Embrace change, take risks, and disrupt yourself
Hosted by top 5 banking and fintech influencer, Jim Marous, Banking Transformed highlights the challenges facing the banking industry. Featuring some of the top minds in business, this podcast explores how financial institutions can prepare for the future of banking.
Connecting the Dots Between Data, Analytics, and Customer Engagement
Many banks focus on the technology needed to digitally transform their organization. But technology is only part of the equation. To be successful, leadership must manage internal and external expectations to improve both employee and customer expectations.
Being named one of the most powerful women in banking several times, Amy Brady, the CIO of KeyBank, has leveraged her extensive career to build innovative solutions and end-to-end digital experiences at a time of massive change, increasing competition and unique challenges.
We are very fortunate to have Amy Brady of KeyBank on the Banking Transformed podcast. Amy discusses how she manages more than 5,000 individuals cohesively, competing against much larger financial institutions and more nimble tech organizations.
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Speakers: Jim Marous & Amy Brady
[Music Playing]
Jim Marous (00:02):
Hello, and welcome to Banking Transformed, the top podcast in retail banking. I'm your host, Jim Marous, owner and CEO of the Digital Bank Report and co-publisher of The Financial Brand.
Jim Marous (00:23):
Many banks focus on the technology needed to transform their organization, but technology is only part of the equation. To be successful, leadership needs to manage internal and external expectations to improve both employee and customer experiences.
Jim Marous (00:44):
Being named one of the most powerful women in banking several times, Amy Brady, the CIO of KeyBank, must leverage her extensive career in banking to build innovative solutions, and end-to-end digital experiences that set themselves apart from other organizations that they compete with.
Jim Marous (01:01):
We are very fortunate to have Amy Brady of KeyBank on this show. Amy discusses how she manages more than 5,000 individuals cohesively, competing against much larger financial institutions and some, more nimble FinTech organizations.
Jim Marous (01:16):
So, welcome to the show, Amy. I am so happy to have you in the Banking Transformed show today. Not only because you're one of the foremost leaders in retail banking, but also, because you're a fellow Clevelander.
Jim Marous (01:28):
Many people recognize you as the woman behind the digital transformation journey at KeyBank for the past decade, or maybe as the executive who managed massive technological advancements previously at Bank of America.
Jim Marous (01:41):
But few realize that your education was in music and psychology. Now, how did that personal transformation happen?
Amy Brady (01:49):
That's an interesting way to start, Jim. And thank you for having me. I was fortunate enough to come out of college at a time where liberal arts degrees were highly valued. And by the way, I think that’s starting to shift and come back around again too.
Amy Brady (02:05):
So, yes, I do have a voice degree. It paid my way through school which was a very needed thing for me and my family at the time.
Amy Brady (02:14):
And then I coupled that with psychology. Now, some would say, how does that relate to banking? I did take accounting and economics and some really good business courses along the way, and did business internships.
Amy Brady (02:26):
But then, I was able to join then NCNB, which became Nations Bank, which became Bank of America. And at the time, we were really looking for, at that time, liberal arts educated graduates who could come in and learn the business of banking.
Amy Brady (02:42):
And so, we had a wonderful training program that taught commercial spreading and financial spreading and credit scoring for consumers, and really doing the basics of banking, which I am so thankful for today because it truly, it built my roots.
Amy Brady (03:00):
But look, music's very analytical, so you have to be pretty analytical to have a music degree. And look, I use my psychology degree every single day.
Jim Marous (03:09):
I bet you do. Yeah, it’s interesting because you said it's almost coming back now that instead of retraining somebody into what you'd like them to be able to focus on, sometimes it is better to say, you know what, I want somebody who has a broader knowledge of the world and work from there.
Jim Marous (03:27):
So, KeyBank is thought of as being a … and I know your mission is to make KeyBank an insight-led organization. Why is that so important for consumers, and how's that different today than it was maybe 2, 5 or even 10 years ago?
Amy Brady (03:44):
You know, it's really interesting. I think banking has always been insights-driven. I mean, if you think about going back to the credit analytics and risk analytics, I mean, every good strong financial institution is built on really competent analytics and insights specific to those areas, and market risk. So, those are really strong competencies.
