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Management Advice
In addition to our
recruitment services we offer Chief
Executives and Senior Managers an independent point of view at a reasonable
cost. We have first-hand experience of the international Capital Markets and
the Investment Management Industry that goes back more than 30 years and we
have worked and lived in most leading financial centres.
This makes us a logical
choice if you look for help when you want to improve your market
penetration, control your risk profile or costs or integrate a new
acquisition.
Experience in working in different cultures also may help the international
business deal with conflicts and challenges arising out of the mixing of
different nationalities in the business.
To hire expensive
outside help should be seen as a last resort - and in many cases an
admission of failure. The usual consulting buzzwords just cover up one
simple fact: the client is very often paying for advice that has been pulled
together from earlier assignments by young and inexperienced staff.
People are the most important asset in any Financial Service Business and
the link between the Consulting and Recruitment side of our business gives
us a unique edge in helping you to succeed.
Contact us for a preliminary
discussion!
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How realistic is a 15% ROE target?
Under CEO Josef Ackermann Deutsche Bank was targetting a
return on equity of 25%. This number always looked wildly ambitious to us
and not very helpful for two reasons: setting such a high target creates a
sense of failure if it is missed, even when the number achieved may be quite
respectable. There is nothing wrong with 13, 14 or 15% but it would be seen
as missing the target. The high hurdle rate could also have negative
consequences as it pushes staff to do deals that are not prudent just in
order to 'make their number' for the performance review. This is
particularly dangerous in banking were sound practices should first of all
be concerned with the return of capital. When Deutsche Bank aims for
a more realistic ROE target of 15% under Ackermann's successor we can only
hope that this number does not turn out to be as elusive as the previous
target.
5-Dec-2011
Image Campaigns - do they make sense for Banks?
Both Credit Suisse and UBS have recently launched
advertising campaigns that are aimed to bolster their brand image. But does
the sponsoring of Formula One really help UBS to reclaim lost ground with
the high net worth clientele that must surely be the main target for its
marketing efforts?
Image Campaigns may well have a role to play for banks that are active in
the mass market but for banks that are mainly involved in the institutional
or high net worth market a more focused approach must be the preferred route.
24-Aug-2010
Kerviel Case -
Importance of enterprise culture
While it may not have
been a significant contributing cause for the the huge hit that Societe
Generale took
in the derivative markets, we have always pointed out to our friends in the
bank that the reliance on a close-knit group of (nearly exclusively) French
professionals with similar backgrounds could be counter-productive in
the long-term.
French education may be able to produce excellent quantitative
minds but a country of just 60 million cannot claim to have a monopoly in
terms of mathematical talent. It may well be helpful to create a coherent
management culture if most senior roles are reserved for French staff but in
a global 24-hour business this will sooner or later become a limit to the
growth potential of any business.
29-Jan-08
New Star Asset
Management - Greed and poor Banking Practices
In Astronomy
one learns that different stars have different life cycles. Some become red
giants in later life, others become cold dwarfs.
In Finance, New Star Asset Management certainly provides a good
example of early burn-out, mainly due to greed on behalf of its shareholders
and incompetence (laced with greed?) on behalf of the bankers that were
instrumental in the 2007 deal that leveraged the company to the hilt in
order to pay a 'special dividend' to its shareholders.
What is stunning is the fact that at the end of December 2006 the
company had a grand total of £105 million in shareholder funds and annual
revenues of just £133 million. How sound banking principles made it possible
that a collection of top banks allowed a loan of roughly three times these
key numbers to go through is beyond comprehension.
08-Dec-2008
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