Be it personal or professional, be it a society, community, country, economics, industry, or a business organization, culture has always been one of the most important things for everything. It includes sustainable success, growth, progress, and holistic development. Especially, in the case of every company, culture is that visible thing that displays its brand identity. As a strategic steward, Srinivas A. G. understood this factor long before he was promoted to Chief People Officer (CPO) at Manipal Payment and Identity Solutions Ltd (MPISL) in April 2025. Before that, he had been Vice President of Human Resources at MPISL, and before that, AVP at Manipal Technologies Limited. In fact, Srinivas joined The Manipal Group, Udupi, in 2012 as an HR Manager (Business Partner).
Today, Srinivas says that when he describes his role as a ‘strategic engine for progress,’ it is because culture at MPISL is not ornamental—it is infrastructural. For a global Payment Cards leader operating in high-stakes, high-security environments, aligning human capital strategy with business imperatives requires a deliberate architecture built on three pillars:
- Security as a Cultural Value, Not Just a Compliance Requirement
~ In payments and identity solutions, trust is currency.
~ “Our people strategy embeds security awareness into daily behaviors, decision making, and leadership accountability.”
~ This means every employee, from front line to boardroom, sees themselves as custodians of customer trust.
- Human Capital as a Strategic Asset
~ Talent is not managed in isolation; it is aligned with the organization’s risk posture, innovation agenda, and regulatory obligations.
~ “We design leadership pipelines and workforce models that anticipate global expansion while ensuring resilience against compliance and cyber threats.”
~ This creates a workforce that is both agile and fortified.
III. Culture as the Operating System of Progress
~ “Our architecture of culture is built on values- honesty, integrity, reliability, innovation, and respect for all,” adds Srinivas.
~ These values are not abstract; they are operationalized through policies, governance, and leadership behaviors that reinforce both performance and protection.
~ By embedding these values into every process, from onboarding to board reporting, MPISL ensures that culture is the invisible hand guiding secure growth.
*Strategic Alignment in Practice
~ Boardroom Readiness: Human capital strategy is presented not as HR metrics but as risk mitigation and growth enablers.
~ Leadership Transformation: Senior leaders are developed to balance innovation with compliance, ensuring decisions are both bold and responsible.
~ Digital Empowerment: HRMS modernization and employee self-service are not just efficiency tools-they are part of a secure, scalable ecosystem that reduces vulnerabilities.
~ Global Expansion: Talent strategies anticipate geopolitical, regulatory, and cybersecurity challenges, ensuring MPISL’s footprint grows without compromising trust.
At MPISL, culture is the architecture that binds human capital to high security goals. It is not about choosing between people and protection-it is about designing a system where empowered people are the protection, and where progress is inseparable from trust.
The 83 Year Legacy Context
Drawing inspiration from long-standing organizations that thrive on hope and resilience, Srinivas believes that the soul of Manipal Payment and Identity Solutions lies in its ability to blend resilience, trust, and innovation into a values-driven culture that has scaled us into a global top eight players.”
~ Group Values: “Honesty, integrity, reliability, innovation, and respect are the bedrock of our journey—guiding every decision and every relationship.”
~ Promoters’ Vision: “Our promoters envisioned MPISL not just as a payments and identity company, but as a trusted ecosystem where technology, compliance, and people converge to empower societies.”
~ Company Core Values: Security, customer centricity, and innovation are ingrained in every employee, ensuring that culture is lived daily and translated into value creation.
Impact Across Stakeholders
~ Customers: “We deliver trust and reliability in every transaction.”
~ Investors: “We create sustainable value through disciplined governance and global expansion.”
~ Society: “We drive inclusion and digital empowerment, reinforcing our role as a responsible leader,” assures Srinivas.
The soul of MPISL is its values-driven culture-a legacy of resilience and vision that empowers employees to create enduring value for customers, investors, and society, making progress inseparable from trust, he says.
The Stewardship Philosophy
Srinivas often speaks about HR being the engine that drives students, parents, and employees to ‘go harder.’ For him, stewardship is about being the custodian of both performance and purpose. Managing a workforce of over 2,000 specialists means ensuring that every individual feels empowered to ‘go harder’ while staying aligned to MPISL’s values and security-driven mission, he explains.
~ Custodian of Values: “Stewardship is living and reinforcing our core values-honesty, integrity, reliability, innovation, and respect so they become the daily operating rhythm of our people.”
