Meeting Room Alts Better Than Big Bank

Here's a finance boss that the man on the street can have little respect for. Like so many (all?) of his ilk.

Five years and done. Just announced stepping down from his role as chief exec of HSBC bank.

Yes, I am now long anti-bankster in the extreme. Yet this post is about the pic up top. Which The Times of London chose as the banner image accompanying the 'surprise departure' breaking news.

I see online versions of it - to which I link above - coming from 2021.

Thirteen billion dollar profits last Quarter, and that drab office space is the best they can muster?

You gotta be kidding.

Wherever it is in the world, it looks uncomfortable.

Can you even deduce its purpose?

The lighting may well not do it any favours, but even so. The typically ridiculous 'art' on that wall. Meaningless, yet someone somewhere is likely trousering an eye-popping salary or commission to place it there and everywhere.

You snigger at that pillar in the corner. How did that happen? And that combo of warehouse-type 'carpet tiles' and 'last year's' trending wall paint no doubt also cost a pretty penny.

That room cannot be a serious meeting space. If so, for whom? Waiting interviewees? Earnings call press attendees? Roman senators?

Even the drink plinths and tables have the look of the flimsy and self-assembled, despite probably costing the exact opposite.

Maybe the point is for quick meetings. A laudable aim. Who'd fancy sitting in those chairs for any length of time?

I realise there could be game-changing context out of frame. Yet I couldn't help think of how a client might view such a space.

It simply does not feel designed to get anything positive out of spending time in there.

The standard footprint of a meeting room is identikit the world over.

The bar is set low.

Which gives great opportunity.

You needn't turn one of yours into a multicoloured creche style playpen to make a real difference.

If you on occasion want your customers to be genuinely relaxed, make a space so.

If you want to foster competition-busting collaboration with them, then take the best from artistic, lab and presentation environments for another.

Build in uniqueness. Design in terms of delivery, experience and output.

Be better than one of the world's top ten biggest banks. It's easier than you think.