Transfer News

January is a busy month for the football transfer market. Teams look to buy players either to consolidate their position at the top or to avoid a drop into a lower league. The credit crunch doesn't appear to have affected the football market. Silly money is being offered for the so-called "galacticos" and at times, even sillier money is paid to buy players who are still living on their past glory rather than their current form. Manchester City has a huge "overdraft" and has allegedly, offered £107m to buy Kaka from AC Milan. Can one player, however good, really change the fortunes of one team?

The past few months have also been very hectic for Retail Banking. Share prices have collapsed; the government has bought huge stakes in some of the most established and respected banks; mergers and acquisitions have happened - some successful, some which have raised eyebrows. As banks look to strengthen their squads to ensure survival the question must be, is there a Kaka in the UK's financial services sector? If you were the CEO of a Retail Bank, who would you want in your team? Towards the end of 2008 we have seen some significant moves. Mark Fisher joined the Lloyds Banking Group from RBS. Fisher has a strong track record of dealing with highly complex integration activities having successfully worked on the integration between RBS and NatWest and more recently was seconded to ABN AMRO to oversee its integration into RBS. Here is one "player" who is probably worth a huge chunk of a Bank's transfer budget because of the impact he can have on its profitability and operational efficiency and, ultimately, its share price. He would probably play at the back to master the Bank's defence line and ensure the team does not concede silly goals. But Kaka is a striker. He would work at the other end of the pitch scoring fantastic goals and probably taking all the glory. He is the one the fans want to see, he is the one they will all sing about. Banks need to re-gain the confidence and trust of its shareholders (the team’s fans) and need to raise their performance. Tesco Personal Finance (TPF) has signed Paulette Rowe, also from RBS. Rowe is a first class commercial marketeer, very consumer focused and is sure to work wonders on TPF's efforts to acquire new fans. Abbey have signed Paul Pester, ex Moneyfacts, LTSB and Virgin Money. Again, he is a very strong consumer champion. Both are definitely worth a good chunk of the transfer budget.

BUT, who is your Kaka? Would you spend your entire budget on one striker, or would you split it and use it to buy a new CFO, Marketing Director, CIO, HRD and COO? If you did decide that one person could change your luck, who would it be? Who could get your stadium filled with happy fans and joyous chants of; "show me the money, show me the money!"?

Marcello Mosca
Director
marcello.mosca@harveynash.com

Kirsty Brett
Senior Consultant
kirsty.brett@harveynash.com

January 28, 2009 11:02 AM | Permalink