How MasterCard Became a Tech Company

摘要

Four years after taking the helm, CEO AJAY BANGA has turned the payments processor into an innovator. The stock's response? Priceless. AJAY BANGA LOVES TO TALK about the wonders of a cashless society, but every now and then it can backfire. At his first offsite leadership meeting after taking over as president and CEO of MasterCard, he gave his senior team a spirited speech about the downside of cash-it's hard to track; it's used for drugs, weapons, and tax evasion; and it's expensive to make (just the cost to produce and distribute it can run the central bank of an average country up to 1.5% of GDP). As he concluded his remarks, one of the executives in the room, at the Fontainebleau in Miami, challenged Banga to show the group how much cash he had on him. Banga opened his wallet and pulled out $2, at which point the group chided him. "The others basically said, 'What a cheap guy-he can't even tip the bellboy,'" Banga recalls. "And they were right. I didn't tip the bellboy!"