Noel Quinn is leaving HSBC. The news seemed to surprise the market – the sign of a tight and well-managed comms plan.
A departing CEO is guaranteed media coverage. And the fact the news was delivered sensibly and calmly on results day implies careful planning and prep. In other words, the right people internally were briefed at the right time with a very steady hand on the communications tiller.
For senior managers unexpectedly jumping ship, comms people have only one important question – who will replace them? The strategy here is to try and move the story forward, focusing on the new and not the old (who, if they have gone to the competition, is now a traitor). Taking control of the story, we say.
That might sound like an easy question to answer because of course the bosses have been boasting to analysts and the media about bench strength, depth of talent, etc, and anyway everyone is supposed to have a succession plan for these occasions.
Naturally, it often isn’t. And we PRs find ourselves spouting lines about not being forced into a quick decision, taking time to find the right person, giving internal candidates (of which there are several, you understand) a fair and equitable chance to pitch for the job.
And then – quite often – an outsider gets the role.
This might be billed as an upgrade, taking advantage of the availability of a major player in the relevant market who would bring important experience and new skills to the bank. This could well be the case, though it will invariably irritate the rest of the team who now feel like B-list players.
Then journalists want to meet the new boss to talk about their plans. We resist these requests – said new boss needs time to get their feet under the desk and anyway, they don’t have plans yet. But they will soon and you, dear journalist, will be one of the first invited to meet them.
But sometimes bosses can’t help themselves. They believe they are the “special one” and demand things such as 100-day comms plans that include rounds of internal townhalls and media engagements.
Our hearts sink.
We have watched this cycle again and again – supermen and superwomen seeking to reinvent a department, bringing in practices from their former employers, tweaked with their personal divine-like touch and looking to preach to the uninitiated.
But embedded culture is tough to move, and sooner or later the newbie realises, as their misplaced spirit slowly breaks, it ain’t going to work. Until they do, the PRs hope to limit the superperson’s exposure to the media and temper their hunger for internal TED talks. We are only thinking of them, after all. They’ll thank us for it one day.
Complicated
Controlling the comms surrounding a senior leaver or joiner becomes much more complicated when they hire their own PR support. Most banks prohibit this but that doesn’t stop people getting advice privately. Some very senior bankers think they are so important they actually demand their employer provides personal PR support, separate to the rest of the comms team.
I watched a former comms colleague take on a role of supporting a senior individual as he left one bank and joined another, all paid for by the new employer. I didn’t envy my ex-colleague’s position but she managed it with aplomb, mainly because she is smart and empathetic, understanding how her presence might cause resentment within the home team. She worked hard to avoid any friction.
Private advice behind the scenes can be even trickier to manage. It takes a few developments to detect – an unexpected reference in a story here; the unusual positioning of a deal there. But eventually the unmissable touch of a comms specialist can be seen. It takes one to spot one.
Personal private comms advice usually does not bode well for a banker. Their actions can be interpreted as treason and can even lead to their departure. This may have been in the pipeline anyway and the very reason for getting personal PR advice in the first place. Another clue – out of the blue, they seek comms support from the home team for media engagement, often after years of avoiding it. A sure sign of a soon-to-be leaver.
Occasionally it is comedic. One banker I worked with was on a glide path out of the business. No secrets – it had been announced. The banker, attempting to sound sincere, casually began suggesting journalists and titles with which he might engage, in the best interests of the bank, don’t you know. As if he had thought of this all by himself.
Not surprisingly, the banker’s strategy of praising the bank as a means for self-publicity had zero appeal to us. And it was obvious he had hired a PR specialist, one that was clearly looking to earn their retainer.
We pretended to play along for a couple of days, but only for the amusement of picturing the banker scolding his personal PR for poor advice when not one of the named journalists showed an iota of interest, which we knew would happen. For added entertainment, we figured out who the PR was (and don’t ask; I’m not saying).
But hey, we in comms are but humble servants to our paymaster bankers. Without their comings and goings, their 100-day plans, their misplaced belief that people care whether a man (usually) in a grey suit (usually) leaves one bank to join another, life would be a little less colourful. It still astounds me how many bankers think joining a new institution is cause for celebration or their departure a serious challenge to/misjudgment by a bank that everyone should question. One might even suggest that some people striding the corridors of investment banks have inflated egos.
Not one of them
Quinn is not one of them. HSBC has had a couple of CEO-succession stumbles in the last few incarnations and he will be keen for this one to be smooth. It looks like step one has been just that. Of course, all manner of questions follow, mostly about succession. But the messages coming out of the bank will have bought it time.
Two comms phases are now on the cards: lauding the achievements of the departing Quinn while managing the inevitable rumours about his replacement.
The former will be easy; some sort of script will be on hand. The latter requires discipline, and sometimes a bit of luck. Journos of all shapes will be sniffing around internally and externally looking for a clue, quick to run it past the PR team and other contacts in the bank hoping for a slip in the defence.
The fact that HSBC avoided a leak regarding Quinn’s announcement tells us it ran an extremely efficient comms management process. As for rumours of his replacement, it will likely be a “no comment” all the way, internally and externally (whoever is mooted). At least until the bank, and importantly, the regulators are ready to say something.
The bit of luck? That sour grapes don’t get the better of either failed candidates or other disgruntled parties privy to what is going on. They sometimes just can’t help themselves.
Jezz Farr has been a senior communications adviser to major international banks for more than 25 years