Alistair Chaytor

Alistair, you’ve come from a traditional finance background. How did you first get involved in payments? What prompted this shift?

At Tripadvisor, I initially held a finance-based role focusing primarily on financial reporting. I then transitioned to working with some of the marketplace business units, where I began to focus on the payments coming in and going out.

Part of my responsibilities included operational finance, collaborating with Product and Engineering teams to design accounting systems for those marketplace businesses. These accounting systems were driven by various event types in the lifecycle of a booking—such as a payment from a customer, booking confirmation, and subsequent payment out, which was usually a disbursement to a supplier.

As payments were central to these accounting events, I became increasingly involved in the payment space. I gained an understanding of how payments work, the different components involved, and the various routes they take. This ignited my interest in payments, and I found myself at the forefront of managing Tripadvisor’s payment service providers (PSPs).

Did anything surprise you when you transitioned into payments?

Up to this point, most of my finance roles had been consolidated reporting for quarter-end and year-end deliverables, for example.

Of course, at the core of any business is the delivery of a service or the production of goods, but closely followed to that is taking payments for those services and goods.

Shifting my focus to payments revealed how multi-faceted this space really is. At Tripadvisor, in particular, which operates on a global scale, I saw firsthand how varied the payments landscape is between countries, including differences in consumer behavior and payment methods. I was surprised at how detailed and nuanced the payments space is.

You’ve continued working in payments. What made you stay?

Part of moving into payments was me fancying a change, but I’ve stayed for a mix of reasons.

I quickly realized that working in payments afforded a lot more flexibility. Traditional finance roles live and die by strict reporting standards, as they’re highly cyclical in nature. Payments, on the other hand, aren’t driven by the same reporting measures.

It’s also been refreshing to work with different teams, such as Product and Engineering, rather than working solely within Finance. I’m really enjoying the wider variety of work and collaboration that payments offer.

Payments are 24/7. Has this impacted you from a work-life balance perspective?

At Tripadvisor, it was all e-commerce-led, with no brick-and-mortar payments. Now at Burberry, the focus is much more on retail, and payments are restricted to store hours. However, given the global nature of the business, there’s considerable overlap as regions open for business.

Even so, there are very few emergencies, and most of these can be mitigated by building redundancy into the technology and operational aspects of payments. In six months, I haven’t been called in the middle of the night, which is a testament to the strength of our IT systems.

For the engineering and product side of payments, there is a need to have people on call, but there isn’t that type of pressure for a more relationship management role, which is how I see mine.

Can you expand on how you’d define your role? And how is the payments function evolving?

Primarily, I manage Burberry’s commercial relationships with various parties across the payment lifecycle, including card schemes, acquirers, and issuers. This involves both day-to-day interactions and key events like contract negotiations.

Secondarily, I focus on driving operational excellence, which is grounded in data. We aim to make payments more efficient and improve the customer experience by benchmarking authorization rates, cost of payments, chargebacks, and other metrics.

The third and most exciting pillar of my role is being an enabler in payments. This involves engaging with all parts of the business, understanding their needs, and initiating discussions on how payments can support them.

There’s a shift happening here: payments have traditionally been seen as a commoditized utility, but now they’re getting greater attention due to their business-wide impact.

This is evident in the newly-created payments function and the increased engagement from other teams. We’re getting a seat at the table, which is great for brand awareness and showcasing the value of payments.

Our goal is to elevate the payments brand internally, demonstrating that they’re not just a utility but a value-added function that can drive and enable the business’s goals. This involves a level of education, as payments should be cross-functional. The collaborative aspect of my role is something I really enjoy.

You mentioned involving the business—how are you achieving this?

It can be difficult.

Some of the time it's about involving those more senior to me in the business and ensuring they advocate for looping payments in the conversation. Often, people in the organization overlook the need to involve payments in their initiatives from the get-go.

The rest of the time is about increasing knowledge around payments through these initiatives and by explaining and showing people how we can add value.

The payment space touches so many aspects of the business that it’s up to us, as payment leaders, to identify where we can add value. Instead of waiting to be invited, we have to initiate those conversations. We need to be bold and approach people who may not know who we are and what we do.

What’s your current reporting line?

At Trip Advisor, it was within finance. At Burberry, payments sit within Business Services, but the person I report to is still a member of the Finance team.

How would you define the role of a modern payment leader? How do you see this evolving in the next 5 to 10 years?

Enabling revenue generation is my number one goal. So the modern payment leader needs to think of themselves as an enabler. Specifically, they need to strategize with other business leaders on how payments can enhance the customer experience and drive the organization forward.

This involves taking both a strategic and an operational or tactical approach depending on the goal. Payment leaders should understand the full end-to-end process, including finance and reconciliations. When working with product teams on the frontend, it’s about enhancing the customer experience. On the backend, it’s about optimizing integrations with engineering. Additionally, there’s the regulatory element, involving managing risk and compliance. Finally, optimizing performance means driving down costs and boosting acceptance rates.

In the future, the focus will become more on the strategic value of payments rather than the operational side. Technology will lead the way in localization and personalization of payments to give consumers what they really want.

Would you recommend a career in payments to someone starting out? What advice would you offer them?

100% yes! In my experience, the last six years of my career have been more exciting and rewarding than the previous six.

In terms of advice, I’d say jump in with both feet! There’s no defined route into the payments space, and nobody knows everything since it’s constantly evolving.

As payments become a bigger part of every business, there will be increasing opportunities and roles driven by payments. There is definitely a lot of value to add.