HSBC seeks 'sexy' data scientists

I was asked to advise on the appointment of HSBC's Global E-Channel Director a couple of years ago and said to the team doing the hiring at the time that I didn't think the organization would attract the best/sexiest people. When asked why my first answer was because you call the role "E-Channel", any world-class digital player won't want to work with an organization who still thinks of digital as 'E'. The second was the organization is simply not ready for it and the role would require 2-3 years of painstaking argument just to get decent budget.

HSBC needs to appoint a seriously competent customer engagement person with strong digital experience as the Global Head of Retail at a minimum, and appoint a super progressive CIO & CMO to even start to make a dent in the organizational Inertia they have around 'acquire branches to build the business' mentality IMHO.