Amy Brady (04:08):
What has evolved over the years tremendously is as customer and consumer demands — and by the way, it's starting to move post-pandemic. I think it's really moved into the commercial middle market, small business spaces as well, is this demand for elegant digital experiences.
Amy Brady (04:28):
And with that, you could make a pretty app, but if you don't power it with insights, it's not going to deliver time and time again the experience that our customers are demanding.
Amy Brady (04:43):
So, we have to take that competency that we all have around credit analytics as an example, or financial analytics, and turn it into client analytics and insights that is meaningful to each of our clients in a one-to-one basis.
Amy Brady (04:57):
That's truly evolved. I think we've always wanted to do that. We are data-rich organizations, but the demand and the acknowledgement that to really create elegant, seamless, frictionless experiences for our clients has to be powered by insights.
Jim Marous (05:16):
You know, it’s interesting, while many financial institutions talk about using data to build better experiences, recent research by our organization, The Digital Banking Report and The Financial Brand showed only about 25% of organizations globally, consider themselves to be adept at using basic insights to drive better customer experiences and product recommendations.
Jim Marous (05:40):
Why is building a strong data and analytic foundation so damn hard?
Amy Brady (05:46):
It is hard. It is hard. And I wouldn't give us an A+ grade yet. I give us an A+ grade for being on the journey and for recognizing to your point, how challenging it is and how transformational it can be.
Amy Brady (06:02):
It required people and process change, which the technology's the simple part. But the people and the cultural change and the process changes to really enable the insights to be delivered in a way that are actionable either by our frontline employees who are facing off with our clients’ day in and day out, or our contact center agents who are helping our employees with thousands and thousands of calls, or delivering it right to the client during their journey and their experience and self-service.
Amy Brady (06:35):
That's the secret sauce that's hard. And it does take all of those things, people, process, tech, analytics — all coming together in a cross-functional way to truly start with what the client is wanting and then working all the way end-to-end through our processes.
Amy Brady (06:53):
I think that's the other thing that's been a real shift for financial services. And we've tried this over the years. I've been doing this a long time, but truly getting to the digital end-to-end experience.
Amy Brady (07:05):
How do we make it seamless all the way through so that it's easy for the client, it's easy for the sales and service associates, and then it's easy for the middle and back office. Though you need insights along the way in that journey the whole way through.
Jim Marous (07:22):
Well, it's interesting because you've been quoted many times as saying that while in the past, this was much more around finding the right technologies. Today, it's much broader than that, much more dynamic than that.
Jim Marous (07:36):
It's obviously no small task. You manage 5,000 people at KeyBank around this mission of building a better customer experience as well as supplying better reports to the financial institution itself.
Jim Marous (07:47):
How do you keep pace and how do you determine what you want to prioritize as you try to leverage this vast amount of data towards a more universal application?
Amy Brady (07:59):
So, for a financial institution like Key that provides everything from debit cards to derivatives, and serves every client segment from consumer to the most complex corporate, the prioritization probably is the number one challenge.
Amy Brady (08:15):
And how do you work with your business partners to truly enable the business strategies and the client outcomes. So, that's number one. You have to be fully aligned. And I think we've talked about that for decades, that tech and business and process and all these things, have to be aligned.
Amy Brady (08:33):
And it kind of goes back to where we started, Jim. I think the secret sauce is being able to bring cross-functional teams together to prioritize against an outcome. And when you do that, magic happens.
Amy Brady (08:47):
But you have to have to have different points of view and different experiences, and different skill sets working together to deliver those experiences for our clients that will add that extra value.
Amy Brady (08:59):
And again, I would say if you're taking technology that's looking for a solution, you're looking at it the wrong way. You have to say what is the solution we're trying to create? And then what is the best technology and or tools to enable that to happen?
Amy Brady (09:19):
And oftentimes, it's not something new, it's combining technologies you probably already have or making them work more efficiently together to create those solutions. So, it's a lot of problem-solving, which great engineers love.
