By Emmanuel Nduka
Chief Executive of American Express (AMEX) Steve Squeri, has said his life story is a typical example of how anybody can make it to the top through dedication and hard work.
Recalling his many ordeals, Squeri said years back, he found himself facing particularly worrying circumstances after credit card billings tumbled by 50 per cent, and the company feared as much as $11.5bn in loans and credit card debt was at risk of default.
This was even as Covid-related lockdowns had devastated the travel and entertainment benefits its customers most valued.
Even if the company hunkered down, made lay-offs and sharply cut back spending, it appeared to be on track for a substantial loss, Squeri stated, adding that two years into being chief executive, it was not inclined to play it safe.
The CEO said while he wanted to keep everyone on the payroll, keep an eye out for acquisition opportunities and spend $1bn on new kinds of rewards for cardholders who were stuck at home, the decision “was based on a philosophy that we were not playing a short-term game.”
“In any downturn, there’s always an upswing. And if you’re not ready for the upswing, you’ve missed an opportunity to move ahead.
“I called Warren Buffett and said, ‘We’re probably going to lose $4 a share, and I am not sure when billing is going to come back . . . But I think what we need to do is take care of our colleagues [and] take care of our customers. If we do that, I think, we’ll have long-term viability for our shareholders,” Squeri remeberedA.
ssured of support, Squeri said he charged ahead. “The pandemic turned us into a higher growth company,” Squeri said.
As an example of how anybody can get to the top with a lot of hard work, Squeri was not originally in line to succeed previous chief executive Ken Chenault even though he had spent decades at the company.
After stints as chief information officer and head of corporate cards, Squeri admitted that he was planning to retire at 60, in around 2019. Instead, Chenault turned to him when heir apparent Ed Gilligan died of a heart attack in 2015 just as the company was facing tougher competition and the loss of its partnership with Costco, the consumer warehouse.
“One of the big questions when he came in was would he be able to take his operational focus and . . . have a strategic view of where to lead the company? I think that he’s proven over the last five or six years that he can,” said Ryan Nash, a Goldman Sachs analyst.
Squeri is the grandson of Italian and Irish immigrants, and the son of an accountant who worked nights and weekends at Bloomingdale’s department store to make ends meet.
During his studies at Manhattan College, Squeri lived at home. He had never been on an aircraft until he joined a training programme at what is now the consulting group Accenture.
