London Day 3

We started the day with a quick trip on the tube to Canary Wharf where we met Mr. Mark Morris, Head of SME Real Estate, Commercial Banking at HSBC. We had met Mark earlier at the wine and cheese reception at Harlaxton. Mark lives very near Harlaxton and for the past 8 years has been commuting to London to work at the headquarters from Monday - Wednesday and then he travels to visit some of the real estate sites on other days. In addition, every semester since moving near Harlaxton, Mark (and his family) has been a host family to a student or two from Harlaxton during the regular school term.
HSBC is a British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London. It is the world's third largest bank by assets (behind two Chinese banks, held by the Chinese government). It originated from the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) which first opened branches there in 1865. The headquarters are located at 8 Canada Square tower, which is where we met Mark for a discussion of his bank and a tour of the building. Interestingly, the bank considers both the United Kingdom and Hong Kong as its "home markets".

HSBC has over 6,600 offices in 75 countries with over 60 million customers. Mark was able to discuss with us how the company is organized, how it has grown and where it is prepared to go in the future. In addition to a great discussion, Mark also provided some great food. Breakfast breads and coffee at our arrival and a huge spread of very diverse food at lunch. Everyone left very full.

 I got in trouble with taking a picture of people going through security. This happened most of the trip for me.

 Mark took us up to the 41 floor to look out at the view. It was wonderful to see the city spread out before us (and to not have to pay 25 pounds to get the view at another tower).

 Here we are just starting on the first round of food at lunch.

 Here we are leaving HSBC with Mark Morris.

 Next we headed to the Museum of London to meet Anthony Robbins, Director of Communications. Anthony gave us a wonderful tour of the Museum while focusing on the challenges of operating a museum in the heart of the City of London. He was able to discuss the marketing segmentation that the museum uses to try and increase visitorship. The museum itself was wonderfully interactive and all of the students felt that they wanted to spend more time exploring it.

 This is the Mayor of London's carriage, used during official parades and the like. It is still used today which means storing it in the Museum is a hassle mainly because it needs to be easily accessible.

 Here is a picture I took out a side window of the museum. The ruins in the foreground are from a Roman fort built around 110 AD. I like how it is next  to a new modern financial building.

 Here we are waiting for the tube. Each station is very different in character (size, smells, temperature, numbers and types of people). Very fun way to travel, especially on off-peak hours.

After the museum tour, everyone headed off for a dinner of their choice. The three professors headed to Chinatown and had a wonderful Chinese supper.

I flew to Belgium early the next morning and did not get to finish the trip with the class. I am waiting on photographs and notes from my students on their last day in London to complete the blog.
Thanks for reading.