Latest work
I am a freelance business writer. I work mainly on ghosted articles for senior leaders in technology, cybersecurity, fintech and marketing sectors. I was previously lead writer at Oracle, and editor at Pearson.
I also write blogs, speeches, customer profiles and case studies, short copy for advertising and marketing campaigns, video scripts and advise on content strategy.
To discuss commissions please email dominiccollard@gmail or call +44(0) 7796 774578.
Latest work
In the UK, authorised push payment (APP) fraud losses amounted to £459.7m in 2023. In reality, the cost is higher.
The workplace needs reinvention. All companies operate in increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environments. Demands are rising, while resources are increasingly spread thin. Organisations talk a good game about how they prioritise employee wellbeing; and 'perks' like yoga classes and meditation apps have become the norm.
Compassion is the fuel that releases the potential of those you manage to be their best, professionally and personally. The compassionate manager gets stuck in, always remembering they are just one of the team, not above it.
AI is seemingly everywhere and becoming more pervasive. It didn't start with ChatGPT, but its arrival on the scene in November last year has ratcheted up the stakes.
Technology has made disruption the new norm, and AI is simply the latest iteration.
The art and power of film is hugely important to us at Wonderhatch - we're a team of filmmakers and film lovers, and you only need to look as far as our recent work for BFI's London Film Festival to see that. Recently, our co-founder Marc Webbon was asked to speak at the American Society [...]
Branding
In the digital era, your business is facing a new challenge. How to create enough content that keeps your audience engaged? How to make sure it is aligned with your brand values and business priorities? And how to do that affordably, without compromising quality?
3 Henrietta Street provides a space for the best chefs, bakers, bar-tenders and baristas to take up residence.
Schibsted is a family of digital brands with more than 5 000 employees. We have world-class media houses in Scandinavia, leading marketplaces and digital services that empower consumers. Millions of people interact with Schibsted companies every day. Schibsted's products and services help people make informed choices, live more sustainable lives,
Thought leadership
Financial institutions in the U.S. have traditionally overlooked small- and medium-sized enterprises until they reached a certain size. This is a missed opportunity.
Professional women are not short of empowering mantras, but the reality can be far more challenging. It's all well and good for women to #leanin, but what if those calling the shots don't want to let them in? Alas, that remains a reality. The numbers show that women still struggle when it comes to workplace equality.
ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) has become mission-critical for banks, from meeting regulatory obligations to aligning with customer values to win market share. Many banks have turned to technology to manage their ESG position. But technology is not a panacea.
Remember Xerox, Kodak and Blockbuster? The history of commerce is littered with once mighty brands that quickly fell away because they didn't seize new technology. Today, payments are the innovation frontier of business.
What's good for merchants and their customers is also good for banks. This should be the driver for banks to adopt FedNow.
Vendors that underestimate the value that banking executives place on a trusted and lasting service will get left behind in the big banking SaaS bang.
We are in the midst of the greatest generational transfer of wealth in history. Over the next decades, trillions of dollars will be passed from the Baby Boomer generation to Gen-Xers (born between 1965-80) and Millennials (1981-96). The wealth management opportunity is immense.
Supply chains are reeling from inflationary and workforce pressures; consumer demand is bracing itself for the full impacts of the cost of living crisis; climate change is no longer something happening elsewhere; while the machinations of geopolitics are spooking markets on an almost daily basis.
If the last 15 years have taught us anything, it's to expect the unpredictable. Few people saw the 2009 financial crisis coming, nobody saw COVID coming. Each episode tells us that what makes sense today, may not tomorrow. To paraphrase an often uttered saying of leaders, no plan survives contact with time.
Cloud infrastructure can make huge emissions savings for banks. Image: rawpixel/Tong Chief Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Officer; Member of the Executive Board, Temenos Stay up to date: Banking and Capital Markets Follow Discover What is the Forum doing to improve the global banking system?
When I was beginning my career in technology was a closed shop. The most innovative technology was beyond the budgets of most companies. Transformation was a luxury few could afford. How things have changed.
Executive profiles
Ten years on from her first role in payments, Louise Garratt is getting to grips with a fresh set of challenges and opportunities as The Walt Disney Company's new Senior Payments Manager for...
From 2022-23, Caroline Clark served as Group Product Manager for Thriva which was then third on the Sunday Times' list of the UK's fastest growing companies. Here she recollects on what the experience taught her about the skills you need to build a world class
My job is to make sure BVNK is compliant in every market we operate in. Because we are growing fast, a lot of my work involves learning about regulations in jurisdictions we are unfamiliar with.
