“The Times They Are A-Changin”
I have decided to treasure most the front pages of the major financial dailies of this recent fateful Monday. The so called articles describing the culmination of the financial carnage in Wall Street. Surprisingly this was just a day before the first Finexplorer series organised by the MBA Finance Club. This half-yearly affair consists of a series of talks, which are interactive sessions with experienced Industry experts from the Finance industry.
For the first talk we had Mark Bowden - Head of Equity, Merrill Lynch with us. I can only imagine the courage of the man (whose firm was just sold the previous day) to meet a gang of wannabe bankers. Mark set the agenda very clear that his strategy would be to try his best to dissuade everybody from a career in finance. A clear case of baptism by fire to separate the gold from the tar.
One of the best things of the first Finexplorer series was that it didn’t have any fancy PPT playing, with dim lights and people nodding (read sleeping). This was a “no holds barred” session between a man who was willing to share his 20 odd yrs of experience and a bunch of inquisitive souls wanting to know everything about it.
Mark first described the transformation of a dealer from the ‘supposed gentleman’ in the 80’s to the ‘shark in a suit’ by the millennium. One of the other insights he gave was that the few surviving banks had one thing in common and that was they did not have Gordon Gekkos [Wall Street (1985)] screaming “greed is good”. He advocated that the vision/mission etc of the company is not dictated by the fancy tabernacles at the corporate office/boardroom but driven by its highest officer.
Mark made the session interactive by picking people from the crowd, asking them questions and even on one occasion catching someone nodding J. The Q and A session soon followed and we had questions galore ranging from de-coupling to whether it was money alone that kept him motivated. How he overcame the initial challenges he faced in his career. He was truly inspiring and just reinforced the fact that the initial years are in no way easy. He also explained what he was looking for in his employees (surprisingly not fancy bschool degrees but only fire in the belly !! rhetoric ??).The simulating talk finally had to be wound up but that didn’t leave the students from cornering Mark over Dinner as well.
Coming back to the initial topic, I am sure many years down the line I would have someone asking me how it was during the “Financial Crisis of 2007 – whenever”. By that time it would be clear whether we were worse off than the “Great Depression” or not!! Hopefully by then my newspaper excerpts would be collectibles and selling for millions. How would I describe these years, I do not know. But I guess we all learned as kids to not bite more than you can chew. (guess as we grew, that was forgotten in the rush to buy the trendiest cars, fanciest gulf stream and the largest penthouse)
I would like to leave with an excerpt from one of Bob Dylan’s most famous songs
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now, will later be fast
As the present now, will later be past
The order is Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now, will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
Excerpt from “The Times They Are A-Changin” by Bob Dylan (1964)
- Alex
Excerpt from “The Times They Are A-Changin” by Bob Dylan (1964)
- Alex
