on-the-London-FinTech-Podcast.png">on-the-London-FinTech-Podcast.png" alt="" width="792" height="569">

In this Brexiting Age the UK must turn its thoughts once again worldwide – how does one do business around the world? How important is localisation vs globalisation? What role does culture play? Aneesh Varma is the founder of Aire, one of Fintechs longest-standing credit-rating firms who have scored over $10bn of VAR to date. Having lived in 11 countries and had businesses in 4, Aneesh knows more than most on this topic. 

Varma.jpg">Varma-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150">

Aneesh was awarded the British Council’s 2009 Young Entrepreneur.and was nominated for the  European Commission’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2014.

Having lived in so many places and self-described as a “3rd culture citizen” he is well placed (ha! see what I did there :-D) to give us some perspective on important 21stC issues of identity, culture and migration and in particular how they affect business and Fintech.

Topics discussed on the show include:

• Aneesh’s connection to Charlie Delingpole, last episode’s guest
• what is a 3rd culture citizen?
• Aneesh’s moves round the world ending up with now 14yrs in the UK
• why immigration is such a hot potato – super-rapid, huge increase in population and lack of this being evenly spread
• how badly it has been managed – despite 6.5m new immigrants in recent 15-20yrs there is a developer shortage :-O
• immigrant means someone from 99% of humanity – un-generalisable
• “Aire’s aim is to show that a global company can be built out of the UK”
• Aneesh’ US experiences in seeing how globalisation can have a negative effect on some communities (eg Steel in Pennsylvania)
• Aneesh’ 11 countries
• fitting in versus standing out – sheep, goats – entrepreneurs as goats
• being a nomad as a child – what’s that like?
• Aneesh’ first business in Japan when he was 16
• His interest in branding and what it means – culture, values
• his book on Aire’s culture, branding and values – the importance of establishing these
• Aristotle and ethics
• Aneesh’ second business building a browser – lessons learned
• Why strategy is important. What is it?
• Culture and strategy – how do they relate?
• The postmodern/multicultural dilemma – culture is the glue – you need a common glue to create a society at large – or a business at the smallest scale
• Bankruptcy and culture as an example – US vs UK attitudes
• Multiculturalism as ever-present – Disraeli’s two nations as an example, and hence his approach of binding them together with the glue or patriotism; ditto businesses – salesmen and traders have always had different cultures
• Aneesh’s third business (ecommerce) split between UK and China – the cultural challenges of that and differences of attitude
• China and business culture and the challenges of UK companies succeeding
• US and business culture and the challenges of UK companies succeeding
• Aire needs to succeed in the US
• Aneesh’ prima facies for succeeding in the US
• localisation and globalisation – highly-localising businesses versus highly one-size-fits-all tech globalising
• “in Fintech the Fin part is much stronger and therefore lots of localisation is required”
• Toyota’s Genchi Genbutsu principle – get to he factory floor, get into the countryside of the US – don’t just fly in and out of hotels and meetings rooms
• more reflections on US success recipes
• explanation of Aire’s raison d’etre and goals as a modern credit bureau – meeting between people and companies
• Aire giving control of credit back to people – this being good for the people as well as leading to a better rating
• Aire’s global plans and interaction with consumers

And much much more

Share and enjoy!