Sanjay Rishi is back in India working on a model to take American Express to the masses.
I had first met him almost ten years ago when he was American Express’ country manager for India; Rishi was at that time putting together American Express’ delivery centres in India. He has recently relocated to Delhi after eight years in New York and London. The only change is the streaks of grey in his hair. “You have to put on a cloak of responsibility,” he jokes. Rishi, for the record, has been with American Express for 24 years.
Blue Ginger is the Vietnamese restaurant in the Taj Palace hotel. It’s the brainchild of Grand Master Chef Hemant Oberoi. The décor is colonial Hanoi. The food has Chinese, Thai, French and Indian influences, and, we are told, is low on calories and prepared by Vietnamese chefs. The menu has hot and cold appetisers, soups, curries, grills et al. We select papaya salad, spicy chicken gravy with lemongrass, grilled fish (Hanoi style) and fried rice. There is Vietnamese music playing. Since we are the only diners, our request to turn down the volume is not ignored.
The Rishis are the power couple of India Inc. His wife is Vibha Paul Rishi, earlier of PepsiCo and now Future Group. Her golden moment was in 1996 when she ambushed Coca-Cola with the “nothing official about it” campaign during the World Cup of cricket. Her brother is Vivek Paul, the former Wipro honcho.
“Haven’t you,” I ask Rishi, “been tempted to pool together the human resources within the family and start a business?” His current assignment, replies Rishi, is no less entrepreneurial in nature. “What I am doing here gives me the same kick. It has all the unknowns of an entrepreneurial venture — there are no precedents, and there are some bets you have to place. If you make the right call, the returns can be high. This is a special time. I am planning to be successful, there are no other options.”
Dinner-time conversations at home, he adds, are not about power-point presentations or balance sheets; they are about mundane matters like how they got duped by the kids for pocket money.
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What exactly is this entrepreneurial stuff? Simply put, Rishi wants to take American Express to the masses. At the moment, it plays in the premium category. To get an American Express card, you should earn at least Rs 8,00,000 a year. But the bulk of the consumer spending takes place in the income category of $4,000-10,000 (Rs 1,80,000-4,50,000) a year. This is the segment he wants to tap.
The Reserve Bank of India’s drive for financial inclusion and electronic payment is what encourages him. “Our view is that the lower segment is under-served from the perspective of the right non-cash payment option because it is not well documented,” says Rishi. “The risk-management ecosystems are still developing. Credit bureaus normally don’t access those segments. The credit and collection machinery is hard to put behind those segments because they are widely distributed across the country.”
So what’s the plan? There are actually four strands to it. One, there could be a debit card for the poor because credit cards require a higher degree of risk assessment. “It does not mean we will brand everything American Express. We might work with an alternate brand; it could be created especially for India. But the underlying capabilities will be of American Express,” says Rishi. “And we are the originators of pre-paid instruments; we launched the American Express traveller’s cheques over a hundred years ago.”
Two, the merchant network will be expanded down the value chain. He knows this is easier said than done. “The infrastructure for electronic payment requires a phone line and a point-of-sale terminal. For the banks who manage the merchant, putting a point-of-sale terminal for somebody of that size is not viable,” says Rishi. “You have to find a way for small retailers to transact effortlessly with consumers using a wide range of non-cash options. That would be a transformational experience.” There are four to five million retailers in the country who file a sales-tax return, whereas the number of locations that accept any form of a credit card is 450,000. The upside certainly looks big.The third piece is the use of mobile phones for payments. And the fourth is remittances within the country – workers, domestic servants and others sending money from cities and towns to their distant villages – using the mobile SMS platform. Here’s how it’ll work: The person in the city gives the money to a person designated by American Express and then sends an SMS to his family to collect the money from another person authorised by American Express in the village or the nearby town after showing proof of identity. Rishi is excited about the plans and has barely touched the cold papaya salad. “Your grub,” I tell him, “will go warm if you don’t eat.”
The main course arrives. The fish comes with chilly-flakes — we are supposed to dab a lemon slice onto them and squeeze it over the fish. The smoked flavour is unmistakable. If Rishi’s plans meet with success, there is a good chance that American Express may take these tools to other emerging markets as well. “We like to think of our assets as global assets,” he says. Not for nothing does Rishi travel to New York every month to brief his bosses. He maintains an apartment in Manhattan. “I often travel to New York with just my laptop and my book. I have a wardrobe here and one there. I settle into New York life immediately after I land there,” says he. Between Gurgaon and Manhattan, which flat is bigger? “Both the flats are big enough for our needs. Manhattan is a small apartment but every room has a view of the Hudson and New Jersey beyond it. But India has conveniences,” Rishi says.
Perhaps out of nostalgia, Rishi asks for an Americano. It’s not available; so he settles for Espresso. He talks fondly of the high energy in New York. But he finds Delhi no less exciting. “It amazes me to see how much Delhi has changed — the number of cars, the real estate and some terrific infrastructure. But the attitude remains the same — aggressive, can-do. You see that in the body language and the way people speak. You don’t see it in other cities as much as you see it in Delhi.” But he agrees that “kindness would be hard to find here”.
His sharp eye catches the credit card I have handed to the waitress: “I need to sell you an American Express card.” Rishi, clearly, is not one to miss any opportunity for business.