Leadership Series. Vol 5: Issue 24

Transcription

1 Boyden s Leadership Series presents discussions with business and thought leaders from organisations across the globe. The series focuses on topical issues that offer executives, political leaders and the media insight into current trends in business and talent management in the global marketplace. This issue features Chris Clark, Group Executive, Asia-Pacific at Visa Inc. He discusses effectively leading in the multicultural Asia-Pacific region, digital commerce trends, cybercrime challenges, his Australian style of managing people, and the importance of personal engagement in leadership. Chris Clark For the BOYDEN VIEW on talent acquisition in Asia-Pacific, continue to page 7. Based in Singapore, Mr Clark is responsible for the operation of Visa s businesses in the region. He has been with the company for over a decade and has served in a variety of roles across Asia. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne, and has attended executive programs at both INSEAD and Stanford University. Boyden: In your career you ve worked in various senior management roles across Asia-Pacific [AP]. What key leadership lessons have you learned along the way, particularly related to AP? Clark: I don t think leadership in the Asia-Pacific region is any different from anywhere else in the world. Looking at my career spanning 25 years 10 of which have been in Australia and 15 in the rest of AP I ve had a really good balance of exposure to the western approach of working as well as the Asian approach, both of which have been good for me at different times. For me, the big takeaway in terms of leadership, in any part of the world, is the importance of enabling and empowering the people you work with. One of the biggest issues global companies face is that people tend to work in silos. Managing this challenge also holds true in my case, managing multiple countries with different languages and cultures. From a corporate perspective, empowering people to work together is critical to getting results. Another lesson I ve learned is the importance of encouraging and recognising people, irrespective of the culture. It s important to tell people often when they are doing good things and making a difference, but it s also equally important to let them know when things aren t going so well. It s all about good communication. Boyden: What attracted you to pursuing a career in Asia, or was some happenstance involved? Clark: It s probably a combination of both. I started learning Chinese when I was in grade school and continued with it throughout my academic career. Postuniversity, in the 1980s, I taught English in China, and it kind of went from there. I ve spent my time working in Thailand, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Japan and now Singapore, along with years in Australia interspersed in between. For me this diverse exposure has given my career a good balance. Boyden: For Visa, what s unique to running the company s AP business vis-à-vis other parts of the world? Clark: I think similar leadership skills are required in running a business anywhere in the world, but the key

2 p. 2 priorities are enabling and empowering others to build a collaborative work environment, having a clear vision for the team, walking the talk, and encouraging everyone to challenge the process. You ve got to surround yourself with a great team, because you are only as good as the people you work with. That s hugely important. In terms of leading an AP business, it s important to have the ability to think about what the future is going to look like, particularly because the region is so diverse, and developing and changing so rapidly and unequally. For instance, New Zealand is very different to India, China, Australia and Singapore, and every country in the region is developing at a different pace. One of the big issues we face in AP is that in some countries there is a very limited and expensive talent pool. For example, in places like Korea, China and Japan, you really need people with bilingual language skills. Actually in every country, if you re going to be doing business locally, you need people with local language skills and business experience, and that can be hard to find. Boyden: What challenges and opportunities do you face in managing this cross-cultural business network? Clark: The most important thing is the need to be culturally sensitive. I also believe it s important to not overdo it and be yourself. One piece of advice my father gave me as a young man, when we were talking about working overseas and in different places, was remember to always treat other people the way you d want to be treated yourself, and you can t go wrong. It doesn t matter what country you go to or where you work. Frankly speaking, I ve always kept that front-of-mind in all my dealings with people anywhere. It s straightforward, simple and holds true. Boyden: How would you describe the current state of the Asia-Pacific business, given concerns that economies in some developing markets may be slowing? Clark: I think the diversity of AP is what makes it so interesting, because you are always going to have some markets that are growing faster than others. For example, China is growing at a very healthy pace, even though it s slowed a little, but now there are other economies in the region that are developing more rapidly. Countries like New Zealand and Australia also have some really healthy economic growth rates right now. In general, AP is a solid growth region. For the electronic payments industry in particular, Japan is one of our biggest opportunities because even though it s only now emerging from 20 years of slow growth, it s a cash economy and electronic payments or credit and debit cards are not widely used. So for us there s a big upside. Boyden: That s an interesting point that in some ways a developed economy like Japan is an emerging one with regards to your business. Someone who is not in your business wouldn t think about that. Clark: Exactly, and not that I would ever want to refer to Japan as an emerging economy, but yes electronic payments

