Transformation of HSBC Global App to grow 400%+ and win awards

HSBC had only one Global Corporate/Business App – HSBCnet Mobile – but a multitude of local Apps, all requiring their own technical, operational and commercial resources, and completely inconsistent. The Global App was available in 15 smaller markets, but excluded from the key markets – The UK, The US, China, Hong Kong, France and Germany.

The HSBCnet App had minimal investment and very low awareness due to a poor User Interface, outdated User Experience, and lack of customer focus. It was a technically focused App modelled on displaying the full range of what HSBC could offer, rather than focused on solving customer pain points.

The Global/Head Quarters team and initiatives were perceived as distant from the customers and not focused on customer needs. Awareness was very low amongst Commercial teams and customers both at the Global and National Account management levels. Market penetration and growth in the Apps value (payments initiation and authorisations primarily) had stalled.

The dedicated Tech teams for the Global App in China and Hong Kong had become focused on technical ‘tweaks’ and troubleshooting due to the aging technology and lack of customer insights/business side direction

Primary Task was to convince the UK organisation to allow the HSBCnet into the UK market, alongside its existing Small & Medium Sized Enterprise App (‘Business Mobile’). This App itself was badly outdated and had lost its market focus as well as becoming too technically driven.

A Secondary Task was to roll out HSBCnet into the other key excluded markets – The US, China, Hong Kong, Germany and France.

In addition a customer focused Roadmap was required for the Hong Kong based Tech leadership, and help evolving them to ‘Agile’ – the methodologies and ways of working

Finally, there was a requirement to bring the Global and Local Apps in line with the HSBC Retail Bank/Consumer markets through introduction of ‘Biometric’ log on – namely Touch ID.

The first challenge to resolve was antagonism between the UK and Global organisations. The UK could not perceive the benefits of allowing the Global App into the UK market, and had previous bad experience from attempted ‘c0-operation’ with the Global HSBCnet team. I had to clear the air with the UK Leadership teams, gain their respect, and clearly outline what could be achieved through true Collaboration. I actively sought out and secured Champions within the UK organisation and then Identified/met with key influencers and stakeholders across all impacted teams.  5 Champions helped me to understand and cover all bases.

I shared my vision for the Global App – Consumer App grade UI, UX, customer focused navigation, Global branding and Marketing support, with a roadmap including value added services (such as share dealing, Global Trade Services and currency exchange). I promised to help UK Tech leadership to implement the Global Biometrics Roadmap. I took the proposals through the UK Governance and approvals processes, and helped develop the Registration and Log In Flows/Screens for the UK Local App. Finally, I mapped the differences between the Global App customers/prospects and those for the Local App – proving that the 2 Apps were complementary to each other, not competitive.

I was able to model and forecast the uptake and usage for the Global App in the UK, alongside the uptake and usage for the  Local App. I set this as a KPI and took full responsibility for achieving the targets.

Once I had the template and approach for the UK, I was able to then apply the same approach for each of the other key critical markets – The US, China, Hong Kong, Germany and France. The most complex was The US, where I had to address several Lawyers, Compliance Heads and external advisers in a 1 Hour grilling. But I was able to address all of their questions and secured approval for US market entry within 1 month of securing the UK.

Alongside the Local Markets activity I engaged the Global Account Management teams – Leadership, The Key Account Managers, and the Global leads for each Local Market. The same promises, but helping me validate the innovations within the Global HSBCnet App.

Final Actions were to deliver against my promises!!

Replace this leading sentence with an intro into the things you did, if relevant including re-written versions of the bulleted lines below:

• What did you do to help… Improve clarity of responsibilities and capabilities to deliver against them
• What did you do to help… Identify, agree and prioritise new ideas and opportunities to generate business value
• What did you do to help… Enhanced cross-business collaboration, communication and buy in
• What did you do to help… Agree and define actions and a feasible roadmap
• What did you do to help… Clarify initiative dependencies and definition of success

• What did you do to help… Reduce time in delivering change from skills gaps or capacity issues
• What did you do to help… Reduce ambiguity around vision, goals, strategy and roadmaps
• What did you do to help… Reduce blockers to progress due to personal and structural agendas
• What did you do to help… Reduce or remove resistance to change & innovation
• What did you do to help… Reduce ambiguity around ownership and responsibilities

