11 minute read
Corporate lies S M Talib Rizvi
OPINION
S.M. Talib Rizvi
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Corporate lies
by some key factors. Individuals, at all levels of the hierarchy, do not want to expose their inadequacies and want to give the impression that they are competent. Individuals want to ensure that they maintain a positive image in the minds of their co-workers “A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on.” and this often results in them hiding their errors through dubious - Terry Pratchett means. Moreover, competition between employees may result in Organizations have to constantly deal with a myriad of problems and challenges that inhibit their potential to grow. Issues such as lack of vision, flawed business strategy and poor customer service have led to the fall of several organizations throughout history. situations where individuals place greater emphasis on their own career progress at the expense of the organization. This leads to individuals often engaging in subtle lies to either undercut their fellow employees or misrepresent the true scale of their contributions. Additionally, certain employees are afraid of triggering conflicts and upsetting others. Their emotional attachment to a particular project may lead them to lie to others in order to avoid Whilst it is true that organizations may suffer from differ- causing them disappointment if the project is not going well. ent problems due to their unique set of circumstances, there are Despite these factors having a strong influence on individuals to certain issues that are almost universal across various corpora- engage in corporate lies, organizations are wary of the destructive tions in different industries. It is rare to find any organization impact that it may have on the organization at multiple levels and that does not suffer from ‘corporate lies’. want to take substantial measures to effectively handle this issue. Corporate lies have a dark history of causing chaos in Organizations can explore several avenues to tackle corpoorganizations and serving as the root cause of organizational rate lies. One of the most important elements is the development decline. A quite recent example of a major corporation engaging of a culture of honesty, fairness from the top management that in this practice is that of Volkswagen. It was found that they will trickle down the organization. This is crucial to provide had implemented softwares to misrepresent the contaminating employees with the confidence that being honest will serve as a impact of their engines on the environment in their supposedly key basis for their success in an organization. The emphasis on environment-friendly cars. fairness will ensure that people are rewarded for their work on This led to Volkswagen encountering a significant backlash merit and this would help in creating a positive organizational that forced their CEO to resign and suffering from legal actions culture based on honesty as employees will be incentivized to not that amounted to penalties of $9.5 million. As this example only to work hard to show their value to the organization, but shows, corporate lies have the power to damage the credibility of also to stay away from practices such as corporate lies that may organizations significantly by creating a negative perception in lead to them being viewed negatively. how various stakeholders look at the entity. Another avenue is the presence of strong internal processes Despite this reality, corporate lies occur in organizations on and procedures that tackle such lies firmly. This can be done in a daily basis. The prominence for this practice can be explained different ways such as having a strong policy against corporate lies in the company manual. This can help organizations to create examples out of employees that engage in lies by holding them accountable and ensuring that there is a greater level of transparency within the organization. Employees are also likely to engage in lies, in particular, when The writer is a senior they have to achieve unrealistic goals and deal with extremely tight deadlines. Therefore, professional banker with it is important that organizations focus on the well-being of employees by managing their varied experience spanning workload in a better fashion through setting realistic targets that would help to maintain a healthier workforce that is less likely to engage in unethical behavior. over 25 years Furthemore, organizations can employ various policies to deal with corporate lies. These can vary from providing regular training to employees on corporate ethics to the presence of a compliance culture where employees are regularly informed about the boundaries between right and wrong. Another common tactic is the presence of a well
managed whistle-blowing policy which would enable the organization to better identify corporate lies and deal with them in a more private manner. These are just some examples of ways organizations can employ to reduce the negative impact of corporate lies and provide a healthy working environment to its employees. Having a strong course of action against corporate lies is a key determinant of an organization’s success and whilst it is nearly impossible to completely remove them, organizations throughout the world have generally improved in this domain. This has helped not just well-renowned companies, but also startups and small companies to become more successful across different regions of the world. However, despite these improvements globally, organizations in Pakistan still suffer significantly from this issue. Organizations in Pakistan have found it difficult to take serious action against the presence of corporate lies in light of certain factors. Usually, employees tend to develop biases towards certain groups of people that they do not like and this often leads to the creation of factions within organizations that are competing against one another for their own interests. This dynamic fosters the growth of corporate lies as groups try to misrepresent each other for their goals and this often results in a difficult working environment.
Moreover, the ‘boss’ culture is very much prevalent in Pakistan, which allows a few individuals that wield significant power to use corporate lies for their own benefit, knowing that they will not be opposed. A typical example of this is how ‘bosses’ castigate those employees that have differing opinions from them and are often not allowed to reach their potential as their reputations take a significant hit from lies which are spread by ‘bosses’ that cannot be easily challenged. One of the most common breeding grounds for corporate lies is when employees decide to leave organizations. Whether it is supervisors, managers or fellow team members, people tend to cast a negative light on those that decide to leave the organization. This often leads to departing employees being labeled negatively through baseless claims that only leads to an uncomfortable environment for the particular employee. Such baseless claims and lies are often employed to maintain a positive image of the company in front of the workforce and change their perception of the departing employee.
