1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:13,960 Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. 2 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:21,440 Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast. 3 00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:23,720 Speaker 3: I'm Jill Wisenthal, and I'm Tracy Alloway. 4 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:25,720 Speaker 2: Racy, how good at Excel? 5 00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:26,080 Speaker 4: Are you. 6 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:31,160 Speaker 3: Not good? Compared to a lot of people who listen 7 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:33,440 Speaker 3: to this podcast? I would imagine, I mean, I can 8 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:36,239 Speaker 3: do some basic stuff like auto some and you know 9 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:36,840 Speaker 3: so some. 10 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:37,720 Speaker 5: No, it's not. 11 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:40,199 Speaker 3: That's like literally clicking a button. I can write like 12 00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:42,839 Speaker 3: a couple formulas in the little command prompt. But I 13 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:43,519 Speaker 3: think everyone can. 14 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:46,360 Speaker 2: I could write some really rudimentary formasts, but I never 15 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:50,040 Speaker 2: really I got to the degree that some people are. 16 00:00:50,159 --> 00:00:52,360 Speaker 2: But the good news is I saw that I have 17 00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 2: to learn it. We don't have to learn I saw 18 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:57,280 Speaker 2: that Claude code they have or Claude they have some 19 00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:00,920 Speaker 2: extension where you just talk to Excel and and you say, like, 20 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:02,720 Speaker 2: you know, build this kind of formula and make these 21 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:05,360 Speaker 2: changes and import this. I haven't played around with it, 22 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 2: so not one hundred percent sure would work. And to 23 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:10,520 Speaker 2: be honest, because by limited Excel skills, I wouldn't even 24 00:01:10,520 --> 00:01:12,839 Speaker 2: be able to verify if it worked in the first place. 25 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:15,360 Speaker 2: But my sense is, you know that maybe that seems 26 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:16,760 Speaker 2: like a maybe that's changing. 27 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:19,920 Speaker 3: I would guess that it works pretty well. And imagine 28 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:23,160 Speaker 3: if you're someone who's been working probably in finance for 29 00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:25,959 Speaker 3: like twenty years, and you became known as not and 30 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 3: I don't want to say Excel spreadsheet monkey, Excel spreadsheet gorilla, 31 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:33,840 Speaker 3: like you know, someone really admired for their Excel skills 32 00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:36,560 Speaker 3: and suddenly you've been disrupted totally. 33 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:38,800 Speaker 2: Wellst Sometimes you see these things online where like they 34 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:43,160 Speaker 2: show this stuff like oh, the investment bank investment analysts 35 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:45,280 Speaker 2: or junior analysts just got put out of a job, 36 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:48,040 Speaker 2: and like there's a go I'm pretty sure there's more 37 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:49,880 Speaker 2: to the job. So I do know that, like building 38 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:52,880 Speaker 2: models and so forth, there's an important thing in finance 39 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:57,120 Speaker 2: and Wall Street in various capacities. I'm pretty sure that's 40 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:00,080 Speaker 2: not the entire job. I'm pretty sure automating Excel was 41 00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:04,120 Speaker 2: only part of it. But nonetheless, technical skills are technical skills, 42 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:06,960 Speaker 2: and if that changes, who knows, maybe the job could change. 43 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:07,160 Speaker 1: Well. 44 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:10,079 Speaker 3: The question I've always had about Wall Street is how 45 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:14,520 Speaker 3: much of it is driven by your own personality and 46 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:18,760 Speaker 3: sort of client facing skills versus I am a brilliant 47 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:21,240 Speaker 3: analysis who is not only able to come up with 48 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:25,600 Speaker 3: amazing ideas for mergers and acquisitions, sort of you know, 49 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:29,320 Speaker 3: working girls style, where like Melanie Griffith is in an 50 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:32,000 Speaker 3: elevator and is like, I know your company needs to 51 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,240 Speaker 3: start with whatever, versus like I'm just really good at 52 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:37,160 Speaker 3: hopnobbing with executives. 53 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:39,320 Speaker 2: It's probably a mix, right, That would be my guess 54 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:42,440 Speaker 2: that there's someone is really good at this company that 55 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:46,000 Speaker 2: is parking lot, so this the city could buy another 56 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:49,079 Speaker 2: parking lot company and so forth, and then another person 57 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:51,680 Speaker 2: who's really good at staying out and taking the class 58 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:53,400 Speaker 2: to a nice dinner. I don't think you could really 59 00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:55,600 Speaker 2: or I don't really want to have a conversation, but 60 00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:59,360 Speaker 2: the degree to which AI is going to disrupt all 61 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:02,120 Speaker 2: of these white jobs until I have a better handle 62 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:03,920 Speaker 2: what the white color jobs are in the first place, 63 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:04,560 Speaker 2: I feel like we are. 64 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:07,440 Speaker 3: How important are excel skills actually in this business? 65 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:09,960 Speaker 2: What is the sort of distribution of skills that it 66 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:12,919 Speaker 2: takes to thrive in some of these capacities. Anyway, very 67 00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:15,480 Speaker 2: excited to say, we really do have the perfect guest 68 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:18,120 Speaker 2: to talk about some of this. Someone we talked to 69 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:20,639 Speaker 2: last year and that was about sort of the history 70 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:24,120 Speaker 2: of investment banking over the last several decades and the 71 00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:27,720 Speaker 2: sort of connection between global capitalism investment banking. We wanted 72 00:03:27,720 --> 00:03:30,280 Speaker 2: to have them back on the show because as an 73 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:32,480 Speaker 2: investment banking veteran, someone who can maybe talk about the 74 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:35,440 Speaker 2: inside and how people work and how the culture change 75 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:38,120 Speaker 2: and how technology changes. So we're going to be speaking 76 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:41,800 Speaker 2: with return guests. Scott Baki is the former longtime CEO 77 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:44,880 Speaker 2: of the investment bank Greenhill, the author of the recent 78 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:47,680 Speaker 2: book Surviving Wall Street and it comes back on odd Lot. 79 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:50,080 Speaker 2: So Scott, thank you so much for coming back with us. 80 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:50,960 Speaker 2: It's great to be back. 81 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:51,320 Speaker 4: Thank you. 82 00:03:51,880 --> 00:03:54,760 Speaker 2: What are you for listeners who, in case they didn't 83 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:57,640 Speaker 2: listen to the previous one, which they should. What did 84 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 2: your career span on Wall Street? When did you first 85 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:04,120 Speaker 2: get into it? And you know how well give us 86 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:07,520 Speaker 2: the sort of the thirty second Scott book career bio. Well, 87 00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:08,480 Speaker 2: I feel like. 88 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 4: I started at the very beginning of really the explosion 89 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:13,960 Speaker 4: of the investment banking business. You know, as I said 90 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:16,160 Speaker 4: in my book, when I graduated from Wharton, I did 91 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:18,599 Speaker 4: not know what an investment banker was. I knew exactly 92 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:20,880 Speaker 4: one person from our entire class who got a job 93 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:23,279 Speaker 4: on Wall Street. So it was a very small place. 94 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:26,760 Speaker 4: Back then, M and A was very rare. Here were 95 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:29,200 Speaker 4: we talking about nineteen eighty one. Okay, you know, it's 96 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:32,200 Speaker 4: your interest rates peaked. It's the you know, stock market 97 00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:35,279 Speaker 4: was had been flat for more than a decade. You know, 98 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:37,840 Speaker 4: private equity is a phrase didn't even exist. Hedge fund 99 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:40,000 Speaker 4: didn't exist. I mean, it was a very very different role. 100 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:41,680 Speaker 4: By the way, it wasn't even legal to buy back 101 00:04:41,720 --> 00:04:44,599 Speaker 4: your own stock back then. That that happened a year later. 102 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:47,440 Speaker 4: It was viewed as market manipulation to do that. So 103 00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:49,559 Speaker 4: the whole thing of sort of playing with balance sheets, 104 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 4: putting companies together and so on. I mean, there had 105 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:54,000 Speaker 4: been a bit of that in the nineteen sixties, mostly 106 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:57,039 Speaker 4: around building conglomerates, which I think in part was because 107 00:04:57,040 --> 00:04:59,680 Speaker 4: they couldn't buy back stock. Because if you're generating cash 108 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:02,080 Speaker 4: to do with it, you could be it t a 109 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:04,480 Speaker 4: big industrial company, and so I think I'll buy the Hartford, 110 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:06,960 Speaker 4: a big insurance company. You know, today people would think 111 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 4: that's a crazy idea, but that was kind of the 112 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:12,920 Speaker 4: predecessor to what became, you know, the M and A 113 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:18,599 Speaker 4: and transaction business around you know, maximizing shareholder value. That 114 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:20,839 Speaker 4: that really began, I would say, right at the beginning 115 00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:21,400 Speaker 4: of my career. 116 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:24,839 Speaker 3: Perfect, this is already a fascinating conversation, I have to say, 117 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:30,200 Speaker 3: so I imagine this dynamic would have changed throughout your career. 118 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:34,040 Speaker 3: But how much of the investment banking business is the 119 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:38,160 Speaker 3: bankers approaching clients and saying we have an idea for you, 120 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:41,120 Speaker 3: versus the clients coming to the bankers and saying we 121 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:43,359 Speaker 3: have a problem, such as we have all this cash 122 00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:45,760 Speaker 3: and we can't you know, buy back our shares or 123 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:47,560 Speaker 3: we want to do something with it to reduce our 124 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:49,160 Speaker 3: cost of capital or whatever. 