Monticello Joins Gartner Conversation on How to Align People and Machines to Gain an Edge

Operational excellence has always been a priority for Monticello, and we’re constantly looking to deepen our understanding of advancements in the financial sector. This week, we attended a Gartner webinar—part of their “Better Business Decisions” series—which revolved around automation, integration, and the relationship between the modern corporation and technology as a whole.

The financial services industry looks nothing like it did a year ago, and that’s something everyone can agree on; the extraordinary circumstances created by the coronavirus pandemic transformed the financial services landscape completely, simultaneously revealing long-standing inefficiencies and breeding intense innovation. Most people anticipated quarantine to correlate to a decline in productivity; these fears proved unsubstantiated. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth: rapid advancements in automation and technology have entirely redefined what productivity and efficiency look like.

The difficulty in implementing automation comes largely from figuring out where to draw the line. What can be automated? What should be? They aren’t easy questions to answer, and the process of trying to answer them can often look more like trial-and-error than anything else. The easiest way to understand what automation can do for a corporation lies in categorizing work into three broad classes: decision support, decision augmentation, and decision automation. Each relies on automation to a different extent, and requires human intervention accordingly. Nearly everything a corporation does falls under one of these categories, and can therefore be automated appropriately.

Perhaps the single greatest barrier to the widespread adoption of automation is the prevailing fear of displacement, and automation’s effect on an existing workforce. It’s a genuine ethical quandary—one corporations will need to address, in no uncertain terms, as we move further into the digital age. It’s in situations like these that the importance of corporate responsibility is thrown into sharp relief.

Beyond automation, however, are more general technological priorities; from enhancing client experience to creating a distributed cloud, technological advancement drives and defines the financial services industry. Ultimately, being smart about implementing technology—or, as Gartner would put it, “aligning people and machines to gain an edge”—is what distinguishes a great company from one that’s merely good.

Celebrating 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July! Wishing all our teammates, friends, colleagues, and fellow citizens a safe, enjoyable and relaxing long weekend ahead, where we can celebrate our country’s freedom! Independence and freedom is not given lightly, so we appreciate each freedom and right we have today in our great country.

Sponsoring Richmond Children's Community Swim team!

To kick off the summer heat, Monticello is pleased to support a local community based Swim team for children in Richmond, VA - The Ashland Barracudas! Enjoy keeping cool, exercising, and socializing together swimmers - keep up the great work!

The Economic Benefits of Latinx Immigration - ALPFA conference

As a minority-owned business, building a stronger understanding of diversity—and contributing meaningfully to the continued effort for equitable representation in the corporate world—is a cornerstone of Monticello’s philosophy. This week, we attended ALPFA webinar on the economic benefits of Latinx immigration. Here’s a little about what we learned.

What does the face of the American entrepreneur look like? In a country as teeming with diversity as ours, it’s a tough question to answer—but there’s a very real possibility that they look like a member of the Latinx community. If you’ve stopped by an establishment of any kind in the past week, there’s a one in five chance that it’s run by a Hispanic, Latino, or Latina business owner. Let that sink in: a community that represents around 18.5% of our national population accounts for a fifth of all businesses in the country. It’s a staggering figure that’s only compounded by the fact that members of the Latinx community are twice as likely to start businesses compared to the average American. Hispanic-Americans consistently contribute to the national economy in a way that far exceeds the proportion of the population they comprise.

This capacity for contribution extends well beyond entrepreneurship alone, and it’s crucial for major corporations to reflect the growing national profile of the Latinx community within their own rosters; attracting qualified Latinx applicants allows corporations to harness their unique insights and backgrounds. Whether it’s through hiring more employees from Hispanic-Serving Institutions, or actively encouraging Latinx engagement, there are intuitive, straightforward measures corporations can take to create diverse workplaces. In recent years, diversity initiatives may have moved away from race and ethnicity, but building a heterogenous community has never been more important than it is now—and it begins with empowering and enabling our Latinx community.

Monticello Joins the SIFMA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leadership Summit

The Monticello team attended the SIFMA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leadership Summit, including “The Cost of Inequity,” “A Conversation with Regulators,” and a “Congressional Discussion.” These events focused on how diversity and inclusion are imperative to the future of the industry and what actions firms can take to move in the right direction. From the root causes of inequity to the push coming from Millennials and Gen Z, these events tackled not only how important diversity is, but also the implications.

In “The Cost of Inequity,” Jamila Abston, Janie Mines, and Ellen Zentner discussed how firms are addressing studies showing inequities across gender and racial lines. The main areas of focus for these firms are sustainable investing, which is now focusing more on racial inequality and the wealth gap, and reducing the unemployment rate as much as possible, which ensures that even the most underserved populations are employed and have an income. It is also clear that the root causes need to be addressed to solve the gap, including access to education and levels of higher education.

Throughout the summit, participants discussed how the demographics of the country are changing and how the expectations of the majority are changing with it. Millennials and Gen Z are a much larger group than Baby Boomers. Therefore, leaving out these groups is not an option if we want to succeed as a nation. These generations want higher education, home ownership, and full-time employment. They demand diversity in their workplace and government, and will be looking for jobs and investing with this in mind. Gen Y and Z expect diversity and have the tools at their disposal to be aware of their environment and influence it.

