30.11.05

一千年

《金融時報》Lex專欄有這一段,指滙控(005)五十名高層年資總共超過一千年,這間世界第二大銀行,就是由一班成世人從未轉工的老鬼話事。由此衍生一條永遠沒有答案的問題:究竟滙控如果學似一些美國公司,高層大部分是從外面空降而來,滙控會比現在更勁還是更差?

  Lex數得出滙控是經歷超過五十單收購而成。通常空降部隊急於求成,以顯示自己的價值,較喜歡大舉收購,反正對公司毫無感情,失敗結果只不過執包袱,並不肉赤。

  當然,假如空降目標並非滙控這級數的公司,而是甩皮甩骨苟延殘喘的軀殼,空降部隊不會四出收購,只會cut人減磅止血。如果以滙控為例,假如有空降部隊,可以想像收購數目會更多。

  滙控較弱的是投資銀行。假如高層是空降部隊,投資銀行應該可以在聯賽榜排名更高。這行是出名流動性強,三更富五更超富,職員高層起身的次數多得令人麻木。以滙控過千年的年資,與投資銀行作風迥異。有空降部隊,一定厲害得多。

   不過,滙控就是有這千年班底,才可從小小一間香港銀行踢入世界賽,風高浪急的環境,隨時可以沒頂。能夠屹立不倒,就要犧牲蛙跳躍進。但這些罕見的千年班 底,應該是絕唱,無人肯成世拒絕轉工之餘亦少有公司值得打一世工。況且,公司換血比比皆是。開會途中走出來寫稿,我都快有起身的危險。

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

江湖上很少人可以有滙豐大班們的「操守」,佢地在位時翻手為雲覆手為雨,但退休時僅僅收取「可恥的小額退休金」(對大部份人而言),在英國鄉下地方過平淡生活。
這可能就是滙控高層年資特長的原因--佢地只會交棒給有「操守」(例如:穩健、保守、忠誠、有信念)的員工,而唔係果啲標榜財技的高手。

Anonymous said...

有著愛爾蘭人刻苦性格。和美國人載然不同。

Anonymous said...

但現在中低層亦是純睇業績、銷售額,與所有中外資銀行一樣。

”操守”?還是留給銀行內員工評析吧。   

Anonymous said...

其實曼聯都幾似滙豐。

Anonymous said...

I attended a seminar tonight (30 Nov) with Raymond Or as the guest speaker. A question from the floor asked on this "1000-year" issue, and Raymond's reply was "It's a myth".




不敗的魔術師

Anonymous said...

Typo, should be:

Tonight (30 Nov), I attended a seminar in which Raymond Or was the guest speaker.

不敗的魔術師

Anonymous said...

Let's examine the "myth" by mathematics.

According to HSBC tradition, only those who have been trained in Management Trainee programme can be in the top management.

A graduate of Bachelor who is at 22 enters HSBC. Sir John Bond was 50 when he was assigned as the Executive Director. Hence the average age of being E.D. = (65+50)/2 - 22 = 35.5.

By the above assumption, the number of top management such that their total age is one thousand years = 1000 / 57.5 = 28.17.

Can anyone find the information of the top management of HSBC (not Board of Directors), please?

thomas

Anonymous said...

I prefer to say it is a 'legend'.

Anonymous said...

how about swire , jardine and other uk based giants ? still follows hsbc's "top mgt from trainee only" tradition ?

Anonymous said...

I think that if you wanna know the outlook of Management Trainees of a company, you just need to see the origin of the CEO or Executive Director.

E.g. The Little Eight, which evoluted from HKT, provides positions of Graduate Trainees, Trainee Engineers and Business Associates for fresh graduates. Yet the CEO of the company is from MTR. Why? the top management knows that how much they have invested into such trainees is not enough to build a reliable CEO.

This is also an indicator of the company's quality. Comanies with short-sight like to invest little into human resources and recruit outsiders to manage the company, while those with long vision like to invest plenty into human resources and understand the importance of the stragetic decisions with loyality, extendability and reliability rather than just big bang under spotlight.

However this indicator does not assure high profit. Citibank and some high-tech companies in NASDAQ, e.g., recruit outsiders but keep themselves high growth and high profit.

Therefore, what kind of stocks you would like to invest depends what kind of values you prefer to take.

thomas

Anonymous said...

中國人開既公司永遠去唔到呢種level.
何解? 短視而已.

Anonymous said...

亢龍有悔,倒不如飛龍在天

Anonymous said...

有著愛爾蘭人刻苦性格。和美國人載然不同。

************************

(a) they are SCOTS

(b) white Americans from UK are mainly of Irish origin

sigh