Amy Brady (09:39):
And you put cross-functional, diverse teams together and they can truly innovate. That is one thing I've learned in my career.
Jim Marous (09:45):
So, what is the major challenge today in doing what you just said? I mean, again, we put those buzzwords out there and we talk about what we're trying to achieve. What do you find as being the biggest challenge today as you're along your journey trying to make the customer experience as well as the employee experience better?
Amy Brady (10:05):
Yeah, two things come top of mind to me when I get asked that question. Number one is the pace of change. I think banks have always been innovators when it comes to using technology.
Amy Brady (10:18):
I mean, think about it, banks invented ATM machines, banks invented credit cards, banks invented online banking. I mean, banks have always been/financial institutions have always been innovative.
Amy Brady (10:30):
But what has significantly changed is you would put a technology in before and it would last decades. Now, we're putting technologies in, and they have a lifespan of three to five years. And you've got to constantly be gauging when is the right time to switch, when is the right time to upgrade.
Amy Brady (10:47):
So, pace of change and how can your employees and your customers absorb that change in a way that's not disruptive, but it's enabling and enhancing. So, number one, that would be something that I think is a real challenge for all of us.
Amy Brady (11:03):
And then number two, this leads to, it's the people aspect of things. One, do you have the right talent? Are you building the talent to be able to execute against these new capabilities?
Amy Brady (11:17):
But too, you cannot underestimate … everyone wants to point in a different direction and say they need to change, but then when it comes to the natural human being, we all hate change.
Jim Marous (11:29):
Oh, God, yes.
Amy Brady (11:30):
I absolutely hate it when Apple tells me I have to update my software or my platform here because I have to learn something and something changes. Or when Microsoft sends out a big update to Microsoft 365, I hate that. I'm like, my icon's moved.
Amy Brady (11:48):
So, I mean, that's just human nature. Those are simple examples, but we have to remember that as financial institutions as well. So, I think don't underestimate the people side of things. And just from a technological perspective, the pace of change and innovation with technology is faster than it's ever been.
Jim Marous (12:07):
That’s interesting. As we look at different organizations and have these interviews with market leaders and banking and FinTech firms, you're right, the pace of change is really … it's a competitive advantage if you can do that.
Jim Marous (12:22):
But banking used to have annual or biannual advancements. They'd say we want to improve our digital banking experience and we're going to put that on the plan for next year.
Jim Marous (12:33):
We no longer have that luxury, and we have to build partnerships in the industry to say, how do we make that a quarterly innovative movement? Or how do we iterate down the line.
Jim Marous (12:43):
As you're trying to — because your data that you're working with, really not only works on the external fact, but within internal operations as well. How do you try to modernize the back office to improve the top of glass experience?
Amy Brady (13:00):
Yeah, I think you have to be thinking about your technology in layers because the foundational kind of core systems that some of us have been running for longer than I've been in the industry, that are the core banking. Whether it's your deposit system, your loan servicing system, your core assets — they have to be modernized over time.
Amy Brady (13:23):
And we've been on a progressive transformation to constantly be modernizing our platforms so that those platforms can then absorb the demands of the client. When do you go to real-time posting?
Amy Brady (13:37):
Right now, we still have a batch system for deposits, but our clients want to know real-time what their balance is and what's available to them. Makes sense, right? But all of those changes of what's being demanded on the front end have to match your entire stack.
Amy Brady (13:54):
It's one of the reasons that we started our cloud journey back in 2015 with Google and really started to containerize our critical client-facing applications so that we could introduce more change more rapidly.
Amy Brady (14:09):
And now, we're accelerating that journey to the cloud so that we can be more responsive, that we can use the native analytics tools and capabilities that Google would give to us, that quite frankly, it would take us decades to build. But by leveraging their tools with our data, we can then really deliver some insights in a different way that we believe will be very powerful.
Amy Brady (14:33):
The other example I would give you is we introduced MyKey if you will, our virtual agent, and it works on our more mobile app for our clients. And we’re seeing incredible adoption and usage there, being able to navigate the app.