Compared to many of my contemporaries, I think my path to becoming a CFO has been a little unusual. For starters, I’m a woman and ‘we’ are still shamefully under-represented at Board level.
Every hour someone in England has part of his or her leg amputated. Every two hours it's a whole leg. In addition to the human suffering, these surgical procedures cost the UK National Health Service around £4 billion a year, expected to rise to more than £7 billion by 2022.
As a child living in north-western Bangladesh, Mohammed Rezwan had something that made an education possible. His family owned a boat.
LONDON- Dr. Sue Black isn't your typical keynote speaker for a developer conference. For starters, there's her bright red, slightly mohawk hairstyle. But more fundamentally, she's a woman-and that's exactly what she came to Oracle Code London to talk about.
Mike Carrodus harnessed years of entrepreneurial inklings to launch his financial services firm, Substantive Research. The company considered recent European legislation and input from early clients to hit initial success.
Blogs
Thriva and Superdrug join forces to make health testing more accessible to the high street consumer.
The six weeks of "peak season" in November and December can account for as much as half of a retailer's annual revenue. So, it's no exaggeration to say that what happens over that period, which includes Singles Day, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas, can make or break a retailer's year.
Every new employee wants to make an immediate impact. For those going into executive positions, this motivation often comes with the leverage to enact ideas and changes quickly. But opportunity can be a double-edged sword. For some functions, the stakes of getting things right from the get go are higher-no more so than with information security.
In today's ultra-competitive world, making the right decisions is no longer enough. You also need to make them faster - the key to success is intelligence with speed. For many businesses, their MicroStrategy platform sits at the center of this challenge. With the sheer amount of data that you can now feed into a MicroStrategy [...]
As I look at the industry around us, I see more change today than I’ve seen in the 20 years I’ve been with Temenos. Consumers are demanding easy, seamless banking experiences. And disruptive technology is making this possible. This is fundamentally shifting how banking happens, where it happens and who it happens with.
A guide to cross-border payments
In its most basic definition, churn is the absolute number of customers that a business loses over a given period of time. Typically, churn is expressed as a percentage of the customer base. For example, a business with 100 customers in January, that then has 90 customers in February, can be said to have a customer churn rate of 10%.
From mergers and acquisitions to VRP and more, these trends will have a major impact on the state of financial services
Case studies
Get inspired by the Vantage Credit Union and Temenos success stories. Vantage Credit Union used Temenos Collections to transform their business.
Oracle Autonomous Database, which launched last year, has been gaining interest and users across the business world, as organizations see the real-world payoffs from using a "self-driving" database. Here's what those benefits look like for two very different organizations-one that's helping companies embrace new technology, and one that's discovering the secrets of our universe.
Toolstop has been focused on supplying tradespeople with tools from the best brands at competitive prices and fast delivery since 1965. They have always had the same goal, to serve their customers better than anyone else. Their customer focused service has seen them become one of the largest online suppliers of power tools in the UK.
Red Hat's Allyson Kouao describes how she built a vibrant new chapter of Blacks United in Leadership and Diversity (B.U.I.L.D.), and explains what other budding community builders can learn from this.
A few minutes in the company of Simon West-Oliver, and you understand why he’s so ebullient. As the director of sales and marketing for DRIVE Software Solutions, he has just notched up its one-millionth vehicle on the road. That makes DRIVE, the company’s best-selling software product, one of the most popular fleet management systems in Europe.
When Avye Couloute started attending coding workshops, aged just seven, she was struck by two things: how much she loved them, and how few girls there were. She wasted no time putting the latter right.
Haiti should be a paradise on Earth. Tropical air breathes down from its mountains, rustling the chorus of coconut palms into a gentle surrender of their harvest.
Reports / eBooks
Think about the way businesses get their technology. Be it infrastructure, software, data, security, analytics...today, the norm is to buy the service, not the stuff. This 'as-a-service' model outsources hassle to third party providers with the capabilities and expertise to do a better job.
Many use cases for blockchain technology have been developed to varying degrees of success, including digital assets as an investment, decentralised financial systems, and ownership reflected in a zero-trust ledger. One proven valuable use case is making payments faster, safer, and globally accessible.
Awareness and adoption of cryptocurrencies is steadily growing. One in 10 people in the UK have held crypto , while two in five respondents to a 2021 Gemini survey said they were "crypto-curious ." Trading and fintech apps alike are taking note, competing with exchanges to reach an expanding market.