Some agreed-upon best practices for firms, regulators, and governmental bodies included:

·        Make senior leadership positions available to a more diverse group of candidates, in order to start diversity at the top.

·        Be intentional about diversity. It is not sufficient to act “colorblind” when the root of the issue is not being addressed.

·        Ensure your practices to increase diversity are transparent to set an example in the field.

·        Establish a diversity office. It is difficult to back up a statement that your firm or government body is committed to diversity without full-time resources dedicated to it.

Firms, regulators, and governmental figures also agreed that the future of DEI will focus on:

·        Accountability for moving diversity forward within each firm, including diversity starting at the senior level and being implemented at all levels.

·        Congress and regulators taking on diversity as a main focus in order to meet the call of the younger generation and reflect the changing population.

·        The role of Congress in encouraging the private sector to prioritize diversity is to model best practices and ensure assets are going to support these causes, including awarding government contracts to minority-owned businesses.

High Water Women 2021 Virtual Backpack Drive!

Since the annual High Water Women Backpack Drive began in 2005, over 150,000 children in low-income neighborhoods have been able to start the school year with new backpacks ready to learn! Thanks to the amazing support of generous donors and volunteers, in 2020 HWW provided 6,700 school backpacks stuffed with age-appropriate school supplies to children in need in the New York City / Connecticut / New Jersey areas.  Again, this year’s mission is to provide backpacks to low income children- the HWW’s 2021 goal is to provide at least 10,000 backpacks to these children in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut!  Please join Monticello Consulting Group in helping this year’s HWW backpack drive, especially after over a year of COVID-interrupted schooling for these hard-working and deserving children: Backpack Drive | High Water Women

Celebrating Juneteenth 2021!

Monticello is delighted to celebrate Juneteenth - where we as a country celebrate the ending of slavery in the United States! While this historic date of June 19th, 1865 was over 150 years ago, we continue to look back at this important day as a turning point in our nation, and we look forward for continued growth, equality and justice for all in our society. Thank you to the trailblazers who fought and continue to fight for freedoms in our ever-evolving community!

Monticello Attends Design Thinking Through UVA Darden

The Monticello team strengthened their innovation mindset and learned research techniques to jumpstart their potential for new and inspired ideas. Throughout the journey, the team considered a spectrum of possibilities and used the best ideas to generate solutions to their business challenges. The Monticello team looks forward to applying the latest in design thinking and innovation strategies to solve complex problems across the financial services industry as we look to lead our clients successfully though their change management and digital transformation initiatives in 2021!

Juneteenth Forum: "Can Black and Brown Banks Compete in a Digital Economy?"

Monticello was privileged to join this important Virtual Event - “A Juneteenth Forum on the Future of Inclusion: Can Black and Brown Banks Compete in a Digital Economy?”-  Hosted by Black Economic Alliance with incredible participants including Rep. Maxine Waters, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. Mark Warner, FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams, Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu, and private sector voices including Ariel's John Rogers and Vista Equity's Robert Smith.  As a Hispanic-owned firm, we are certainly encouraged to be a part of the discussion and part of the diverse business community!

Over the course of the discussion on Black and Brown Bank’s competitive current positioning, topics such as the value of access of capital, the impact of these banks of COVID over the last year plus, the true digitization of our industry, regulatory compliance changes, as well as areas of gov’t support we’re seeing was eye-opening and encouraging at the same time. With better access to capital, expansion of the CDFI fund, and increased support of the private sector, the speakers are confident we will see positive changes in the near future!

Monticello Team Earns ScrumMaster Certification

The Monticello team attended the Certified ScrumMaster two day virtual workshop with David Bulkin and Grow-Lean.  We learned about Empiricism and Agile methods within the Scrum framework and discussed in detail the use of the daily scrum, sprint planning and sprint backlog.  One very interesting topic that we covered was facilitating group decision making.  As consultants, sometimes running very large programs with many team members, this is a valuable skill that will assist in making difficult choices.  As newly minted Certified ScrumMasters, our team looks forward to leveraging our learnings to support our clients and their digital transformation efforts!

Monticello Attends New PMI Organizational Transformation Foundation Course

The Monticello team completed PMI’s Organizational Transformation foundation course that included world-class research, case studies, articles, videos of industry experts and a 30-question final assessment. The course teaches project professionals the process of knowing and designing transformational change within an organization. As stated by PMI, organizational transformation begins where you recognize that change is necessary. The change should be holistic and sustainable and should improve performance, change mindsets and company culture. With digital transformation on the rise, Monticello is determined to stay ahead of the curve and help its clients achieve their vision of excellence through expertise in managing across people, operations and the latest technologies. We look forward to attending the soon to be released courses on Implementation and Orchestration in the PMI’s Organizational Transformation series.

