When we think of “innovation and disruption”, it usually brings up images of companies acting to ward off imminent threats from challengers to their business. “Innovation and sustainability” on the other hand, focuses on opportunities to do things better, increase long term value and strengthen a company’s agility to adapt and respond to changing conditions. Put another way, “disruption” often keeps an eye on your competitor, while “sustainability” focuses attention on the customer and understanding one’s own inherent strengths and weaknesses to build stronger, more responsive and more resilient companies. It would be a mistake to associate innovation solely with technology, or assume that it can only be achieved with huge investments in research and development. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. Steve Jobs underlined the point that innovation is not about the money, but the people you have, how you’re led and how much 2/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  you get it. Einstein famously said that “we cannot solve problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”. He reminds us that innovation is fundamentally concerned with solving problems, having an open mind to ideas and the ability to convert those ideas into an organized and disciplined process to create a positive and lasting impact. Viewed in this perspective, the frontiers of innovation are almost boundless; limited only by our ability to define problems and our imagination.
Jessica Chew Cheng Lian: Harnessing innovation for the sustainability of the MSB industry Speech by Ms Jessica Chew Cheng Lian, Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the Money Services Business Asia Pacific Conference 2017 "Harnessing Innovation for the Sustainability of the MSB Industry", Kuala Lumpur, 5 September 2017. * * * It is my great pleasure to be here with you today at the Money Services Business Asia Pacific Conference 2017. I would like to congratulate the Malaysian Association of Money Services Business for organizing this event. Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to offer some remarks on this occasion. Over the last decade, the global MSB industry has made significant strides. Worker remittances have more than doubled to USD420 billion between 2007 to June 2017, providing critical resources that have helped lift families and communities in developing countries out of poverty, and facilitating greater talent mobility. Meanwhile, the currency exchange business has followed the fortunes of global business travel expenditures that have surpassed USD1 trillion annually, as well as over a billion international tourists arrivals recorded annually for the last 7 years. At the same time, the cost of money remittances has also fallen. The global average remittance cost has come down from above 10% a decade ago to 7% in 2016. Several countries have already met or surpassed the World Bank’s target of reducing costs to 5%.