You know this is a digital revolution, right?

Nucleus technical communications manager Terry Huddart had never heard of a ‘smartphone’ ten years ago. How times have changed...

There has been a fair amount of talk recently about savvy IFAs harnessing technology and social media to enhance their business models. And there have also been some pretty unequivocal views along the lines of ‘those who fail to adapt are simply not going to survive’.

Millennium bug

Regardless of your viewpoint on how essential technology adoption is to even remain in business, never mind thrive, there can’t be any doubt that we are living in exponential times. The typical IFA business model only ten years ago was very different to what it is today.

For those of us who are perhaps at an age where ten years doesn’t seem that long ago, as a reminder the millennium bug fears were a fading memory (remember Y2K?), the horror of the twin towers attacks had just sent a seismic shift through the global social and political landscape, the first Harry Potter film had just been released and ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ by Kylie was one of the year’s biggest hits.

The quality of music topping the charts might not have improved, but the way IFAs are doing business most certainly has. In 2001, not many IFAs were using smartphones or tablets to keep constantly connected to the internet and their office network or routinely interacting with clients and their peers via social media – and it was only in 2002 that Blackberry really started the mobile email transformation.

Ten years ago IFAs were not widely using platforms as a core element of their business model; Transact had just started the wrap revolution and the level of assets on platforms then £10bn – dwarfed by today’s £160bn and predictions of £400bn – £500bn by 2015.

Awareness

I often wonder if the term ‘industrial revolution’ existed in the consciousness of our ancestors who lived through it. I suspect that the average man and woman who lived in 18th and 19th century Britain were simply doing what they had to do to get by and working much longer and harder in the process than we do today. Now, we have many privileges in relation to our forebears; better healthcare, longer life expectancy and more access to information.