There’s a simple test that changes how you look at every digital proposal. When a shiny demo appears in the boardroom, the CFO needs only two words: “So what?” If the answer isn’t tied to an EBIT variable, it’s theatre. The working formula keeps you honest: EBIT = (# of [active] clients × Average Assets × Average RoA) − Cost. Run digital like a P&L engine. Declare which variable you will move, by how much, by when – and prove it in production, not on slides.

The big profit pools haven’t changed in decades. What’s changed is your ability to reach them. Retention, Net New Money and Share of Wallet, recurring fees, interest income, service and admin efficiency – they were “known but hard”. Today they’re finally doable with capabilities most banks already own. You have signals you can act on (balances, flows, renewals, life events, light external data). You can orchestrate them with AI-driven Next-Best-Action, matching offer, timing and channel across RM-led and self-service journeys. You can hand every RM a daily Top-10 with talk tracks and pre-packaged offers inside tools they already use. And you can finish the last mile with 1–2-click completion because KYC, suitability and e-sign sit inside the flow. The bridge from signal → decision → completion finally exists. Use it.

This is where leadership matters. Management owns the heatmap, not the hype. Build a credible view of the EBIT pools and force-rank them by size of prize, speed to impact, ability to execute now with your stack, and risk you’re willing to carry. The output should fit on a page and say three things with a straight face: here’s where the money is, here’s what we canal ready ship, and here’s what we will not chase. Update it monthly. Let budget follow the heatmap — not the loudest slide. Focus isn’t a slogan; it’s a funding rule.

Now choose how you move. In uncertain times you don’t need a grand redesign. You need an Accelerator: small, fast, real. Stand it up as a plug-in that launches in weeks from the tools people already use. Keep scope tight – a region and a handful of journeys – and reuse the data and vendors you trust. Encode policies from day one so compliance travels with the flow. Measure obsessively, release weekly, and keep components modular so there’s a clean path to scale once the business case is proven. Think runway + boosters: quick lift-off now, room to climb later.

What does success feel like when you run EB-IT this way? Reviews get exciting. Contactability edges up by five to ten points because you fix timing and channel hygiene. Conversion moves by half to one-and-a-half points within six weeks because completion friction is gone. Time-to-close drops by a third when KYC, suitability and e-sign are inside the journey instead of living as hand offs. Small gains stack, momentum compounds, and suddenly the scoreboard tells a different story – one the board wants more of.

So make the coming months a results chase. Pick one big pool. Name the bet. Start the clock. Stand up the Accelerator, publish a weekly scoreboard everyone can see, and reallocate to the winners without apology. Digital is not IT. It’s EB-IT – no theatre, just earnings.

‍