Trickle Up Org Town Hall - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace

Monticello was honored to join this week’s Trickle Up Organization’s Town hall discussion on “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace.” We are also passionate as a firm on D&I and believe that the more we bring these efforts to the forefront of our core corporate culture, the more we will learn and grow together to bring forth improvement and empowerment. Thank you Trickle Up for hosting such a great event!

Celebrate Pride Month 2021!!

Monticello is delighted to kick off Pride Month 2021, where we celebrate and support the LGBTQ community! Diversity and Inclusion is key to our firm culture and the LGBTQ community is one where we celebrate continued empowerment and progress. Cheers to Pride Month 2021!

Honoring our Fallen Soldiers - Memorial Day 2021

Today, Monticello Consulting Group honors and remembers all of our brave military who gave their lives for our country’s freedom - the ultimate sacrifice. Wishing all of our team members, clients and friends a peaceful Memorial Day holiday today.

Monticello Joins NEXT 2021 Sessions on Leadership

The Monticello team attended the NEXT 2021 Conference, which has become an incubator for showcasing innovation, providing national perspective on important industry issues, and demonstrating how businesses and co-ops are embracing the future. Focusing on influential women in Banking and Payments, there were several panels of honorees to discuss their experience in the industry and how the events of the last year have changed the way they work. The takeaways across panels seemed to fall into a few categories:

Taking on new responsibilities at work may seem like a daunting challenge, but is a valuable learning experience

o   When you think you are able to take on something new, speak up and make sure your capabilities are known, especially when working remotely

o   If someone pushes new responsibilities that you do not have prior experience with, there are always other experiences you have that can be utilized

o   If you suggest something new and are told ‘no’ because the current model is “successful,” it might be time to reevaluate the success criteria

In the age of remote working, it is crucial to clearly define your work/life balance

o   With the loss of commute time, many people are losing productive alone time

o   May be helpful to mark the beginning and end of your work day with a different ritual, such as going for a walk or listening to a podcast

It is imperative to be able to discuss difficult issues at work that may not be historically “work-appropriate”

o   Sincerely check in with coworkers about how they are doing and what issues they face both in and out of the workplace

o   Diversity within the organization is the best way to ensure issues are discussed fairly

o   It is better to discuss issues and say the wrong thing than not discuss issues at all

As we move forward, it is important to take the lessons we have learned in the past year with us. Whether working remotely or in-person, the events of the last year can help provide a guide to a better, more supportive workplace.

Team Weekend Social!

This weekend several members of the Monticello team got together to enjoy a day on the links. It was great to see everyone in person on this beautiful afternoon as we were able to catch up on family, sports, food and everything in between! Thanks to the team for making the trip from NYC to NJ and we are looking forward to a number of great social events this summer.

Monticello Joins Darden Conversation on Accelerating Digital Fluency

Monticello’s Digital Transformation team joined in on the Darden School of Business webinar - The Digital Executive: Accelerating Your Digital Fluency to Drive Transformation, hosted by Professors Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Raj Venkatesan. Digital Transformation means many things to many people!  It can be small or large.  It changes your business in terms of the use of technology and data. Digital is widespread, it is everywhere,  and it is not just one function.  

We talked about mapping your digital transformation strategy and taking a framework based approach: 

• Strategy – How do we use data analytics to transform the business?

• Functions – How do we use data analytics in business processes?

• Technology – How do we analyze data?

• Infrastructure – How do we organize data?

As consultants working across the financial services industry, we particularly appreciated this holistic approach to digital transformation and building out the digital transformation stack - a great approach that we can leverage with our clients on their digital transformation initiatives. Lastly, we revisited agility at scale and the need to leverage a design thinking culture and perhaps most importantly - celebrating our successes!

Monticello Celebrates Cinco De Mayo

Consultants from Monticello’s virtual NY office celebrated Cinco de Mayo with a fun gathering this Wednesday. The team enjoyed some food, fun and entertaining conversation led by our host Rebecca Smith! The day commemorates the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862. where the forces of freedom and democracy, embodied in the Mexican army, beat back the French forces. The Monticello team enjoyed learning more about the history and geography of Mexico while indulging and discussing our favorite foods and future vacation plans in the region. Cheers to another great team event!

Monticello's Change Management Team Joins Discussion on Key Performance Indicators

Monticello Consulting Group’s Change Management team joined Gartner’s discussion on How to Accelerate Digital Business by Recalibrating Your Key Performance Indicators. As enterprises look past the pandemic, many are shifting their focus from cost cutting to accelerating their digital business initiatives. The best KPIs focus on important business outcomes and digital business KPIs measure the level of progress in becoming a digital business. In these times of accelerating change it is critical for our customers to stay on top of their data and metrics to successfully deliver on their digital transformation strategies.

Supporting Komera Org - Reaching for Reconciliation Virtual Event

Today’s Komera Org virtual event - “Reaching for Reconciliation” was enlightening and impactful - genocide survivor and activist Consolee Nishimwe shared her story alongside Adam Strom, whose focus on inclusion, migration, and acceptance was powerful to take in on a Wednesday afternoon! Thank you for sharing your stories and thank you to the Komera Organization who continues to uplift the community through their fantastic educational programs provided for girls in Africa.