The story of Visa is not that of a powerful entity consolidating control and becoming more and more powerful - rather, it's one of the most compelling case studies of success decentralization in corporate history. Today, Visa connects 1 billion people via a payment network and has an annual sales volume of $1.8 trillion. In 1974, he completed the implementation of the Base I and Base II systems (more on this below), which computerized the credit card transaction. By doing this, Bank of America could grow its credit card business exponentially faster.Īfter months of internal argument, the board agreed, and Visa was born.ĭee Hock became the CEO of this organization and in 25 years, he grew it faster than any financial institution in history, to a thousand times its size. Though the business was growing quickly, it was going to be limited by the size of Bank of America's customer base.ĭee proposed a radical idea: spin the credit business out as an independent organization with a set of approved members. I became convinced over the years that all of our present societal institutions were essentially dysfunctional."Īt the time, Bank of America owned a small credit card business. I started studying history to see where the idea of corporation came from, what it was based on, why our institutions were as they were. "I was struck by how dysfunctional most business organizations really were, how they crushed the human spirit and how often people were in severe conflict with the organizations of which they were part. He says it was this background that helped him come up with the structure for Visa. Raised in the mountains of Utah, Dee grew up far more interested in history and philosophy than finance. In 1968, Dee Hock was an Assistant Vice President at a small Bank of America affiliate branch in Washington.ĭee was only 38 years old, but he was already establishing a reputation as a maverick. It would eventually become guaranteed data in the form of arranged electronics and photons which would move around the world at the speed of light. Several conclusions emerged: First: Money had become nothing but guaranteed, alphanumeric data recorded in valueless paper and metal. It was necessary to re-conceive, in the most fundamental sense, the nature of bank, money, and credit card even beyond that to the essential elements of each and how they might change in a microelectronics environment.