Page 119 - Flip Banks TG

The HSBC brand is well-established and is considered

particularly valuable within the industry. Its tagline is now

‘HSBC helps you unlock the world’s potential’ which reflects

its current strategy of maximising business potential rather

than the narrower ‘the world’s local bank’ whose

connotation is more related to a parochial interpretation.

Since HSBC is a multinational company in its own right, it is

uniquely qualified to advise (unlock) other companies on

aspects of international business. Moreover, HSBC has a
history in M&A and organic growth - it was mostly an Asian

bank until it took over a UK bank in 1992 and now has

become the world's second-largest bank by profit.

“In the 1990/early 2000s HSBC went through something of a

cultural transformation. This had been a very sleepy old

bank run a bit like the British Diplomatic Service around the

world, a network of fiefdoms in different parts of the world,

or a colonial boys club, and it kind off worked because the

people in charge in local markets vaguely knew what they

were doing and there was some semblance of group control

but it wasn’t taking big risks in many cases and it was all

manageable. But, then Sir John Bond came in as chairman

and he started doing serial acquisitions he did four or five

big acquisitions over a six or seven year period and this is

where so many of HSBC’s problems date back to.” (8)