Managing through turbulent times, personal profile

Sallie Krawcheck spoke at Columbia Business School this evening. She is youthful in spirit, well spoken and exudes elegance and confidence. That is quite amazing given that this accomplished alum was recently axed from Citigroup. Apparently there was a personal difference on approach to management with Vikram Pandit the new CEO.  Though she praised Pandit for raising capital prior to the market crisis in spite of the board opposition at the time.

The CBS Dean introduced her as Chairman and CEO of Citi Global Wealth Management, she gave the lecture on management in turbulent times and at the end explained how turbulent indeed are her times. The talk was essentially advice on career. She reflected on how the quant classes are the core source of anxiety while in school and how managing people and human relations become the primary challenge once you move on. She spoke of the challenge of managing talent in an competitive pre-credit crisis environment when banks would throw money at the top performers who with them brought millions of revenue dollars. It is interesting to contemplate what the management philosophy disagreement with Pandit might have been given Krawcheck’s very clear and candid position on the importance of taking interest in your employees. She stressed that if you have genuine interest in your employees you are far less likely to lose them to competition on account of compensation.

Krawcheck also gave a very perceptive explanation of her ascend to the top of management. She came to b-school to change career from I-Banking to marketing. However, having tried marketing she was not rely inspired and thus not excelling. Once she realized that research fits her interests and personality her career took off and she rose through ranks very quickly. This ‘follow your passion’, know your strengths and do not waste your time with your weaknesses strategy seems to be a recurrent team among the leadership speakers.

When I asked her about the faith of the last remaining 'I-banks' she expressed hope that they will survive but also concern that it is difficult to predict at this point. What was interesting Krawcheck claimed to have concerns about the long term viability of I-Banks a decade ago when she was director of research at Smith Barney. The volatility was mistaken for strength she said. As for picking the bright spots for the future she pointed to PE and predicted that once investors realize that PE is a superior model of investment the money will follow into that sector. I could not agree more with that prediction!

Sustainability and cooperation in post-nationalistic urban network

Architects are broadening their horizons and looking at the neighborhood and all the support systems not just the house or a skyscraper itself. Systems thinking seems to be en vogue again. If we thus broaden the horizon to include infrastructure spending, countries in emerging markets spend up to 10% of their GNP on infrastructure projects. New cities seam to rise in years, thus why not think of building a sustainable city. This raises a question: will the shiny new cities attract current young professionals. After all there is not much growth in the west. Right now we have the network effect of young talented educated people wanting to hang out together in places like NYC and London. But as the global urbanization trend continues and living standard differential for professionals narrow, will you want to live in old NYC or new Shanghai? Even the city where I grew up in Poland has started construction on a NY style 220m residential tower and plans to build another modern museum! That looks like quite pleasant place to live. Thus perhaps just like in aviation industry the rise of the low cost carriers have nudged the balance of flying from hub and spoke exclusive to a mix of point to point and hub and spoke. Perhaps in wake of this current financial crisis the raise of the Emerging Markets countries will have the same effect of dispersing New York and London centric finance hubs into a more spread point to point financing network. Now, what does that mean for your career? Moving to Medina?

The world needs more MBAs

Yesterday Jeffery Sachs, George Soros and Nouriel Roubini discussed the current market crisis at Columbia University. http://www.earth.columbia.edu/worldeconomy/ The debate was quite amusing to watch as there was enough current administration and Greenspan bashing to entertain any Obama supporter. Besides truisms like cyclical market has cycles, implying let them be, the takeaway was that of need for skepticism in analyzing the markets due to the inherent inefficiencies of the markets. It is fair to say that today’s economists have to be questioning the observed reality and what’s priced into markets as much as Soros is. So perhaps I could walk away more learned and with a healthy dose of skepticism of the panels gloomy outlook for the finance sector.  

One way to scale down American carbon footprint

The financial crisis has left behind America littered with McMansion! I am not sure how the society will benefit from such allocation of capital but perhaps we could engineer a corrective bubble that would reduce on weighted average basis the carbon footprint of American home. The answer to the real-estate driven solution was on display at recent MoMA exhibit http://www.momahomedelivery.org/, in particular I am talking about the micro compact home. http://www.microcompacthome.com/! The 2.6 meter cube is a perfect size starter home for a recent graduate! And here I have a high school graduate in mind that is moving on to college. It could be arranged in communities of houses, little villages, and if you do not like your neighbors pick up your home and move to another village. But to make this a reality the architects who conceived this house will need a few finance experts and MBA’s to improve the production process, reduce cost, and organize financing and sell the idea. Luckily the supply of those skills is plentiful on the market!  This could be the answer to intellectual inflation of the McMansion era, and solution to rising unemployment. 

Peaceful exchange of ideas and tolerance

Again I went to an event at the Polish consulate in NYC. This time the management of the Warsaw stock exchange was pitching the benefits of that regional exchange. The pitch was in Polish so mostly expatriates attended that meeting. It was an interesting crowd. I met a stock broker from Trade Wall Street who runs the recently opened TWS Polish brunch at Greenpoint, yes Polish brunch in NYC! I met a Polish motivational speaker who espoused the lessons from Buddhism. And I met a lawyer who helps to organize the Pulaski parade. I just recently walked in the Pulaski parade on the fifth avenue with other Polish students from Columbia University. So it was a very polish centric gathering. Thus I got goose bumps when I hear the news that my brethren in Poland fear the German minorities celebrating their Oktoberfest and speaking German!!!  Perhaps they need to hear about what Poles do abroad and like the Warsaw Stock Exchange we all need to connect and exchange ideas etc. As for me, as a sign of support for the German minority in Poland I am definitively wearing lederhosen for my next and eight visit to Munich for Oktoberfest!!! Go Global! Go Multicultural. 

Structural shift on Wall Street

I went yesterday to a Singapore jobs faire and the attendance numbers were very telling. They expected 300 people and circa 800 people showed up at the Marriot Marquis conference room in midtown! I met some ex Lehman Bros and some ex Bear Stearns employees, and some other recent graduates. What was interesting that the night before I went to party in meatpacking district, and at midnight on Friday I have never seen a more desolate place in NYC! Almost as if all the happy wall street people got religion all of a sudden and were updating their resumes instead of partying. So to put a positive spin on things I would say there is structural shift on Wall Street. People socialize more during the day!

Why work when you should play

I have attended a piano recital this afternoon. Such event too is a form of meditation. You seat in your chair and the rich colorful cords reverberate through your consciousness. Some melodies evoke your childhood memories; some other tunes simply evoke pleasure and admiration for the composer and the pianist. Looking at the pianist it is easy to see how strongly he feels his craft with his entire being! He plays from a deep well grounded center of understanding. He connects with the audience, with the instrument, with the spirit of the composer, and with the legions of artists who like him put their best efforts to interpret the composition before him. I truly believe that such model of interdependencies, understanding and balance is the model for how anybody should pursue their job. If you do not, why bother! Who will want to listen to a piece of music you do not believe in? Passion and understanding are essential for a good performance, be it in medicine, law or business.

The beginning

Why am I here? Who am I blogging for? A friend of mine has just introduced me to the idea of blogging. I am mostly blogging for myself. I am using public writing as meditation to voice my Ideas out loud. This is my way of chanting aummmm…. having completed my dual masters degree over the last two years I think I know exactly what I can contribute to this world. The certainty makes this time perfect for reflection. Although It is high time to start contributing to the society that has taken time to uber educate me first I want to harmonize my idea of self with the universe and reflect on the music that emerges, to make sure there is no dissonance anywhere in the system.