125 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:51,840 Speaker 4: You know, that changed an awful lot of our time 126 00:05:51,839 --> 00:05:54,040 Speaker 4: because it's the beginning. There were lots of companies and 127 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:56,760 Speaker 4: very few investment bankers, and so they didn't get a 128 00:05:56,839 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 4: visit all that often, and so when they did, the 129 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:01,800 Speaker 4: bank would try to bring, you know, ideas and maybe 130 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:05,240 Speaker 4: they hadn't heard before. You know, Now there's thousands and 131 00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:08,560 Speaker 4: thousands of investment bankers, many many different firms of many 132 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:11,920 Speaker 4: different types, and they're all maintaining relationships. So it really 133 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:14,520 Speaker 4: turns into more of a dialogue where you don't you 134 00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:16,200 Speaker 4: don't just you know, you never met the client before 135 00:06:16,200 --> 00:06:17,480 Speaker 4: your show up say hey, I think you should buy 136 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 4: this company down the street and wow, that's a great idea. 137 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:22,080 Speaker 4: I hadn't heard that before, and they do it. It's 138 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:25,799 Speaker 4: more like you have an ongoing dialogue with a client. 139 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:28,440 Speaker 4: You figure out what they want to do, what they're 140 00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:31,039 Speaker 4: you know, kind of what their appetite to their board is, 141 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:33,400 Speaker 4: what their balance sheets like, how their business is going, 142 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:36,080 Speaker 4: how they feel about their share price, you know, what 143 00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:37,880 Speaker 4: what they think is kind of the next big thing 144 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:40,640 Speaker 4: for them, And over time you come to an idea. 145 00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:41,680 Speaker 4: Almost mutually. 146 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:44,359 Speaker 2: I would say, what were you good at in the 147 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:47,000 Speaker 2: early eighties or the people that you went to work 148 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:49,800 Speaker 2: with very early on, what would you say you had 149 00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:52,160 Speaker 2: in common? Why? Why did uh you know? Why was 150 00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:52,840 Speaker 2: it a fit for you? 151 00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:56,039 Speaker 4: For me, I was probably a little bit different since 152 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:57,960 Speaker 4: it came from a legal background than some. I mean, 153 00:06:57,960 --> 00:06:59,840 Speaker 4: there were some people who were you know, the ex 154 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:01,800 Speaker 4: and by the way, Excel wasn't even around then. It 155 00:07:01,800 --> 00:07:04,200 Speaker 4: was Lotus one, two three. Who are the you know 156 00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:07,159 Speaker 4: Excel jockeys who built these you know, enormous models and 157 00:07:07,160 --> 00:07:09,360 Speaker 4: so one and I did a bit of that myself. 158 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:14,680 Speaker 4: I think my strength was more in sort of structuring, conceptualizing, negotiating, 159 00:07:15,280 --> 00:07:18,880 Speaker 4: you know, marketing, talking to CEOs and boards. It was 160 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:21,280 Speaker 4: more of that kind of uh in many ways, the 161 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:25,360 Speaker 4: qualitative skills, the math. You can pick up what you 162 00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:28,880 Speaker 4: need fairly quickly. And you know, I sometimes tell, you know, 163 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:31,760 Speaker 4: people of like my my son's generation, he's he's thirty 164 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:34,280 Speaker 4: years old. I tell his people at his pure level, 165 00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:36,760 Speaker 4: I see, you know, the great rubicon a cross in 166 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:38,840 Speaker 4: the world of you know, Wall Street and related fields 167 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:40,480 Speaker 4: is when you get to the point where there's somebody 168 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:44,080 Speaker 4: smart working for you. You're you're You're no longer yeah, 169 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:47,680 Speaker 4: you're You're no longer the one, you know, training some 170 00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:51,280 Speaker 4: complete newbie. You're no longer the one doing it all yourself. 171 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 4: You're the one who's doing a bit of conceptualizing and 172 00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:55,560 Speaker 4: giving into a very smart person who's going to stay 173 00:07:55,640 --> 00:07:57,239 Speaker 4: late at night and build you a beautiful model. 174 00:07:57,800 --> 00:07:59,480 Speaker 3: I want to ask you what it was actually like 175 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:01,960 Speaker 3: working a sort of junior banker in the eighties. But 176 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:04,720 Speaker 3: before I do, what's with all the people with legal 177 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:07,720 Speaker 3: degrees going into banking in the nineteen eighties, Because you 178 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:09,600 Speaker 3: weren't the only one. I think there were a few 179 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:13,800 Speaker 3: other famous compatriots at the time. Lloyd blank Find for instance, 180 00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:16,240 Speaker 3: stands out. But what was it about having done a 181 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:19,200 Speaker 3: law degree that translated into banking? 182 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:21,960 Speaker 4: Back then, there were many who made the move, And 183 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:23,760 Speaker 4: as a matter of fact, while I was interviewing the 184 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:26,400 Speaker 4: New York Times, Sunday magazine had a cover story called 185 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:29,800 Speaker 4: lawyers Becoming Bankers. I mean, it really was a big phenomenon, 186 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:34,400 Speaker 4: and I think literally the reason was the business exploded suddenly. 187 00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:37,720 Speaker 4: There's just massive amounts of transaction activity. There aren't that 188 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:40,160 Speaker 4: many investment bankers. You're not just going to hire more 189 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:42,160 Speaker 4: people who are twenty two years old and train them. 190 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:44,880 Speaker 4: You need someone who's twenty six or twenty eight or 191 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:47,200 Speaker 4: thirty years old who actually has kind of been around 192 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:49,720 Speaker 4: the business. They may have some skills to learn, but 193 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:51,679 Speaker 4: they bring other skills to the table, and so they 194 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:55,120 Speaker 4: brought into bank the lawyers, including myself, is kind of 195 00:08:55,120 --> 00:08:58,440 Speaker 4: a way of sort of ramping up the scale of 196 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:00,599 Speaker 4: the team rather than just saying we're going to just 197 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:02,040 Speaker 4: hire more twenty two year olds and train them. But 198 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:03,600 Speaker 4: you didn't have a time for that, you know, there's 199 00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:06,600 Speaker 4: so much such a growth in transaction activity. That's why 200 00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:08,160 Speaker 4: a lot of lawyers made that move. 201 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:11,720 Speaker 2: Well you mentioned just now you're like, okay, it's nice 202 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:14,760 Speaker 2: to be in the position where you can conceptualize something. 203 00:09:15,040 --> 00:09:17,680 Speaker 2: And then the really you know, the smart wiz kids 204 00:09:17,679 --> 00:09:20,559 Speaker 2: stays up all night building the model? Are they staying 205 00:09:20,600 --> 00:09:21,079 Speaker 2: up all night? 206 00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:21,400 Speaker 1: Like? 207 00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:22,760 Speaker 2: This is the This is sort of one of the 208 00:09:22,760 --> 00:09:25,280 Speaker 2: big questions that people have is like, what is it 209 00:09:25,559 --> 00:09:29,400 Speaker 2: about the business that demands these sort of in some 210 00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:32,400 Speaker 2: case extreme hours laid into the night. Why can't they 211 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:34,880 Speaker 2: just do it during the day? I clock out at five? 212 00:09:35,920 --> 00:09:37,800 Speaker 4: Very good question, you know, I think one in this 213 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:39,640 Speaker 4: this kind of relates to, you know, the future of 214 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:43,400 Speaker 4: AI and efficiency and investment banking and so on as well. 215 00:09:43,679 --> 00:09:46,520 Speaker 4: I think maybe the dirty little secret of the industry 216 00:09:46,559 --> 00:09:49,040 Speaker 4: in terms of how the sausage is actually made, is 217 00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:52,480 Speaker 4: that the actual building of the model, the creation of 218 00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:54,800 Speaker 4: the math that says why it makes sense or doesn't 219 00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:58,079 Speaker 4: make sense to buy something that certain share price, that 220 00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:02,320 Speaker 4: that takes a limited amount of time, the fiddling with 221 00:10:02,679 --> 00:10:06,760 Speaker 4: the PowerPoint pages that expressed that information so it makes 222 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:09,040 Speaker 4: just the right points and just the right way and 223 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:11,439 Speaker 4: just the right color seam, and you know, just the 224 00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:13,840 Speaker 4: right things in italics and other things in bold and 225 00:10:13,880 --> 00:10:17,000 Speaker 4: things like that. You know, bankers tend to be perfectionists, 226 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:19,120 Speaker 4: and so they will fiddle with that for a very 227 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:20,679 Speaker 4: long time and a lot of times. I mean, if 228 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:22,640 Speaker 4: you ask people who are in the early part of 229 00:10:22,679 --> 00:10:25,959 Speaker 4: their careers, like, what are you really doing when you're 230 00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:28,800 Speaker 4: there late at night, it's very often it's fine tuning 231 00:10:29,640 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 4: math that was done long ago. 232 00:10:31,640 --> 00:10:35,840 Speaker 3: There's also a schedule misalignment, I guess, because you get 233 00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:39,640 Speaker 3: the feedback from your boss at like five or six pm, 234 00:10:39,880 --> 00:10:42,360 Speaker 3: right and like at the end of their day, and 235 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:45,360 Speaker 3: then you have to stay up really late to make 236 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:47,280 Speaker 3: all the changes and get them on their desk in 237 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:51,000 Speaker 3: the morning. But okay, perfectionism long hours. Was that the 238 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:54,559 Speaker 3: case when you were initially entering the industry in the eighties, 239 00:10:54,679 --> 00:10:57,160 Speaker 3: very much so, But not with PowerPoint, with something else? 240 00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:00,640 Speaker 4: Well, that's true. I mean it literally was. I don't know, 241 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:02,719 Speaker 4: I'm not sure it was called anything. I think it 242 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:04,640 Speaker 4: was like a typed page, you know, of numbers. 