Strategic Leadership Case Study: HSBC's Geopolitical Challenges

This case study examines the strategic leadership of HSBC, a multinational banking and financial services company, within the context of a shifting geopolitical environment, particularly focusing on the impact of Brexit. The analysis delves into HSBC's organizational structure, leadership hierarchy, and ethical management practices, highlighting the importance of employee involvement in decision-making. The study further explores leadership strategies such as motivation, taking charge, reward systems, and consensus building, especially in response to economic crises and changes in the marketplace. The conclusion emphasizes the need for HSBC's leaders to adapt to these changes and implement effective strategies to navigate the challenges posed by the current geopolitical landscape.

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1. Geo-political environment in which HSBC operates
HSBC Holdings plc is a multinational banking and financial services company based in
Britain. The company has its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. The bank has
been estimated as the world’s fourth largest bank on the basis of the total assets. The
company was first incorporated in 1866 and sees United Kingdom and Hong Kong as its
home markets.
United Kingdom has is located in the Western part of the Europe and includes the
northern one-sixth of the Ireland island present between the North Sea and North
Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 64 million, it does not have any constitutionally
defined official language. Primarily, English is considered as the main language. Other
native languages to the Isles are Irish, Welsh, Gaelic, and Scots etc. Being an island
nation, the country has a natural defensive barriers which is not present in the other
European countries and all the decision makers are aware of the fact that these
channels can be crossed by invading armies. Therefore Britain has to minimize the
potential security threats that emanate from other sides and should try to prevent the
hegemon rise. Britain has adopted a dual strategy of maintaining a bilateral relationship
with the United States and also remains one of the strongest part of European continent
(The United Kingdom’s Perspective | Geopolitical Futures, 2016). However, the Brexit
has impacted the geopolitical factors of UK and has led to destabilization of the
geopolitical relations in Europe. Without anchoring of Britain in Europe, the relationship
between Germany and France will deteriorate and at the same time relationship
between Europe and United States will be thrown in a total flux ("BREXIT - A
GEOPOLITICAL PERSPECTIVE: The nail in the coffin for "Great" Britain?", 2016).

2. Analysis of leadership in the company
The organization is managed by its Chief Executive. The company and its leadership
has been structured into various board committees consisting of a number of directors
and non-director members. This hierarchy is seen to continue with the directors having
responsibility of the internal controlling operations of the bank. These directors have the
responsibility of analyzing the efficiency of various areas present within in the bank.
The leaders of the bank proceed with ethical manner of controlling and stabilizing the
beliefs and values of the bank. All the employees are considered in the tasks of
decision-making and are brainstormed with better ideas of increasing the productivity of
the company. This along with bringing efficiency in the results marks high personality of
the employees of the bank. The organization has moved to all over United Kingdom
operating a full service bank which is known for its effective and efficient quality and
leadership management. The leadership management is seen to have driving the
values and beliefs of the company in a brilliant manner (The art of leadership | HSBC
Private Bank, 2015).
All the employees are encouraged to influences, inspire and communicate with people
and has promoted the idea of exchange of knowledge throughout the company in form
of feedback and constructive criticism. The skills and attributes of every single
employee is discovered so as to make them better leaders and to enhance the
environment of the company in the market place. The employees are empowered to
have self-initiative so as to foster a productive and effective working environment. The
board of directors, management team and employees of HSBC have developed an
effective strategy for allowing the company to grow at a sustainable rate.

3. Strategies taken by the leadership in the context of geo-
political environment
a. Proper Motivation
During any economic crisis time, it is important for any company to restructure or to
reduce wages of their employees. During Brexit, the organization are looking forward to
relocate their employees. Amidst this environment, the employees are tend to have a
demotivating influence over themselves (MacDonald, S. (2016).. Therefore, HSBC
needs to protect their managerial employees and conduct some coaching or special
training programs for avoiding negative consequences and to motivate the staff. Due to
economic crisis, the employees must be provided with advices as per the climate-based
organizational communication. There is a need for HSBC to harmonize their motivating
system according to the contextual changes (Glicken, M. & Robinson, B., 2013).
b. Take charge
The senior management and risk management department must build an internal trust
among the employees so as to allow the organization to counter the interests of the
employees along with handling the situation. HSBC should involve a new legal entity
structure with a home base and apply to their local regulator for issuing a banking
license. During this process, the management must maintain a healthy relationship with
their superiors so as to increase transparency to discuss all the issues openly.
(Kielkowski, R., 2013).
c. Reward System
With the change in marketplace, HSBC should not diminish the employees’ merit who
contribute to the achievement of the organization. The employees, during the crisis, are
seen to work better and therefore they must be held publicly for their contribution. This

will help HSBC to increase the concentration capacity of the employees, even in difficult
times.
d. Consensus Building
The top management of HSBC must cooperate well with their stakeholders and their
employees so as to build a consensus among these. The process of consensus building
should be a participatory process for strengthening the relationship of management,
employees and stakeholders.
Conclusion
During the current geo-political environment of the United Kingdom, the financial sector
has been hit the most. This has led to various changes in the structure and nature of the
organization. HSBC being one of the largest bank of United Kingdom has been
impacted adversely due to Brexit. The organizational leader must adopt to various
strategies in order to deal with the changes in the organization owning to current
situation (Macpherson, C., 2004)

References
BREXIT - A GEOPOLITICAL PERSPECTIVE: The nail in the coffin for "Great" Britain?.
(2016). Huffington Post India. Retrieved 26 October 2016, from
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/brexit---a-geopolitical-p_b_10566080
The United Kingdom’s Perspective | Geopolitical Futures. (2016).
Geopoliticalfutures.com. Retrieved 26 October 2016, from
https://geopoliticalfutures.com/the-united-kingdoms-perspective/
The art of leadership | HSBC Private Bank. (2015). Hsbcprivatebank.com. Retrieved 26
October 2016, from
http://www.hsbcprivatebank.com/en/discover/news-room/2015/leadership
Kielkowski, R. (2013). Leadership During Crisis. Journal Of Leadership Studies, 7(3),
62-65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jls.21300
Glicken, M. & Robinson, B. (2013). Treating Worker Dissatisfaction During Economic
Change. Burlington: Elsevier Science.
MacDonald, S. (2016). The impact of Brexit on the UK’s reputation, influence and soft
power. Cultural Trends, 1-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09548963.2016.1241368
Macpherson, C. (2004). To Strengthen Consensus, Consult the Stakeholders.
Bioethics, 18(3), 283-292. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2004.00395.x