key note on ‘global game changers in retail banking’. Other speakers include President Bill Clinton, Howard Putnam (former CEO, Southwest Airlines) and Randi Zuckerberg (Facebook).
The European Banking Association (EBA) invited us to discuss the future of payments in retail as well as wholesale markets at October 6 in Brussels, Belgium.
A guest lecture is scheduled at ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain (October 18).

At the Annual LIMRA Europe conference at September 19 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, we will share our ideas on the future of life insurance .
Equens invited us to speak about ‘reinventing payment services’ at the Sibos Conference in Toronto at September 20.
Guest lectures scheduled: for the Dutch Compliance Institute at Nijenrode Business School, The Netherlands (September 14) and at Haaga-Helia University in Helsinki, Finland (September 29).

Proud to announce a new edition of Reinventing Financial Services.
The Brazilian edition, in Portuguese of course, will be published by Campus Elsevier, the leading management book publisher in Brazil.

Happy to inform you that the English edition of RFS is now available as eBook at Amazon.co.uk

Our book will also become available in Russian. Business book publisher Mann, Ivanov and Ferber just started translation.
Like all new editions of RFS, also the Russian translation will include additional content: local best practices and interviews with industry thought leaders in Russian market.
We will keep you posted on publishing dates and other forthcoming editions!

Blamed for the recession and pilloried for its bonus culture, the UK financial services sector has become the whipping boy for the public, the media and politicians. So what can be done? Well, rather than muttering that it’s being picked on, it’s time for the UK financial services sector to address its image problem and set about changing perceptions itself. Communicate, the leading UK magazine on reputation management, issued a call to arms and among others asked us to offer manifestos for reputational change. No punches were pulled.

We are honoured that Roland Boekhout, CEO of ING DiBa, the leading direct bank in Germany and Austria, refers to our book in the foreword of the 2010 annual report of ING DiBa. In our opinion ING Direct is the posterchild of simplicity in financial services, and the massive success across the globe, also shown by the 2010 results of ING DiBa, proves that simplicity is the key to strike the right chord.

Danish Finanswatch includes an interview titled ‘Strategi-eksperter: Lyt til kunderne eller tab’ – in English: Listen to customers or loose.

Leading Dutch financial newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad features an interview in which we argue that simplicity is the key to customer centric change: ‘Eenvoud is het nieuwe toverwoord’.

Austrian BankArchiv published ‘Die wahre Kraft von Online’, the German translation of the article ‘The true power of online’ that featured in EFMA journal earlier.

Dutch MarketingTribune includes an article on digital household budgeting tools.

Many banks offer one, and a lot of customers actually use them. Insurers seem to neglect these tools for customer empowerment. With some of these tools evolving to financial planning instruments that might be dangerous.

The Spanish edition of Reinventing Financial Services has been officially launched.
In Barcelona the book was presented together with Carina Szpilka, CEO of ING Direct Spain and Jesús Domínguez, publisher of Financial Times Prentice Hall. The launch was attended by over 50 people, among which bankers and insurers of different financial institutions and representatives of governmental organizations.
In Madrid we were invited to present the book during Spain’s yearly conference ‘Expo Management’. Other speakers at this major event included: Tony Blair, Gary Hamel and Juan Enriquez (Harvard Business School)
These events are now followed by extensive media coverage.

↑ Left to right: Roger Peverelli, Reggy de Feniks and Carina Szpilka, CEO of ING Direct Spain.

↑ Presentation with Financial Times/Pearson at Expo Management, Madrid

We are delighted to announce that the Spanish edition of Reinventing Financial Services already has become a best seller. At all large bookstores, such as the Relay shops at airports, the book hits the charts reaching a top 5 position so far.
Please check here for order information.

The Spanish edition of Reinventing Financial Services is now for sale, among others at Casa del Libro, FNAC, El Corte Inglés, the bookshops of airports and train stations throughout Spain and online at www.fnac.es.

The e-book is for sale here. The Spanish edition includes updates and additional content specific for the Spanish and Latin American market.

The second of June we will be speaking at the ExpoManagement Conference in Madrid. Other speakers include Susan Greenfield, Gary Hamel and Tony Blair.

The 30th of June we will lead a discussion on ‘self directed private investors’ at FundForum 2011 in Monaco, the leading conference for asset managers and private bankers. A 15 percent discount if you use register here.

We will be in Copenhagen Denmark on 18 May to share our view at the Nordic Conference of the Danish Bankers Association.

May 10 we will be participating at the conference of UK magazine Communicate ‘Social Media in a Corporate Context’ in Amsterdam. Enjoy a 10 percent discount if you register at www.communicatemagazine.co.uk/VODW.

The fourth print of the book has been revised in some areas. Among others several facts & figures have been updated, such as the quickly changing social media numbers.

EFMA Journal, the leading journal for financial services marketers, features our article ‘The true power of online’. So many banks and insurers are revamping their web presence. If only they would understand the true power of online …
Brazilian magazine Ideias includes ‘Reinventar é simples’. In this article we argue that simplicity is the key to customer centric change, and that simplicity cuts both ways: it increases cost efficiency but also brings additional top line growth.

The Spanish language edition of Reinventing Financial Services is scheduled to be launched beginning of May. Just like the English language edition the book will be published by Financial Times Prentice Hall and distributed in Spain as well as Latin America. The Spanish edition includes updates and additional market research data from TNS Spain and extra interviews with executives from leading Spanish corporations, such as Banco Sabadell, Mapfre and CEO Enric Casi of fashion giant Mango. To preorder the book click here …

Proud to announce that the Korean edition of Reinventing Financial services will be published by Maekyung Publishing. Maekyung is the leading financial newspaper and magazine publisher in Korea, sort of the Financial Times of Korea.
The edition will also include additional ‘Korean’ content to increase relevancy for the Korean market.

In the first months after the launch Reinventing Financial Services seems to strike the right chord.
The book is already in its third print, and has been the best selling English language management book at www.buch.ch in Switzerland and at www.managementboek.nl in The Netherlands.
Editions in other languages are expected in the course of 2011.

The book is launched at an international executive seminar titled similarly on Wednesday September 15, exactly two years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. During the executive seminar leading financial institutions such as Allianz, Barclays, Danske Bank Group and Zurich Financial Services shared best practices in customer centricity.
The seminar on customer centricity was attended by 150 bankers and insurers of 45 different financial institutions.

↑ Left to right: Reggy de Feniks (9senses), Andrew Clayton (Allianz), Luis Badrinas (Zurich), Mads Helleberg Dorff Christiansen (Danske Bank), Peter Brooks (Barclays) and Roger Peverelli (VODW). Photographs by Norbert van Leijen