The necessity of digital payment gateways has seen a significant rise over the years, heightened by the pandemic. As the adoption of cashless payment solutions takes its course globally, many entrepreneurs have started shifting towards a more digital landscape to assist in their business processes.
Hoping to be a significant player in the local cashless payment environment is Adam Dahlan, the CEO of RediPay, a fintech solution that offers efficient and cost-effective transaction services for businesses.
Having spent the last 7 years in the digital payment business, Adam started out in parking solutions where he was responsible for the development of an IoT infrastructure system. From there, he went on to develop an expertise in the cashless payment area, establishing four digital payment gateways before leading RediPay.
Placing importance on the needs of their merchants with the enablement of receiving payments digitally, Adam has led RediPay to evolve from a simple online API payment gateway to having their own cash cards and e-wallets.
The start-up is now moving towards becoming a full-fledged payment gateway with the adoption of a point-of-sales (POS) system in favour of a more simplified payment method.
“I like to say that I’m a father of 30 people,” Adams jests.
“Everyone here is a jack of all trades and plays a part in every aspect of the business regardless of what they’re respective departments. With patience and knowledge, we’ve built competencies within the team,’ added Adam on the diversity of his team.
Being no stranger to commanding a business, the CEO has always held maturity and knowledge as his driving force as a leader, stating that these are the two qualities that he infuses into his team.
“It’s the best lesson I have learnt that you won’t find in any book. I believe maturity is an essential element in any leader and I’ve adopted that in how I manage RediPay,” says Adam.
”The challenges all boil down to developing maturity in people, and we are happy to develop more talents in our organization and capitalize on the challenges that come along.”
This mature mindset doesn’t just apply to how he develops his team but also how he deals with customers and merchants, ensuring that they come first as they are the key to RediPay’s success. Adam has made it a point to personally take on regular virtual discussions with customers to get an understanding of their payment needs and first-hand feedback on the RediPay experience.
Moving down the digital path, many countries are considering the adoption of digital currency into their economy. Not too long ago, El Salvador became the first economy to implement Bitcoin as its official currency.
This brought up questions of how cryptocurrency could potentially replace fiat money, government-issued currency not backed by a physical commodity, as the digitalisation of the fintech ecosystem becomes a sort of stepping-stone for this to come to fruition.
International financial regulators have also expressed worry that the accelerated evolution of cryptocurrency could potentially threaten financial systems and economies globally due to a lack of regulatory support from lawmakers.
Though many find this worry somewhat warranted, Adam doesn’t see it as a threat, stating how the design and different security components of the banknote have evolved with time as well.
“That itself was a threat at one point but it never completed its cycle. Payment is quite agnostic. Even though we have a lot of payment gateways out today, the market is in no danger of being saturated,” explains Adam.
“That’s where industry players like us come in to support and help push for constant dialogues to happen between ourselves and the regulators, within and outside of Malaysia.”
”We’re going to support that by way of ensuring that we give a very clear process channel and fund flow to support the advancement of a digital currency regime within Asia to educate how digital coins can now be transactable instrument for countries.”
In this line of work, fraudulent threats and digital security concerns have been an ongoing affair since the dawn of the Internet, something Adam advises other businesses looking to adopt digital banking systems is to look out for but not fear. As he would put it, “Fraud is creativity.”
“Even as a small payment gateway company, we’ve faced our fair share of digital threats. What has essentially aided the company during times like this is the adoption of a solution-supported process.”
“I would advise looking into implementing a risk-based approach, cover the grounds with processes and procedures, and be ready to work closely with bank partners. Don't shy away from threats that come your way and, most importantly, take care of the merchants.”
Penny For Your Thoughts
How would you define a “good life” and/versus a “successful life”?
There's a very big line drawn between the two. A good life is where I can just go back to bed and sleep comfortably. A successful life is being able to afford a comfortable bed. We only have so many hours in the day and work-life balance is important. Live within the means and be humble, then everything else will fall in place.
If you could choose to be anyone in the world - who would you want to be, and why?
I like to name Barack Obama as an inspiration; he's someone I would call a nice blend of being a good leader and a mature leader, with a little bit of a fun side. He also likes cars, so I guess that's sort of how we would resonate well together.
Advice you would give your younger self.
I live my life on the essence of maturity, and if I could turn back time, I would say not to be too aggressive. Just be respectful, modest, and live in the moment. That's the best advice I would have like to give myself and the young readers. These are the characteristics that will contribute to who we are as we grow older in life.
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