AT THE BOARDROOM TABLE WITH
SUE HUTCHISON
A Women’s Leadership Circle® Interview Series
By Gayle Hallgren-Rezac and Judy Thomson, CA
We were only a few minutes into our interview with WLC Advisory Council member Sue Hutchison when we started getting flashbacks to the McKinsey event on How Remarkable Women Lead. Sue’s comments closely tracked to what McKinsey’s research showed as traits of women leaders: a strong positive framing of all situations; the unwavering belief that there are enough options so that every challenge has a solution, and even with an incredibly busy life, looking for energy-charging activities. In Sue’s case that’s skiing and being an instructor of both abled and disabled skiers. We think when you read this interview you’ll see these remarkable qualities.
But, first a little background. Sue is the Senior Vice President, Head of Commercial Banking, BC with HSBC. She has been in the banking business for over 20 years and is one of the two heads of business for HSBC here in BC. Sue runs Commercial Banking and a male colleague runs the Real Estate arm nationally. This is a relatively new promotion for Sue and she is the first woman to hold this executive position who does not have a commercial lending background.
She comes to the job with an impressive career in the area of global payments and cash management, having spent 18 years with Bank of America before joining HSBC in 2005. Once on board, she took HSBC’s cash management from the bottom quartile in Canada to being rated the Best Cash Management Bank in North America by Euromoney in 2009. She went from a team of 20 people to 100, and from $110 million in revenue to $230 million in four years. But as you will learn, it is the people success, not the business success, which Sue has found most rewarding.
Sue is one confident person, even ‘cold calling’ to get her job at HSBC. When the gentleman on the other end of the line told her she needed to speak to HR, she simply said, “No, I want to speak to you, Dave.” Somewhat reluctantly, he told her to send him her resume and within minutes he called her back. She had three interviews and a job offer within four weeks. That’s a Remarkable Woman moment.
The morning of our interview was a mere 18 hours since Sid the Kid ended the Olympics on a golden high, so we started with the obvious question:
WLC: What was your magic Olympic moment?
Sue: “The women winning gold in hockey! I was sitting with five other senior women and there was this fantastic camaraderie between us. We were in the third row so we could hear captain Hayley Wickenheiser, this strong, calm, experienced woman leader, quietly coaching her team on the ice. Their years of experience showed and it was so awesome! We all agreed it was the perfect example of ‘girl power’. My daughter is now saying SHE wants to play hockey.”
WLC: What was your most rewarding business experience?
Sue: “Building the best cash management bank in Canada. When I joined HSBC in 2005, I was a bit of a guinea pig--the first executive women to be hired from the outside. It was a little bit daunting. To top it off, we had no products, no technology, no people. And, I had no sponsor! They knew I had a big resume in the space in which they hired me but no one knew me. I was a complete unknown. It was hard; I had no one to fight the battles with me. People thought I was crazy, but I said: if we want to, we can. We had a simple vision, two or three priorities each year. And, people connected to it. People joined ‘Sue’s story.’ I told people, ‘if this isn’t your best job you’ve ever had, then let’s find it.’ When I started, employee engagement scores were 57% and by 2009 they had risen to 80%--the highest engagement score in this area of our bank across 60 countries. That meant a lot to me.”
WLC: What challenges have you found for women in leadership positions?
Sue: “My experience is primarily in the financial world and a challenge in our commercial lending area is that only six of our 45 relationship managers are women. We have been researching some of the reasons behind this including the need for role models for women. Women ask: ‘Does this look like I place where I can build a career? Okay she is doing it so maybe I can, too.’ I have taken on the role of developing our HSBC Women’s Network nationally (now 700 members) and also chairing the Gender Diversity Initiative for the Canadian bank. There are good initiatives and feedback is coming from these areas. It’s important to recognize that men have many of the same challenges. A man who can’t make an office function because of a family matter should feel as comfortable bowing out as anyone.”
WLC: In the book, How Remarkable Women Lead, the authors interviewed a number of women leaders and one of the patterns “that kept jumping up and down” in front of them was “optimism—no make that extreme optimism…they were doers and fixers.” You are definitely a ‘glass is half-full person’. Where did you get that quality?
Sue: “I am definitely an optimist and the example I use is ‘the bad haircut.’ People often get very upset about a bad haircut, but the way I see it, your hair will grow back! So, if you totally screw it up, you will have another chance. Not a big deal. I am good person, people will understand.”
WLC: Where did you get that level of confidence or strength? Did you get it from someone in your family?
Sue: “I sometimes think about that. My husband will often say to me, ‘You just walk in and do it!’ I think it comes from a background in sales. It really is my forte. I was raised by two people with a sales background, both my parents had experience in the corporate world and as entrepreneurs and so I must come by it naturally. I figure, you know what, nothing is really that hard. We can figure it out. I think, if anyone can do it, I suppose I can do it. I don’t have a big fear of screwing it up. Also, I am very stubborn—if I think the odds are against me, I will just prove you wrong.”
WLC: If you had one piece of advice for a Gen Y employee, what would it be?
Sue: “In terms of career development it’s important to speak up. There may be more you can do and it’s important not to get frustrated. And for those who lead Gen Y-ers, it’s important to recognize that their expectations of the pace of career advancement may be faster than you would think so it’s important to make sure you know where your people want to be in three years or five years.”
WLC: How many people do you have in your network? Do you have a system?
Sue: “I don’t do that well at all. I just find that if I can look after my children, get my job done, sleep and workout once and a while, I have very little time for friends, I have very little time to manage my network. Some people do that very well, men in particular, and I just don’t. And, I know it is really important and I know it can change your business. It’s something I really want to work on.”
WLC: What’s your guilty pleasure?
Sue: “Napping. On the weekend.”
WLC: If your name was in the headline of the New York Times, what would you like it to say?
Sue: “Largest bonus paid in financial services to a woman. Make that, largest bonus paid in financial services. Actually, I’m kidding. What I really would like to see my children doing something to help others such as contributing to a cause or doing something meaningful. That I had inspired or helped my children do something amazing-- to make a difference in the world. They are young, but my daughter already has a budding social conscience. It’s really wonderful.”
“The Women’s Leadership Circle provides a new and relevant forum for women to become engaged with the business community,”
Henry Lee,
Chairman, The Vancouver Board of Trade
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