Amy Brady (14:53):
And then if you do need to actually speak to an agent, a really seamless transfer to our agents. And when it gets to our agents, we're now seeing the call times and the resolution times much faster because our agents know Jim's coming in with this issue and we can join the conversation right where the client is.
Amy Brady (15:15):
That's great artificial intelligence, great data, all being leveraged to make that client experience better and the employee experience better, because they don't have to start at ground zero with you, and it's a win-win all around.
Amy Brady (15:30):
So, those types of capabilities are all being made easier, faster for us by partnering with Google as an example.
Jim Marous (15:41):
Well, it's interesting because you look at what your role was at Bank of America, and I would imagine that a lot of it had to do with technology and also, had to do with cost savings.
Jim Marous (15:51):
You know, we're moving now as an industry, probably not away from, but we're balancing cost savings with customer experiences, which is a different dynamic for banking as a whole. We're trying to get a little bit of both.
Jim Marous (16:04):
But the reality is that customers are making their decisions every day based on how are you going to make the experience better? How are you going to save me time? And even more important now, how are you going to keep me engaged with you?
Jim Marous (16:17):
We've often talked about the importance of moving from customer experience to building better engagement. You just brought up a great example with MyKey. That creates recommendations, loyalty, and revenue overall for financial institutions, such as Key.
Jim Marous (16:33):
How do you build now, how do you move from just experiences which should become more of a customer satisfaction rating, to really trying to build more engagement at a time when a consumer can make their next decision as to who to do next level banking with just by click of a button as opposed to doing it with you?
Amy Brady (16:52):
And that’s a challenge for all of us as certain FinTechs will go after a niche opportunity, and then try to solve that pain point, if you will, for the client in an easy way. And the client goes through that FinTech and then comes into a financial institution.
Amy Brady (17:13):
We, as financial institutions need to do a better job of keeping you in our environment. And again, by providing that value while you're in our application, what alerting can we tell you about.
Amy Brady (17:24):
Here's real time; tis this season for fraud. What's old is new and what's new is old again, but this is always the time of year where fraudsters like to prey on consumers. We have to, as financial institutions, leverage the data that we have, the insights that we can provide to protect our clients.
Amy Brady (17:46):
And we are doing that real time now with alerting and preventing transactions from happening, and working with our clients to let them know that there's something out there that is not in their best interest.
Amy Brady (18:01):
That's real examples of being able to create the right client experience. I could stop all fraud by locking down the financial institution. That wouldn't be a great client experience, but how do I enable the clients to go about their business and protect them at the same time? That's all analytics-driven.
Amy Brady (18:24):
It's 1000% analytics-driven, but then delivered through the channel of choice for our clients. And that's a timely example because it's happening as we speak.
Amy Brady (18:36):
The other thing I would just comment on Jim, in my role and my peers, I know we all feel this dual mandate. We have to digitize our enterprises and make them easier for the client and create those journeys.
Amy Brady (18:50):
At the same time, those processes need to be efficient. So, delivering year over year productivity, effective, meeting the needs and the demands of the client or the segment, or whatever the process might be, and compliant and secure.
Amy Brady (19:11):
So, there's no “or” anymore in those statements. It's and, and, and. And so, we feel that yes, there's no doubt all of us as institutions are spending more in investing more in technology. And we see that value. We're no longer just the expense item, but we clearly are charged with how do you do things more efficiently.
Amy Brady (19:34):
And one of the ways you do that, is you do use your myriad of automation tools that are available to you to automate the back and middle office of the processes, to take out expense so you can reinvest where your institution feels it's most beneficial.
Jim Marous (19:52):
You know it's interesting, there's been a lot of discussions recently around democratizing data and insights for the deployment across the entire organization.
Jim Marous (20:01):
So, while your role may have been to support back-office processes in the past, or to support risk and fraud or areas, or maybe even to provide great reports across the organization, now it has to do with how can I make it so the customer knows I know them, as opposed to simply me knowing them?
Jim Marous (20:20):
I often talk about the fact that if I went to my primary bank and asked them what they knew about me, it would just be much more than I ever would've imagined. However, they don't do a really good job many times in letting me know that they know me and that they're working on my behalf.
