Peter Alkema

Peter helps lead digital transformation at FirstRand, the biggest financial services group in Africa. In 2020 he completed his PhD at Wits University and developed a ground-breaking theory of Agile teams. In 2016 he was awarded Visionary CIO of the year by ITWeb and Gartner. His first book has sold over 10,000 copies and his edx.com course has been completed by over 10,000 people. He is passionate about helping you be smarter. Connect with me on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook

Retail Banking and Fintech

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is responsible for banking regulation in South Africa and various Acts provide the legislative framework. To operate as a retail bank requires a license which is subject to the requirements of the SARB and a rigorous approval process. Requirements include holding sufficient capital to ensuring anti-money laundering processes, as well as putting …

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IBM launches R700m Research Lab in Johannesburg

A long term commitment to Africa by IBM Chairlady and CEO Ginni Rometty has led to the creation of a 900 square metre, world class research centre in the Tshimolong Precinct in Braamfontein. Scientists in the new facility will focus on digital urban research, universe exploration and data driven healthcare. Medical treatment across the continent will benefit …

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Eight Big South African Digital Disruptors

At the recent Digital Disruptors Conference at GIBS Business School, South African industry leaders spoke about disruptive approaches to their business models. Google South Africa’s “mobile moment” happened in late 2014 when internet searches from mobile devices exceeded for the first time those performed on desktops. By 2020 there will be 500 million people in Sub Saharan Africa …

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Blockchain, bitcoin and banking; how does it work and why it will change everything.

The disruptive nature of Blockchain and its impact in financial services was recently presented at GIBS by Farzam Ehsani, leader of RMB’s Blockchain Initiative. He also helped establish The Foundery, RMB’s FinTech unit and believes that blockchain technology will become a new and necessary normal in our lives just like the internet. The way we store and exchange …

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The role of IT in Public Private Partnerships

Citizens are the ultimate winners when big business and government work together. Each sector has immense assets that can be combined to create value for all parties. Supply chains, processes and skills across the state and corporate world are often complementary and it usually just takes a willingness to collaborate to find significant opportunities. Networks of relationships already …

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IBM’s Watson; the future of personalised technology

Cognitive computing is copying humanity with machinery; scary fiction becoming fact or technology solving our greatest problems? The Terminator series of movies grabbed the world’s attention with the scary possibility that a network of armed machines could somehow self organise and destroy us. This destructive tipping point dramatises a worst case scenario in the field of Artificial Intelligence …

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Reflections on a winning franchise; FNB voted Best Business Bank, 2016 Sunday Times Top Brands

FirstRand has created very successful financial services brands all of which benefit from its powerful owner-manager culture. FNB Business Banking is no exception and reflects on its fourth consecutive year of this achievement with a strong dose of humility. Matter of pride FNB Business Banking prides itself on a strategy of listening first and putting its …

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University of Pretoria Guest Lecture: Agile in SA Organisations

I presented to the MIT850 students at UP about the state of Agile in South African organisations. The slides and video of the lecture are below as well as the overall outline of the presentation; IT Projects Today Sample Survey Results (these questions were provided before the lecture) Evolution of Agile Thinking (the 8 pre-read papers …

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FNB Codefest: Agile culture matters, brilliance follows

The Agile Manifesto provides useful principles for improving software projects; the Codefest demonstrates some of these quite effectively. At the recent Africa DevOps Day hosted by Standard Bank I spoke about our journey in setting up an Agile-supportive culture. I shared seven lessons, three of which correlate strongly with the environment that emerges in the Codefest “play space”; …

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