My 10 Learnings At BankBazaar The BankBazaar CEO talks about ten aspects of life and business he learnt while building the fintech giant
By Adhil Shetty
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WHAT I'VE LEARNT ABOUT CUSTOMERS
The customer needs to be at centre of decision making in a company. Before you take a decision, you ask the question of yourself: will the decision be right for the customer? What I've realized is the right decision is always arrived at by knowing that such a decision will improve customer experience on BankBazaar.
WHAT I'VE LEARNT ABOUT FOLLOWING A MISSION
The BankBazaar mission is to help customers access the right financial product. This also helps explain the lengths we've gone with our new book, The Bee, The Beetle and the Money Bug, to simplify personal finance. When we help consumers do what's right for them, it provides us a narrow, singular focus—it's a pointer towards the right business decisions.
WHAT I'VE LEARNT ABOUT THE FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY
The industry is an ideal one for innovation. There are no physical goods. We're moving virtual credit and debits between Point A and Point B, post validation. Therefore, the industry is suited to technological innovation. I've also learnt how critical information security is to the industry. While we innovate, as a business we adhere to the highest standards of compliance and information security.
WHAT I'VE LEARNT ABOUT FINTECH
Every investor wants a piece of fintech. During BankBazaar's formative years, I also learnt that fintech is a cross-functional industry. For it to succeed, technology, regulators, and financial institutions must work in tandem.
WHAT I'VE LEARNT ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT
The government is very keen on democratizing access to finance. It has learnt that the only way to do it is through technology. My learning is to align what BankBazaar wants to promote, which is paperless, presence-less banking, with what the government wants to do, which is democratizing finance.
WHAT I'VE LEARNT ABOUT FAMILY
Coke CEO Brian Dysononce said that life is about juggling five balls: work, family, friends, health, and spirit. He said—and his views resonate with me—that we need to be most careful while juggling one ball: family. It's the most important ball because it's irreplaceable.
WHAT I'VE LEARNT ABOUT INVESTORS
Money is not the only thing that an investor brings. They can also bring the ability to accelerate the pace at which a company is moving to its vision. I've learnt that it's important to onboard investors who share our long-term vision on paperless financial products.
WHAT I'VE LEARNT ABOUT LEADERSHIP
I've learnt it is important to listen. It's also important to bring on people better than me at what they do. My learning has been that always try and onboard industry experts or professionals who're better than me, and let them work their magic.
WHAT I'VE LEARNT ABOUT COMPETITION
In his 1988 film The Big Blue (Le Grand Blue), director Luc Besson captures the sporting rivalry of two deep sea divers entwined in life and death. Deep sea diving is a dangerous sport. However, bot diverskeep inspiring each other to greater depths. At one point in the film, one diver pays for the airfare of the other so he may come to compete alongside him. Competition is good. It makes us better.
WHAT I'VE LEARNT ABOUT MYSELF
One—I need to be more patient. Two—I've learnt that what keeps me motivated is that I find what I do very challenging. Today, what I do is different from what I was doing 10 years ago. But today I still find myself challenged by different issues.
