YouthNation: Building Remarkable Brands in a Youth-Driven Culture

Foreword

The most important leadership characteristic to thrive in this ever-changing world is resilience. Resilience is the ability to fall, pick ourselves up from the floor quickly, learn, and continue with our journey. Behind resilience there is an inherent positive outlook on life based on unwavering faith in our purpose, our abilities, and the capability of the teams around us.

—Antonio Lucio

As global chief marketing and communications officer at Visa, I have been at the center of YouthNation's massive disruption to business and culture. Despite the fact that Visa, a brand of enormous scale, processes over 96 billion transactions in 200 countries during the past year, in many ways we are now forced to think and act like a nimble startup to ensure our long-term vitality.

I was deeply honored when Matt asked me to write the foreword for his first book. Matt has been an important thought partner and a key driver of change in our global organization. His electric passion for driving cultural change through social media and his deep knowledge of youth were key elements in Visa's marketing evolution.

The drivers of change below are not specific to the payments industry but have implications for businesses of all types in every corner around the world.

1. The over 2 billion smartphone users¹ around the world have forever changed the way our world communicates and consumers transact.
2. The over 3 billion Internet users around the world now have real-time access to data, tools, and ...