Fidelity Investments’ Richard Murphy discusses the work carried out by FCAT and the importance of considering what can be made real if you are curious and determined enough.
Richard Murphy is the vice-president and head of FCAT Europe at Fidelity Investments, where he oversees the company’s ‘innovation catalyst’, explores new frontiers, analyses societal shifts and tests emerging technologies. All as a means of redefining what is next for the financial sector “and beyond”.
Murphy told SiliconRepublic.com, “If we can predict the outcome, FCAT should not be involved. We work in the grey space. We work with the art of the possible. We pull together ideas. There’s a lot of creativity and imagination involved in what we do. We start small and it’s always about what could happen.”
He explained that the Fidelity Centre for Applied Technology, or as it is more commonly known FCAT, is Fidelity’s speculative innovation wing, where a small team pays particular attention to “what’s over the horizon”.
Murphy said, “So, we look at what could be possible rather than what’s already in place. That allows us to both identify an opportunity, experiment with that and then scale it out.”
The purpose, he explained, is to enable Fidelity to propel itself forward in a world that is under constant transformation, but that often means challenging how we address the processes we use today.
“That start-up mindset is very much a part of our DNA. There’s a lot of creativity and imagination involved in what we do, but we start small and it’s always about what could happen. It’s not about solving a clearly articulated problem. It’s identifying a new, often hazy, opportunity that might lead to the next big thing.”
The future is now
Creating the future can often mean putting in the work today. With that in mind Murphy, who holds a strong personal belief that innovation is a “contact sport”, explained that FCAT is highly active within Ireland’s start-up community.
Noting it isn’t just with start-ups, he said, “We also work very actively with academia. We work with other companies. We work across multiple different industries. And that’s about bringing together multiple parts of our ecosystem here in Ireland to help elevate the country and help elevate innovation in the region.”
And it is a diverse team that enables FCAT to create a cross-collaborative ecosystem of innovation.
Murphy said, “We hire everything from really, really deep-tech engineers, a lot of PhDs in areas like quantum computing and blockchain and so on, but also artists, a lot of design thinkers, a lot of human experience designers. And that friction that you get from different perspectives in the same conversation is a huge part of what we use to unlock opportunity.”
So, how do you innovate for a future in which the answers and sometimes even the questions being asked are unclear?
Murphy said, “Technology is always moving and it’s important that we don’t remain rigid, that we have our eye on what’s coming next all of the time. We have very much a learning mentality and we are very much about experimenting with what’s possible.”
This commitment to a mentality of curiosity, that challenges the status quo, is for Murphy a critical common trait often found in FCAT’s associates, who prioritise continuous learning and improvement.
“You can’t afford to stay still. That’s comfort. Asking ‘but why?’ and ‘why not?’ are important traits that we encourage everywhere in the firm. That ability to challenge the boundaries and push forward is encouraged.”
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