Latest / The Payments Shed / Ep. 39 - Live from MPE Berlin: Judging Payments Innovation - Inside the MPE Awards Process with Neira Jones and Stanley Skoglund

Transcript

Ep. 39 - Live from MPE Berlin: Judging Payments Innovation - Inside the MPE Awards Process with Neira Jones and Stanley Skoglund · The Payments Shed

• 0:03
  Welcome back to the Payment Share podcast live at here MPE.
• 0:07
  We're welcomed by Mira Jones and Stanley Skoglin, payments
• 0:11
  advisors, ambassadors and more importantly, chair and Co chair
• 0:15
  of the MPE Awards. Thank you so much for joining
• 0:18
  us, guys. Tell us a little bit more about
• 0:19
  yourselves. Introduce us to her.
• 0:21
  Well, As for myself, I've been involved with the MPE conference
• 0:25
  for very, very long time, many more years than I had to
• 0:27
  remember. I'm delighted to have seen it
• 0:29
  grow so much over the past 18 years.
• 0:33
  And I've been in payments for more years than I had to admit.
• 0:37
  And I've been party to this particular conference for at
• 0:41
  least five years, yes. I think, yeah.
• 0:43
  Tell us a little bit more about the judging process.
• 0:45
  There's always questions involved when people want to
• 0:48
  submit a nomination. Tell us a little bit more about
• 0:50
  that. What goes through the minds?
• 0:52
  Well, first of all, I would have to say that the MPA Awards are
• 0:55
  actually unique in, in the industry, in the payments
• 0:58
  industry. We have, would you believe, a
• 1:01
  manifesto. So we have a manifesto for the
• 1:04
  awards. And I would say 3 words,
• 1:06
  quality, transparency and resilience and, and independence
• 1:12
  as well. I mean, we have a panel of
• 1:15
  really experienced judges and our process is totally
• 1:21
  transparent. The way the entries are
• 1:24
  constructed actually mirror the way the industry evolves and the
• 1:30
  scoring process is absolutely independent.
• 1:34
  I'm just going to add to what Nira said.
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  We're also the triage in terms of evaluating all submissions
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  and some submissions may be qualifying for more category
• 1:44
  than one. And then we will tell that
• 1:46
  particular company that they may want to look at other categories
• 1:50
  as well or if they didn't qualify for the category that
• 1:54
  they submitted something. So we're trying to help everyone
• 1:56
  along a bit as well. So yeah.
• 1:59
  Have you seen a shift in the quality of submissions over the
• 2:02
  years? Oh.
• 2:03
  Absolutely. And it's also a learning aspect
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  for, for us on the, on the committee because you know, when
• 2:12
  you, when you look at awards and, and you look at the, the
• 2:15
  plethora of entries that could possibly join in and, and
• 2:20
  participate in the competition, but sometimes and categories
• 2:25
  overlap, it's not very clear as to whether you should enter one
• 2:28
  or the other. Over the year, we have refined
• 2:31
  this so much and we continue because we continue learning and
• 2:34
  we continue taking feedback and we have very clear inclusions,
• 2:39
  very clear exclusions. We have rules for entries.
• 2:42
  And as Stanley just said earlier on, if we see that an entry is
• 2:45
  in the wrong category or could qualify for others, we actually
• 2:49
  do tell them. Ultimately it's up to them
• 2:51
  whether they want to follow our our guidance or not.
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  At the end of the day, the judge are going to decide on the
• 2:58
  scores. That's the thing.
• 3:00
  The way we have sharpened the evaluation criteria in all
• 3:02
  categories that people have responded to that because as
• 3:06
  Neera said, the quality has gone up significantly.
• 3:10
  More use of data, more product narrative.
• 3:14
  So it seems to me for every year people are upping their game,
• 3:19
  but I think that is also response to these criteria being
• 3:22
  very clear. Has there been any kind of key
• 3:24
  trends that you've seen over the last couple of years?
• 3:28
  Absolutely, because one of the things that the MPA awards are
• 3:32
  really good at is following, but not only following, also
• 3:37
  anticipating the way the market evolves.
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  So when the judge score entries, that job is not finished.
• 3:44
  Straight after that, we actually meet up and decide, OK, what the
• 3:50
  category is, OK, did we miss anything in the industry?
