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!