Pearson is the world’s leading learning company, with 40,000 employees in over 70 countries working to help people of all ages to make measurable progress in their lives through all kinds of learning.
Discover how an effective APM strategy can boost sales. Choose the right payment methods - Failing to offer the right payment method will see almost two-thirds of customers abandon their purchase. Attract customers, make it easier for them to convert and keep the cost of transactions down.
Event reporting
Host City 2024 welcomed professionals who contribute to some of the world’s most iconic events - IOC members, festival owners, sports federation leaders, city officials and global brands. This year’s theme - ‘‘Inspiring Action Through Major Events’ - looks at the evolving opportunities and challenges of hosting major events around the world.
Greg's favourite story to tell is of a young boy who came on his outdoor education class. The school had warned Greg that the boy was disruptive; and they were right.
LONDON-The North Greenwich part of London is an apt place to hold one of the UK's leading business events. In eyesight of the venue for Oracle Modern Business Experience is evidence of 30 years of modernization. Wasteland has made way for skyscrapers. An automated metro system snakes through towers, shuttling thousands to their offices and meetings.
In the east end of London, the name of Richard Cloudesley rings loud. By all accounts a man of modest achievement, the school to which he gave his name is anything but. His life is a story that bridges 15th and 16th century England; his legacy is of a place that bridges gaps in the here and now - the gap between a childhood and a potential fulfilled.
Video scripts
Once upon a time, there was a small house on a hill...
A new network from GoCardless brings together bank debit systems from around the world for the first time.
Want to level up? Our customers did by partnering with Red Hat Open Innovation Labs. Want to know how?
Personal essays
Almost half of Russia's $630 billion reserves have been seized by foreign governments since the invasion of Ukraine. The mainstream temptation is to react favorably to this move.
Why is it important to talk about gender equality today? The 21st May - just any other day, right?
Ask a classroom of children what they want to be when they grow up, and "work for a software company" is unlikely to be one of the top answers. But whatever their dream job-doctor, astronaut, musician, teacher, scientist-odds are that software will be crucial to it.
I am just finishing a six month stint leading content at GoCardless, and prior to that at Oracle. Here are four things (though by no means the only things) I've learned about how to do content to make your SaaS business stand out.
There are many reasons why 'The Donald' won. Here's another to add to the list.
When I was a boy, I loved the stories of great inventors. Charles Babbage, the father of computers; Marie Curie and her pioneering theory of radioactivity; the Wright Brothers and their flying machine.
When I used to be professionally ambitious, I'd rock up at networking events all over London. They were not pleasant hunting grounds for me.
Once viewed as the idealistic vision of cyber punks and whack jobs, Bitcoin is now mainstream. In little over a decade, it has gone from zero to a market cap of $607bn.
It's nice to think that some positives may come from these dark times. I wonder if.
David is excited by the imminent arrival of his first child; and six months fully paid leave from work. He will take advantage of a UK government policy that allows fathers to share in the maternity leave of their partners.
Archive (all formats)
It seems like every day businesses are bombarded with reminders of the value of data. Data, we are told, leads us to make smarter decisions that deliver better outcomes. No arguments there. But we are constantly reminded of the dangers of data too; of the consequences of losing it, accidentally
Cryptocurrencies tackle a range of significant pain points for FX brokers and traders, and are fast becoming an essential part of the global payments ecosystem.
Kalliopi Chioti, Chief Environmental, Social and Governance Officer at Temenos, on why banks need the cloud in the race to net-zero.
As businesses around the world converge on an outcome-led strategy, a true open source approach can accelerate the customers digital journey, says Phil Andrews, Vice President and General Manager CEMEA Region at Red Hat
The global BNPL market is set to be worth $3.98 trillion by 2030. But with regulators around the world now looking into BNPL, all with a view of protecting consumers, is it going to become harder for the market to grow? The incumbents don't think so. The BNPL market has been busy.
Last week I spoke on a panel about the trends shaping payments in 2023 at the Finance Magnates London Summit, one of Europe's premier fintech conferences, alongside peers from Worldpay, IFX Payments, Eqwire and Nuvei. We were all in agreement-the biggest trend will be crypto payment adoption.
Growing up, Anton Zelenin wanted to work with video games. Now, as Head of Game Commerce for Xsolla, he combines his gamer instincts with a passion for payments and commerce.
