A conversation between the CEO of Global Prepaid Exchange, Tony Craddock and Dan Stretton, Head of International Client services, Global Prepaid Exchange written by Dan Stretton, February 2012

 

I encountered Tony in a bullish mood on the Eurostar train to Paris this week. He was heading out to speak to the thriving prepaid community there, set up by Philippe Bertinchamps in 2011, called Prepaid Exchange France. Here are the notes from our conversation – honest, passionate, and full of clues about the success of Global Prepaid Exchange.

Dan Stretton: So what is the purpose of this trip?

Tony Craddock: I’ve been invited to share my perspective with members of Prepaid Exchange France on the reasons why our communities work and what our ambitions are for the future.

Dan: Can you give me some background on how the community started in France?

Tony: Two years ago, I was introduced to a legend; he was someone with over 30 years experience in prepaid, who had risen to the top of one of the largest and most profitable companies in the industry. I had never been able to reach him before. And why did he see me now? I think Mr Bertinchamps saw me for one reason: I chose to meet him at a rather fine restaurant.

I shared my vision of having a network of interconnected communities around the world, each individually helping local companies to grow their prepaid business, but operating under a global umbrella.

I shared my personal experience of working with organisations in the gift and prepaid industry around the world since 2004. I explained the theory of two-sided markets, where buyers and sellers come together to exchange value – to learn, to do business, to be stimulated, to have fun.

And I shared my belief that each local community, or exchange, had to be adapted to being done the local way. And then I shut up and listened. Soon, he had a come up with a plan.

First, he found his secret weapon. Anne de Villandry-Kerzan. And second, they worked together for a year.

What we have today is the result of that hard work. A community of like-minded individuals with a common interest. A programme of 11 events containing the highest quality content. Research on the local market to spread understanding and educate stakeholders. 50 companies involved in Prepaid Exchange France, over 25 from France itself. Focussing on French issues, in French. It is a wonderful achievement and one that we can all be proud of.

Dan: You always come across as having a passion for prepaid and the community you run. Tell me more.

Tony: Let me share a personal story with you. Other than my family, and a few friends and colleagues, nobody else knows about this. This time next week I will be in hospital. I am having an operation on my heart. The operation is to treat something that is sometimes called, Racing Heart. The condition means that sometimes, my heart beats much too fast, even when I am resting.

When I told Georgina Grogan, our wonderful account manager in London, about this, she asked me what had caused the problem. I explained it was probably caused by too much endurance sport – cycling long distances up Alpine mountains on Cyclosportives is my hobby. But she disagreed. She said it was because I was so excited about prepaid, it made my heart race. And that is true. I am excited about prepaid. And I have decided that my purpose in life is to help make prepaid happen to improve lives everywhere.

Dan: Can you tell me what you mean by this?

Tony: How prepaid improves lives? Okay, let me give you some examples. My mother was not good at buying presents. Ten years ago she bought me a plastic Christmas tree to go on the lunch table. I had to sit looking at her through plastic green leaves covered with white snow. Nice!

The next year, when she bought me a Tumi gift voucher, I used it to buy my briefcase there. My mother is dead but my briefcase is not. The gift voucher improved my life and my mother’s, because she had made her son happy.

In Kenya in 2003, a company affiliated to Vodafone called Safaricom launched a simple programme that allows people to send each other money via the mobile phone. It is called M-PESA (Pesa is ‘money’ in Swahili). Now, it has over 14 million subscribers. And it has allowed people to spend more time making money and less time carrying it around in brown bags fearful for their lives. Prepaid improves lives for people in Kenya.

In France, our members such as Edenred and Sodexo, enable millions of French people to have a free lunch, courtesy of their employers. Here in France, that is very important. So prepaid improves the lives of millions of French people, every day.

In the UK, our member Ukash distributes more than €100m of e-vouchers each year that allow people to spend cash on the Internet. There are millions of people who feel more secure, and possibly more anonymous, because of Ukash’s prepaid programme.

So can you see how prepaid improves lives? With 7 billion people in the world, 5 billion mobile phones, and hundreds of billions of financial transactions each year, can you see that prepaid has a chance to improve the lives of many of them? Do you have any doubt that prepaid has an exciting future? I don’t.

Dan: But doesn’t that sound a little altruistic? Is there room for that in today’s tough economic climate?

Tony: Well, this fluffy stuff is all very interesting, you may say, but I have a job to do. My business partner in the US, professor Dan Horne, said to me, “Tony, this mission statement of yours, to make prepaid happen to improve lives everywhere, will not go down well in the US. People there just want to MAKE MORE MONEY.”

So I said, ‘If our members are successful in prepaid they will MAKE MUCH MORE MONEY’. That satisfied him. We can even say that in America, prepaid improves people’s lives – at the very least, the lives of our members.

