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The CIONET Cookbook comprises recipes for success from 25 of today’s most influential and dynamic information technology leaders, across all sectors of business.This is the result of our research and interviews with top Digital Leaders. The CIONET Cookbook uses the analogy of a five-star restaurant to explain the importance of optimally integrated technology.
Meanwhile dive in to the next recipe with our Masterchef Mark Foulsham, COO at Kensington Mortgages.
Ingredients
Preparing the dish
As a respected CIO, CDO and CTO, Mark Foulsham was well prepared for his next step up the career ladder when we became chief operating officer (COO) at Kensington Mortgages in 2019. With a 25-year heritage, Kensington is the UK's leading specialist mortgage lenders. It serves fast-growing segments, such as self-employed individuals, people with multiple incomes and those aged over 55.
Mark recognised the exceptional opportunities for Kensington to deal with increased demands for specialist mortgages,loans and servicing in an ever-increasing digital ecosystem. He also knew that big high-street banks were not well equipped to deal with such specialist needs.
“The challenge from the outset was to accommodate growth whilst increasing efficiency and remaining compliant in a highly regulated sector,” says Mark. The solution was to design a new operating model that was both agile and adaptive to fast-changing market requirements.
Mark says Kensington’s business strategy is all about establishing a model for growth that takes advantage of societal shifts due to the pandemic, including home working and technical advances in areas such as automation and data analytics. His plan includes three connected elements:
The unifying factor linking all these elements was a shared vision of how technology could help the company meets it objectives and support the creation of a more flexible and collaborative culture.
The move to home working during the pandemic was an important catalyst for re-examining the role of the workplace. Mark says corporate offices in the post-pandemic era will have a specific purpose around building teams, encouraging collaboration and developing people. Other types of work, such as administration and meetings, can be undertaken at home effectively.
He recognises there are wide variations in terms of where people live and how much space they have in their homes. To access new sources of talent, Kensington has broadened its recruitment beyond south-east England to the whole of the UK. Despite greater geographic dispersion, Mark feels that all employees should meet occasionally to maintain cohesion and ensure less-experienced staff gain from working alongside more senior colleagues.
The extensive use of video-conferencing technology has helped to flatten hierarchies and made it possible for managers to check-in regularly with their teams regardless of location. This access has boosted flexibility and helped create a more adaptive workforce within Kensington during the past two years. In this increasingly virtual organisation, Mark says leaders must trust their staff to do their jobs: “Supervision is all about measuring outcomes rather than inputs.”
Mark has paid special attention to the core processes that underpin Kensington’s business operating model, such as loan authorisation, customer acquisition and retention, and performance reporting to investors. The latter is especially important as the firm is backed by private equity.
During his first months as COO, Mark restructured his teams to support improvements in process performance. Two case examples illustrate how he was able to introduce tangible improvements:
Mark has adopted a three-pillar model to ensure that IT supports fast-evolving business requirements. The three pillars are: technology, data analytics, and digital capabilities. When it comes to technology, Mark wants to build strong external partnerships. He believes key partners such as banking-technology specialist Sopra can provide contemporary core infrastructure solutions in an increasingly commoditised world.
In contrast, Mark believes data is a core asset of the organisation. He says any tools and capabilities, such as Power BI and data science skills, should reside within the organisation. Finally, Mark has focused on developing digital capabilities around tailored customer solutions. This focus helped the company to meet the requirements of both brokers and customers, increasing the relevance of products matching customer needs and supporting brand loyalty.
Earlier in his career, Mark used his IT leadership position to help pull solutions together from across different functions. He refers to his tactic as “joining the dots”. By always looking to work across functional boundaries, Mark has often been asked to take responsibility for closely related activities, such as procurement and risk management. This cross-boundary working has served him well before and now as COO at Kensington Mortgages.
Mark believes the right language is crucial to gaining greater responsibility and influence within an organisation. Instead of talking about technology stacks, he prefers to focus on business phrases such as earnings and customer impact. His attention is centred is on the three key outcomes that relate to his revised business model: growth in revenues and profits, operational efficiency, and regulatory compliance.
His guiding principle is to be open and honest, and to have an ability to listen to others. He believes the leaders of the future will be able to adjust rapidly to changing circumstances.
