HSBC’s Warner Manning: Oiling the wheels of a virtuous cycle

In his first year as president and chief executive officer of HSBC’s Philippine unit, Warner Manning ran a campaign called "Watch Warner’s Weight".

He endeavored to lose 20 pounds in two months and challenged HSBC staff and friends to pledge donations to Children’s Hour. If he failed to shed the unwanted pounds, he would pay for the total pledged amount himself. He succeeded and raised over P200,000 for Children’s Hour beneficiaries.

Since then, Manning has not stopped doing things differently–and with good results for the bank and the communities it serves.

Last year, HSBC held "Tree-A-thlon with Warner," engaging staff volunteers, the business community and customers to pledge for the reforestation of the La Mesa Dam, the only forest of its size in Manila and the main source of water. Over P800,000 was raised. In addition, the bank committed to build a P5-million-HSBC Eco Lab and Museum at the La Mesa Eco Park for visiting students and families to learn about conservation.

On February 4, Manning is spearheading "Warner’s Charity Challenge," a triathlon joined by sports enthusiasts and friends from the business community such as Ayala Land’s Fernando Zobel, ABS CBN’s Ernie and Jeena Lopez, Alaska’s Fred Uytengsu and the Baron Group’s Harvie Ty de Baron and Hoover Ty de Baron.

They will run, swim and bike a combined distance of at least 200 kilometers in exchange for pledges for Children’s Hour beneficiaries – Stepping Stone Learning Center for Special Children, Sa Aklat Sisikat, Gawad Eskwela, GILAS (Gearing Up Internet Literacy and Access for Students), Send-A-Tribal-Kid-to School and EMC2, which provides basic education to children in Mindanao. They will have to complete the triathlon to collect on the pledges.

Why does Manning go to such lengths to raise funds for charity? Other than the rather personal goal of staying fit, he believes such acts keep a virtuous cycle running benefiting both the community and the bank.

"As a ‘guest’ or a foreign bank in the Philippines, we must behave as a good citizen, that is, we must put something back into the community that sustains our business. Aside from serving our shareholders, and paying the right taxes on all our transactions, we believe we must serve all our stakeholders and they include our employees and the community. Our campaigns motivates and encourages our employees to give of themselves. And as the community grows and prospers, we believe they will bank with HSBC," said Manning.

Indeed, HSBC has grown its business by leaps and bounds in the last three years under Manning’s watch. Its consumer banking business has grown 191 percent to count 600,000 credit cards. It was awarded by the Bureau of Treasury as the top foreign bank Government Securities Dealer, ranking third behind domestic giants Landbank of the Philippines and Metrobank. Profits have increased by 225 percent and return on equity as of June 2005 was at 24 percent, compared to below 15 percent for other leading banks.

But not all these accomplishments can be attributed to Manning’s considerable partiality toward corporate social responsibility projects. An internal survey showed that in terms of employee attitude, the Philippine unit of HSBC was number one in "engagement" in all of Asia.

"This means we have a very high commitment level, that willingness to serve and delight our customers. I’m afraid I can’t take all the credit for HSBC’s success today. We have over 3,000–including our BPO (business process outsource) in Alabang–dynamic, intelligent and friendly staff who are living the values of the HSBC brand everyday. They are the face of HSBC and they make things possible. I must thank them for their support and hardwork," said Manning.

For someone who trained to be an accountant, Manning has had a very good run as a banker. He said he learned all his banking at HSBC, becoming a member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers when he joined the bank in the early 1980s.

He advises those who want to make a career in banking must obtain their basic qualifications and hone their technical skills at the outset.

"But the real ingredient is good, plain, hard work in any business, actually, not just banking. And especially in banking, we must have a very high emotional intelligence. We’re in a service industry and we must deal with people all the time. This may sound like old hat but a bank’s reputation stands on customer service, we must always be known as first in class," he said.

With that advice, the virtuous cycle Manning has painstakingly oiled continues.

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Call 830-5481 if you are interested to make a pledge for the Charity Challenge.