Just Lucidly Crazy

HATIM A. TYABJI, 52, chairman and CEO of California-based transaction automation giant VeriFone, defies labels. Don’t call him a manager or an engineer. This workaholic has a description all his own: he once called himself "lucidly crazy".

"Probably, the lucidly crazy worka-holic characterisation is the most apt," guffaws Tyabji. But remind him of the radical work culture he has spawned across the globe, turning existing management theories on their head, and he turns serious. "I’m not a manager, I am a leader," he says without false modesty. For modesty, he has learnt, is a virtue that doesn’t behove the head of a company which has captured 65 per cent of the global and 75 per cent of the US transaction automation market.

Leader he certainly is. As also the chief architect of VeriFone’s dramatic change of fortune. From a loss-making concern in 1986 to one where profit is a way of life, year after year. From annual revenues of $31.2 million in 1986 to $472.5 million in 1996, with an operating income of  $53.5 million. From being a California-based company whose operations did not extend beyond east of Chicago to a global company with operations in 100 countries. And from a company manufacturing boxes for point-of-sale credit card verification to a corporation that offers the entire gamut of solutions, not just hardware and software, but transaction automation. But more importantly, this Mumbai-born electrical engineer from Pune has transformed a little-known company into a corporation that is admired worldwide for its work culture. Management gurus like Tom Peters routinely cite it as an example of the way companies will be run in the 21st century.

His is a company that never goes to sleep. Tyabji initiated the VeriFone "relay race", when the company stunned a consortium of German banks in 1993 by submitting a proposal for a payment authorisation system only a few days after the banks issued requests for the proposals. Following their request, work at VeriFone chased the sun across the world: beginning at dawn in the Redwood City office, California; downloaded to Taipei, where day was just breaking; sent off again to a London, where fresh VeriFoners took on the work baton and retransmitted back to Redwood City where executives were beginning to arrive after a good night’s sleep. Making most of the day, VeriFone acquired 80 per cent of the consortium’s business, while slower-paced competitors struggled to retain the remaining 20 per cent.

But given his company’s dependence on telecom and infotech, does Tyabji put PCs before people on his priority list? Definitely not, if you go by his description of a VeriFoner. "A VeriFoner," says he, "is fundamentally an individual who generally speaking is very intense, very resourceful, and who has a high degree of human compassion." Qualities that may perhaps sound incongruous in the cut-throat world of information technology. But so were concepts like the "culture of urgency" or "virtual  office" until Tyabji came along, sparking the terms to kickstart VeriFone— and himself— into the future of an already speeding infotech world. Giving resourcefulness a whole new meaning.

Tyabji is a firm believer in leading by example. And so he spends 85 per cent of the year in hotels, at airports and on aircraft, flashing across the globe much like a message through a 64 kb link to different parts of the world. Achieving his objective of physically keeping in touch with his clients and VeriFone branches. A similar mission brought Tyabji to Bangalore last fortnight, where he inaugurated the company’s new Rs 15-crore office facility. In transit at London for six hours on his way to Bangalore, Tyabji checked into a hotel, shaved, showered and logged on to San Francisco on his laptop, "completely caught up with work" before boarding the aircraft again. Office obviously is where his laptop is.

Psychology is a subject close to Tyabji’s heart. "My fundamental ethos in management is 95 per cent psychology and 5 per cent technology. At the end of the day, you are dealing with human beings. E-mail and all that is fine but there is nothing that can replace human emotions. The day one forgets that or gives short shrift to that, heaven help us all." A visiting teacher at some of the world’s best management schools, Tyabji regrets that psychology is not an important subject of study in MBA programmes.

Which is the reason behind VeriFone developing the eight-point credo that its people are supposed to live by (see box). "If you ask me for any distinguishing characteristics between VeriFone and any other company, I would submit to you that the fundamental distinguishing characteristics are not the information systems— and they are pretty profound— but it is caring for our people, and genuinely looking after them that separates us from any other company," says Tyabji.

AND so VeriFone employees can casually walk in and out of office so long as they stay committed to their goals. Secretaries are alien, managing directors can be seen escorting visitors on their own. P-mail (paper mail) is another taboo. All are welcome to use the e-mail, even if it is to criticise the C E O for his lousy policies. Logging in is a religion at VeriFone — newly -recruited professionals are given laptops before they are allotted seats. In fact, so adamant is Tyabji about this particular rule that he refused to approve the opening of a software development facility in Bangalore in 1990 as telecommunication lines in India’s  Silicon Valley were considered untrust worthy at that time. The facility was approved only after a dedicated link was obtained by the company.

Trust is the foundation on which Tyabji has laid the VeriFone culture. Says he: "It is very easy to say ‘trust a person’. But it is very difficult to do that, and it is very difficult to do that over sustained periods of time." A fairly public person, Tyabji’s personal phone number is not listed in the San Francisco directory, but can be found easily in the VeriFone directory under his first name. "Though I jealously guard my privacy, I have no problem with the 3,000 VeriFoners across the world. And you think about the element of trust, as it is not just the 3,000 VeriFoners in the company today but many many others who have been with VeriFone as my number has not changed in 11 years."

Yet, despite the success he enjoys alread y, Tyabji is not ready to bow out. Success, for him, does not depend on the size of his corporation or its revenues. "I will have succeeded when I am not needed by the company. And I am working very, very hard so that I am not needed and can be made redundant. How long that will take, however, is a question I wouldn’t want to answer."

And so he remains a busy man. Busy spending time with his family when he has attended to the needs of his company. Family is his wife— his childhood sweetheart— and two computer engineer sons. The Tyabjis keep in touch on e-mail when one or more of them is on the move. And get together for downhill skiing or sky-diving when Tyabji senior has time off from his daily reading of human psychology and military history books.

Amidst all that, he continues to lead. Says Tyabji: "The key element of leadership is the ability to inspire people to follow you and where they are going to do things which they did not feel they were capable of doing." There is no stopping him and VeriFoners won’t stop needing him. ‘The Transaction Automation Company’ is all set to become ‘The Global Secure Payments Company’. Sounds like a workaholic’s excuse? Or maybe he is just being lucidly crazy.