Ahmed Abdelaal, Group Chief Executive Officer at Mashreq, highlights why cultivating a culture of innovation is essential for long-term success.
The financial services industry is undergoing rapid transformation, driven by changing customer expectations, digital disruption, technological advances, and evolving regulatory frameworks. In this environment, innovation cannot be treated as a one-off initiative or limited to technology teams alone. It must be a strategic discipline led from the top—embedded in leadership thinking, championed by the C-suite, and woven into the organization’s culture and strategy at every level.
True transformation requires moving beyond project-based innovation. Instead, innovation must be embraced as a long-term business imperative that shapes organizational structures, decision-making processes, and how teams are empowered to act.
Turning Ideas into Scalable Impact
Innovation in banking is often misunderstood as purely technological. In reality, it is about reimagining how institutions operate, collaborate, and deliver sustainable value to customers. The most meaningful breakthroughs occur when teams are encouraged to challenge established norms and work across functions to co-create solutions.
A clear example is Mashreq’s in-house platform, Eagle Eye, developed to enhance financial crime investigations. Created by a cross-functional team, the platform redefined how investigators access and analyze data, leading to improved efficiency and stronger customer outcomes. Its success was rooted in shared purpose, practical insight, and collaboration across disciplines.
Innovation flourishes when it is not confined to a single department but embedded deeply within the organization’s way of working.
Embedding Purpose into Organizational Change
A strong innovation culture encourages experimentation, treats failure as a learning opportunity, and empowers teams to make decisions. Such an environment allows individuals to share ideas openly, embrace diverse perspectives, and contribute without fear of negative consequences.
Across industries, organizations that prioritize agility consistently outperform those focused solely on digital upgrades. These institutions foster continuous improvement, execute faster, and attract talent that thrives in dynamic environments. Crucially, their innovation efforts are guided by purpose, not just process.
Leadership as the Catalyst for Change
Cultural transformation is a leadership responsibility. For innovation to take root, leaders must actively shape an environment that enables creativity and growth. This includes setting a clear vision, removing obstacles, allocating resources for experimentation, and encouraging learning.
Effective leaders create space for ideas to emerge, empower teams at all levels to make decisions, and instill a sense of ownership throughout the organization. By doing so, they embed innovation into everyday practices and inspire people to believe in and contribute to the broader vision.
Unlocking Collective Ingenuity
To scale innovation, ideas must move beyond isolated pilots and become part of core operations. Agility, collaboration, and customer-centricity need to be fully integrated into organizational processes. Successful institutions invest in internal ideation platforms, cross-functional teams, and innovation labs, while actively involving frontline employees whose proximity to customers offers invaluable insight.
At Mashreq, an agile operating model brings together people from across the organization for every idea, journey, and experience. By involving product teams, risk and compliance specialists, data scientists, customer service professionals, and marketers from the outset, silos are broken down and innovation becomes faster, more practical, and easier to scale.
Operationalizing this approach also requires strong systems that connect business and technology teams, creating space for co-creation and rapid problem-solving. Partnerships with fintechs and other sectors, such as telecommunications, can further accelerate innovation by combining complementary capabilities and expertise.
Culture as a Competitive Advantage
As technology continues to evolve, regulations adapt, and customer expectations shift, organizational culture remains the most enduring asset. An innovation-driven culture enables faster decision-making, empowers teams, strengthens customer focus, and allows institutions to anticipate change rather than simply react to it.
Culture should not be viewed as a supporting element but as a core driver of performance and resilience. When innovation is truly embedded, transformation becomes a continuous process rather than a one-time initiative.
Ultimately, the future of financial institutions will be defined by the values they uphold, the culture they cultivate, and the environment they create to enable sustained innovation and growth.
