On February 21st last year John Flint became the Chief Executive Officer of HSBC. The previous CEO, Stuart Gulliver, led the bank through a tough eight years of restructuring, developing a reputation as a strong leader with a distinctive style. How would John continue his legacy?

In his first months as CEO it became apparent that John had a vision for HSBC distinct from that of his predecessor. His first objective for the organisation: the development of what he termed ‘the healthiest human system’. He described the healthiest human system as a conversation that he wanted to start at the bank, one about transparency, focus on people, wellbeing, meritocracy, openness and authenticity.

Objectives:

1. To introduce John and his values to HSBC

2. To reach as many of HSBC’s 235,217 employees as possible

3. To open up the conversation about ‘the healthiest human system’

HSBC’s Creative Production team realised that a radically authentic style of leadership would require a radically authentic form of communication.

They proposed an observational documentary film following John for his first year as CEO.

What better way to communicate John’s first year as CEO than to show it as it happened: in taxis, meeting rooms, and hotels?

The film would show the highs and lows of the year. It would show not only John’s triumphs, but his difficult times, and how he dealt with them.

The CEO is perhaps the most scrutinised role at HSBC. Many of the most-viewed films on the HSBC intranet have been CEO communications. We knew that there would be great interest in a film that threw back the veil on the role.

But nothing like this had ever been done at HSBC, in terms of concept or scale.

The film would be a vehicle for John to not just talk about the values he wants to share, but to actually showcase them in action.

Moreover, it would be an opportunity for John to show how much of his day-to-day work life would be familiar to all HSBC colleagues.

The scale of the project was challenging. The team would have to work out how to cover John for a whole year, in multiple locations, within budget—and how to tell a coherent, cohesive story that encapsulated an entire year of John’s life.

The film would take advantage of HSBC’s advanced internal video platform to communicate with all parts of the bank. It would be translated and subtitled in eight different languages in order to reach as many of HSBC’s multilingual workforce as possible.

In the week before publication the team would publish promotional material on the organisation’s internal platforms.

The Creative Production team knew that if they were going to capture the first year of John’s time as CEO, they would have to move quickly.

The production team began working out the logistics of the shoot. They identified the scheduled events that they would capture. Moreover, they identified the moments that would best reflect the daily life of the CEO as he went about his regular responsibilities.

Every moment the crew had with John was filmed, and as a result the team were able to capture intimate, authentic moments: John nervously rehearsing before an important speech, John joking with a colleague in a lift, John struggling with a bad back during a board meeting.

The film was published on February 11th, 2018, nearly a whole year since John Flint became CEO of HSBC.