In fintech – and tech if we try to look more broadly – there’s a persistent belief the right stack can compensate for almost anything. Hire a few engineers, plug in modern tools, automate half the workflow – and performance will follow.
In his recent contributor post in Marketer Magazine, fintech entrepreneur Artsiom Liashanau pushes back on that assumption rather directly.
His argument is fairly grounded: technology tends to amplify what’s already there. If a team is structured well, aligned and capable of making decisions, tools can accelerate output. If not, the same tools often bring the problems to the light– and sometimes harder to manage.
From what Artsiom Liashanau, a fintech practitioner with 10+ years of C-level management experience, describes, the issue usually isn’t access to technology. Most companies today are packed with a widest tool range possible – from CRMs and analytics platforms to multiple automation layers due to AI development. The gap sits in how teams communicate, prioritise their tasks and take responsibility.
One pattern he points to is the tendency to treat technology as a shortcut. Instead of fixing internal processes, businesses try to “overlay” them with software. Yes, it might look efficient at first, because dashboards improve and reporting becomes faster — but the underlying confusion doesn’t get solved. It just moves deeper into the system.
Another recurring problem is project ownership. When roles aren’t clearly defined, adding more tools doesn’t resolve ambiguity. If anything, it spreads it. Tasks get fragmented across platforms, decisions are delayed, and accountability becomes harder to trace. At that point, the stack starts working against the team rather than supporting it.
There’s also a cultural layer to this. Artsiom Liashanau notes strong teams tend to challenge tools and build processes around actual needs – not for the sake of trends. Weaker teams do the opposite: they adjust themselves to some trending tools, even when it doesn’t quite fit. Over time, that creates friction that’s difficult to quantify but easy to feel.
Liashanau have no intention to put critique of technology itself. According to him, the tools are doing exactly what they’re designed to do. The mismatch appears when expectations are misplaced – when software is expected to fix organisational gaps that have little to do with technology in the first place.
In that sense, Artsiom Liashanau isn’t talking about tools – it’s rather about sequencing. Teams come first: their structure, clarity, and ability to operate independently without constant supervision. Only then does it make sense to scale processes with technology.
Otherwise, the result is familiar: more dashboards, more integrations, more complexity –and not necessarily better outcomes.
