Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The Benefit of Being Niche In the Evolving Business Environments

Jun 05, 2020



To become profitable, businesses aim to appeal to a wide array of customers. As a strategy for success, increasing a pool of potential buyers is always good, until it is not. Trying to be everything to everyone is a winning direction for companies that can navigate it. For the majority of others, it can spell a sign of premature doom. To survive the attack of larger corporations, the time has never been more urgent to go niche.

Niche businesses cater to narrowly defined audiences. Their purpose is to bring the focus on key aspects of business development, aspects that help reach the viable market faster and make a brand stand out among the competition. Most importantly, niche businesses define themselves as experts and a go-to source for their respective markets. Think of a niche as building a dedicated and engaged community around your product, company, or cause. It has the potential to skyrocket your return of investment.

Establishing a niche within the banking industry has proven to be more challenging than some others. Niche banks, for example, cater to the needs of a certain industry segment or a demographic of the population defined by region, overall wealth, or other factors. The difference could be in the way of delivery of the service with banking-as-a-service making big strides in the long-term digitalization of the industry. Another thread of salvation for banks could be found within cryptocurrency and blockchain management. All of these new directions represent the so-called neo-banks model, a movement within the trade that aims to individuate the offerings and tie them to particular brands. With twenty major banks estimated to close doors by next year, this is a much-needed disruption and the customers are embracing it.

Sectors servicing the banking industry are going through a rumble as well, recruitment being one of them. Talent acquisition is a dynamic entity that was obligated to adapt in more ways than others. One way of evolution is predominant among the recruitment players: digitalization with focus on the computer-assisted sourcing and selection. What used to be a one-way path where a candidate, through an intermediary recruiter, connects with a bank is now translated into strings of computer code and data.

A new wave of roles within banking, as defined in the paragraph above, very early rendered CVs inefficient. The narrow talent demand can no longer be met by traditional recruitment services that provide to all simply because of the one-dimensionality of their approach. The overall experience of a candidate needed to be looked at from a higher perspective. A new generation or recruitment methodologies operate on a basis of pulling from highly concentrated pools within their micro and macro niches. Strongly dependent on data, the new technology is analyzing every aspect of the candidate and delivers a numerical estimate of how good a fit they are. Due to its niche nature, the algorithms never stay away from the target because they are essentially dealing with only one complementary set of professionals.

Defining the talent niche properly brings the benefits of personalized connecting that strengthens the bond with talent and increases brand loyalty. This new, enhanced connection is not only stronger between the talent agency and the candidate, but also between the candidate and the bank. The agency takes part of the burden of nurturing the positive spirit and visibility for the sake of making a lasting match. This was one of the founding pillars of Pandy AI, our executive AI recruitment platform specifically servicing the niche of Private Banking, Wealth Management, Family Offices, and the professionals working in it.

If the Covid-19 crisis taught us anything, it is that circumstances can force the industry to pull unorthodox moves very fast. ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ argument no longer applies. Time is of the ultimate essence. If you need three years to adjust, it is better to give up the process altogether.