Corporate lies lead to significant repercussions for organizations in Pakistan. Undoubtedly, organizations suffer from a poor culture where there is less trust and absence of strong working relationships between employees which often inhibit the potential of what a corporation can do. Moreover, as employees are often dragged down by ‘bosses’ through this tactic, organizations are unable to develop leaders within the organization, which makes it difficult for inhouse succession and leads to a greater reliance on a policy of acquisition of external talent. This can be deflating for the existing workforce who may choose to leave and also makes the organization a less attractive option for new talent that fear that their growth would be stunted. Moreover, ‘bosses’, who use such unethical tactics to manipulate various stakeholders towards their line of thinking, lead to the loss of human capital and poor decisions that damage the long-term prospects of the organization.
Throughout my 25-year banking career, I have been fortunate enough to see how dealing effectively with corporate lies impacts organizations. In Bank Alfalah, where I have worked in several senior positions over the course of 16 years, there was a strong culture created by the management that focused on taking strict action against corporate lies and investing in the development of young talent that would eventually become leaders at Alfalah. This development of talent and Alfalah’s rise were undoubtedly linked to how a culture of honesty and accountability was fostered and maintained over the years. It is imperative that Pakistani organizations also focus on developing similar capabilities to deal with corporate lies and the following quote from the great Michael Jackson sums up why organizations need to take this matter seriously: “Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons.” n
Growing competition, rupee devaluation and dirty tactics make card payments on online gateways a tough business
By Taimoor Hassan
Telenor Bank-backed EasyPaisa has decided to shutter card payments on its online payment gateway which it offers through various banks. As the competition grows stronger and the rupee devalues against the dollar, keeping the card payments going was an expensive proposition and felt to be unsustainable by Easypaisa.
In an email sent to its partners today, EasyPaisa said that it was shutting down the payment gateway because of a ‘critical change’ in their business process. “As part of the company strategy, we will be discontinuing card payments on the Easypaisa payment gateway from 30th June 2022 onwards,” the company said.
An official from EasyPaisa confirmed the news of the shutdown of its gateway and said that the company was going to focus on its core business of mobile wallets which had now touched 10 million accounts.
Omar Moeen Malik, Head of EasyPaisa Branchless Banking Business, said that their card transactions on the payment gateway were significantly less than wallet transactions. The company has seen a decline in merchants using EasyPaisa payment gateway, which have moved on to other inexpensive card processing options.
Merchants such as online sellers on Instagram or Facebook use payment gateways like EasyPaisa to accept card payments against an order.
EasyPaisa offers payment gateway through different banks and therefore charges a higher rate than gateways from acquirers such as HBL or UBL, making EasyPaisa gateway expensive for merchants. On the other hand, devaluation of the rupee against the dollar means payments to Visa and Mastercard on card payments have also become expensive, making it a costly affair for EasyPaisa to keep its online card processing service running through the gateway.
“When the gateway was introduced, we made the card options available then have a consolidated gateway with payment options. It was never a focus. The space now has evolved to the point that there are new payment processors in the market such as NIFT and PayFast. There are multiple players so for a merchant now, getting a Visa and Mastercard processing is not difficult,” Omar told Profit.
“The rates offered are also better than EasyPaisa because EasyPaisa gets the gateway from acquiring banks and then offers it to the merchants. Therefore, it was a strategic decision to discontinue card service,” he adds.
Bankers and online payment gateway operators also say that operating an online gateway in Pakistan is difficult because of issues such as payment recoveries for instance in case of a chargeback, and lack of user trust. “On the merchant side, you have to take a lot of pain because the merchant is not technologically ready,” another expert in digital payments said.
They also say that the industry is dominated by large acquiring banks such as HBL and UBL, who resort to undercutting of prices to acquire a merchant. “There is also no concept of escrow services in Pakistan. So if EasyPaisa wants to go to escrow, a large bank would offer the gateway without escrow, leaning the merchant towards that bank,” he adds.
Escrow services are offered by third party intermediaries that hold money for the transacting parties, and disburse them if the conditions between the transacting parties are met. For instance, an escrow service will disburse payment to an online seller on Instagram when the buyer receives the product and is satisfied with the condition of the product.
“A small player, in this case, can only lose money, making it a difficult business that hits the bottom line,” he says.
EasyPaisa has been a small player in online payments and the space has been dominated by HBL, UBL, Bank Alfalah and MCB, with multiple new PSO/PSPs making entry into the foray. On the other hand, EasyPaisa’s bank, Telenor Bank, has been struggling to keep a healthy bottom line.
According to the financial statements, Telenor Bank posted a net loss of Rs2.5 billion in 2018, Rs16.2 billion in 2019 and Rs10.7 billion in 2020. In 2021 as well, Telenor Bank was unable to curb its losses reeling from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and posted a net loss of Rs10.7 billion.
The new fintech players are technologically ahead of traditional banks and can onboard merchants and equip them with an online payment gateway in a matter of days. On the other hand, banks can take weeks or months to provide a payment gateway because of their old tech, depending on the requirements and readiness of the merchants. n