243 00:11:04,679 --> 00:11:04,840 Speaker 3: You know. 244 00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:07,600 Speaker 4: It was kind of the early, the early version where 245 00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:09,760 Speaker 4: there wasn't all the software that put it in pretty 246 00:11:09,760 --> 00:11:11,760 Speaker 4: pictures and so Matia look that that came along with 247 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:13,840 Speaker 4: the you know, pie charts, and bar charts and things 248 00:11:13,880 --> 00:11:17,320 Speaker 4: like that. You know fairly early, but it wasn't nearly 249 00:11:17,559 --> 00:11:21,079 Speaker 4: as kind of beautiful, is it. And I mean now 250 00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:24,640 Speaker 4: it almost looks like you know what Vanity Fair magazine 251 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:26,560 Speaker 4: used to look like, right you open up's got beautiful 252 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:29,679 Speaker 4: color and pictures and charts and and all that sort 253 00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:31,880 Speaker 4: of thing. But people always worked very long hours. That 254 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:35,360 Speaker 4: was always the sort of ethos of the industry that 255 00:11:35,480 --> 00:11:37,360 Speaker 4: there's a lot of work to be done. We wanted 256 00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:39,480 Speaker 4: to be perfect, and hey, if you can make it 257 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:41,400 Speaker 4: a little bit better by staying another half hour, you 258 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:42,280 Speaker 4: stay another half hour. 259 00:11:42,559 --> 00:11:44,360 Speaker 3: So how much of that do you think was driven 260 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:47,640 Speaker 3: by genuine client demand in the sense that you know, 261 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:51,080 Speaker 3: a client presumably would be not very impressed if you 262 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:53,960 Speaker 3: saw that a bullet point was slightly misaligned in a 263 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:57,760 Speaker 3: PowerPoint presentation or something like that, versus driven by the 264 00:11:57,840 --> 00:12:01,280 Speaker 3: institution itself and a soret. I don't want to say 265 00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:03,960 Speaker 3: hazing culture, but there is a sense that, you know, 266 00:12:04,360 --> 00:12:06,760 Speaker 3: we all have to work long hours. I worked long 267 00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:09,160 Speaker 3: hours at the beginning of my career. It's expected that 268 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:11,360 Speaker 3: now you are going to work long hours yourself. 269 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:14,000 Speaker 4: I think if you go back to the beginning really 270 00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:17,080 Speaker 4: the nineteen eighties. I think it grew initially out of 271 00:12:17,160 --> 00:12:19,000 Speaker 4: neither of those things. I think it grew out of 272 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:21,800 Speaker 4: the fact that business was growing so fast and you 273 00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:24,400 Speaker 4: had a limited sized team, and you had twice as 274 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:26,520 Speaker 4: many deals to work on as last year, and next 275 00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:28,640 Speaker 4: year you had fifty percent more than that, and I 276 00:12:28,640 --> 00:12:30,840 Speaker 4: mean it was a really extraordinary growth, and so there 277 00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:33,320 Speaker 4: just like weren't enough hands on deck that you could, 278 00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:35,680 Speaker 4: you know, go home at seven o'clock at night. Now, 279 00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:39,400 Speaker 4: over time, that generation of bankers, including myself, you know, 280 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:43,160 Speaker 4: they bore the scars of those years throughout their careers, 281 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:45,679 Speaker 4: and so yes, there probably was in the industry some 282 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:48,199 Speaker 4: element of hey I worked like this, You're going to 283 00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:51,040 Speaker 4: work like this. But initially it was just a genuine 284 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:54,400 Speaker 4: business issue of hey, there's so much business to do, 285 00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:56,000 Speaker 4: so a few of us here to do it. We 286 00:12:56,120 --> 00:13:10,520 Speaker 4: have to work very lately get it done. 287 00:13:14,120 --> 00:13:19,319 Speaker 2: What about the element of essentially banking, Like many other fields, 288 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:22,360 Speaker 2: including academia but also law, you know, there's like a 289 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:26,280 Speaker 2: pyramid element where there's like a very small number or 290 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:32,439 Speaker 2: relatively small number of extraordinarily good slash remunerative jobs at 291 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:35,840 Speaker 2: the top at a large base of junior analysts and 292 00:13:35,880 --> 00:13:38,599 Speaker 2: so forth, and how much is it a sort of 293 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:44,480 Speaker 2: emergent competition amongst the junior bankers or whatever such that 294 00:13:44,559 --> 00:13:47,960 Speaker 2: it's not even necessarily some directive to put it in 295 00:13:48,040 --> 00:13:51,240 Speaker 2: crazy hours. But there's a big field of people and 296 00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:53,880 Speaker 2: they want to get up to the next rung, and 297 00:13:53,960 --> 00:13:57,680 Speaker 2: there's fewer spots to the next rung, and that creates 298 00:13:58,040 --> 00:14:01,640 Speaker 2: that mechanism of intense competition, the desire to sort. 299 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:04,200 Speaker 4: Of over please, you know, to just go over the top. 300 00:14:04,240 --> 00:14:07,160 Speaker 4: And yeah, that's that certainly is there as well. I 301 00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:09,320 Speaker 4: remember back I don't know why I remember this, but 302 00:14:09,400 --> 00:14:11,800 Speaker 4: back you know, kind of in the late eighties. I 303 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:14,640 Speaker 4: was probably in late twenties at that time, not even 304 00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:16,560 Speaker 4: a vice president yet at Morgan Stanley. I remember we 305 00:14:16,559 --> 00:14:19,360 Speaker 4: had this meeting once with the head of investment banking 306 00:14:19,400 --> 00:14:21,480 Speaker 4: at Morgan Stanley, the guy named Joe Fog very very 307 00:14:21,560 --> 00:14:23,680 Speaker 4: sort of, very sort of tough guy of that era, 308 00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:26,040 Speaker 4: and we're sitting around the table. I don't know, there 309 00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:28,560 Speaker 4: must have been twenty some associates in New York at 310 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:30,880 Speaker 4: that time something like that, and people are asking them 311 00:14:30,880 --> 00:14:33,600 Speaker 4: the question, hey, you know, we have someone you know 312 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:36,680 Speaker 4: who covers the retail industry, someone who covers the industrials, 313 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:39,520 Speaker 4: someone who covers you know, insurance companies, Like, what what 314 00:14:39,680 --> 00:14:41,800 Speaker 4: are we going to grow up into? You know, what 315 00:14:42,080 --> 00:14:43,680 Speaker 4: are the roles going to be for us? And so 316 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:46,440 Speaker 4: people did try very hard to differentiate themselves. Now, of course, 317 00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:48,560 Speaker 4: what none of us around that table knew is this 318 00:14:48,680 --> 00:14:51,320 Speaker 4: business was going to be like a hundred times bigger. 319 00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:54,600 Speaker 4: So it wasn't like, oh, we have somebody to cover 320 00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:57,040 Speaker 4: the retail industry, So I guess that's not an opportunity 321 00:14:57,080 --> 00:14:58,720 Speaker 4: for me. No, there was going to come a day 322 00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:01,960 Speaker 4: when you would have twenty five people covering the retail industry. 323 00:15:02,240 --> 00:15:04,800 Speaker 4: But there's always been that sense of, you know, few 324 00:15:04,880 --> 00:15:07,280 Speaker 4: opportunities at the top, even when it wasn't true, you know, 325 00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:09,680 Speaker 4: even when there was going to be more opportunity. 326 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:13,040 Speaker 3: So I imagine quite a bit of the work you 327 00:15:13,080 --> 00:15:15,360 Speaker 3: were doing in the nineteen eighties is what we would 328 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:19,040 Speaker 3: now characterize as pretty rote work in the sense that, 329 00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:21,680 Speaker 3: you know, we didn't have computers, we didn't have Bloomberg 330 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:25,320 Speaker 3: terminals that would show the share price or a bond quote. 331 00:15:25,320 --> 00:15:27,960 Speaker 3: You would have to like actually call someone up and 332 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:28,360 Speaker 3: get that. 333 00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:31,360 Speaker 4: Inn which that's right now. Who owned that company, but 334 00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:33,280 Speaker 4: Bloomberg put it out of business a long time ago. 335 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:36,520 Speaker 3: Shout out to the Bloomberg terminal. I guess, but you know, 336 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:40,920 Speaker 3: you went through a wave of disruption, basically, And yet 337 00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:44,960 Speaker 3: it seems that the work of physically going somewhere to 338 00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:47,840 Speaker 3: find corporate papers or physically calling someone up to get 339 00:15:47,880 --> 00:15:50,640 Speaker 3: a share price quote, that was replaced with work of 340 00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:54,160 Speaker 3: a different kind. Can you explain how that substitution kind 341 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:54,760 Speaker 3: of happened. 342 00:15:55,880 --> 00:16:00,240 Speaker 4: I think it was replaced with going from the sort 343 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:04,120 Speaker 4: of very intermittent meetings with a limited number of clients 344 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:07,280 Speaker 4: to talk about ideas to a place the industry is 345 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:11,840 Speaker 4: today where you go very very regularly to almost every 346 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:14,360 Speaker 4: company on the planet of any real size. Right You're 347 00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:18,440 Speaker 4: someone is there, and you're there with analysis of their industry, 348 00:16:18,680 --> 00:16:23,400 Speaker 4: their performance, their stock price, their competitors, what's for sale, 349 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:25,960 Speaker 4: what might be for sale, and so it's more like 350 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:29,000 Speaker 4: a saturation coverage. It's you know, it's a little bit. 351 00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:31,680 Speaker 4: I think investment making is very very different from consulting, 352 00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:34,680 Speaker 4: but you know, but where it has some similarity is 353 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:37,440 Speaker 4: this kind of try, this attempt and desire to sort 354 00:16:37,440 --> 00:16:40,080 Speaker 4: of almost get inside the business and really know your 355 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:42,320 Speaker 4: client's business, and that was not something that was even 356 00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:45,080 Speaker 4: attempted back in the nineteen eighties. But that's what all 357 00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:46,960 Speaker 4: those people are doing with all those extra hours. 358 00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:49,720 Speaker 2: Now you mentioned you in the early eighties, you couldn't 359 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:52,080 Speaker 2: have anticipated that the industry was going to grow one 360 00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:54,840 Speaker 2: hundred folder whatever it was. And this is one of 361 00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:58,680 Speaker 2: those things where perhaps from any indo people, many in 362 00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:01,000 Speaker 2: the public like wise, finance so big? Why why is 363 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:04,720 Speaker 2: there so much money in this area? Finance doesn't produce anything? 364 00:17:04,880 --> 00:17:07,840 Speaker 2: Why why is this? Why has this grown so much? 365 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:12,720 Speaker 2: How would you articulate that to someone? Why fundamentally, there 366 00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:16,000 Speaker 2: is just so much demand for financial services at the 367 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:18,640 Speaker 2: corporate level, and so much more than there was, say 368 00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:20,280 Speaker 2: forty years ago or forty five years ago. 369 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:23,960 Speaker 4: Look, I think there there are literally it's no exaggeration 370 00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:29,240 Speaker 4: to say that there really was an ethical change that 371 00:17:29,320 --> 00:17:32,879 Speaker 4: the world of sort of post World War two. You know, 372 00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:37,680 Speaker 4: big companies building conglomerates, you know, work at the same 373 00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:40,720 Speaker 4: place for thirty five years like my father did. And 374 00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:43,840 Speaker 4: you know, not a massive amount of intense competition, not 375 00:17:43,920 --> 00:17:48,119 Speaker 4: a lot of mergers, kind of stable, stable companies and 376 00:17:48,119 --> 00:17:50,320 Speaker 4: and and you know, maybe that meant slow growth at 377 00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:52,040 Speaker 4: some point, and maybe that was part of a problem. 