~ Empowerment with Accountability: It is about creating an environment where specialists are trusted to innovate, yet held accountable to the highest standards of compliance and security.
~ Growth with Responsibility: Stewardship means guiding careers, not just managing roles—ensuring each employee sees tangible growth while contributing to customer trust, investor confidence, and societal impact.
~ Engine of Progress: “As HR, we are the engine that fuels resilience and ambition, ensuring that culture, capability, and compliance move in sync to drive sustainable success.”
Stewardship at MPISL is not about control—it is about care with accountability: enabling 2,000 specialists to go harder, go further, and go together, while keeping trust and values at the core of every stride.
Industry Amidst the Digital Transformation and Fintech Talent Disruption
With the rapid rise of AI and blockchain in payment solutions, at MPISL, preparing their workforce for these things means shifting mindsets from traditional manufacturing to digital-first innovation through three clear levers, reveals Srinivas:
- Culture Reset: They embed innovation and agility as everyday behaviors, ensuring employees see technology not as disruption but as an opportunity.
- Capability Building: Structured reskilling programs in AI, blockchain, and digital payments equip specialists with future-ready skills while reinforcing compliance and security.
- Digital Empowerment: By modernizing HRMS and creating self-service, data-driven platforms, Srinivas says they make digital fluency part of the employee experience, not just a technical skill. “We are not just training people for new tools-we are re-architecting mindsets so that every employee becomes a driver of secure, digital-first innovation, keeping MPISL ahead in the global fintech race.”
The Security-People Paradox
In an industry governed by strict certifications (like PCI DSS, VISA, Master, RuPay, Amex, Verve, Afrigo, ISO 27001 & 27298), balancing the rigid need for security compliance with the human need for an agile, creative, and empowered workplace is crucial. At MPISL, Srinivas says they see compliance and creativity not as opposites but as complementary forces.
~ Compliance as Enabler: Certifications like PCI DSS, VISA, Master, RuPay, Amex, Verve, Afrigo, ISO 27001 & 27298 are the guardrails that protect trust. “They don’t restrict us, they give our people the confidence to innovate within a secure framework,” he adds.
~ Agility with Discipline: They empower employees to experiment, automate, and digitize processes, while ensuring every idea is filtered through the lens of security and governance.
~ Culture of Ownership: Every specialist is both a creator and a custodian, responsible for delivering value while safeguarding customer trust.
Balancing security and people means building a culture where compliance fuels creativity-an empowered workforce that innovates boldly, yet always within the boundaries of trust and certification, explains Srinivas.
Global Expansion Stewardship
As MPISL expands across the UK, Europe, and MEA, Srinivas says their strategy is to ensure that the Manipal Culture travels with them, anchored in values, yet adaptive to local contexts.
~ Unified Core: Honesty, integrity, reliability, innovation, and respect remain the nonnegotiable foundation across all geographies.
~ Local Assimilation: They respect diverse regulatory and cultural landscapes, blending local practices with our global standards to create belonging without diluting identity.
~ Leadership Stewardship: Leaders act as cultural ambassadors, ensuring every team member feels connected to the Manipal ethos while empowered to innovate in their local environment.
~ One Culture, Many Voices: “By embedding our values into governance, compliance, and daily behaviors, we create a unified culture that resonates equally with employees, customers, investors, and society worldwide.”
Global expansion at MPISL is not about exporting culture, says Srinivas, adding that it is about assimilating values across borders, ensuring one Manipal soul expressed through many local voices.
Strategic Impact of a Resilient Turning Point
Srinivas once shared a story of a single mother whose life was changed by a timely scholarship intervention. Explaining it further, he says that at MPISL, identity is not limited to secure cards or digital solutions—it is about enabling dignity, opportunity, and upliftment.
~ Personal Empowerment: “Just as a scholarship transformed the life of a single mother, we extend that same spirit to our employees—helping them build careers, confidence, and a sense of belonging.”
~ Cultural Soul: “Our values—honesty, integrity, reliability, innovation, and respect—are ingrained in every individual, shaping not just professional identity but personal growth.”
~ Social Upliftment: “We see every employee as a multiplier of impact. By investing in their wellbeing, learning, and resilience, we empower them to uplift families, communities, and society at large.”