3 p. 3 are very much in the growth phase in Japan, even though Visa has been in the country since Japan was the first country in AP to start issuing Visa cards, while we started doing business in the US in Although e-payments were adopted early in Japan, it s been very slow to take off and is only now growing more rapidly. Boyden: Cybercrime is fast becoming one of the biggest marketplace challenges. How is Visa coping with the issue of protecting consumer data and staying ahead of the curve? Clark: Because of the very nature of our business we have to be all over this issue. I would say it s something that s been recognised in the United States a lot later than the rest of the world. Whether it s in Europe, AP or so many parts of the world, you ll see that many people have a chip in their cards, which is what we call EMV or smart chip technology. Not only do consumers need to have a chip in their payment cards but merchants also need to have terminals that are capable of reading that chip. If both sides don t have the same technology, it isn t going to work, and that s often been the situation in places like the United States. Visa has always been a leader in EMV chip migration and encryption according to payment card industry security standards. Because of the security issues merchants have faced recently, the United States is also committed to adapting chip technology over the next few years. At Visa, our top priority is protecting people s personal information and identifying potential security issues before banks, merchants and our cardholders are affected. Boyden: There s a lot of hype about the virtual currency infrastructure Bitcoin, and mobile payment platforms like Square, Google Wallet and PayPal revolutionizing the future of the digital payments industry. What are your predictions on the long-term staying power of these digital payment trends? Clark: Visa s system supports 175 physical currencies in over 200 markets and territories worldwide. We don t yet support virtual currencies, but we are obviously very closely watching forms of virtual currency which are in development. Personally, I find it very interesting and it seems there are very different views on virtual currency from a regulatory jurisdiction and financial institution standpoint, with no definitive conclusions yet. In terms of the other digital payment platforms, including those offered by PayPal, Google and mobile point-ofsale devices like Square, we welcome innovation as it helps to drive the industry forward. The interesting thing is that many of these payment platforms actually use Visa accounts as their funding mechanism. From our perspective, it s yet another way to shift payments from cash to electronic means, especially for e-commerce. Our view is anything that gets rid of cash is a good thing. Boyden: What growth opportunities and challenges do you foresee in digital commerce in the next five to 10 years? Clark: There is no question that the scope of growth for digital commerce is almost limitless. Every year, the pie of personal consumption expenditure grows, and emerging markets are

4 p. 4 playing a bigger role in this growth. Countries like India and China, for instance, are growing very rapidly and witnessing a surge in mobile commerce initiatives. As the pie grows quickly, financial institutions and cardholders are looking for brands and companies they can trust with their money and personal information. Boyden: How would you describe your management style? Clark: What you see is what you get. I m Australian and one of our traits is certainly being very up front, direct and honest, which is important. As I mentioned earlier, I also believe in treating people the way you want to be treated yourself. That s my fundamental tenet. Personally I m very focused and driven, and as I also mentioned, giving feedback and recognising people is all part of my leadership style. Boyden: What are the difficulties in managing an emerging market versus a more mature market? Clark: I d say there are some unique challenges in managing an emerging market, including having fundamentals like a stable infrastructure in place. For instance, Myanmar is a country that is opening up to foreign investment and it s a frontier market for us. But before we could start talking about electronic payments, we needed to ensure a stable infrastructure, like adequate electricity supply and a functioning and workable 24/7 telecom system were in place. You also must address the human infrastructure challenges in emerging markets, which are more challenging than in more developed markets. Boyden: In recruitment, what are the top three qualities you look for in managers and your direct reports? Clark: I personally like and need the people who work with me to be prepared to challenge me. I ask every single day, Please challenge me. Please give me your view. Please tell me I m wrong. Our leadership team is comprised of a bunch of really smart people, but if they just nod their heads at everything I say, then we are never going to be successful. The spirit of inquisitiveness is something I encourage and look for in the team. Obviously, knowledge of the industry, being able to work as a team and being focused on delivering results are all qualities I look for in my managers as well. Also, having a sense of fun is equally important. We spend more time generally in the office with our colleagues than we do at home with our families, so if we re going to have an environment that s uninteresting, then goodness me, what s the point? Boyden: In which of Visa s Asia-Pacific markets have you found it most difficult to recruit talent and why? Clark: All of the AP markets can be challenging to find good local talent. The pool can be quite small, and quite often, countries have regulatory requirements where we have to hire a certain number of local employees whose skill sets don t fully match our needs. I have to tell you, the electronic payments industry is not exactly one of the easiest industries in the world to hire for. It s harder to find experts in

