The awards for excellence season is always an interesting time for Euromoney’s journalists. As we consider the relevant merits of different banks and their diverse businesses, there is an opportunity to get to the real heart of what makes a bank tick. To do that, you need to see the leader.
Typically, the most successful firms or business groups are a reflection of the men or women who sit at the top of them. They set the tone for the whole organization. Their staff look to them for direction. They can create an entire culture within the firm – of excellence, of entrepreneurship, of doing the best thing for the client, of doing the best thing for the firm – and often a combination of all four.
As Euromoney’s editors considered one of the closest-fought battles for best global investment bank we can remember, we put the following question to the three people who run the firms that were leading contenders for the award: name three deals that you did over the past year that sum up the capabilities of your firm and distinguish it from your rivals. We weren’t necessarily looking for the most high profile deals – rather something that in particular caught the CEO’s attention.
When candidate one was asked the question, his eyes immediately lit up. As quick as a flash, he reeled off three deals – some public, some less in the public domain – that he was really proud to have won the mandates for, because his firm had to beat history and/or incumbents to win them. The connecting factor in all three: the CEO had personally played the crucial role in securing the mandate. Once a dealmaker, always a dealmaker.
Candidate number two had an altogether different approach. When asked the question, he paused for a few seconds; then he said he would need some time to think about it, because it was hard to pick just three out of the many complex and innovative trades his firm had carried out over the past 12 months.
Candidate three gave a yet different response. On reflection, he said, he wanted to highlight a number of important acquisitions by his firm in the last couple of years where the variety of expertise among his most senior management committee played a vital role in the conception, execution and integration of the business plan. For him, it was all about the team.
The final CEO is the head of this year’s winner of Euromoney’s best global investment bank award – Merrill Lynch. Stan O’Neal has spent a number of years fighting off cynics who labelled him merely a cost-cutter and not the man to rebuild the thundering herd. But under his leadership Merrill Lynch first survived, and now it prospers once again.
Much of the credit must go to O’Neal personally. Not just because he led Merrill through its darkest days and back into the light but also because he grasped the reality that, to succeed in his task, he would need a tight-knit group of intensely loyal generals who would stand by him through thick and thin.
Doubters were dumped by the wayside. Merrill is a serious player again. Well done to the leader and his team.