MPISL’s commitment to identity is about transforming lives, not just transactions—ensuring every employee carries forward the Manipal ethos of trust, growth, and social responsibility, claims Srinivas.
Navigating the Unforeseen
The pandemic forced a global shift to digital operations. Srinivas, too, accepts that it was a turning point. “It reshaped my view of leadership and talent forever.”
~ Remote Leadership: “It taught us that trust and empathy are stronger than physical proximity. Leading remotely meant focusing on clarity, accountability, and emotional connection, ensuring teams felt supported even in isolation.”
~ Global Talent Acquisition: “It opened the world. Geography became secondary to capability, allowing us to tap into diverse talent pools across continents while still embedding the Manipal culture.”
~ Cultural Continuity: “Even in digital spaces, our values—honesty, integrity, reliability, innovation, and respect—remained the glue that held teams together.”
The pandemic proved that leadership is not about presence-it is about purpose and connection, enabling MPISL to attract and empower global talent while staying true to its cultural soul, adds Srinivas.
Eliminating Excuses
known for a leadership style that ‘eliminates excuses for not being successful,’ the one nonnegotiable trait Srinivas looks for in identifying future leaders is ownership.
~ Ownership of Purpose: Leaders must take complete responsibility for outcomes—no excuses, no deflections.
~ Ownership of People: They must stand by their teams, enabling success while holding themselves accountable for failures.
~ Ownership of Values: Integrity, resilience, and respect must be lived daily, not just spoken.
“At MPISL, I believe true leadership is defined by ownership with integrity-the courage to eliminate excuses, embrace accountability, and drive success for customers, investors, and society. And it applies to me as well,” says Srinivas.
The Blueprint of Success – No ‘Plan B’ Mindset
In professional growth, many advocate for a safety net. But not Srinivas. For him, organizational excellence demands a no Plan B mindset.
~ Clarity of Purpose: When the mission is clear, there is no fallback-only focus.
~ Commitment to Values: “Honesty, integrity, reliability, innovation, and respect are our compass; they don’t allow shortcuts or compromises.”
~ Resilience in Execution: Challenges are inevitable, but success comes from adapting, not retreating.
At MPISL, No Plan B means all in commitment-driving progress with conviction, ensuring that excellence is not optional but the only outcome, states Srinivas.
Transparency as a Shield
Also, at MPISL, Srinivas adds that they believe transparency is the strongest defense against skepticism.
~ Open Communication: They share progress, challenges, and decisions with clarity—whether with employees, customers, or investors—so trust is built on facts, not assumptions.
~ Social Transparency: By showcasing their culture, values, and impact openly, Srinivas and his team allow stakeholders to see that MPISL’s growth is not ‘too good to be true,’ but the result of discipline, resilience, and innovation.
~ Values as Proof: Honesty, integrity, reliability, innovation, and respect are not slogans—they are demonstrated daily in compliance, customer trust, and societal contribution.
“Transparency at MPISL is not just communication-it is our shield of credibility, ensuring stakeholders see growth as authentic, values-driven, and sustainable,” he adds.
An Advice of Action
For young leaders entering the fintech space today, the most critical piece of feedback Srinivas gives is: don’t chase shortcuts-chase substance.
~ Depth over Hype: Fintech is full of buzzwords like AI and blockchain, but true leadership comes from mastering fundamentals-security, compliance, and customer trust.
~ Values First: Innovation without integrity is fragile. Honesty, reliability, and respect must anchor every decision.
~ Resilience Matters: Success in fintech is not about avoiding obstacles, but about adapting, learning, and persisting through them.
Srinivas adds, “My honest call to young leaders: build trust before chasing scale because in fintech, trust is the only currency that never devalues.”
Defining the Legacy
Finally, Srinivas says that when the blueprint of his leadership journey is written, he hopes the lesson is simple yet profound: human capital is not a cost—it is the soul of organizational excellence.
~ People as the Engine: Success is built not on systems or strategies alone, but on empowered individuals who carry values into action.
~ Values as Compass: Honesty, integrity, reliability, innovation, and respect must be lived through people, not just documented in policies.
~ Growth with Purpose: Investing in human capital creates resilience, trust, and innovation that outlast market cycles and disruptions.
“My legacy, I hope, will remind every C-suite leader that human capital is the most enduring currency of trust and progress-the one investment that defines both culture and success,’ he concludes.