How agility and ability are powering payments at Australia Post
Leading Australia Post in a time of great technological change is a challenge I am relishing. In this age of digital innovations, we are creating faster and smarter ways of connecting people and businesses both locally and globally.
Our journey through this transformative era has already begun and we’re well on our way to creating the next wave of digital and retail services by:
- pursuing customer-driven evolution,
- leveraging commercial acumen,
- investing in great people and capability, and
- implementing agile methodologies.
Pursuing customer-driven evolution
From the telegram and the fax to eParcels and 24/7 lockers for online shopping deliveries, we’ve been constantly adapting to social and technological changes.
The evolution of payments is currently driving increased competition across the entire economy by unlocking greater opportunities in eCommerce and our role is to design new services that will provide customers greater choice, convenience, control and security.
The customer-driven aspect of this evolution must be at the heart of everything we do because how we work is just as important as what we work on.
Leveraging commercial acumen
To remain relevant in the digital age, organisations must pursue innovation through a robust commercial lens. Australia Post is no different.
We apply a rigorous commercial lens to our flood of ideas. First, an idea needs to align clearly and directly with our strategy.
We must ensure the team is lined up behind a single purpose with a laser focus on execution. And we have to make sure what we build will deliver a superior customer experience centred on creating connections.
To do this, we have identified three strategic areas for payments and financial services:
- provide simple, effective and safe financial products and services for retail customers
- develop innovative solutions that power eCommerce for merchants
- develop payments as a service for enterprise and government.
To ensure we retain a commercial focus across our entire portfolio, we have a cascading series of Kanban walls to help us visualise our workflows.
All my teams have a Kanban wall which rolls into a wider payments and financial services wall that is reviewed weekly by my leadership team.
This ultimately feeds into an overall commercialisation wall that guides the entire eCommerce services portfolio.
Investing in great people and capability
Building customer advocacy in this fast-paced digital era starts in an environment where our people are engaged, empowered and inspired.
We recognise that bright ideas can come from everywhere – not all of them will work, but we’re willing to experiment and fail occasionally to create the experiences our customers want.
Change calls for people who are inspired, engaged and who have the right skills and capabilities to deliver on our vision. As leader, my job is to work with them to set an inspiring vision and a clear strategy but most importantly, to ensure the team is empowered to provide input and take ownership of the strategy and its execution.
Implementing agile methodologies
Australia Post invested early in setting up teams with an eye on the future of payments and financial technology. By entering the fintech space, we plan to bring efficient and cost-effective innovations to our customers.
To improve our speed to market, we’re establishing multidisciplinary long-running teams that are focused on key themes related to consumer and business payment needs, and dedicated to developing the next wave of payments technology.
By establishing a capacity-funded approach, we can iterate and deliver capability for customers without the complexity and overheads of traditional funding models.
Our fast and flexible way of operating creates new ways to deliver products and services, and allows us to expedite value for our customers.
For me personally, it’s truly exciting to join Australia Post at this pivotal point in its evolution and help influence its outcomes in payments and eCommerce.