Jim Marous (20:35):
So, how is the democratization of data best done and how do you move from providing simply insights for monitoring success to having customers know that you know them?
Amy Brady (20:47):
Yeah, and it's a fine line, because we do know a lot about our clients and we need to use and respect the data that we have about our clients to use in a way that's benefit to them.
Amy Brady (21:00):
And so, to your point, they feel known, they feel valued, they feel understood, and they don't have to repeat everything with us time and time again. And again, I'd say we're on a journey. I wish I could declare victory and that we were the best at it, but I-
Jim Marous (21:17):
The Victory's never going to come though, it’s a moving target, isn't it?
Amy Brady (21:20):
That's right. Well, it is because expectations are changing and whatever your favorite app is, that's what you expect from your bank. And so, somebody's always ahead of us in that regard.
Amy Brady (21:33):
The other thing is, as you do push the data out into the hands of an insight. So, you want to put the data and the analytics closest to the customer as you can at the same time, making sure we're adding real value.
Amy Brady (21:46):
Because there's a cost to all of that as well. So, you have to balance that. And I think we have to make sure that we are offering clients the next best product or service that truly is for them. And when you do that time and time again, then the client begins to say, wait a second, I can have a digital relationship.
Amy Brady (22:11):
And that's a shift for banks. The old-time banker in me who spent the first 12 years of my career out on the line says, relationships are built person to person. That's true and it still exists. We see it every day. Our great relationship managers, our branches, our contact centers, they are the face of the institution.
Amy Brady (22:34):
There are a lot of clients, however, that will build a digital relationship with you. And I hate to use the example, but Amazon has built a relationship with a lot of people by getting to know your habits.
Amy Brady (22:48):
We, as financial institutions need to be doing the same with our clients. And the other thing I think we are … and I'm very excited about this, is probably one of my things I'm most excited about in 2023 for Key.
Amy Brady (23:00):
I truly feel like we are on the verge of finally being able to follow our customers through the multichannel and meet them where they are in their journeys.
Amy Brady (23:11):
No one client uses one channel at a financial institution. They use the branch, they use a relationship manager, they use an app, they use the ATM, they use the contact center.
Jim Marous (23:24):
And they don't use it in the same order for every challenge they have, which makes it so that every instance is going to be unique in its own way.
Amy Brady (23:35):
Every journey is unique. And so, how do you build those in a way that they feel unique and special to each client, at the same time, are efficient and effective so that we can deliver that experience and still remain competitive.
Jim Marous (23:53):
So, let's take a short break here and recognize the sponsor of this podcast.
[Music Playing]
Jim Marous (24:00):
Welcome back. I am joined today by Amy Brady, CIO of KeyBank. Amy and I have been discussing the digital transformation journey at KeyBank, as well as the importance of data, insights and personalizations as a competitive weapon.
Jim Marous (24:14):
So, Amy, before the break, we were discussing the importance of democratizing data and empowering employees with the tools to improve both experiences and engagement.
Jim Marous (24:25):
But to many employees, you're kind of like the enemy because many think that the technology and the data could replace them.
Jim Marous (24:33):
How do you communicate to employees that have been longtime employees at KeyBank, how they fit into the overall model as you're communicating what you're doing from a digital transformation process?
Amy Brady (24:46):
Jim, that's a terrific question, and you're right. Technology can really threaten individuals and their roles.
Amy Brady (24:53):
My personal opinion is you need to be upfront, honest, and engaging with all of your constituents, which includes your employees. And you need to tell them what's happening and give them an opportunity to opt in and prepare for these changes.
Amy Brady (25:08):
And so, we have launched a program here at Key called Future Ready, and we launched it about five years ago. And the intent was I could see the automation coming, and I felt very responsible to help prepare not only our technologists who needed to learn how to use some of these new technologies — we needed more engineers, quite frankly.
Amy Brady (25:28):
But also, our operations teammates who may be in areas where their roles were going to evolve. So, I was very upfront and said, if you're truly going to digitize an enterprise, the ultimate goal is to not need any human beings other than your client facing where the client's demanding that interaction.