Replace this leading sentence with an intro into the things you did, if relevant including re-written versions of the bulleted lines below:

• What did you do to help… Identified critical areas of value and opportunities to exploit them
• What did you do to help… Enhanced business capability through resilience, agility and adaptability
• What did you do to help… Nurture a culture of engaged people, delivery and achievement
• What did you do to help… Refined definition of current state, desired future state, and how to get there
• What did you do to help… Create an internal network of ‘champions’ or ‘transformers’

• What did you do to help… Avoid project stoppages due to lack of senior buy-in
• What did you do to help… Effectively manage scope creep
• What did you do to help… Reduce complexity and create simplicity
• What did you do to help… Reduce the impact of siloes
• What did you do to help… Remove risk of exclusion of stakeholders at any stage of the transformation
• What did you do to help… Overcome resistance and drive adoption
• What did you do to help… Reduce risk of delivering incompatible or incomplete solutions
• What did you do to help… Stop IT being or feeling caught in the middle
• What did you do to help… Avoid unrealistic or conflicting expectations
• What did you do to help… Reduce time wasted to deliver value, with prioritised delivery of the right things at the right time
• What did you do to help… Reduce effect of detractors

Replace this leading sentence with an intro into the things you did, if relevant including re-written versions of the bulleted lines below:

• What did you do to help… Identified critical areas of value and opportunities to exploit them
• What did you do to help… Nurture a culture of engaged people, delivery and achievement
• What did you do to help… Refined definition of current state, desired future state, and how to get there
• What did you do to help… Create an internal network of ‘champions’ or ‘transformers’

• What did you do to help… Reduce complexity and create simplicity
• What did you do to help… Remove risk of exclusion of stakeholders at any stage of the transformation
• What did you do to help… Overcome resistance and drive adoption
• What did you do to help… Reduce time wasted to deliver value, with prioritised delivery of the right things at the right time

The most surprising outcome from the new revitalised Apps was the sheer scale of uptake in the first weeks of launch.

The Global App gained over 10,000 UK customer Users in the first week, and 50% of customers registered for Biometric Log on within the first 4 weeks. The UK App with Biometric Log On gained 50,000 customers on the first day, and over 500,000 customers within the first 4 weeks. 75% of customers registered for the Biometric Log on. This same pattern was repeated across every new market, and in existing markets where the App/or Apps was/were relaunched.

The next clear noticeable outcome was a huge surge in App Usage. The Payments Value for the Global App grew by over 400% in 18 months, from $20B pa to $100B pa. The main stimulus was expansion to the biggest markets, but there was high organic growth in existing markets too. Within the 18 months an original 15 markets had grown to 40+

In addition the Apps went up a level in terms of the user base, what had been a core user base of Financial Directors expanded to the entire C-Suite – in particular CEO’s, COO’s, CTO’s and CFO’s. A CFO and CEO in a Dutch company used the App to acquire a company for $750M within one month of launching in the Dutch market!

And, as I promised to my Global Managing Director Day 1, HSBC finally won some awards for the Global App. The first was ‘The Payments Awards’ 2018, where HSBCnet Mobile Won the Mobile Payments prize, up against Consumer Apps such as First Direct, Barclays and Starling. The next Two were prestigious ‘Treasury Management International’ Mobile Innovation awards, where a customer proposes you and their case study forms the prize entry. This reflects the other Results – HSBCnet won a multitude of new High Value customers, some of whom transferred all of their Global Bank Accounts to HSBC because of the ease of use and value of the App to them.

Replace this leading sentence with an intro into the things you did, if relevant including re-written versions of the bulleted lines below:

Typical areas where value is realised:

• What did you do to help… Enabling positive behavioural change
• What did you do to help… Effective delivery against financial targets
• What did you do to help… Fostering a human centric, transparent, trustworthy and agile culture
• What did you do to help… More satisfied and engaged employees with increased retention and productivity
• What did you do to help… Improved business agility and ability to rapidly respond to change and opportunity
• What did you do to help… Successful, timely delivery of evidence based transformative change
• What did you do to help… Increased credibility, confidence and influence across the business
• What did you do to help… Enabling competitive differentiation and increasing market share
• What did you do to help… Increase customer acquisition, advocacy and lifetime value
• What did you do to help… Direct positive impact on internal and external customer satisfaction
• What did you do to help… Viable, scalable and actionable roadmap to deliver innovation and change

