Paul Marcantonio: Leading by Example and Remaining Humble

Leaders need to lead from the front to be exemplary. They need to demonstrate the high degree of competence and strong character to gain the trust of others. This in turn helps them to create the best team to achieve the organizational goals. Paul Marcantonio is one of such inspiring business leaders who strives to lead by example, demonstrate integrity, support others, and at all times he tries to remain humble. He is Executive Director – UK and Western Europe at ECOMMPAY. Paul lives by his own personal values and there are great synergies with the values of ECOMMPAY. That’s why he wanted to join this company.
Being Persistent and Goal-oriented
As for his style of leadership, he thinks it is important to give people the chance to grow, and he expects them to take this opportunity, to evolve not only as professionals but also as individuals. Also, he aims to empower people and build team spirit. The latter is extremely important for him. He believes a team is like a family, to him this is impactful leadership. His style of leadership is to focus on results and work hard to achieve them. Yes, some of them might take more time than others, but he is persistent and goal-oriented. He leads to change and learns from feedback. He believes that learning from feedback is the only way to improve. Of course, constructive, and honest feedback is key.
Building a Reputable Payment Brand
When Paul joined ECOMMPAY, the company was expanding and planning to enter new business verticals and markets, such as travel and hospitality, online education, etc. There was a focus to attract more clients in the online retail industry. Therefore, ECOMMPAY started building brand awareness and credibility in these areas. Building trust is a difficult process, people were looking under the hood trying to understand ECOMMPAY’s reputation and how reliable it was, but they didn’t know much about ECOMMPAY so company had to work even harder to build its authority. At that time, the payments market started to grow becoming more competitive; as a result, building a reputable brand was extremely important.
Meeting Requirements of End-Users
Consumers want to have a wide variety of payment methods, to choose the most convenient for them, and to feel safe and secure when purchasing goods and services. The financial landscape is changing all the time. Paul says that both online businesses and fintech companies have to focus on the buying behaviour and preferences of end-users, adapt to them and anticipate any changes. COVID-19 reality is shaping payment habits, creating new payment trends (like payments via messengers) and making eWallets a must-have. Finally, Brexit also affects the industry; for instance, both MasterCard and Visa increase their fees in the UK when trading with the EU. ECOMMPAY understands very clearly that each business is unique and their end-users have varying needs and requirements. This is why ECOMMPAY offers tailored solutions to its merchants’ needs. ECOMMPAY treats its clients as partners, helping them grow, adapt, and scale their businesses.
Promoting Financial Empowerment and Responsible Buying
Paul believes that ECOMMPAY’s learning platform ECOMMTALKS contributes a lot to the fintech community. It is a community itself, which unites fintech experts and people working in eCommerce. The fintech industry is constantly changing, along with consumer behaviour and expectations; so, the key goal of this platform is to educate on industry trends, new products, and market changes, as well as to share experience and facilitate networking. ECOMMTALKS has become especially useful in light of the global pandemic when socialisation and education opportunities are restricted to computers and other gadgets.
There are many mental health problems in society today that are derived from financial issues and financial insecurity. Paul would like to see that people from all walks of life can make safe, secure, and compliant payments, make it easier for people to keep track of their financial lives, expenses, income, and investments in a single connected environment. All in all, he would like to help people take more control of their financial well-being and health, to promote financial empowerment and responsible buying.
Being Open to Learn from Others
Talking about influential people, Paul views Elon Musk as a true visionary and he is overwhelmingly belligerent in his quest to make the world and even the universe smaller and more accessible to everyone. He continues to push the boundaries, bringing new concepts and ideas to life; Elon Musk makes Paul excited about the future of travel.
Paul adds that the book by Mark Manson has helped him put his work-life balance into a better all-round perspective. He says that like many other books, it helps one to understand the true meaning of controlling what one can be in control of and realise what is truly important in life. Paul likes the idea that one should only worry about the things one can influence; it’s impossible to control everything, and there is no need to strive for it.
Being Open to Innovations and challenges
Paul thinks ECOMMPAY just has to continue doing what it does; its corporate values and a culture that has helped it reach the stage that it has so far. ECOMMPAY knows that the following formula works, it is not just a business, it is a family; it not only supports each other, but it also provides constant support and takes an individual approach to its merchants; and finally, it is open to innovations and new challenges.
Forecasting Successful and Sustained Growth
Paul says that Fintech is a very cutthroat industry but as long as ECOMMPAY continues to evolve and move with the times, without changing the very core of who it is as an organisation, he is confident that it will continue to attract further success. In the next 5 years, Paul forecasts successful and sustained growth, exploring new industries, penetrating new markets, and bringing best-in-class payment technologies and customer support.