Amy Brady (25:46):
Now, that won't happen in my career, it won't happen in my lifetime. But what I was trying to set the tone for is, it's all of our responsibilities to create the change, embrace the change, and make the change happen. And so, it might be we only automate certain tasks of a role, but then the role can be transformed. And so, we have to be prepared for that adjustment.
Amy Brady (26:10):
And I think as you give your employees time to engage and you say, “Hey, we're going to need less of these roles and more of these types of roles, and here's the path if you would like to gain those skills” — you see people more willing to not be afraid of the technology, but embrace it and actually look for opportunities to apply the technologies to create solutions.
Amy Brady (26:33):
Your employees, whether they're in loan servicing or collections or lockboxed, they know the pain points of those processes. And so, if you can engage them to say, “Here are the automation tools available to you to help remove those mundane tasks,” they will ultimately, embrace it if you make it safe for them to do so.
Jim Marous (26:58):
You know, it's interesting; one of the things you said very early in our discussion was how painful change is. We all know that. It's a human nature that we don't want to change what we already know. And especially, when you're kind of good at it, whatever you're good at.
Jim Marous (27:14):
You’re a legacy banker with decades of experience, how do you balance the experience you've acquired through the years with the need to embrace change, take risks, and possibly, go beyond your comfort zone in a digital world?
Amy Brady (27:29):
I hope as a leader, I am making myself an example and being vulnerable. Because I often say, what made me successful five years ago or what makes me successful today, will not be what allows me to be successful five years from now.
Amy Brady (27:46):
So, I think that your learning agility is probably the most critical skill we all need to be successful and have a long-term career in financial services because things are changing. And you do have to embrace that.
Amy Brady (28:03):
I also think no matter where you are in your career, you have to surround yourself with people who have different skills than you. People who don't look like you, think like you, act like you, or have the same experiences.
Amy Brady (28:17):
And if you create those teams and those safe environments, they will challenge you to learn. Because I can tell you, everyone on my team is better at their job individually than I ever would be at doing their job. But bringing us together, they challenge me to be better and to learn.
Amy Brady (28:33):
I think if we're all intellectually honest, you have to look yourself in the mirror once in a while and say, are you being resistant because you've seen things over the past few decades? Or are you applying some of those learnings, which are important?
Amy Brady (28:48):
We don't want to lose the fact that we are financial institutions, and we manage risk for our clients every single day. We have to bring that experience forward because we are in a regulated industry and there's a lot of risk in what we do, and balance the innovation that's happening.
Amy Brady (29:07):
Here's a great example; we just launched a developer portal at Money20/20 for our commercial clients, for our embedded banking, embedded payment strategy. Extremely proud of the technology team that built that portal so that developers can come in and develop against our APIs to integrate into their software.
Amy Brady (29:30):
Great example of innovation working with our payments teams because they saw this trend that is absolutely growing in an exponential way. And how do we engage in a way that makes it easier for those companies to interact with us?
Amy Brady (29:46):
If you had said I would launch a developer portal that way five years ago, I would've said, “You're crazy, Jim.”
Jim Marous (29:53):
You could give 20 examples of why you'd say no, and maybe one why you'd say yes. Exactly.
Amy Brady (29:59):
Exactly. And security being the number one. So, you have to be able to think about, well, not if, it's how — how do you bring the solution to bear in a safe, secure, compliant, efficient way that is modern.
Amy Brady (30:18):
And in this case, now, we're building something to sell to engineers, which we've never sold to engineers before. So, that's a great example of being innovative and having to look at things differently.
Jim Marous (30:32):
You know, it's interesting. One thing that also works against all financial institutions is that we're not losing money. It's hard to make change when success is all around us in many ways, even though we're fearful of things.
Jim Marous (30:45):
The reality is we're all making money. And what's interesting, you talk about surrounding yourself with people that are different than you, but also, who also have the desire to embrace change.
Jim Marous (30:55):
And I can speak from my own personal knowledge, the fact that KeyBank has been very fortunate over the last couple of decades to have leaders that really walk the walk. They really do embrace change. They do take on new risks far beyond.
