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Expect greater regulation in changing times, Travel Convention told

All industries which take customer money should expect greater regulation following the recent banking crisis, the Abta Travel Convention has been told.

Author and futurologist Dr Graeme Codrington said institutional change was one of five key trends that are revolutionising the way the world works.

He said the banking sector has the challenge of trying to set their future strategies when they know the regulations that govern them are going to change.

“These same regulators are coming for you, to your industry too” he said. “The regulators, having seen what happened in the financial services sector are now looking at all the industries that deal with people’s money.”

Codrington said this was being driven by technology, another of the five key drivers of change, and the greater degree of transparency it allows for consumers.

“You can no longer compete with the other people in this room based on your product because your consumers can check in an instant everything that everyone else is saying.

“You cannot give them any piece of advice that they cannot double, triple or quadruple check. This is not just about regulation and legislation being imposed on you, this is about a changing mindset, about people go about protecting themselves from bad advice and bad decisions.”

Codrington said firms had to question all orthodoxies about how they run their businesses and need to stop benchmarking in order to only meet minimum standards.

“Rules and norms are only rules and norms because you make them up, but they are not actually rules. You could break them if you wanted to but you don’t because everyone else does it too.

“There is a danger of saying this is how it’s always been done, this is the best way to do it, there is no other way. These are the orthodoxies that govern, restrict, control and help us.

“The problem is they help us too much until some snotty nosed kid with an iPad comes along and changes the rules.

“Initially you write them off because they are insanity and then they eat your lunch. You need to get rid of those orthodoxies.

“There are many things, especially in your industry where customers are saying ‘what the hell are they thinking about’. You need to get rid of those as soon as possible.”

Codrington said that the world was experiencing unprecedented change due to technology, demographics and environmental, ethical issues and shifting social values.

“Over the last two decades the rules for success and failure have changed. The rules in every institution in the world are being rewritten.

“If that’s true then you have to be doing something different. Different times require different concepts.”

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