by Bruce | October 4, 2008 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy
With all the body blows the New York City financial services industry and its attendant handmaidens (BigLaw, that would be you) have taken in the past couple of months, it may be time to remind ourselves that for the past two centuries or so, ever since New...
by Bruce | September 26, 2008 | Articles, Leadership, Strategy
It’s all over for Heller Ehrman. One of the best single pieces of coverage comes from The San Francisco Chronicle. Heller was founded in 1890, rode through the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (in the aftermath of which the nascent client Wells Fargo Bank set up a...
by Bruce | September 19, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
Nothing less than a generational transformation of investment banking and the financial services industry at large. Its implications for, among other things, the economies of New York City and London, the structure of global capital markets, and our own dearly...
by Bruce | September 13, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
This is how the cover story of the current issue of Fortune starts out: It was the second week of October 2006. William King, then J.P. Morgan’s chief of securitized products, was vacationing in Rwanda, visiting remote coffee plantations he was helping to...
by Bruce | September 11, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Practice Group Management
More futile ink has been spilled on the issue of "leadership" than, I would wager, any other topic in the managerial literature. But the topic is irresistible. Why? Because deny it as you might, leadership matters. It consistently distinguishes the leading...
by Bruce | September 6, 2008 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
Best of times or worst of times to make some acquisitions? This is one area where the head/heart divergence may be more radical than usual—and where it could really cost you. Here’s how McKinsey poses the dilemma: "As the credit crunch threatens to...