Episode 42: Brian Hartzer, CEO of Westpac from 2014-2020, on leadership, culture and financial technology

Brian Hartzer joins us to talk about his new book 'The Leadership Star', available from Amazon.  Brian was CEO of Westpac from 2014-2020. For those who don't know Westpac is Australia's second largest bank with over $800 billion of assets.  Brian discusses his 'Leadership Star' framework and pivotal moments in Australia's banking history. Brian also shares his views on cryptocurrency, neobanks, alternative lenders, the Buy-Now-Pay-Later movement, and the future of financial technology more broadly.   Timestamps 00:05 – Introducing Brian 03:15 – Brian's new book: ‘The Leadership Star: A Practical Guide to Building Engagement’ 06:00 – Shifting from management consulting to running ANZ’s credit card business 08:25 – Brian’s perspective on the evolution of credit cards in Australia 10:25 – The five c’s of leadership: care, context, clarity, clearing the way and celebrate 11:05 – Why the phrase ‘I’m just a teller’ is a sign of bad management 13:00 – Why cleaners are the most important workers at Disney 14:10 – ‘Clearing the way’ - what does this mean? 15:50 – How corporate and leadership culture has changed over Brian’s career 18:46 – How Brian navigated the “biggest bank failure in history” 20:25 – What led to the downfall of RBS 23:37 – Brian’s perspective on the evolution of US corporate culture 24:50 – The state of banking technology in the UK 28:58 – Why more competitors doesn’t necessarily equal better consumer outcomes 29:17 – How the banking landscape helped Australia navigate the GFC 31:35 – Behind the scenes of the Australian banking crisis in 1991/1992 32:58 – Why hybrid bank branches are the way of the future 36:15 – Multi-brand strategies and Westpac 39:30 – Brian’s thoughts on the buy-now-pay-later sector 42:28 – Will the buy-now-pay-later sector will displace credit cards? 44:58 – Views on Bitcoin and why Brian pushed through Westpac's investment in Coinbase 49:20 – The “one and only legitimate” use case for bitcoin 50:50 – The future of neobanks and alternative lenders 54:15 – Predictions on the future of banking technology 55:45 – Brian’s pivot to working as an angel investor 57:50 – The one key takeaway from Brian’s new book