378 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:55,520 Speaker 4: But in the early eighties you had really a lot 379 00:17:55,560 --> 00:17:58,600 Speaker 4: of things change. I think corporate culture changed a lot. 380 00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:01,360 Speaker 4: You know, Jack Els took over from a guy named 381 00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:05,360 Speaker 4: Greg Jones who was very involved at pen where I went, 382 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:09,879 Speaker 4: you know, a very very different kind of character. You know, 383 00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:14,520 Speaker 4: the the tax law changed. You know, capital gains got 384 00:18:14,560 --> 00:18:17,560 Speaker 4: started getting taxed differently from ordinary income. The tax rates 385 00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:22,159 Speaker 4: got cut quite a lot. Deregulation increase, the kind of 386 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:24,800 Speaker 4: pressure on unions, you know, Reagan breaking the Air Traffic 387 00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:29,040 Speaker 4: Controllers union, the ability to buy back stock, even the 388 00:18:29,119 --> 00:18:32,639 Speaker 4: sort of theoretical notion of you know, what is a 389 00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:35,720 Speaker 4: company for, right, Milton Friedman said, the company's sole purposes 390 00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:38,600 Speaker 4: to make money. You know. Professor at Harvard Business School 391 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:42,000 Speaker 4: named Michael Jensen wrote all these these stories or analysis 392 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:44,840 Speaker 4: about why, you know, you had to maxim my shareholder 393 00:18:44,920 --> 00:18:46,960 Speaker 4: value and you can't serve two masters, so that has 394 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:49,320 Speaker 4: to be the only thing you're you're trying to do. 395 00:18:49,400 --> 00:18:51,280 Speaker 4: And you know, and he had this long running debate 396 00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:53,800 Speaker 4: with my first boss, Marty Lipton, founder of Walked Out 397 00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:56,639 Speaker 4: Lipton about you know, should a company serve you know, 398 00:18:56,920 --> 00:19:00,639 Speaker 4: the community its employees, it's customers, et cetera. And that 399 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:06,000 Speaker 4: all those things mixed together really made for a tremendous 400 00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:09,760 Speaker 4: focus on transactions. How do you maximize values with more 401 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:13,080 Speaker 4: shares outstanding or less outstanding? Is it combining with this 402 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:15,920 Speaker 4: other company? Is it spinning off a business you've already got. 403 00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:18,760 Speaker 4: Maybe this year it's spinning it off, maybe four years 404 00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:21,320 Speaker 4: later it's buying it back. You know, this this game 405 00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:24,520 Speaker 4: really in a way, and hedge funds grew up to 406 00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:27,040 Speaker 4: sort of play that game, to bet on that game, 407 00:19:27,080 --> 00:19:30,120 Speaker 4: and investment bankers grew up to really you know, drive 408 00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:33,560 Speaker 4: the transaction activity from that. So the industry that you 409 00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:35,919 Speaker 4: know again was very very small back in the in 410 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:39,239 Speaker 4: the seventies, and you know, as you turned into that 411 00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:41,800 Speaker 4: sort of Reagan era when all those rules changed, just 412 00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:45,000 Speaker 4: really exploded it. And you know, the number of transactions 413 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:47,919 Speaker 4: to you know, has been very very high and growing 414 00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:49,879 Speaker 4: for a long time. I think the interesting question is 415 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:52,760 Speaker 4: does that go on forever? But it's not like it 416 00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:55,080 Speaker 4: was there forever. If you're if you're you know the 417 00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:56,919 Speaker 4: age I am, and you started what I did, you 418 00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:58,800 Speaker 4: sort of feel like it did. But if you look 419 00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:01,280 Speaker 4: just a tiny bit further back in history you realize, no, 420 00:20:01,400 --> 00:20:02,080 Speaker 4: this is all new. 421 00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:05,760 Speaker 3: This might be a dumb question. But in terms of 422 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:10,360 Speaker 3: the urge to do something as a corporate manager or executive, 423 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:13,040 Speaker 3: did you notice a difference between public and private companies. 424 00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:18,280 Speaker 3: Was that urgency or pressure more apparent at publicly traded ones. 425 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:21,720 Speaker 4: Yes, because they had you know, there was this thing 426 00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:24,560 Speaker 4: that became known as the market for corporate control. Right 427 00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:28,080 Speaker 4: if you if you don't buy into my mantra of 428 00:20:28,119 --> 00:20:31,960 Speaker 4: maximizing shareholder value, and therefore you don't, I will bid 429 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,520 Speaker 4: for your company, and I will maximize shareholder value, and 430 00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:36,680 Speaker 4: the difference between the value today and the value later 431 00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:39,200 Speaker 4: is going to be mine. And so there was pressure 432 00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:42,480 Speaker 4: on public companies. Of course, private companies, you know, there 433 00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:44,960 Speaker 4: were a lot of sort of family owned companies that 434 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:46,560 Speaker 4: had a longer term point of view and some that 435 00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:49,520 Speaker 4: are still there, you know, the Mars family, you know, 436 00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:52,040 Speaker 4: some companies like that are huge Cargill, some really big 437 00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:54,919 Speaker 4: ones that have remained you know, kind of steadfastly private. 438 00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:57,840 Speaker 4: But today, of course, private company really means private equity 439 00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:00,399 Speaker 4: owned company, you know, and that has grown you know what, 440 00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:04,359 Speaker 4: thirty thousand plus companies owned by that sector of a 441 00:21:04,359 --> 00:21:06,800 Speaker 4: bit of a log jam right now, and they really 442 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:09,520 Speaker 4: are the masters of that universe. They're the masters of 443 00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:11,199 Speaker 4: trying to maximize shareholder value. 444 00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:13,480 Speaker 3: Actually we should talk about that because this is the 445 00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:15,639 Speaker 3: other thing that's happened in investment banking is you have 446 00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:18,800 Speaker 3: had the rise of private equity and also hedge funds, 447 00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:22,960 Speaker 3: which are in some ways, you know, competing directly with bankers. 448 00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:25,000 Speaker 3: One of the things you sometimes hear, actually when it 449 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:27,959 Speaker 3: comes to the junior bankers actually working really long hours, 450 00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:29,800 Speaker 3: is this idea that well, we all know they're going 451 00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:32,560 Speaker 3: to go join Blackstone in like two years anyway, so 452 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:34,920 Speaker 3: we have to squeeze out as much as we can 453 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:39,080 Speaker 3: from them before that actually happens. How did that actually 454 00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:41,920 Speaker 3: change the business? And I guess, like how much pressure 455 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:45,960 Speaker 3: did that generate on the banks to respond and I 456 00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:49,040 Speaker 3: guess retool their own offerings and response. 457 00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:52,520 Speaker 4: Well, private equity really became the biggest client base for 458 00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:54,920 Speaker 4: the whole industry, right and that also was a very 459 00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:57,919 Speaker 4: very small, nascent industry. You go back to the you know, 460 00:21:57,960 --> 00:22:00,360 Speaker 4: the early days, like Morgan Stanley had to its first 461 00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:02,520 Speaker 4: private equity fund. It was I can't remember exactly. I 462 00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:05,080 Speaker 4: think it was like a forty four zero million dollar 463 00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:07,680 Speaker 4: fund and you go back to KKR's initial fund. I 464 00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:10,200 Speaker 4: mean people used to do leverage buyouts with like you know, 465 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:12,879 Speaker 4: buy a ten million dollar company with one hundred thousand 466 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:16,040 Speaker 4: dollars down and by and by by the rest with debt, 467 00:22:17,119 --> 00:22:20,320 Speaker 4: right we put together, I think you may have missed 468 00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:23,879 Speaker 4: the opportunity. Unfortunately, prices went up from there. But you know, 469 00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:26,119 Speaker 4: these things kind of fed fed on themselves, had some 470 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:29,520 Speaker 4: early success, and so really in the nineteen eighties beginning 471 00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:32,200 Speaker 4: then you had the rise of the private equity industry. 472 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:34,600 Speaker 4: You know, these huge players that for a long time, 473 00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:37,800 Speaker 4: you know, did very very well taking companies private, you know, 474 00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:39,800 Speaker 4: kind of doing a number of things to boost their 475 00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:42,359 Speaker 4: returns and then putting them back out into the public. 476 00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:45,800 Speaker 4: That that has also changed quite a lot where the 477 00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:49,040 Speaker 4: industry is looking at, you know, all kinds of private capital, right. 478 00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:51,840 Speaker 4: I mean, you know, Blackstone really pioneered this model of oh, 479 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:54,000 Speaker 4: let's do real estate, let's do hedge funds, let's do 480 00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:58,320 Speaker 4: private credit, and so you expanded to so many different fields. 481 00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:02,520 Speaker 4: But that that really fundamentally changed Wall Street because the 482 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:05,439 Speaker 4: rise of the private equity to created a client that 483 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:07,720 Speaker 4: was kind of in the kind of permanently in the 484 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,920 Speaker 4: transaction business, right, not like a public fortune one hundred 485 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:13,160 Speaker 4: five hundred company that might do a deal every year 486 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:15,600 Speaker 4: or two or three. You know, these were firms that 487 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:18,760 Speaker 4: did you know, ten or twenty deals a year, and 488 00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:21,600 Speaker 4: so they were became the most important clients. 