Page 22 - HSBC (D) Teaching Note

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)