Small business, in a real sense, is big business — it has been the engine for the global economy and has the potential to power our recovery and growth. On the latest episode of our podcast “What’s Next In,” James Anderson, executive vice president, Global Commercial Products, tells us how Mastercard is helping small businesses embrace digitization and harness the power of data insights.

Small businesses provide a lot of the diversity and variety in any capitalist society, Anderson says, and there is an interesting alignment between what Mastercard is doing for small businesses and the way governments think about them. “Governments are very keen to encourage a healthy small business sector for a number of reasons,” he says. “After all, these are the people that invested in the country and have put down deep roots.”   

Hosted by Arthur Baker, each episode of “What’s Next In” informally explores big ideas and trends in the world of payments technology and beyond. In this episode, Anderson and Baker chatted about the accelerated adoption of contactless payments, particularly in the United States; Anderson’s propensity to collect unreliable British sports cars; and the renowned cricket player with whom he shares the same moniker. “I am English but I actually don’t follow cricket. From what I hear, he’s pretty good …”