489 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:27,479 Speaker 3: They're raising Dutch is raising money. I got thank you. 490 00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:30,639 Speaker 3: I stole that from Lloyd Fling. Fine. Actually, oh I 491 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:32,440 Speaker 3: feel bad. I've been reading his book, which is why 492 00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:34,159 Speaker 3: I keep mentioning him that good one. 493 00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:36,600 Speaker 2: Okay, you get a little bit further into your career 494 00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:39,439 Speaker 2: and you get a sort of role where perhaps you 495 00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:41,600 Speaker 2: get to think a little big picture and you have 496 00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:44,680 Speaker 2: to more junior people are the ones staying up late, 497 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:47,359 Speaker 2: et cetera. Talk to us a little bit about recruiting, 498 00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:49,359 Speaker 2: and I met this is an area of course today 499 00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:52,160 Speaker 2: that there's probably a lot of anxiety for people going 500 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:54,719 Speaker 2: into the biz. But talk to us a little bit 501 00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:58,160 Speaker 2: about like, Okay, some things obviously can be taught. Math 502 00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:03,239 Speaker 2: can probably generally be taught. Put aligning bullet points on 503 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:06,520 Speaker 2: a PowerPoint. I think that could probably be taught. Though 504 00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:10,479 Speaker 2: fastidiousness and attention to detail maybe inherently, maybe not how 505 00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:12,159 Speaker 2: would you talk to us a little bit about how 506 00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:14,240 Speaker 2: how you found people at the writ fit, how you 507 00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:15,679 Speaker 2: what that process was like. 508 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:18,679 Speaker 4: Well, that also, of course has changed dramatically as the 509 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:21,000 Speaker 4: industry has grown. If you go back to early days, 510 00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:23,760 Speaker 4: we recruited a very few schools. I mean it really 511 00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:25,959 Speaker 4: was sort of the Ivy League and maybe a few others, 512 00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:28,520 Speaker 4: and it was for a small number of jobs, so 513 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:30,239 Speaker 4: there were plenty of students there for that. Now, when 514 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:33,439 Speaker 4: the industry really exploded, those schools weren't producing enough people. 515 00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:35,760 Speaker 4: And I can say in the early days of Greenhill 516 00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:38,200 Speaker 4: we had in terms of like what knowledge these these 517 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:40,280 Speaker 4: young people had, we had a little bit of a 518 00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:43,639 Speaker 4: strategy of you know, let's take half of the class 519 00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:46,000 Speaker 4: just kids who are really smart. You know, but they 520 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:48,680 Speaker 4: can do math, they can speak, they can write, they 521 00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:50,600 Speaker 4: just got great grades all the way through. They're really 522 00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:53,560 Speaker 4: really smart. And let's take the other half as people 523 00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:56,879 Speaker 4: who actually have some substance of knowledge that's useful. You know, 524 00:24:56,920 --> 00:24:59,159 Speaker 4: they went to Wharton. There are other great business schools 525 00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:01,640 Speaker 4: about University Gina had one. We recruited a lot from 526 00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:05,760 Speaker 4: a University of Texas, Indiana, University, University of Michigan, and 527 00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:07,480 Speaker 4: so we'd kind of do half and half in figure. 528 00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:09,399 Speaker 4: You know, the kid who majored in finance at Wharton 529 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:12,600 Speaker 4: can teach the kid who majored in English at Yale. 530 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:16,920 Speaker 4: Now today, what's changed is that the typical student wherever 531 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:20,000 Speaker 4: he or she sits, as they're in their senior year 532 00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:22,720 Speaker 4: of college. I mean, they've had like four internships by now, 533 00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:26,919 Speaker 4: they've taken various online courses. They come in so ready 534 00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:30,040 Speaker 4: to roll, even if they majored in something that's completely 535 00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:34,679 Speaker 4: unrelated to what Wall Street actually does. So you're getting 536 00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:37,639 Speaker 4: someone who's almost trained before they even arrived. Now you 537 00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:39,920 Speaker 4: give them a lot more training, of course, but it's 538 00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:41,560 Speaker 4: not the kind of thing where you bring in an 539 00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:43,760 Speaker 4: English major, you know, as we did in the early 540 00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:46,320 Speaker 4: days and teach them like here, here's what a stock 541 00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:48,479 Speaker 4: is and here's what a bond is. You know, these 542 00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:50,840 Speaker 4: students have been working on that since they were in 543 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:53,719 Speaker 4: high school. I'm maybe I'm sorry to say I think 544 00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:55,639 Speaker 4: they should probably doing other things in high school. But 545 00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:58,600 Speaker 4: you know, it's become a very very competitive world, right 546 00:25:58,600 --> 00:26:02,159 Speaker 4: even though there's many, many more opportunities for students to 547 00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:04,080 Speaker 4: get a job on Wall Street today as they come 548 00:26:04,119 --> 00:26:07,040 Speaker 4: out of college at the same time, it's very very competitive. 549 00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:09,760 Speaker 2: Was there like a point where you started noticing that 550 00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:13,080 Speaker 2: or like around when that change, because it certainly tracks 551 00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:14,800 Speaker 2: that you like meet young people and they're like, oh 552 00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:16,960 Speaker 2: my god, like, how do they know all this stuff 553 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:19,640 Speaker 2: and about things that maybe it's the Internet or something, 554 00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:21,399 Speaker 2: the things that I certainly didn't know about when I 555 00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:24,000 Speaker 2: was in high school really even college in many instances. 556 00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:27,119 Speaker 2: But I'm curious when you started when you started noticing that. 557 00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:30,679 Speaker 4: I think maybe in the sort of the post dot 558 00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:34,080 Speaker 4: com bubble bursting kind of in the early two thousands, 559 00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:36,199 Speaker 4: when business really started to pick up again and you 560 00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:38,800 Speaker 4: had those several great years leading into what, of course 561 00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:41,920 Speaker 4: became the financial crisis, But there was such an increase 562 00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:45,560 Speaker 4: in opportunity then, and there was and now everyone was 563 00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:47,200 Speaker 4: in on the secret, right, I mean, they could read 564 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:50,280 Speaker 4: about the industry, they could understand the you know, compensation 565 00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:54,080 Speaker 4: structures and the potential for themselves to get ahead in life. 566 00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:57,240 Speaker 4: And and so these students started kind of working backwards like, Okay, 567 00:26:57,280 --> 00:26:59,160 Speaker 4: I wanted to get a first year analyst job. 568 00:26:59,160 --> 00:26:59,719 Speaker 2: How do I do that? 569 00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:03,440 Speaker 4: What internship should I get after you know, freshman year? Well, 570 00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:05,120 Speaker 4: you can't get a very good one then, but maybe 571 00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:07,960 Speaker 4: you can get something tangentially, you know, do you know 572 00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:11,000 Speaker 4: somebody works as a stockbroker, Can you be a you know, 573 00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:13,600 Speaker 4: work in the mail room there or something after software, 574 00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:14,959 Speaker 4: or maybe you can do a little better than that. 575 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:17,440 Speaker 4: After junior year, maybe you can get you know, something 576 00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:19,520 Speaker 4: better than that. And by time you show up, you know, 577 00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:22,640 Speaker 4: as a college junior looking for that first year analyst 578 00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:25,280 Speaker 4: job at Goldman Sachs, you know, you've got like five 579 00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:27,399 Speaker 4: names on your resume that look like, wow, this this 580 00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:29,640 Speaker 4: person's been around the industry a long time, even though 581 00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:31,960 Speaker 4: they're twenty one years old at the point, at that 582 00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:32,920 Speaker 4: point scary. 583 00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:35,200 Speaker 3: Do you think as many people are going to want 584 00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:38,199 Speaker 3: to go in finance given that, I mean, we've already 585 00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:41,120 Speaker 3: been through shifts in the popularity of finance as a career. 586 00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:44,320 Speaker 3: So at one point it was the place that you 587 00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:46,360 Speaker 3: wanted to go to if you were like a Harvard 588 00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:48,679 Speaker 3: grad or whatever, and then it became tech for a 589 00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:52,639 Speaker 3: little while, and now there's all this anxiety over AI 590 00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:56,760 Speaker 3: disrupting particularly analytical jobs. Do you think it's going to 591 00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:58,160 Speaker 3: be as popular a choice. 592 00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:02,480 Speaker 4: I think it will. It will evolve and fluctuate and 593 00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:07,240 Speaker 4: probably decline over time. Just the industry is all about cycles, right, 594 00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:10,440 Speaker 4: Markets are all about cycles. I mean, we've had an 595 00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:13,920 Speaker 4: incredible run, incredible run. Okay, the you know, COVID was 596 00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:16,040 Speaker 4: a little bit of a hiccup right where markets sort 597 00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:18,399 Speaker 4: of plummeted and things slowed down, but then you know, 598 00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:21,880 Speaker 4: it exploded in activity in just a matter of months later. 599 00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:24,280 Speaker 4: So it's been a long run really since the financial 600 00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:28,639 Speaker 4: crisis of you know, really wonderful times largely on Wall Street. 601 00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:30,399 Speaker 4: And you know at some point there's going to be 602 00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:33,560 Speaker 4: you know, a retrenchment from that. There's going to be 603 00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:35,719 Speaker 4: some kind of decline. Who you know, who knows. Maybe 604 00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:38,760 Speaker 4: maybe maybe a war set you know, turns things around, 605 00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:41,800 Speaker 4: maybe a private credit problem turns things around. But something 606 00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:44,720 Speaker 4: will happen, I think can sort of dampen the interest again, 607 00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:47,320 Speaker 4: just as happened, you know, with the dot com crash 608 00:28:47,400 --> 00:29:02,680 Speaker 4: or the financial crisis. 609 00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:07,120 Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit more about technology and the 610 00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:11,000 Speaker 2: technological changes that you saw in your career. So okay, 611 00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:14,000 Speaker 2: mentioned like you're using Lotus one two three in the beginning, 612 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,960 Speaker 2: which I have some memory of Lotus one two three 613 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:21,040 Speaker 2: and ease of data retrieval is so much is so 614 00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:23,800 Speaker 2: much different now. But talk to us about okay, twenty 615 00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:27,080 Speaker 2: twenty four, but in recent years and some of the 616 00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:31,720 Speaker 2: other ways, like what what other technological innovations came out, 617 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:35,520 Speaker 2: What time consuming activities did they shrink to your zero? 618 00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:38,960 Speaker 2: And then what new things did people do on top 619 00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:41,040 Speaker 2: Once Okay, the technology is here, you don't have to 620 00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:43,840 Speaker 2: allocate your time to this. You're now going to allocate 621 00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:45,920 Speaker 2: your time to that. Talk to us what else you saw? 622 00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:46,320 Speaker 3: Sure? 623 00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:49,200 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean look in the early days, like even 624 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:51,760 Speaker 4: if companies weren't even that of their own share price, right, 625 00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:54,600 Speaker 4: I mean, not everybody had a Bloomberg terminal or CNBC 626 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:56,760 Speaker 4: you know screen on their on their desk. If you're 627 00:29:56,800 --> 00:30:00,800 Speaker 4: sitting in Dayton, Ohio. Uh so you didn't know. As bankers, 628 00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:03,160 Speaker 4: you know, you could bring very little information and it 629 00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:05,200 Speaker 4: was new to the client. It was interesting to the client. 