Joy Abdullah is a strategy professional with a passion for humanizing organizations through their stories. He is the head of strategic planning & corporate affairs at INCEIF- The Global University of Islamic Finance and writes on leadership & culture, ethical brand marketing, strategic brand management, employee-brand relationship and sustainable business strategies.

In a world reeling from a series of financial, economic, humanitarian and natural crises, the world of Islamic finance is growing. In the past decade the various projected global industry growth figures show the Islamic finance industry going up, up and away. With rising developments in the key sectors of the Islamic economy catering to the global Muslim community, coupled with increasing interest in the Islamic financial framework and its' related socio-economic benefits, from emerging country economies, growth is now a given for Islamic finance.

With such rapid growth a host of issues are beginning to appear on the horizon that have possibilities of disrupting the current business models the industry practices. Here's a look at five issues which do not operate in the technical realm for the Islamic finance industry:

# 1 Learning & Development

Are the Islamic finance organizations really focused on developing the learning for its talent pool and for itself?

In most organizations, where profitability is the end objective of all activities, learning is often lost in the daily rush of what needs to get done. Organizations in the Islamic finance industry are no different from their counterparts in other industries and follow the same profitability maxim. After all that is the purpose of any business.

Today's business landscape, impacted upon by technology and crises, has brought about a renewed focus on talent and the work culture prevalent. The public domain has a lot of stories on start-ups and established corporates who have brought about beneficial change in their business model based on the investment they have made in the learning and development of their talent - stories that provide significant learnings that the Islamic finance institutions can utilise in ensuring long-term profitability and sustainability.

An environment of continuous learning by an organization's talent and a progressive and positive-thinking work culture creates the foundation for having a strong competitive advantage.

What's on the horizon for Islamic nance?

By Joy Abdullah

IFT 15Islamic Finance Today - October 2016

Whilst the Islamic finance industry does undertake a significant amount of training for its talent, there is a gap in the area of continuous learning as part of the organizations' business strategy. Obtaining the continuous professional development points through various seminars, talks and forums in order to renew one's practising competency is different from knowledge-based continuous learning.

Given the huge opportunity that is available in the industry sectors of the Islamic economy having a focus on developing a learning culture, in the Islamic finance organizations, will hugely benefit both the organization and its talent.

This is where the global industry and its related academia can get down to collaborating effectively and with impact in order to create a win-win environment that provides qualified and strategically competent talent, product and regulatory development and aids in positive social impact.

But in getting this going brings about the second issue facing the industry now.

# 2 Leadership

There is a lot on this topic going on across all industries given the eroding trust in financial institutions and the financial scandals that have surfaced. Hard questions about organizational leadership and development of leadership skills are being asked. In the academia the B-schools are re-looking at the various inputs of learning and knowledge-transfer that is being offered.

The Islamic finance industry, along with its academia, is not immune to this and the necessity to groom strategic and visionary leaders, not just competent managers, has now become a critical need.

For decades leadership in the Islamic finance industry has been similar to the mainstream financial services industry—ensure compliance and deliver profitability. Today this landscape has changed significantly resulting in erstwhile leadership skills and tools not being able to deliver what the dynamics of the new business environment requires.

Leadership needs, at the helm in Islamic financial organizations, is still about profitability but through transparent social impact, successful adoption of digital trends and its related responsibility. Through these the leadership is required to deliver strong organizational reputation and profitability. Such demands have created a need for a different mind-set and approach to business.

How do we develop future leadership talent?

The starting point for this would be to give the necessary value to academically qualified Islamic finance professionals as knowledge-workers.

IFT16 Islamic Finance Today - October 2016

Academic qualifications in Islamic finance should be looked at as part of knowledge enhancement and should be, practically, separated in its weightage, from functional skill competency programmes. Getting this platform in place involves significant maturity on the part of both the industry and academia as both need to work jointly towards the greater good of the global industry.

The global industry as a whole needs to use the numerous global forums and conferences to put together a globally recognised set of standards and values with regards to academic and competency skill programmes and in incorporating the necessary skills requirement from a technical competency and leadership perspective.

Doing this will automatically bring the multitudes of Islamic finance academic qualifications on par with its professional counterparts from the mainstream financial services.

# 3 Work Culture

“Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got.” Peter Drucker.

For an organization, culture is created through the behaviour of its leaders. Remember the phrase—monkey see monkey do?—People in an organization manifest exactly what they see their leaders do. As human beings we are emotionally hardwired in this manner.

Organization culture is the glue that makes institutions succeed or fail and no amount of technical competency can aid in this process.Whilst technical competency can get one ahead it's the cultural understanding that aids an individual in having the ability to manage upwards and downwards.

Given the increasing globalism of Islamic finance there is an ever increasing need for understanding the cultural perspectives of people, organizations and the various global financial centres in order to utilise commercial opportunities effectively through the social impact those activities create leading to future sustainability.

# 4 Employee Advocacy of the Brand

Employee advocacy is, possibly, the least discussed and visited area amongst Islamic finance organisations. One wonders why when organizations are brought to life through their employees. People are the only asset that organisations can use to create competitive advantage.

For an employee getting peer and social recognition leads to a huge increase in commitment. This recognition, in turn, creates advocacy of the organizations' mission in the form of its products and services that impact positively on the bottom-line. There's a lot of literature in the public domain on this.

IFT 17Islamic Finance Today - October 2016

Yet the lack of specific employee advocacy strategies, within the Islamic finance industry and academia organizations, leaves one wondering about the value an organisation gives to its employees, shareholders and customers.

On one hand there are numerous reports of declining trust in the financial sector and on the other we see a rising interest by emerging markets in the Islamic finance framework. In such a scenario employee advocacy becomes a critical success factor in an organizations' operations in establishing itself for the long run.

What best way is there, for an organization, than to have its own people honestly advocate its' products or services?

Advocacy of the brand by the employee goes a long way in obtaining commitment, loyalty and creating motivation of the employee as well as of the stakeholders for an organization.

# 5 Effective Collaboration with Academia

There are numerous examples, from other industries, that show how effective collaboration between industry and its academia has helped the industry have innovation and business success. This is missing at present and in order to tackle the changing business landscape the global Islamic finance industry and its related academia need to join forces and collaborate effectively.

This translates to taking joint responsibility in providing recognition and creating mandatory requirement in having talent with the right Islamic finance qualifications and providing these talents the continuous learning environment, through research and projects, that aid both the individual talent as well as the organizations' learning knowledge and allow for innovations to come through.

Is it time for a paradigm shift?

Profit today cannot, any longer, come at the expense of the social community within which any organization, be it an NPO; a commercial business or an academic institution operate. Without a simple and clear social benefit clearly articulating the sustainability of the organization identified, the possibility of success for the organization will be short-lived.

The five key organizational issues that can be seen looming in the horizon for the global Islamic finance industry requires academia and the industry institutions to cooperate, collaborate and aid each other in doing what each does best—Identify and incorporate key areas of knowledge into practice in order to generate the necessary professional standards and these soft-skills learning in order to equip the incoming generations of talent with the right tools to make a significant difference to society.

The question is are we willing and able to collaborate effectively for the benefit of the society and not just for profits?

IFT18 Islamic Finance Today - October 2016