T’S
LE
Standard Bank,
South Africa’s largest retail
bank by customer numbers, has
recently launched a dedicated innovation
lab dubbed in South Africa called the PlayRoom.
T
his marks a move to cement their strategy as a customer-centric and innovative
institution. The PlayRoom is a 1 927m2 creative hub in Johannesburg that seeks to
unearth disruptive ideas from staff, customers and start-up businesses. Standard Bank
hopes its new PlayRoom facility will allow it to act like an agile start-up in developing
future, technology-driven solutions for its clients.
The lab enables Standard Bank to research and test in a controlled environment, before
releasing new solutions into the market. According to Vuyo Mpako, Head of Innovation
and Channel Design at Standard Bank, “This is probably the biggest step we have
taken to bring us closer to our customers. The vision is that the PlayRoom will form an
integral part of our ongoing efforts to find innovative solutions that solve real customer needs and
challenges. It is our response to the changing customer landscape.”
“Our mandate was to draw inspiration from workspaces such as Google’s. The aim is to inspire
creativity and to think ‘outside of the box’. We wanted something different – nothing like a traditional
office space, but a space that inspires creativity and a different way of thinking about our customers’
needs,” explains Mpako. This ethos was incorporated in different facets within the PlayRoom, from the
colourful, eccentric furniture to the diverse work spaces. It is a fun, yet functional environment that
enhances the employees’ working experience.
“We also needed a space where customers are free to talk about their feelings, how they do things,
interact with our solutions, become part of our design process and help build products that suit their
lifestyle,” he adds. “We wanted to create a space that would enable developers to create innovative,
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