The Wit and Wisdom of Master Card CEO Ajay Banga
Ajay Banga, executive chairman and former longtime CEO of global payment platform Mastercard, offered a selection of wit and wisdom during a meeting with Fortune magazine fellows. The views of the Pune, India, born master executive follow:
On success:
“Life is 50 per cent luck.
The other 50 per cent is what you do with it when it is passing by. Do you grab it and seize it and get on the train for a great ride, or do you let it go by?”
On his leadership mentors:
“Watching my dad when he was a general in the (Indian) Army, he used to pay the same level of interest to our driver and the security guard at the gate that he did to a visiting colleague.”
On leadership:
“I actually believe that humility and humour are great assets to have as a leader…
If you come into the prospect of leadership as a privilege you were granted, not as a birthright, it is easier to embrace the idea of humility and humour as your companions.”
On whether his appearance has affected his career path (Banga is a Sikh, who wears a turban and full beard):
“Never let your looks get in the way of your story.”
On the business lessons of Lord of the Rings:
“If you just sit in your castle (when the hordes are attacking), and you first throw rocks at them, then you shoot arrows, and then you throw oil over the edge, sooner or later there are more of them than you, they will breach your wall, they will cross your moat, and they will get into your home.
The only way for you to stay alive is to move the castle around, move the moat around, and create the ability to be nimble and agile yourself.”
On crypto currencies:
“Central bank digital currencies are really interesting. Stablecoins a little less so. Bitcoin, not really. “
On “fixing” capitalism:
“I dislike words like stakeholder capitalism…. It feels like attaching a good word in front of capitalism makes the bad word become better.
My problem with that is you are positioning capitalism as a bad word…
I argue capitalism has done really well in the last 40-50 years in terms of growth in the world economy, reduction of poverty….(But) capitalism unfettered, left only to capitalists, run by people who are the biggest beneficiaries, is not the right way to go. You need checks and balances.The checks and balances went missing for a while.”