The European Business Review - July-August 2019

30 The European Business Review July - August 2019

METHODOLOGY AND DATA

, ,*-&)"1%"ǗǕǖǞ"-"!&+"00+!"5#,/1%"Ɯ++ &)0" 1,/Ǿ4"%3"

included 44 top retail banks, insurance services, and leading payment

companies based on their revenue by the end of 2018. The ranking is

0"!,+0&5*&+# 1,/0ǿțǖȜƜ++ &)#2+!*"+1)0ǾțǗȜ&+3"01,/ȉ0

expectation on future growth, (3) employee diversity, (4) business

productivity, (5) early results of innovation, and (6) openness to new ideas.

These six main factors, which carry the same weight in the overall result,

comprise 21 indicators.

Notes

* Forpaymentcompanies,weuse“theamounwtoftransactions”asa proxy.

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servicecompanies.

Allofour 21 indicatorsareharddata;thatis,theyarepubliclyavailablein

companywebsites,annualreports,pressrelease,news,andspecialreports

ontopicssuchascorporatesocialresponsibility.Forpresscountsdata,we

consultedFactiva,a globalnewsdatabasethatcoversvariouspremiumsources,

andcountedthenumberofpressreleasesoneachtrendingtopicthatwas

&!"+1&Ɯ"!-/"3&,20)6&+ 1%&0 0" 1,/#,/ 1%" -01ǘ 6"/0țǗǕǖǛȔǗǕǖǝȜǽ%" !1

wasalsosupplementedbythird-partydatasourcesfromCrunchbase,which

specialisesonthetopicofcorporateventuring.

Tocalculatetheindex,first,wecollectedhistoricaldataforeach

company.Thenweperformedcalculationsforeachindicator(e.g.,3Y

CAGR)beforewestandardisedthecriteriadata.Next,weaggregated

indicatorstothesixmainfactorsandthendeterminedtheoverall

ranking.Forthepurposeofcomparison,werankedeachcompanyfrom

1 (best)to 44 (worst)ona scaleof0 to100.

to consumers” and are able to “amass
mountains of user data.” The leading
incumbents, it turns out, are the
legacy infrastructure builders: Visa
and Mastercard.
Since the dawn of the smartphone
era, too many new entrants that provide
payment methods – Apple Pay, Google
Wallet, Square, PayPal, Vimeo, and
Revolut, just to name a few – have all
proven themselves powerful innova-
tors who could design offerings that
consumerscraveandhavethuscarvedout
segments of themarket away from the
creditcardsthatretailbanksissue.Andin
thefaceof thesenewentrants,theonly
provenstrategythatVisaandMastercard
canrelyontomaintaintherelevanceof
their legacy infrastructure is to bypass
their own plastic, de-emphasising and
destroying the very physical embodi-
ment of theiroffering thathad beenso
cherishedfordecades,andtoallowthese
disruptors to connect to their own toll
road.If youcan’tbeatthemoff,let themjoin.
It should therefore come as no
surprise that at the Apple event in
March this year, during which the
Applecardwasannounced,onewould
have noticed in that “subtle off-white
coloring” and “the tasteful thickness
of it”wastheApplelogoemblazoned

• 3Y• 3YCAGRaverageturnoverprofitrate


• 3Y• AUMaverage(assetEPSunder
  management)lastyear*


• 3Y• Equity-to-assetCAGRAUM ratio**
  
  
  • •P/EPrice-to-bookratiolastyearvalue
    last•3Yyear**CAGR
    marketcapitalization
    
    
    • ment%ofboardwomenmembersmanage-
    
    
    • •CEOHeadquartersdemography
      competitiveness
      
      
      • AUMlastyear*peremployee
      
      
      • Operatingemployeelastrevenueyearper
      
      
      • Loan-to-depositratio**
        
        
        • Press"blockchain"counton
        
        
        • Press"mobilecountservices"on
        
        
        • Presscounton"AI"
        
        
        
        
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Financialfundamentals Investor'sonfutureexpectationgrowth Employeediversity Businessproductivity Earlyresultsofinnovation

• Press count on "APIs"• Press count on
  "ventures"• Number of invest-
  ments in the last 3 years

Openness to new ideas

ugh here, then, is the realisation that a product’s best

invented in-house. Visa and Mastercard realise that killer

d by third parties, who are closer to their own customers.

Themajorbreakthrou

featurewill neverbe

apps must be invente

Strategy