Morning Coffee: HSBC's "thoughtful" layoffs have a sting in the tail. Asset managers ejecting non-investment staff
Can a job cut ever be «thoughtful»? If you're on the receiving end, maybe not — but this is what Michael Roberts, the man recently appointed to lead HSBC's corporate and institutional bank, said he was all about just a few weeks ago.
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It's now becoming apparent what Roberts meant. Thoughtful lay-offs, in the context of HSBC, entail applying again for your own job all over again to determine whether you're the right person to do it.
Bloomberg reported yesterday that HSBC has invited its managers to self-apply as it seeks to take out management layers in the style of Citi. The own-job-applications are being pitched as the conception of CEO Georges Elhedery, but there are suspicions that Roberts' team will be particularly effected.
This is because Roberts is managing HSBC's newly combined corporate and institutional banking division, combining its corporate and its commercial bank. These two businesses, which were run separately until late October, contain considerable overlap, particularly in the middle and back office functions.
As Robert's managing directors and 'general managers' burnish CVs and contemplatethorny questions like, 'Tell me about a time you overcame an obstacle to solve a problem,' the process threatens to become a tournament between HSBC's commercial and investment bankers. Investment bankers consider themselves unremittingly superior. Commercial bankers consider themselves unstintingly underpaid. Both have the same clients, but are selling them different things. They could sell the same things. Senior staff in both areas have built considerable fiefdoms over the years. It could get messy.
HSBC will probably want to get the process over as quickly as
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