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  What should we do for the next year?
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  So we constantly reflect the industry.
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  And what do you think has made Stanley this year different
• 4:00
  compared to maybe last year or the years prior?
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  I think for me what stood out is the sheer number of submissions.
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  That's one thing. And I would also say there's
• 4:11
  also a pick up in the entrance from outside of Europe.
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  For me, that's so the geographical kind of spread of
• 4:19
  companies wanting exposure, I suppose, yeah.
• 4:21
  It's gone up And do you feel that the awards are a reflection
• 4:25
  of where MPs heading as an event?
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  The awards are two things. There are a reflection of where
• 4:34
  the industry is right now, but there are also a reflection of
• 4:38
  where the industry is heading. We have a very special category
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  as part of the awards, which is the best startup scale up
• 4:48
  innovation. And the MP has been fostering
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  innovation for as long as I've been involved with this
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  conference. And this year we have 12
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  finalists in the Skylab startup category and the winners
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  obviously will be, we announced that there at the gala dinner.
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  But the sheer quality of those entries, we may very well see
• 5:12
  the next PayPal in there and the next innovation, the next
• 5:16
  Unicorn. And also what's really
• 5:19
  comforting and I'm really very proud of this is that many of
• 5:23
  the cohorts on in previous years of the Innovation Hub have
• 5:28
  actually entered the main award category.
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  So they've moved on from being in the startup Skylab camp to
• 5:37
  play with the big boys, essentially.
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  And what do you think is being called?
• 5:41
  What's been the biggest surprise to you do you think this year?
• 5:45
  Yeah, we have a few new category and we're pleased to see in the
• 5:51
  best settlement and liquidity category that we had.
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  You know, I didn't think we're going to get many entrants and
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  we didn't get super many, but that for me was really
• 6:00
  interesting. So it's the kind of complexity
• 6:03
  of the payment systems. On the one hand you see from the
• 6:06
  submissions consolidation, you know, payment registration,
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  these type of solutions and categories that speak to reduce
• 6:12
  the complexity. But also on the other extreme,
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  we had a lot of submissions from small niche companies
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  representing very narrow merchant segments, right.
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  So that to me was yeah, the complexity of it.
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  But it you can talk about trends, you can definitely see
• 6:29
  consolidation in terms of payment orchestration, providing
• 6:32
  solutions to different type of payment methods.
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  And on the other hand, you see very niche markets making, you
• 6:40
  know, headways in these awards. As well.
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  Now I'm not sure everyone else will ask this, but I'm going to
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  OK for both of you. What's your favorite category?
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  I'm going to be very advised here because I have many, I've
• 6:51
  already mentioned start up, scale up innovation because that
• 6:54
  is really fostering tomorrow's payments industry.
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  Apart from that one, this year, I'm really, really proud of the
• 7:01
  Chairman's Award because this is a first in the industry and what
• 7:06
  we've actually done. We've actually made a merchant
• 7:09
  category. So this is where we reward the
• 7:13
  actual merchants for what they've done in payments.
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  I'm really excited about that. And mine so marketplaces and
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  platforms is for me a favorite. And the reason why it's a
• 7:26
  favorite is those awards and those that category, it speaks
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  to a broader kind of part of the ecosystem, not just accept as
• 7:36
  the merchant, but also card holders.
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  So it gives companies a way of flexing their muscles, their
• 7:41
  product in a different way. I've already mentioned best
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  settlement in liquidity. I think this award is going to
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  be bigger going forward. Settlement is really a big issue
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  in terms of cost, in terms of geographical spread reach, how
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  these companies can help merchants.
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  So I think it's not the sexy. Award.
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  For sale perhaps, but I think it's going to pick up with
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  stable coin, different ways of getting money in and out of
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  different countries and reducing the exposure say to what's it
• 8:12
  called settlement banks and access to currency, all of that.
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  I'm certain that this would be a big, big award.
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  And what advice would you give to a business that maybe wanted
• 8:22
  to submit a nomination for themselves next year?
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  So the first piece of advice that would give a business is
• 8:27
  basically do it. Basically do it if you think you
• 8:32
  know you have something to offer the industry.
