So if you were in my shoes, what’s the one question you would ask him? 

James Powell: That’s a good one. Andrew, sorry about this question. Give me a second to think…How satisfied is Andrew gonna be in two years’ time about the difference he’s making in terms of product management? Because Andrew, I believe, is a very good product strategy and product management guy, and I’d like to know how confident he is that in two years’ time he’s gonna look back and say, “Wow, that was a success.” I said two years on purpose. I didn’t want to say five years and give him too much time.

Caroline Béguin: Thank you, James, for your time and for being with us. 

James Powell: Thank you, Caroline. It was a pleasure.