I really hope that our members can relate to this message. For sure, they will make more money out of their membership, such as of Prepaid Exchange France. But with innovation, passion and by embracing our principles of integrity, quality and collaboration, you can help to improve lives everywhere as well. And that is something worth getting up for in the morning.

Dan: Can you update me on the latest developments at Gx?

Tony: We now have local exchanges in Canada, Southern Africa, the UK, DACH and India. These are operated by local teams, helping to make prepaid happen there. Our business has three components:

• Intelligence, so you have access to resources to help you make better business decisions and better investments
• Connections, so you have access to people, partners and products to help your business grow
• Support, so you have access to an expert or a donkey who can provide you with the help you need, when you need it

Dan: How have you been investing in these components?

Tony: We continue to invest in our online research library. It now has over 600 items on it, fully categorised and accurately tagged for ease of use using our search engine. Members have access to it via a password. The Professor (Dan Horne) has done a great job of pulling this together. But we can’t force members to use it. Although I can’t quite understand why. It is like being a member of the gym and not visiting the personal massage centre. It is crazy not to!

We are carrying out research to produce new Prepaid Market Assessment reports in different countries too. Last year we covered France, DACH, Canada, India and the UK. In 2012 we expect to be producing them on Turkey, China, Indonesia, Brazil, Thailand and Russia.

Dan: So that’s ‘intelligence’. What about the ‘Connections’ component, the events.

Tony: We are holding ten times more member events than any other company in prepaid. 44 in total: Canada 6, France 11, UK 13, DACH 3, SA 4, India 5, USA 2, Italy 1, Ireland 1, Australia 1. The idea is that our members of the Global Prepaid Exchange can attend all of them at no additional charge. As many people as they like.

Dan: And ‘Support’?

Tony: We have a stronger account management team of three, a new research manager, a new professor of research in the US, and a new Dx support manager in the UK. We employ a total of 18 people altogether.

We also run a market development programme called ‘Voices of Prepaid’ in the UK and India, led by our hugely experienced Managing Director, Kevin Harrington. This is an integrated programme of public relations, conferences and community relations that stimulates adoption of prepaid in places where there is great potential for prepaid and relatively low adoption. Members gain prestige, presence and leads from their membership.

Dan: Some of our members want to promote their brands and be seen to be different. How can you help?

Tony: Well the exciting news is that members will soon have an opportunity to promote their company’s products and services at our popular events. We’ll have a total of sponsorship 200 slots available around the world, and they are all very cheap to purchase. For example, in France there are only three sponsorship slots available: one Event Sponsor and two Programme Partners; you can book one of the Programme Partner slots for less than $1,000.

Dan: And what else?

Tony: Well the latest development, launched this month, is a new social networking group for prepaid people in France. It is called, Prepaye en France and it is hosted on LinkedIn. Our global group called People in Prepaid has over 2,600 members, and continues to grow. We plan more such local groups in the future.

Dan: We’ve almost arrived, TC.

Tony: Well, I know that we’re heading off to celebrate the first anniversary of Prepaid Exchange France, as Global Prepaid Exchange celebrates 100% growth in each of the last two years. But we haven’t nearly arrived, we’ve only just started. I am happy that we are helping to make prepaid happen, and with our members at the heart of this, are starting to improve lives everywhere.

Dan: But what about Prepaid Awards? You’re the CEO of that as well, aren’t you?

Tony: Well, yes I am, but it’s really run by our super-team, Emma Armstrong and Joelle Harari. The idea is that we bring together the ‘good and the great’ in the industry to celebrate best practice, quality and innovation. Last year we had 600 people at our nine-hour ‘Oscars of Prepaid’ at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

We were told that the event was a big success. So now they’re developing the project in the most exciting way. Emma has decided that we are being selfish to keep this to the British. So we are running Prepaid Awards events in other countries too, such as France, Canada, India, Austria and South Africa.

With Philippe Bertinchamps at the helm in France, I imagine that Prepaid Awards France will be the best of them all. We will be presenting awards for seven categories there. People can propose their company or programme to the Founder Members of Prepaid Exchange France, who are responsible for the judging.

Of course there are sponsorship opportunities, and we are already seeing a great deal of interest from international companies who want to promote their services in other parts of the world.

Dan: What is your final message for your members around the world?

Tony: In my country, we have a saying, ‘A problem shared is a problem halved.’ When I shared the problem I have with my heart condition earlier, I felt the problem became smaller, so thank you for listening.

Regarding prepaid, I believe that prepaid is one of the most exciting industries to be involved with, anywhere in the world. I think Georgina was right. Prepaid makes my heart race. And I hope that for our members, prepaid will make their hearts race too.