630 00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:05,720 Speaker 1: You know. 631 00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:08,920 Speaker 4: Over time, we used to do a lot of laborious 632 00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:12,080 Speaker 4: work to create sort of a comparable companies analysis. Here 633 00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:15,040 Speaker 4: are the ten companies in your business segment. You know, 634 00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:17,760 Speaker 4: you trade at this pe multiple or this ebit don multiple, 635 00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:19,400 Speaker 4: and here's where the other guys trade, and here's how 636 00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:22,160 Speaker 4: their leverage is different than yours, and here's how their 637 00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:24,440 Speaker 4: stock is performed. And that used to be a tremendous 638 00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:27,080 Speaker 4: amount of work. You know, Now really a machine can 639 00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:30,120 Speaker 4: largely do that, and a lot of the other kind 640 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,360 Speaker 4: of creation of sort of standard charts on you know, 641 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:35,600 Speaker 4: on what's going on in the industry, even what's going 642 00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:38,080 Speaker 4: on in your company can be done very very quickly. 643 00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:41,280 Speaker 4: So I think, you know, the pyramid I have to 644 00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:43,960 Speaker 4: think is going to get less fat at the bottom 645 00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:47,480 Speaker 4: because you're going to be really leveraging technology to do 646 00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:49,840 Speaker 4: a lot of things that used to be somebody sitting 647 00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:52,240 Speaker 4: up all up all night trying to find out, you know, 648 00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:55,120 Speaker 4: what pe multiple Coca Cola was trading at, and now 649 00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:56,920 Speaker 4: you know it's that you can get it at the 650 00:30:57,080 --> 00:30:57,800 Speaker 4: touch of a finger. 651 00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:01,520 Speaker 3: Does the edge in that scenario? You know, if it's 652 00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:04,320 Speaker 3: not about how much knowledge you're accumulating and can share 653 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:07,280 Speaker 3: with your client, is the edge more on the execution 654 00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:11,560 Speaker 3: side of things, just the knowledge or the client's belief 655 00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:14,880 Speaker 3: that you, out of everyone else in the IB business, 656 00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:17,360 Speaker 3: is going to be able to execute like a smooth deal. 657 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,920 Speaker 4: I think that's true to some degree, And you know, 658 00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,160 Speaker 4: particularly amongst sort of the so called independent firms like 659 00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:25,400 Speaker 4: green Hill was for a long time and many others 660 00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,800 Speaker 4: are today. But I think among the larger you know 661 00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:30,960 Speaker 4: group of competitors, I think a lot it's going to 662 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:34,080 Speaker 4: come down to what else is in the relationship. You know, 663 00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:37,560 Speaker 4: are you are you and their revolving credit facility? To 664 00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,000 Speaker 4: do you do their bond offering? Are you doing equity 665 00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:41,120 Speaker 4: research for them? 666 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:41,800 Speaker 2: Uh? 667 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:44,240 Speaker 4: Are you know, are you touching them and just every 668 00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:46,680 Speaker 4: are you doing their hedging? Are you, you know, talking 669 00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:49,880 Speaker 4: them about currency, talking them about commodity prices? And so 670 00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:53,040 Speaker 4: I do think it it may That's why I think 671 00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:55,600 Speaker 4: sort of the one stop shopping is kind of a 672 00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:59,440 Speaker 4: little more appealing again because if if nobody, if nobody 673 00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:02,080 Speaker 4: really has the magic anymore, right of the magic is 674 00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:04,760 Speaker 4: now a fingertips uh, and you know me even a 675 00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:06,400 Speaker 4: lot of things like you can you can you don't 676 00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:07,800 Speaker 4: even need to do the Excel model. I mean, you 677 00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:11,600 Speaker 4: can say into a in the AI, if you have 678 00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:13,560 Speaker 4: this stream of cash flows to this period of time, 679 00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:15,880 Speaker 4: this discount, right, what's the number? I mean, it will 680 00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:17,680 Speaker 4: give it to you without you typing a single number 681 00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:21,680 Speaker 4: under the page. But I think that with everyone having 682 00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:24,520 Speaker 4: access equal access to that information. I think it will 683 00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:27,360 Speaker 4: come down to, yeah, maybe are you smarter than the 684 00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:30,680 Speaker 4: other guys? Can you execute better? But probably in most cases, 685 00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:32,920 Speaker 4: you know, what else are you doing for me? And hey, 686 00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:34,600 Speaker 4: I could give this to anyone, but I'm gonna give 687 00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:34,959 Speaker 4: it to you. 688 00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:39,240 Speaker 2: How much Tracy alluded to this at the very beginning, 689 00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:42,560 Speaker 2: But you know how much of the job is being 690 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:45,400 Speaker 2: a good hang, being a good hang at the golf course, 691 00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:49,480 Speaker 2: knowing being able to get a good dinner reservation. It's seriously, no, 692 00:32:49,840 --> 00:32:52,040 Speaker 2: for real, like this is like I don't think you know, 693 00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:53,760 Speaker 2: this is where I when I think about if I 694 00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:55,400 Speaker 2: were this, I don't think i'd be very good at that. 695 00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:57,600 Speaker 2: I like start looking at my watch or you on anger, 696 00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:01,120 Speaker 2: so mostly I start looking at my phone's looking board, 697 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:03,800 Speaker 2: et cetera. The endurance, that's true. 698 00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:06,520 Speaker 3: It's very obvious when Joe is bored talking to you, 699 00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:07,160 Speaker 3: I speak from a. 700 00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:09,320 Speaker 2: Gast So this is not this should not be my field. 701 00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:12,160 Speaker 2: But talk to us about that element and just the 702 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:15,480 Speaker 2: sort of people skills and all there. 703 00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:18,520 Speaker 4: Now, of course that's at quite the high level, right, 704 00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:21,000 Speaker 4: It doesn't matter how you know, how fun you are 705 00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:24,120 Speaker 4: to be with as a senior associate at JP Morgan. 706 00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:27,440 Speaker 4: That's not necessarily going to win the business. But maybe 707 00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,720 Speaker 4: your boss's boss, you know, whether he's in the right 708 00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:33,400 Speaker 4: golf clubs and inviting clients and you know, getting to 709 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:35,520 Speaker 4: know them on a personal level. Look, there's always going 710 00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:38,400 Speaker 4: to be that element to the business, but that that's 711 00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:41,520 Speaker 4: a pretty small piece. And of course everyone has that too, right, 712 00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:43,800 Speaker 4: I mean, you can one up others. You can bring 713 00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:46,120 Speaker 4: somebody to the Masters, you can, you know, rather than 714 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:48,680 Speaker 4: to a you know, a country club on Long Island. 715 00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:52,160 Speaker 4: You know, you can. There's there's different levels of sort 716 00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:54,560 Speaker 4: of client entertainment, but you know that that's Look, it's 717 00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:55,880 Speaker 4: important to build relationships. 718 00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:56,600 Speaker 2: It always is. 719 00:33:57,120 --> 00:33:59,880 Speaker 4: I think what you know, whether you're talking about sort 720 00:33:59,920 --> 00:34:06,800 Speaker 4: of personal wealth management or corporate financial management, what the 721 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:09,719 Speaker 4: what the advisors have to realize is like everyone in 722 00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:12,000 Speaker 4: the world is calling on this guy and trying to 723 00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:14,320 Speaker 4: get you know, either his personal money to manage or 724 00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:17,040 Speaker 4: trying to manage his corporate affairs and help him do 725 00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:19,960 Speaker 4: acquisitions and so on. I mean, it's not That's another 726 00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:22,000 Speaker 4: thing really that changed a lot in the industry. Used 727 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,880 Speaker 4: to be that people, you know, firms had clients like 728 00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:26,680 Speaker 4: like you, No, that's my client and this one is 729 00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:31,680 Speaker 4: your client. Now they're just all clients and everyone's clients everyone, right, 730 00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:34,359 Speaker 4: And it's kind of a free for all where you've 731 00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:36,440 Speaker 4: got a lot of parties out there, you know, in 732 00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:39,759 Speaker 4: you being special because you invite somebody to you know 733 00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:41,440 Speaker 4: something and get to know them butt, I mean everyone 734 00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:43,040 Speaker 4: else is doing that too, And as a matter of fact, 735 00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:46,680 Speaker 4: if you don't have the relationship, you're probably more prone 736 00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:48,560 Speaker 4: to do that because you're trying to break in, you know, 737 00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:49,520 Speaker 4: get to know them. 738 00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:53,239 Speaker 3: You mentioned this word earlier in the conversation, but can 739 00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:56,560 Speaker 3: you explain culture to us? Explain all culture to us? No, 740 00:34:56,680 --> 00:34:58,640 Speaker 3: the investment banking culture, because this is one thing that 741 00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:02,560 Speaker 3: we hear all the time time from you know, especially executives, 742 00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:06,279 Speaker 3: former executives at investment banks, this idea that well, we 743 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:10,160 Speaker 3: have a culture that is different to someone else's culture. 