Name: Watch This CEO Discuss Basketball, Good Business, and Moving Money
Uploaded: 2018-01-22
Duration: 4 min 23 s
Description: Hikmet Ersek still uses lessons he learned as a professional basketball player in his business strategies.

Ersek You grew in Europe, your father is Turkish, your mother is Austrian, and in your early days you were playing pro- basketball for Austria. And I don' think I know too many CEOs of a Fortune 500 company who can say that, how did your background prepare you to be a leader? You love what you do. But you have to competitive also, it's not only because it's not our hobby, it's really, you have to be the best. And I still use some of the tools especially during the crisis situation, take a time out, get back with your team, and really understand, analyse a situation. And it is important to stretch the team and really going to the next level. I do that with my team in Western Union. That helps me a lot what i learned from basketball .>> before you came to Western Union you worked at a number of European financial services companies. You are also fluent in a couple of languages. how much has that helped you to be CEO of Western Union. Being a successful CEO it's important that you put your ego to side and really understand the needs of the customers and our customers come from 200 different countries. You have to have multi- cultural competency You have to be multilingual. I think the multicultural competence I have helped a lot. Because if you go and negotiate with the reserve banks in Asia or you go in Latin America negotiate with agents or understanding the customer In Finland or in Columbia or in South Africa. It is different needs, you have to adapt yourself to the situation .>> I understand you also have a special talent. For identifying smart, talented people. What is the charateristic that you look for the most ?>> First of all they have to be doers. You know they shouldn; t be shy to travel around and make things happen. the second thing is that They should have a big heart. Our customers are special. Our customers sometimes takes miles, days to come to a country. They work hard, they change this country where they arrived. they work hard and we should understand them and I am looking for people who really Understand that hardship journey and have a big heart for them. So you are in a business where technology and new innovation seperate the winners from the losers. What are you doing to be successful? So that you're one of the winners and not the losers. Six years ago we made a bold move, invested heavily in our digital business. And we asked for a leader. And everybody will get someone from the Bay Area, we opened an office in San Francisco. We were looking for a leader. And I went to Africa, and asked my head of Africa business. And say that, would you run the business, about our digital business. And he went there, and it's currently we have is our most successful business. We're growing by 25 % and The combination of understanding customer needs, and the digital experience was the success story. So are you telling me that in Silicon Valley, with its huge talent pool, you couldn't find somebody to head up your operations right there in your backyard? I'm not saying [ UNKNOWN ] people there, but the most important thing is I found someone who were understanding the needs of the customer on both sides. Because our business connecting the people, connecting cross borderless people, and somebody understands the needs of the people in Africa and understand standard needs in Silicon Valley that was perfect. You seem to have a very distinctive way of running Western Union. How do you communicate that message to the people who work for you? I think I told Hundreds of times of how I sent money to my father. It was not easy to send money from Europe to Turkey, and I said if I have that issue then millions of customers must have the same issue. And I said okay, that could be good something. And I'd tell this story in my management meeting I told this story maybe 100 times. And I do tell other stories 100 times. And I combine that with our strategy. And being authentic is, I believe, one of the most important things for a CEO. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Hikmet Ersek still uses lessons he learned as a professional basketball player in his business strategies.