‘It’s complicated’ is the world’s most frequently given non-answer.

Why is your friend no longer talking to you? It’s complicated.

Why have you not sorted out your pension pots yet? It’s complicated.

Why are you still on a system from the 70s? It’s complicated.

Invariably, it means ‘leave me alone, I don’t want to talk about it’.

It is a stand-in for: there are a lot of cost, risk and talent considerations at play. I would have to confront mistakes of the past or gaps in my knowledge and understanding. Difficult conversations would need to be had. Risks would need to be taken. I neither want to do all this or talk about it, so… yeah… it’s complicated.

And although ‘it’s complicated’ is an absolute cop-out of an answer, it is also true.

Life is complicated.

Business is complicated.

But dealing with complexity is what we do at work. It’s part of the job. For many of us, it’s the entire job.

Complexity is a given in FS. And if you do things right, all you have is more and more complexity.

Success creates complexity.

Longevity creates complexity.

Scale creates complexity.

But that complexity also creates options.

To quote Simonetta Rigo: “Scale creates the obligation and gives the permission to set bold goals.” Complexity be damned.

So why don’t we?

Well.

Because it’s complicated.

At Objectway’s recent client event in Sorrento, Italy, FT Longitude’s Hannah Freegard presented recent research on their scalability index. That’s right: this is now measurable, against client outcomes, productivity, speed. All the things that matter.

All the things we have been talking about for a while.

What the research found is that organisations that have spent the time to create structurally robust, data-centric foundations show 15% higher profitability than those who didn’t do the work.

15%.

That’s enough to make or break a year, all things being equal. And I believe that number will only keep growing. That’s me talking, not the report. What the report had to say, in short, is that in the wealth space in particular (but not exclusively), client experience is the battleground.

But if you show up to fight without the right foundations, you will lose.

Automation, repeatability and reduced complexity is where the uplift is realised. If you thought ‘boring’ when you read that, then you are not in the leader category, my friend.

If you are one of the millions of decision-makers who looked at onboarding, declared it a Hairy Beast and left it for the next guy to solve, you are not in the leader category.

The report talks about tech debt as a topic we no longer shy away from. A topic whose avoidance comes at a cost. And that bill has come due because we can quantify and measure the impact of the feet that were dragged over the last few years.

In fact, onboarding (the Hairy Beast) features heavily in the report.

I have shouted myself hoarse over the years trying to create a sense of urgency around the operational uplift needed in order to be able to have a chance at speedy responsiveness in the years to come.

And this research shines a bright light on the simple fact that I was right.

I love being right.

So: creating agility in your organisation was never its own reward. It was meant to enable you to participate in and make the most of the rapid tech evolution of the digital economy. Hence, those organisations who did the work now have the ability to harness AI to create differentiated business benefits. The laggards, meanwhile, are trying to use it to reduce manual work and relieve near-term pressures.

Understandable? Yes.

Avoidable? Also yes.

AI only helps amplify scale when the foundations are solid.

If your foundations are not solid because you have a hodgepodge of infrastructure choices made by different CIOs and systems from the early 70s, AI will simply stress-test your infrastructure.

So.

Forgive me if I don’t want to hear about your innovation efforts.

Innovation was never the exam question.

Growth without added complexity and profitable scale were always the questions. Innovation was how we tried to navigate the contextual changes. And it matters. But it is not where we fall short as an industry.

And look, yes, sure: credit where credit is due… we’ve actually been pretty good at innovating. Creative solutions and an enthusiastic engagement of new technology are very much part of our lives now in a way that simply wasn’t there when I started my career, and for that I am very happy. Well done us.

That doesn’t change the fact that all the things we haven’t done, the things we haven’t gotten good at or comfortable with, still need to get done. And with every passing year, there is more technology for us to create around and enthusiastically engage with, changing demographics among our clients and our employees, changing behaviours and changing regulation.

In short, when it comes to complexity, the only way is up, baby.

And how you show up in this complexity matters in ways that are urgent.

The AI-powered user feels like they can DIY their way through life with their new trusted sidekick. How you show up in this world – from your brand searchability to your behind-the-scenes fraud prevention and processing speed – matters now in a way we have never encountered before, as the ease of switching off when faced with cognitive overload is a customer option available like never before.

Stressed yet?

Actually… you shouldn’t be. No more than usual, anyway.

All this is a culmination of stuff we’ve been talking about for years.

Sure, the enthusiastic engagement of the average person with AI is faster than anything we’ve seen before, but the customer who demands optionality and a service catering to their preferences isn’t new.

Data-driven decisioning is on steroids now, but the underlying conversation is not new. Neither is your to-do list. It just has a couple of new items on it, but directionally? As you were. Only faster.

The report is not mincing words. The very title is ‘Innovation is no longer a scare resource. The ability to scale is’.

And who has this ability to scale? Who is demonstrably out-performing? Those who did the hard, often invisible work to clean up their data and legacy and operational complexity.

If you are one of those organisations, now you can reap the benefits of that hard work. It won’t feel easy. It’s not going to be easy. And it will be followed by more hard work (sorry, I don’t make the rules).

But it will be infinitely easier than your colleagues who kicked the can down the road and now have more of everything to contend with. More complexity, more legacy, more pressure.

Actually.

Not more of everything. There is less time.

The choice has always been ours.

The best time to make a change was the first time we realised that what we had wasn’t what we needed.

The second best time will always and forever be now.

Because it’s the only time we’ve got. That part is really not that complicated. Even if the work ahead is.