744 00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:14,000 Speaker 3: And whenever you hear them summarize the culture, it's almost 745 00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:17,480 Speaker 3: always like we're client facing and it's all. I've never 746 00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:20,440 Speaker 3: heard a bank say it's not about the client. Actually, 747 00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:23,399 Speaker 3: our culture is about something else. What does culture mean 748 00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:24,520 Speaker 3: in investment banking? 749 00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:30,120 Speaker 4: I think it's probably fair to say every firm aspires 750 00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:33,840 Speaker 4: to the same culture. Right, you aspire to be driven 751 00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:39,040 Speaker 4: by excellence and attention to detail and client service, and 752 00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:43,520 Speaker 4: and you produce that great coverage through team work and 753 00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:47,960 Speaker 4: training and mentorship. I mean, every everyone aspires to all that. 754 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:51,480 Speaker 4: There are though different cultures. There are some places I 755 00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:54,040 Speaker 4: think are much harder to work than others, although I 756 00:35:54,040 --> 00:35:56,360 Speaker 4: think the industry has become a little more in common. 757 00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:58,560 Speaker 4: I mean, I think there was there was a day 758 00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:01,440 Speaker 4: when you know, the difference inture between like a Morgan 759 00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:03,680 Speaker 4: Stanley and a bear Stearns was was vast. 760 00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:05,400 Speaker 2: I would say more about that, like what would have 761 00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:05,719 Speaker 2: been the d. 762 00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:08,480 Speaker 4: You know, there were some firms that sort of you know, 763 00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:11,520 Speaker 4: the word scrappy sometimes gets thrown around on Wall Street, right, 764 00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:14,560 Speaker 4: and if you're if you're the elite firm, like say, 765 00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:16,760 Speaker 4: you know back in the day, Morgan Stanley and Golden 766 00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:18,839 Speaker 4: Sacks were. Of course there's still elite firms in any 767 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:22,160 Speaker 4: ways today, but you know, as opposed to someone who's 768 00:36:22,239 --> 00:36:24,799 Speaker 4: kind of scrappy trying to get business that maybe you 769 00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:27,359 Speaker 4: wouldn't do. I mean, there were there was a day 770 00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:29,360 Speaker 4: One of the interesting things not to bring up the 771 00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:32,160 Speaker 4: Epstein files, but but you know, there was a day 772 00:36:32,239 --> 00:36:35,279 Speaker 4: when when there firms had a lot of rigor over 773 00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:38,879 Speaker 4: who they would do business with, you know, and I 774 00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:41,160 Speaker 4: know that you know, Morgan Stanley, that was the case. 775 00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:42,719 Speaker 4: I think at Gold and Sacks that was the case. 776 00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:45,960 Speaker 4: I mean, look, they were in the law firm business. 777 00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:48,960 Speaker 4: There were there were firms that didn't like hostile takeovers. 778 00:36:48,960 --> 00:36:50,520 Speaker 4: You know, they thought that, oh, that that's kind of 779 00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:53,040 Speaker 4: unseemly for us to be trying to buy somebody else's 780 00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:55,520 Speaker 4: business on a hostile basis. And so these firms that 781 00:36:55,560 --> 00:36:57,440 Speaker 4: you know, you could put in the category of scrappy 782 00:36:57,840 --> 00:36:59,480 Speaker 4: were the ones that were trying to be a little 783 00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:01,319 Speaker 4: more like, hey, if the client wants that help, I'm 784 00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:02,799 Speaker 4: going to give the client that help. Or if the 785 00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:05,640 Speaker 4: client has a little bit of a that's right and 786 00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:08,799 Speaker 4: and well, and also by you know, maybe doing a 787 00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:12,120 Speaker 4: transaction for someone as a client that maybe of you know, 788 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:14,239 Speaker 4: back in the day, I'm Morgan stand there, gomal Sex 789 00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:17,600 Speaker 4: wouldn't have worked for now you've got a credential that industry. Now, 790 00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:20,160 Speaker 4: now you've done a media deal. Now maybe you can 791 00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:22,480 Speaker 4: do the next media deal. Maybe you can swim upstream 792 00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:25,879 Speaker 4: toward the more prestigious clients. So so, I think at 793 00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:28,400 Speaker 4: one point the cultures were a lot more different than 794 00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:29,080 Speaker 4: they are today. 795 00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:31,160 Speaker 2: I think it's kind of flattened. 796 00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:34,880 Speaker 4: I think, you know, look, this is probably a function 797 00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:38,239 Speaker 4: of scale of activity, and of things like technology, and 798 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:40,600 Speaker 4: of things like you know, just so much open information 799 00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:44,040 Speaker 4: on everything. You know, everyone can sort of copy everyone else, right, 800 00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:46,640 Speaker 4: It's pretty obvious what a good culture is higher smart 801 00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:49,520 Speaker 4: young people. Train them well, treat them decently, and they'll 802 00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:51,680 Speaker 4: grow up to be you know, good good bankers. You know, 803 00:37:51,719 --> 00:37:55,800 Speaker 4: pay attention to your clients, have integrity, you know, et cetera. 804 00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:59,400 Speaker 4: You'll build a good business. But that those aren't secrets, right, 805 00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:00,359 Speaker 4: everybody knows those. 806 00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:03,279 Speaker 2: I have a question. It's sort of this on long 807 00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:07,319 Speaker 2: standing puzzle within finance. It might be relevant this year 808 00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:10,200 Speaker 2: because there's some very big companies that might come public. 809 00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:13,840 Speaker 2: Why does the IPO process as we know it exist 810 00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:16,640 Speaker 2: and persist? Because this is one of the long standing 811 00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:20,560 Speaker 2: academic things. Why is there frequently a pop Why did 812 00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:24,520 Speaker 2: the companies have to pay large fees to underwriters, particularly 813 00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:27,799 Speaker 2: given you'd think the Internet could just just have an auction, right, 814 00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:30,040 Speaker 2: an auction out the allocation of shares you want and 815 00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:33,120 Speaker 2: then get the market price instantly and so forth. And 816 00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:35,080 Speaker 2: yet this has been tried for a very long time, 817 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:36,719 Speaker 2: and going back to the dot com here or there 818 00:38:36,719 --> 00:38:40,120 Speaker 2: have been attempts to disintermediate the traditional IPO process with 819 00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:44,040 Speaker 2: almost no success backs tried. That seems to be sort 820 00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:47,880 Speaker 2: of not a particularly counter signal. Perhaps, How would you 821 00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:50,600 Speaker 2: describe the persistence of the IPO. 822 00:38:51,239 --> 00:38:53,680 Speaker 4: Well, you know, first of all, the public start with 823 00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:56,120 Speaker 4: public companies, right, that's what you have after you do 824 00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:58,799 Speaker 4: on IPO. You know, that market really has shrunk. I 825 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:00,680 Speaker 4: mean it fell in half. The number of public companies 826 00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:02,719 Speaker 4: in America fell in half the in the twenty five 827 00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:05,319 Speaker 4: years or so that our firm was an independent firm. 828 00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:08,440 Speaker 4: So that I don't think that's a good thing. I 829 00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:11,200 Speaker 4: think it's a good positive thing to have more companies 830 00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:14,120 Speaker 4: in the public realm, where there's more information and more 831 00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:16,239 Speaker 4: under you know, transparency to what they do and so on. 832 00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:19,480 Speaker 4: But I think to go from the world of private 833 00:39:19,520 --> 00:39:22,120 Speaker 4: where nobody really knows much about your company to public, 834 00:39:22,239 --> 00:39:25,399 Speaker 4: I think having a lot of you know, a lot 835 00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:29,400 Speaker 4: of sort of activity around that, you know, a big 836 00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:32,280 Speaker 4: almost like pr campaign, you know, lots. 837 00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:36,080 Speaker 2: Kind of video and stand up there on the thing 838 00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:40,120 Speaker 2: and like, yeah, yeah, exactly. It is a bit like that. 839 00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:42,000 Speaker 4: I mean, I remember for our own IPO back in 840 00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:45,680 Speaker 4: two thousand and four, we had like sixty something one 841 00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:48,440 Speaker 4: on one meetings as well as big group meetings and 842 00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:50,840 Speaker 4: places like New York and Boston and so on. But 843 00:39:50,840 --> 00:39:53,319 Speaker 4: if you're trying to get known by a lot of 844 00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:55,840 Speaker 4: investors in a real hurry, you kind of need to 845 00:39:55,880 --> 00:39:58,520 Speaker 4: go through something like that. And you know, and that's 846 00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:00,360 Speaker 4: not like the industry has been some sort of a 847 00:40:00,520 --> 00:40:03,360 Speaker 4: you know, uh, fees are fixed and there's nothing you 848 00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:04,919 Speaker 4: can do about it. I mean, for a long long time, 849 00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:07,080 Speaker 4: an IPO was I remember it was seven percent. That 850 00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:10,960 Speaker 4: was an underwriting commission, you know. I remember we worked 851 00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:13,759 Speaker 4: and advised a Visa when it did what was then 852 00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:16,160 Speaker 4: the biggest IPO in two thousand and probably seven or 853 00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:19,080 Speaker 4: something like that, and that was like a fraction of 854 00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:21,080 Speaker 4: a percent, you know. So the end of it is 855 00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:25,120 Speaker 4: it sort of succumbs to competition, right, And somebody says, Okay, yeah, 856 00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:28,600 Speaker 4: if I'm doing a classic early year Silicon Valley IPO 857 00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:31,200 Speaker 4: and we're raising one hundred million dollars, yes, I think 858 00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:33,480 Speaker 4: a seven million dollar fee is fair for that, And 859 00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:35,480 Speaker 4: probably your competitors feel that way too. It's a lot 860 00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:38,200 Speaker 4: of work, it's a little bit risky. But when you're doing, 861 00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:40,960 Speaker 4: you know, an ip that's in the hundreds of millions, 862 00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:44,200 Speaker 4: the billions, and maybe today the tens or hundreds of billions, 863 00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:46,560 Speaker 4: you know, the fees will be very, very small and 864 00:40:46,640 --> 00:40:48,680 Speaker 4: driven by pretty ferocious competition. 