According to their main website, it shows that HSBC is already having a competitive long-term strategy. Their strategy is aligned to two long-term trends, which are financial flows and economic development. In their word, “HSBC is one of the few truly international banks, and our advantages lie in our network of markets relevant for international financial flows, our access and exposure to high-growth markets and businesses, and our strong balance sheet generating a resilient stream of earnings”. Base on the long-term trends and competitive position, HSBC has two parts of strategy: network of businesses connecting the world and wealth management the retail with local scale, in order to capture the growing international financial flows and capture social mobility and wealth creation through their Wealth Management and Private Banking business. In addition, there are three areas which their strategy relies on, capital deployment, cost efficiency, and growth.
In the bank’s point of view, their strategy creates a broader connection between HSBC and different markets in different countries. However, this convenience may also creates a loophole of laundering by using the gap in policy or law in different country.
Source:
“Our Strategy.” HSBC. HSBC, 01 04 2013. Web. 3 Apr 2013. <http://www.hsbc.com/about-hsbc/our-strategy>.
Since the late 1990s, HSBC’s brand strategy and image have come a long way. Using Chris Clark’s word, who is the head of marketing planning and brand strategy at HSBC Group, ” the multinational was a disassociated group of banks that carried completely different flags around world.” In 2002, HSBC’s worldwide advertising campaign defined the distinct personality of the group’s brand by introducing HSBC as “the world’s local bank,” which mean “anyone who banks with HSBC can benefit from services and advice from a company with international experience, one delivered by people who are sensitive to community customs and needs” which shows they are customer oriented. It is suspicious that HSBC’s action is too lenient toward customers. Thus, HSBC was willing to trade off between disclosing customers’ information or protecting and satisfying customers’ need.
Source:
“BUILDING THE GLOBAL HSBC BRAND.” EffectiveBrands. N.p., 03 04 2013. Web. 3 Apr 2013. <http://www.effectivebrands.com/EffectiveBrands/pdf/EB_HSBC-CaseStudy.pdf>.
I thought you did a good job summarizing the international strategy. I wanted to take a look at an outside perspective of the strategy as well. The Center of Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School examined the “World’s Local Bank” and its global strategy. The author Melissa Renteria writes, “What makes this global campaign truly distinctive is the brilliant implementation of a ‘glocalized’ strategy–keeping a consistent execution across multiple countries, while maintaining a local flavor in its message at each airport”.
http://brandleadership.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/executing-a-global-strategy-locally-lessons-from-the-worlds-local-bank/
Thank you Jessica. I’am working on a new source I found. I will let you guys know when I done.
Xing, I thought it was particularly interesting how you discussed HSBC’s potential ability to launder money through a number of markets in a variety of countries through political and governmental loopholes. By spreading out their services to 58 million customers covering 87 countries and territories in Hong Kong, Europe, Rest of Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, North America and Latin America, the governmental scope and intervention or lack there of, could allow for easy accessibility to laundering illicit money.
Source:
http://www.forbes.com/companies/hsbc-holdings/
Hey Steph, I agree with Amber. I think this is very interesting and good point that you mentioned here. Since we are working on the HSBC laundering scandal, I think we can find more information to write and I will share something related to the international strategy with you. 🙂
To go in more depth about their strategy, I found an article in U.K.’s Telegraph titled “Gulliver’s Travels and the Transformation of HSBC” written on March 3rd 2012. CEO Stuart Gulliver shares his visions for HSBC and their new international strategy and marketing efforts in pursuant to their identity transformation. With efforts to condense HSBC with it’s 30,000 labor cut within 3 years and the sale of 19 subsidiary businesses, CEO Gulliver’s shifting the bank to a more focused and precise institution in which it will only “keep presence where it has a chance of success.”
Their strategy is shifting attention on their four businesses, wealth management, retail bank, private banking and global banking and markets. In the interview, the CEO realizes the company has been seen as lazy and scattered but because they have always been visibly successful their has been no need to be disciplined and structured, hence, his transition for a more focused regime. Because each country’s HSBC believed they were running their own institution, a lack of control and cohesion arouse. CEO Gulliver in no way wants to minimize or downsize the company. Neither does he want to focus solely on emerging markets business. Gulliver states, “What I don’t want to do is position it purely to be an emerging markets business. There will always be a substantial trade and capital flow between the developed world and the emerging markets, and to capture that you have to be in the developed world.”
He identifies an ideal presence in the developed world as the U.K., France and Germany. And in markets where he believed HSBC did not have a competitive advantage, such as Poland and Georgie, entire HSBC operations were eliminated and pulled out.
“What we need is to have a network to power things like commercial banking and global banking and markets, but we don’t need a network for retail banking. I want to sit across emerging market-to-emerging market trade flows and European to emerging market trading flows.”
This philosophy could explain its transcendence from “The World’s local bank” towards a new marketing strategy, “The World’s International Bank.”
I highly recommend reading this article to understand the CEO’s perspective and mission of HSBC.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9120880/Gullivers-travels-and-the-transformation-of-HSBC.html