Pains typically relieved include:

• What did you do to help… Inefficient or misaligned operating model and lack of business agility
• What did you do to help… Lack of exec sponsorship and track record
• What did you do to help… Lack of appropriate capabilities, skills, tools and methods
• What did you do to help… Unclear or inefficient internal communications
• What did you do to help… Misaligned goals across business and silos
• What did you do to help… Lack of customer insight
• What did you do to help… Lack of clarity around the internal business ecosystem
• What did you do to help… Poor data strategy resulting in siloed, incomplete and poor quality data

Replace this leading sentence with an intro into the things you did, if relevant including re-written versions of the bulleted lines below:

Typical areas where value is realised:

• What did you do to help… Enabling collaboration beyond the boundaries of an enterprise
• What did you do to help… Effective delivery against financial targets
• What did you do to help… Improved business agility and ability to rapidly respond to change and opportunity
• What did you do to help… Digital transformation that drives, moves and resets the organisation’s vision
• What did you do to help… Direct positive impact on internal and external customer satisfaction
• What did you do to help… Increased credibility, confidence and influence across the business
• What did you do to help… More consistent and sustainable profitability and business growth
• What did you do to help… Driving a culture of innovation for easier and faster adoption of future digital trends
• What did you do to help… Increased customer acquisition, advocacy and lifetime value
• What did you do to help… More satisfied and engaged employees with increased retention and productivity
• What did you do to help… Successful, timely delivery of evidence-based digital transformational outcomes; beyond digitisation
• What did you do to help… Creating a culture of involvement, empowerment and connection to the business
• What did you do to help… Better employer brand recognition from improved reputation and or culture

Pains typically relieved include:

• What did you do to help… Lack of transformation, change and agility mindset in leadership
• What did you do to help… Cynicism, lack of buy-in and resistance to change
• What did you do to help… Lack of exec sponsorship and ownership
• What did you do to help… Lack of availability of the right people at the right time across both business and technology areas
• What did you do to help… Lack of agreement of transformation governance and stakeholder understanding leading to a fragmented approach
• What did you do to help… Lack of process and technical integration strategy making the overall solution less efficient
• What did you do to help… Poor data strategy resulting in siloed, incomplete and poor quality data
• What did you do to help… Unclear and siloed business strategy leading to misaligned goals across the organisation that conflict with transformation
• What did you do to help… Lack of clarity around existing operating model, internal business ecosystem or cross-functional teams
• What did you do to help… Lack of sufficient customer and market insight to inform digital transformation
• What did you do to help… Conflict between perception and reality of digital skills, tools, methods and talent required and available
• What did you do to help… The IT function is not aligned to the digital business strategy and vision

Replace this leading sentence with an intro into the things you did, if relevant including re-written versions of the bulleted lines below:

Typical areas where value is realised:

• What did you do to help… Improved business agility and ability to rapidly respond to change and opportunity
• What did you do to help… Digital transformation that drives, moves and resets the organisation’s vision
• What did you do to help… Direct positive impact on internal and external customer satisfaction
• What did you do to help… Driving a culture of innovation for easier and faster adoption of future digital trends
• What did you do to help… Effective delivery against financial targets
• What did you do to help… Increased credibility, confidence and influence across the business
• What did you do to help… Creating a culture of involvement, empowerment and connection to the business

Pains typically relieved include:

• What did you do to help… Lack of transformation, change and agility mindset in leadership
• What did you do to help… Unclear and siloed business strategy leading to misaligned goals across the organisation that conflict with transformation
• What did you do to help… The IT function is not aligned to the digital business strategy and vision
• What did you do to help… Cynicism, lack of buy-in and resistance to change
• What did you do to help… Conflict between perception and reality of digital skills, tools, methods and talent required and available

• digital transformation
• stakeholder management
• Innovation Strategy
• technology leadership
• customer experience
• Customer Success
• Voice of the Customer
• Sales Enablement
• user experience
• agile transformation

• Digital Enablement

• Financial Services