5 p. 5 our industry, and we do tend to bring in people with varied backgrounds. I ll take just two markets for example. China has a fantastic pool of really good talent and the country has always had an amazing education system, but this talent is expensive to hire and moves around a lot, even for very small salary increments. Retention of good people can often be a challenge there. Japan, on the contrary, is a market where people traditionally tend to stay with their companies for longer periods of time, and ironically, that in itself can present a challenge when you are looking to grow people through the organisation and move them around to do different things. Boyden: What role does mentorship play in accelerating progression in one s career? Who has played a big role as an advisor or mentor to you? Clark: Mentorship is very important for the success of any developing executive. At the moment we re rolling out a new mentoring program at Visa wherein I ve encouraged as many of the AP leadership teams as possible to act as mentors to our people. We ve had well over 100 staff members volunteer to participate in this program so far. I personally have had more than one mentor in my career, all of whom at one time or another have been bosses of mine. Each one of them taught me very different things, but the biggest lesson I learned was to never underestimate the power of personal engagement with all people at all levels in the organisation. This wasn t necessarily a strength they all had, which only served to highlight to me how important personal engagement is to team motivation. Now that I m at a point in my career where I m looking after a region myself, I actually don t have a specific internal mentor anymore I m the one who is mentoring others. Boyden: Are there any resources you d recommend to someone looking to gain insight into becoming a better leader? Clark: Although there are many books and courses out there about how to become a great leader, for me it still comes back to the fundamentals of enabling people, encouraging and recognising talent, having a vision and walking the talk, challenging the process and challenging others around you. These are all pretty basic things. I believe vision is important, but if you talk to your team about an unattainable vision that s so far away, they re not going to work with you and trust and follow your vision. Everything you talk to people about has to be attainable and within reason. Boyden: In what ways do you see new technologies affecting leadership and leaders? Clark: One of the things I ve observed is that as we ve seen new technologies take hold of our everyday way of doing business, human interaction and personal contact has diminished. I m a huge believer in a walking the halls management approach if I m in the office, I ll try to spend at least a half to one hour every day just walking around

6 p. 6 and engaging in conversation with people and saying hello. New technologies certainly enable us to communicate in ways we could never have dreamed of 10 or 15 years ago, but they need to be used appropriately and with caution. One of the pitfalls that modern leaders face, especially the ones that might have been brought up in much more of a digital generation, is losing the ability to have a personal touch and face-toface interaction. If you are the person at the end of an all the time, you are anonymous. That s why we still have meetings in person. That s why we go to different countries to visit people and our clients. Human interaction is so fundamentally important. We would like to thank William Farrell of Boyden Greater China for making this edition of Boyden s Leadership Series possible. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of Boyden or Visa; only those of Mr Clark. For Mr Farrell s insight into talent acquisition in financial services in Asia- Pacific, please continue to the Boyden View section. Boyden: If you had one do-over opportunity in your career or in a decision in a role at a company, what would you do differently? Clark: There are so many things we ve all done that we probably regret and would like to do again. One of the big things about leadership, and just life in general, is learning to embrace making mistakes. I d be lying if I said I ve never done the wrong thing or taken risks and made mistakes but that s what makes us better. If I had to re-do anything, I d have been a lot bolder in my 20s when I was starting out in my career. I was probably a little too conservative, thinking that you always have to follow a certain career path. I was in banking back then. If I could do it again, I d be more entrepreneurial, take more risks and not follow the safe path.

7 p. 7 The Boyden View: Cultural Sensitivity a Top Client Priority in Asia-Pacific William Farrell is a Boyden Board Member and the firm s Managing Partner in Greater China Which financial services roles are in highest demand in Greater China and Asia-Pacific? For some time now there has been an increase in demand for compliance and risk management senior executives. In financial services this includes antimoney laundering expertise as well. Chief Technology Officers are also in demand. For companies such as Visa that combine financial services and consumer elements, are technology officers moving even higher up client lists as critical roles? As technology plays a larger and larger role in our lives, it plays a larger role in the business planning and strategy of corporations across the board. Companies that offer financial service products and services to the consumer are no exception. In fact companies like Visa and their partner banks have played a leading role in utilising technology in their product offering to the market as well as for internal communication, monitoring and planning. As a result, technology directors or Chief Technology Officers are playing an increasingly important role in our client organisations. Service delivery, product development and customer communication are all closely tied to technology. Is Greater China the most competitive market for the best candidates in Asia-Pacific or do other markets rival China in difficulty? Greater China is indeed a very competitive market for talent in the Asia-Pacific region. China in particular remains an important and very challenging market for many companies in a wide range of industries. The war for talent is alive and well in China. The combination of this high demand and a relatively thin talent pool drives this competiveness. The rapid growth in China and some of the environmental impacts have also made China, for some candidates, a less desirable location. That said, we find Korea and parts of South East Asia also competitive. With expectations for increased growth in India, that market will see its challenges as well. But today Greater China may indeed be the most competitive. Today, what are often the most important differentiators in the most sought-after executives, especially in the financial services sector in Asia-Pacific? When we talk to our clients about the kind of candidates they wish to see for leadership positions in Asia, there are some recurring themes. Most often our clients are looking for the candidate that has developed market experience. That could be in Hong Kong or Singapore, but ideally New York, London, or other

8 p. 8 The Boyden View: Cultural Sensitivity a Top Client Priority in Asia-Pacific major markets in the West. But in addition to that, emerging market experience in Asia is a must. Successful companies in the region understand that one cannot simply replicate the template for success, for example in the US, and expect that to work out in Asia. Clients expect to hire candidates with ample experience working for multinational companies, but they re also attuned to differences in the business environments between the West and East. Perhaps, as important, they re also attuned to the vast differences in cultures within Asia. Thus, candidates with a proven track record of success in the region and those that demonstrate a high degree of cultural understanding and sensitivity are highly desirable. Only then do the financial service organisations believe they have true potential to develop deep and meaningful relationships with their on-the-ground staffs and customers.