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Innotribe – the innovation arm of SWIFT, the leading provider of secure financial messaging services – has released a new report that examines the way innovation teams from the financial services sector are harnessing innovation within their organisations. According to a statement released on Friday, the report is based on interviews with 11 innovation experts.

The report states that financial firms can successfully implement innovation by focusing on business values, creating a culture of innovation, and ensuring speed of execution. The report also cites other essential ingredients for successful innovation implementation, namely, people, clients and the fintech community.

The Innotribe report titled, “Dynamism in Diversity: The essentials for successful Innovation Teams in the Financial Industry,” details current innovation frameworks and best practices for developing innovation programmes across the financials services industry. The research states that strong collaboration between clients and operations teams is as important in the development of products and services as collaboration and partnership with fintech startups. A key part of collaboration includes embracing diversity among these internal and external collaborators.

“Based on our discussions with innovation leaders, it is apparent that large and small organisations need to realise the importance of collaboration and embracing cultural differences,” said Fabian Vandenreydt, Global Head of Securities Markets at Innotribe and SWIFT Institute. “The element of diversity in innovation is extremely important, and we believe that innovation happens when people from different culture, background and expertise sit together and work on a common goal.”

In order to foster idea generation and implementation, the research urges companies to create outstanding “innovation teams” – employees dedicated to the innovation process. This can be done by ensuring that such teams reflect an element of diversity, accept a culture that allows people to fail and learn, and have buy-in from top management backed by a solid governance structure.

“Innovation teams were created to turn innovation theory into practice, effectively helping financial organizations stay competitive. The intention behind this report is to explore the process of innovation, outline the essential components of building an innovation team and identify what we consider to be the top ingredients for high performing innovation teams,” Vandenreydt said.

The innovation experts interviewed for the report are part of a wider Innotribe Anchor Group, which represents a global network of fifty senior executives responsible for core innovation at their respective financial institutions. Launched in 2009, SWIFT Innotribe is about innovation and connecting people, networks and ideas.

Innotribe seeks to identify the emerging technologies and innovative trends surrounding the financial services industry and generate discussions on their potential impact moving forward. Innotribe provides a platform to the global financial community to understand the dynamics behind technology changes.