Jim Marous (31:12):
I said this to your chairman during an interview we had — you punch above your weight. And that is because you allow the thinking that it's outside the norm, and that really can shut you down.
Jim Marous (31:25):
I mean, you've been at KeyBank for a decade now. You would not have been there if it wasn't an encouraging environment. You made a big change from Bank of America to KeyBank. You could have easily made a change right after that if it wasn't what you wanted to do.
Jim Marous (31:38):
So, it's interesting when you look at how hard it is sometimes, as you said, to look in the mirror and keep that mindset.
Jim Marous (31:46):
So, Amy, as we get to the end of this conversation, what keeps you up at night?
Amy Brady (31:50):
I think obviously, top of mind for all of us is security and fraud. I mean, that is always something that is ever-present. The next threat vector is right around the corner, and you don't know what it is. And talk about having to respond with speed and agility, that's the number one area. And so, that's an easy one to say.
Amy Brady (32:14):
I would go back to talent and our people; making sure that we have the people at Key, both in our engineering disciplines and our process architectures partnering with our businesses, but that we are building the talent and analytics that is required for the model moving forward, while respecting the journey people are on.
Amy Brady (32:38):
Because when it all comes down to it, it's still a people business, both the employees and our clients. So, I worry about our people because the pace of change, it's relentless.
Amy Brady (32:51):
And we have to be able to respond very quickly to market changes. And while we may be in a cycle right now that is positive, we've all been through lots of cycles and you have to be prepared for the next one. So, I would say it's about the people.
Jim Marous (33:08):
And finally, on those dreary Cleveland mornings, what trends or changes in the industry get you up in the morning? That make you excited about going to work the next day? What really is making you excited about the future?
Amy Brady (33:24):
Well, number one, I care about this industry, and I care about Key. I mean, I think financial services, we've been through our ups and downs over the 30 plus years I've been in the industry. But this industry is critically important, in my opinion, to the United States and to our future.
Amy Brady (33:41):
And so, protecting that is really important. And so, we have to evolve, and we are evolving. And I think that's really critical. And I get excited about the solutions. I get excited about the fact that we are trying to make it easier.
Amy Brady (33:57):
And finally, I would say I get excited at Key because of our purpose. Our purpose is to help our clients and communities thrive. And at our core, that's what gets me going every day, is we come in and we make a difference. We make a difference to help our employees thrive, and we make a difference then delivering for our clients.
Amy Brady (34:18):
No matter where they are in the continuum, money matters to them at their point of life or business cycle or journey. And we have to be there to make that difference and make those moments matter to our clients. And that's what ultimately gets me up every day.
Jim Marous (34:38):
You know, it's interesting, the job is never done. Amy, thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Jim Marous (34:43):
One thing I will say, as I mentioned before we got on the air, I have followed you for a number of years. And while you're the multi-time recipient of the Most Powerful Woman in Banking Award, you're really one of the most powerful executives in banking, gender non-related.
Jim Marous (35:01):
I think that your perspective on the industry, what you're doing at KeyBank, but even more so, the way you support the industry with your thought process and with your sharing really sets you apart from a lot of your peers. So, thank you so much for being on the show today.
Amy Brady (35:15):
Thank you, Jim, for having me.
[Music Playing]
Jim Marous (35:19):
Thanks for listening to Banking Transformed, rated as a top five podcast and winner of three international awards for podcast excellence.
Jim Marous (35:26):
We appreciate the support you've provided us over the years, and we hope you can give our show a five-star rating in your favorite podcast app.
Jim Marous (35:35):
Finally, be sure to catch my articles on the Financial Brand and the research we're doing on the Digital Bank Report.
Jim Marous (35:42):
This has been a production of Evergreen Podcasts. A special thank you to our senior producer, Leah Haslage, audio engineer, Sean Rule-Hoffman, and video producer, Will Pritts.
Jim Marous (35:51):
I'm your host, Jim Marous. Remember, digital transformation to scale requires intentional, thoughtful planning, combined with innovative thinking.
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