Despite the right-shoring and de-layering, Gulliver is travelling in the right direction
FROM the gobbledegook spouted by HSBC’s top brass, you could be forgiven for doubting its claim that it is making strong progress in simplifying the bank.
Yesterday’s strategy day, like its first one a year ago, was an orgy of jargon.
Last year, the concept of “connectivity” took centre stage. This was a buzzword to show that chief executive Stuart Gulliver had recognised that HSBC’s main appeal to business clients is its presence in an awful lot of fast-growing countries.
This year, we had promises to implement “end-to-end re-engineering”, “contact centre optimisation”, “right-shoring and de-layering” and “international connectivity” (is there any other kind, after all?).
Notwithstanding the nonsense words – which are an odd contrast to Gulliver’s pithy turn of phrase when he is not impressing analysts – has the bank made progress in the right direction?
It certainly looks like it: that the bank revised up its cost-savings guidance is important, since the market’s biggest doubts about the bank generally hang over its expenses.
And it seems increasingly like many of the cuts might not be as tricky as first thought: if the company could boast that it has “reduced paper consumption by 14 per cent” in one year, there must surely be a lot of other low-hanging fruit to harvest.
Of course, there are still grave macro threats to the strategy: inflating pay costs in Asia, low interest rates in the west and the Eurozone teetering on the brink of disaster.
But in the areas he can control, Gulliver appears to be delivering on his promises so far.