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  The second piece of advice is, you know, tell us a story.
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  I mean, one of my pet heads is when APR company actually writes
• 8:42
  an award and and that's it's not good for anyone.
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  The judges want to hear genuine innovation, genuine betterment
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  for lack of a better word of the payments industry, the payments
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  ecosystem on whomever you're actually serving in the market.
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  And the third one is answer the question.
• 9:02
  Mine is cut to the chase early. You know, show the crown rules,
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  be clear about the use of data and answer the questions, but
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  cut to the chase. What is the most important
• 9:13
  important feature about the product that you are trying to
• 9:16
  to get awarded for? And then the rest will follow.
• 9:19
  But early on, cut your chest. Absolutely and one one other of
• 9:22
  my path is please do not quote market statistics.
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  We have, you know, 23 judges that are very.
• 9:29
  Experienced in payments. They know market statistics.
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  Give us your KPI where you're making a difference and.
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  What do you to love most? My MP I.
• 9:40
  Think for me is the shared diversity of both geography
• 9:44
  product. You know it's, it is a, when I
• 9:49
  used to work for Visa, I always called Visa a bit of a UN
• 9:52
  because a lot of different nationalities involved.
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  The same here. It's getting very, very
• 9:56
  international. It's not kind of 1 market
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  centric. For me that is, I think, the
• 10:01
  best part of the MP conference. And, and for me, definitely, if
• 10:06
  you look at the agenda, which is very, very carefully curated and
• 10:11
  derive so much value, the quality of the speakers, the
• 10:16
  presentations, the, the round table, and of course the
• 10:20
  opportunities to network, to network in a quiet place.
• 10:23
  I mean, we're all in the round table area here for the benefit
• 10:28
  of merchants. After all, this is called
• 10:29
  merchant payments ecosystem. And this is where merchants find
• 10:33
  value. Fantastic.
• 10:34
  And lastly, a question from us here at the payment show podcast
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  Shelf of Shame. What is the one thing in the
• 10:40
  payments ecosystem that really grinds your gears?
• 10:44
  I'm. Going to let me I go first.
• 10:47
  OK, So what really grinds my gears, and you probably know
• 10:50
  this just in is jargon, you know, we like to be very
• 10:55
  precious in the payments industry because if we quote
• 10:58
  acronyms and everything, it makes us feel really important.
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  But at the end of the day, what actually gives real value to the
• 11:04
  ecosystem is simplify it, explain the stuff in a way that
• 11:10
  people can actually understand. And that's my shape of shame.
• 11:14
  I have to agree, a salesperson saying the words API like they
• 11:17
  understand what it means really does get to me.
• 11:23
  So mine is, I'm not still grind, but I think we need to be better
• 11:27
  as an industry when we talk about innovation, for instance,
• 11:30
  to distinguish is it technology, is it business model to be clear
• 11:34
  about what is innovative about it, Because sometimes we talk
• 11:36
  about innovation, we talk about you know developments and there
• 11:40
  really is variation of the same theme and we therefore miss some
• 11:43
  of the true innovatory kind of efforts in the industry.
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  And I would contend that business models and
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  sophistication in that area is as important as technology.
• 11:55
  So that's perhaps I like it. Grind.
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  I like it. I.
• 11:58
  Actually have another. Grinder.
• 11:59
  Let's go for it. Because study reminded me when
• 12:02
  we talk about innovation. So you've seen over the past
• 12:05
  couple of years, so we had last summer, we had this is the
• 12:08
  summer of stable commerce and then this is the summer of AG
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  and T commerce and everybody's doing it and so on and so forth.
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  But at the end of the day, you know, when people have
• 12:18
  headlines, we chat, click bite, to be honest.
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  And you say, oh, yeah, this is going to be the next innovation
• 12:23
  that is going to kill the carb networks.
• 12:26
  No, it's not. Yeah, the carb networks are not
• 12:29
  standing still. They're innovating, too.
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  So nothing is going to kill anything.
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  Things are going to evolve. We grow together, right?
• 12:36
  Well, look guys, thank you so much for your time.
• 12:38
  Have an incredible event. I'm looking forward to Gala to
• 12:40
  dinner tomorrow. Thank you very much.
• 12:43
  Cheers.