Distinguished Visitor: his corporate philosophy gets global attention

Yet at the same time, he describes his company's goals as "very modest."

Tyabji, who received a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering from UB in 1969, returned to his alma mater last Friday to participate in a series of activities, including a breakfast meeting in the Center for Tomorrow where he received the UB Alumni Association's Distinguished Visitor Award. His visit was co-sponsored by the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the School of Management.

Tyabji outlined his business philosophy at the breakfast program in a talk entitled "Creating and Running a Virtual Company: The Impact of Technology and Psychology on Business."

Swipe your credit card through the machine at any Wegmans or Tops supermarket and you can see how pervasive the VeriFone system is.

Dubbed the fastest-growing small company in America by Forbes, VeriFone is the market leader in the U.S. and the world in credit-card transaction verification.

In 1988, two years after Tyabji took over as CEO, VeriFone's sales began growing at an annual average rate of 25 percent and profits have grown even faster. The company recently went public.

While such measures of VeriFone's success are the standard ones, the approach of its CEO is pretty unusual.

In Tyabji's discussion of VeriFone's corporate philosophy, which he wrote, the words "compassion" and "humanity" come up again and again.

"What distinguishes VeriFone is a set of ground rules that have absolutely nothing to do with business," he noted. "Our feeling was that success in these parameters would be an outgrowth of our corporate culture, but that our principal goal was to improve the quality of life for our people.

"We wanted to create an environment on a global basis that would make it fun to come to work," he added, "and that would be the unifying thread, irrespective of an employee's ethnic background or geography."

The philosophy wasn't an instant hit. But

Tyabji notes that to make a corporate philosophy stick, the emphasis must be on "constant, unceasing communication" and on not ignoring any part of the audience.

Today, VeriFone's corporate philosophy is available in seven languages.

That global outlook is intrinsic to VeriFone's success. Tyabji said the company has no corporate headquarters and, indeed, key corporate executives live in Dallas, Santa Fe and Southern California.

It's fitting that the world's first virtual company, as VeriFone sees itself, is now working to become a leader in Internet transactions and "chip-card" technologies that could make ATMs go the way of the eight-track tape.

Tyabji explained that VeriFone technology would allow a consumer to attach a device similar to an answering machine to the home telephone. To obtain cash, one could access a personal bank account through the telephone lines by simply sliding the card through the device. The amount of cash desired would automatically be transferred to the card, which could then be used like a credit card to pay for purchases in stores.

The idea, he explained, is to eliminate the security problems inherent in withdrawing cash from ATMs, while allowing stores a way around handling cash, considered a key expense by many retailers.

The new technology could be ready for pilot-testing as early as this fall.