At RBC Royal Bank, we’re serious about innovation. We like to ask questions that start out, “what if we….?” and “why do it this way?” We are constantly looking for innovative approaches to every facet of our business.
We introduced the RBC Next Great Innovator Challenge as a way for us to put our ideals into action by asking post-secondary students to answer a real-world business challenge.
The Challenge was a way for us to not simply talk about innovation, but to live innovation. Instead of showing off our innovative side or writing about it or discussing it, we invented a new way of interacting with our clients that invited young people to engage in the innovation process by developing and sharing their ideas. And for the first time ever in Canada, a financial institution communicated with clients through a blog.
In other words, the Challenge process is in every respect as thoroughly innovative as its subject matter.
Innovation at RBC
Innovation doesn’t happen overnight. It’s rooted in corporate values, and in how a company interacts with the world. At RBC Royal Bank, innovation is one of our core values.
The history of innovation at RBC extends back to the earliest days of the bank. Back in 1924 we purchased the first armored van in North America. Fast forward to 2006, when we became the first major Canadian financial institution with a public blog and an avatar. Whatever the current technological climate, we are continually seeking out newer, better, fresher ways of thinking, responding, and serving, to better meet the needs of our clients and employees.
Applying innovative ideas
Innovation is such an integral part of our corporate culture that we have created the Applied Innovation Team as part of our innovation infrastructure. This team works with senior executives and the businesses to advance innovation throughout the enterprise. The team supports and facilitates idea creation, identifies emerging technologies and validates ideas that have the potential to make it easier for our clients to do business with us.
The Applied Innovation Team also established the Applied Innovation Lab, a stand-alone environment to assess concepts and new technologies in a safe, off-network “sandbox” environment.
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Innovation in action at RBC
To be an innovator, you’ve got to be willing to experiment, to challenge the status quo. The Next Great Innovator Challenge is an example of a successful experiment, in which we wanted to inspire young people to engage in the pursuit of innovation. That program has resulted in new approaches to doing business and new ways of reaching out to our clients.
One example of innovation in action at RBC: We launched the first integrated online financial management tool. This enables RBC online banking customers to track their spending habits and manage their money by creating a budget with spending limits for each category, receiving an alert when they reach a limit, and getting immediate customer service support through a chat window.
Other ways that RBC has demonstrated our innovation leadership:
- RBC teamed up with Research In Motion (RIM) and Thomson Reuters to launch the BlackBerry® Partners Fund, a US$150 million venture capital fund, to invest in mobile applications and services for the BlackBerry® platform and other mobile platforms.
- RBC Direct Investing launched Practice Accounts, the first integrated offering of its kind by a Canadian self-directed brokerage that provides the opportunity to test-drive RBC Direct Investing’s online site and experience real investing without using real money.
- As part of the RBC Blue Water Project, RBC supports Imagine H20, an innovation challenge, with $50,000 USD in prizes for business plans promising the greatest breakthroughs in the efficient use of water.
- RBC Royal Bank is the first Canadian bank to issue Visa payWave technology that allows the RBC Visa cardholder to simply “wave” their credit card in front of Visa payWave enabled terminals to pay for small purchases at participating merchants. RBC is also testing this technology on payWave capable cell phones.
- RBC was the first bank in Canada to implement wireless connectivity to its field of auto claims agents. This coupled with a state of the art automated dispatch system, significantly enhanced the claims management process by reducing processing time and improving client service. The project earned RBC recognition as a top innovator in CIO Magazine’s CIO 100 Awards program.
- RBC was the first bank in Canada to implement a state of the art text analytics capability which uses a linguistic analytical model to scan thousands of client-originated written communications to mine for insight into emerging needs and service improvement opportunities.
RBC has also been recognized with several awards for innovation, including:
- The 2008 CIO 100 Awards, honouring 100 companies that are creating new business value by innovating with technology.
- 3 Finalists for 2007 Canadian Information Productivity Awards (CIPA). CIPA is awarded for IT and innovation implementation excellence.
- 2007 Bank Technology News Innovator Awards, ranked 4th globally.
- The 2006 Data Warehouse Institute Award for Best Practices.
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People and innovation at RBC
At RBC, we know that the heart and soul of innovation is not technology, but people. People are the engines of innovation, and when people grow and succeed, a company grows and succeeds.
We have developed innovative talent management practices to identify potential, develop capabilities and enhance the performance and success of employees across our diverse population.
RBC is always interested in meeting innovative students and recent grads. If you are launching your career, come and talk to us 
about the possibility of innovating at RBC.
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