The incumbent usually has the advantage, but this hasn't always been true for big banks-at least, not since the digital age dawned. Today, banks must meet customers' digital-experience expectations agilely and effectively, often encumbered by legacy infrastructure, while minimizing costs. But there is a solution: the composable platform.
There's no one perfect payment method. Cards are convenient until they get lost or expire. Bank transfers can be quick but rely on the payer being prompt. Bank debit gives you control over payment timings, but it can take longer for your money to arrive.
Shopping cart abandonment is both frustrating and expensive for merchants. Frustrating because much of the hard yards of acquiring the customer has worked and costly because all that investment is sunk without any return of revenue. There is a multitude of reasons that people abandon their carts.
What should your data strategy incorporate over the next 12 months? How will your role as a data leader be recognized by the business? What are the trends you should pay attention to? Our experts have got together to develop a short guide to how you can take on 2022 successfully.
Since the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) fired the gun on Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) - the mechanism it has selected to let people automatically move money between their bank accounts - the UK's big nine banks have been busy building the open banking infrastructure to make it happen.
Richard Harmon, VP & Global Head of Financial Services at Red Hat. The EU's new DORA legislation is ushering in strict rules on technology use. Businesses should embrace it as a new way to unlock innovation. Ever since the 2008 global financial crisis, governments and regulators have been on a mission to build integrity [...]
With digitalisation no longer a question of 'if', Mick Fennell, Business Line Director - Payments at Temenos explains why Request-to-Pay is the natural next step.
Powerful forces of change are influencing how banks approach brand strategy. And this has profound impacts on the role of the bank CMO. One of the chief forces is the will of the customer-something not unique to banks. In every sector, customers are expecting more from brands than ever before.
Take any crisis right now—from climate change to supply chain shortages to global pandemics—and much of the narrative is around resilience and robustness. In other words, preparing for the worst case scenario, and being able to limit the damage if it happens. But in a business context, this well-intentioned view of risk-management can be short-sighted.
Despite being a relatively new technology term, edge computing has already established itself. It has not taken long for businesses to understand the benefits of locating their compute services right where applications are running. Speed is the obvious one.
Salespeople who want to know what customer-centricity really means could do worse than to look at early Hebrew literature; about 700 B.C. to be exact, and the proverbs of King Solomon. Along with advice on the nature of wisdom and the state of the soul comes this helpful nugget: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."
Most companies will be familiar with the 2013 study from the Harvard Business Review explaining how a highly engaged workforce is a more productive one. Since then a library of similar research has built up, all broadly telling the same story; when your employees are engaged, they perform better.
What would have become of the Internet had its creators restricted their focus to the immediate task before them? Not much more than those first handfuls of computers sitting in government agencies and universities, slowly speaking to each other. E-commerce, as we know it, would not exist.
What does the ideal payment model look like for a U.S. business-to-business (B2B) company with global ambitions? You probably want to invoice in the currency you’re doing business in, making it as easy as possible for your customers to buy from you.
Standing modestly in a solitary field in Runnymede is a commemoration to a moment when Britain became great. The sealing of the Magna Carta - "the Great Charter of the Liberties" - 800 years ago today, effectively ripped up the idea that monarchs have an invincible and divine right to rule, and established the contemporary powers of parliament and the laws that continue to protect and liberate us today.
2022 at Temenos began with the exciting news that we are deepening our partnership with Red Hat, an icon of open technology. Over almost 30 years, Red Hat's belief in the power of open technology has been transforming industries - from telecommunications to manufacturing and now to banking.
If the business world seems to move much faster these days, that’s because it does. For a long time, change happened slowly. Take economic cycles: in the 1900s it took about 19 years to go from the bottom of a recession to the top of a peak. Life moved at a steady, controllable pace. Businesses knew who their competitors were, and had plenty of time to adapt to the newcomers. It was all so simple.
Why BNPL is an urgent opportunity for banks The growth of BNPL transactions shows no sign of slowing. put the size of the global BNPL market at $3.98 trillion by 2030. That presents both a risk, and an opportunity, for banks. The risk is easy to understand.
Why toffee with apple, and other Halloween traditions explained Oh, sweet Halloween. We've been waiting to get sexy with you since last October. Netflix has released a new batch of horror films. Halloween candy has become a breakfast staple. We no longer have to explain why we're wearing a vampire cape while shopping for loo [...]
The fintech sector is expanding in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan (MENAP) and regulators are evolving to keep up with and encourage this trend. Across the region regulatory sandboxes have been adopted and relationships between regulators and innovators are being strengthened.