865 00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:52,040 Speaker 3: I'm sure did you say Greenhill iPod in two thousand 866 00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:55,839 Speaker 3: and four. Yes, So that's kind of late, right for well, 867 00:40:56,239 --> 00:40:58,320 Speaker 3: certainly in the context of like some of the larger 868 00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:01,239 Speaker 3: investment banks, because I think by then even Goldman had 869 00:41:01,480 --> 00:41:02,160 Speaker 3: had gone from. 870 00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:03,600 Speaker 4: A vestorship in nineteen ninety nine. 871 00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:06,440 Speaker 3: Yeah, So what was the sort of push pull process 872 00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:09,360 Speaker 3: of actually going public for you? What were the considerations? 873 00:41:09,480 --> 00:41:12,000 Speaker 4: Well, for us, it was that there had been a 874 00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:14,680 Speaker 4: long I mean, obviously some bigger firms like Morgan Stanley 875 00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:16,920 Speaker 4: went public in nineteen eighty six, and I think Goldman 876 00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:20,440 Speaker 4: in ninety nine or something like that. But you know, 877 00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:23,160 Speaker 4: for a firm like Hours that was kind of a smaller, 878 00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:26,719 Speaker 4: more focused firm, the long history of that was that 879 00:41:26,760 --> 00:41:29,520 Speaker 4: you normally sold the firm, and even in its fairly 880 00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:32,160 Speaker 4: early days, you'd kind of build something, you know, prove 881 00:41:32,239 --> 00:41:33,920 Speaker 4: you had a team, Priva, had a brand, prove, you 882 00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:36,279 Speaker 4: had some clients, and you'd go out and sell the firm. 883 00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:38,960 Speaker 4: There were many, many cases that happened, and you know, 884 00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:41,120 Speaker 4: we viewed the IPO as an alternative, and IPO is 885 00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:44,279 Speaker 4: a way to realize the value you had created, but 886 00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:47,640 Speaker 4: also keep what you thought of the special culture. To 887 00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:50,120 Speaker 4: go back to that word, you didn't want to change things, 888 00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:51,960 Speaker 4: You don't want to give up control, et cetera. And 889 00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:53,920 Speaker 4: so that that was really what drove us to go 890 00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:55,640 Speaker 4: public and I think many others as well. 891 00:41:56,080 --> 00:41:59,920 Speaker 3: So when but also in an IPO process, you're raising capital, right, 892 00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:04,759 Speaker 3: what what does capital actually mean for a boutique advisory 893 00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:05,920 Speaker 3: firm Light Green Hill? 894 00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:09,279 Speaker 4: You know, you're you're often that used to be the case. 895 00:42:09,280 --> 00:42:11,759 Speaker 4: That was the original idea that you go public to 896 00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:15,400 Speaker 4: raise capital, and to some extent that's still true. But 897 00:42:15,480 --> 00:42:18,800 Speaker 4: you look at even take these mega you know technology companies, 898 00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:20,759 Speaker 4: stay do they do they need capital? They can raise 899 00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:22,880 Speaker 4: all the capital they want the private markets. So it 900 00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:27,560 Speaker 4: really has evolved from that to wanting liquidity. I would say, 901 00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:28,839 Speaker 4: you want to have a you want to have a 902 00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:32,120 Speaker 4: marker that says here's what my company is worth. Uh, 903 00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:33,919 Speaker 4: and you want to have the liquidity to be able 904 00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:36,560 Speaker 4: to transact at that price in any given day. So 905 00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:40,880 Speaker 4: I think that has driven more I pos in recent 906 00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:44,359 Speaker 4: years than the kind of the earlier notion of wow, 907 00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:46,399 Speaker 4: we need to build a new factory, or we need 908 00:42:46,440 --> 00:42:48,920 Speaker 4: to you know, invest a lot to build an overseas 909 00:42:48,960 --> 00:42:50,840 Speaker 4: business or launch a new brand, so we need to 910 00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:52,080 Speaker 4: do an IPO to raise money. 911 00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:55,000 Speaker 2: Has something changed in the IPO front? Now? I'm just 912 00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:59,359 Speaker 2: maybe I missed it, But I feel like several years ago, 913 00:42:59,640 --> 00:43:02,520 Speaker 2: maybe the mid twenty tens, I still used to hear 914 00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:05,960 Speaker 2: read a lot of stories about so and so won 915 00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:08,359 Speaker 2: the Uber deal, right, or so and so and this 916 00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:10,400 Speaker 2: would be a big thing and they like their flush 917 00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:13,239 Speaker 2: left on the swan or the perspectives. 918 00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:15,560 Speaker 3: Whatever getting or something yeah, and stuff like. 919 00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:17,680 Speaker 2: That used to and how I feel like, I don't 920 00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:20,359 Speaker 2: has something changed there or that's still a thing. Okay, 921 00:43:20,400 --> 00:43:21,560 Speaker 2: that's still that's still a thing. 922 00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:23,360 Speaker 4: You still want to be on the left and but 923 00:43:23,640 --> 00:43:26,120 Speaker 4: you know what, what also, again, the industry became very 924 00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:28,880 Speaker 4: very big, very very competitive, and so you know, it 925 00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:31,520 Speaker 4: used to be like there was one lead underwriter and 926 00:43:31,520 --> 00:43:34,000 Speaker 4: then you got into well, you're the global lead. You're 927 00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:35,080 Speaker 4: the co global lead. 928 00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:40,040 Speaker 2: You're the lead laugh, massive lead. Like everyone everyone gets 929 00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:40,640 Speaker 2: to be a lead. 930 00:43:40,960 --> 00:43:43,320 Speaker 4: It's it's like getting an A at Harvard. I understand 931 00:43:43,320 --> 00:43:45,080 Speaker 4: the pipation for. 932 00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:50,120 Speaker 2: Trophies for the Uber one, like there wasn't There was 933 00:43:50,160 --> 00:43:53,520 Speaker 2: a banker who became an Uber driver. There was remember 934 00:43:53,520 --> 00:43:55,960 Speaker 2: that because he wanted to show that he and like, 935 00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:58,200 Speaker 2: I get it. It's like that's cool. He like really 936 00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:00,600 Speaker 2: like got it. He really took the job seriously and 937 00:44:00,640 --> 00:44:02,600 Speaker 2: he Joe for Uber and stuff like that. But still 938 00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:04,920 Speaker 2: in my mind, I was like, does this really make 939 00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:07,080 Speaker 2: a difference from ubers. They're just selling some shares that 940 00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:11,000 Speaker 2: they're moving on, like it's cute. People used to do 941 00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:11,680 Speaker 2: that sort of thing. 942 00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:14,359 Speaker 4: I think. By the way, I can't remember his name. 943 00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:16,759 Speaker 4: He was kind of slightly after my time, I think, 944 00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:19,440 Speaker 4: but he is. That banker is still at Morgan Stanley 945 00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:21,560 Speaker 4: and is I'm sure going to be the one driving 946 00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:26,400 Speaker 4: the pursuit of Elon Musk's large IPOs to come we should. 947 00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:30,640 Speaker 2: Yeah, he became. He was also he became the Uber 948 00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:33,120 Speaker 2: He became an Uber driver for a while. Yeah, he was. 949 00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:34,319 Speaker 3: He was a big deal. 950 00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:36,680 Speaker 2: And that definitely in the mix today with some of 951 00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:38,080 Speaker 2: these big potential IPOs. 952 00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:40,880 Speaker 3: We should actually talk about league tables, though, because I 953 00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:44,320 Speaker 3: feel like this is sort of perhaps an inordinate amount 954 00:44:44,520 --> 00:44:48,200 Speaker 3: of what an investment banker's life is actually about. And 955 00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:50,520 Speaker 3: back when I was covering the banks, the league tables 956 00:44:50,520 --> 00:44:53,560 Speaker 3: were the things I probably got called up about the most. 957 00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:55,480 Speaker 3: You know, lots of banks explaining to me why the 958 00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:58,560 Speaker 3: league table rankings were not, in fact an accurate reflection 959 00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:02,280 Speaker 3: of their business. How much do those actually matter? 960 00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:06,719 Speaker 4: I think whether you're frankly, if you're number one or 961 00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:09,560 Speaker 4: number four, number seven, you know, we're number nine or 962 00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:14,000 Speaker 4: eleven even, you probably have a pretty equal chance at 963 00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:17,279 Speaker 4: pursuing something. But look, the bankers, do you know, do 964 00:45:17,480 --> 00:45:20,080 Speaker 4: aggressively fight to try to be number one in some 965 00:45:20,360 --> 00:45:23,759 Speaker 4: in something? Right? And but but again with the with 966 00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:27,120 Speaker 4: the increase in just availability of information and transparency, I mean, 967 00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:29,080 Speaker 4: it used to be that, you know, there was a 968 00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:33,080 Speaker 4: lot of gamesmanship around the league tables. You know, you'd say, well, 969 00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:35,719 Speaker 4: we're number one in in uh you know, and I 970 00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:39,080 Speaker 4: pos and you'd look into the footnotes and it would say, 971 00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:42,200 Speaker 4: you know, this includes all deals for you know, radio 972 00:45:42,200 --> 00:45:44,680 Speaker 4: stations with a market cap more than a two hundred 973 00:45:44,680 --> 00:45:46,919 Speaker 4: and fifty million dollars. And you know, if you're trying 974 00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:49,240 Speaker 4: to pitch some media deal or something, and you always 975 00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:51,200 Speaker 4: have some way to slice and dice, like us I 976 00:45:51,239 --> 00:45:55,399 Speaker 4: pos uk, I pos this industry, this deal size. Now 977 00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:57,799 Speaker 4: it's kind of all out there and it's uh, you know, 978 00:45:58,040 --> 00:46:01,520 Speaker 4: but there's there's ten or a dozens that are very, 979 00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:04,600 Speaker 4: very competitive, and the fact that one ranks number one 980 00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:05,879 Speaker 4: versus four is not a big deal. 981 00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:10,080 Speaker 2: It's hilarious. Michael Grimes, he not only drove for Uber, 982 00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:14,680 Speaker 2: he mastered the online game Farmville before Facebook's IPO. They 983 00:46:14,719 --> 00:46:17,640 Speaker 2: spent hours playing that and hey, if that paid off 984 00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:19,359 Speaker 2: for him, good for him. And now he is bad 985 00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:20,920 Speaker 2: because it looks like he'll probably be a. 986 00:46:20,920 --> 00:46:25,239 Speaker 3: Lot of people master Farmville for free with right, he. 987 00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:28,560 Speaker 2: Turned it into something, and I guess it's likely to 988 00:46:28,600 --> 00:46:31,279 Speaker 2: be involved or perhaps positioning himself for a potential role 989 00:46:31,280 --> 00:46:35,200 Speaker 2: into SpaceX IPO. Final question for me, But I'm just curious, 990 00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:37,520 Speaker 2: So like, Okay, we don't know what the future is 991 00:46:37,560 --> 00:46:39,680 Speaker 2: going to look like, but I'm curious, like people you're 992 00:46:39,719 --> 00:46:43,640 Speaker 2: talking to or things you're seeing the AI question, and 993 00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:46,839 Speaker 2: there's some obvious things today anyone knows that you can 994 00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:51,200 Speaker 2: do a very good comp analysis already with almost no knowledge, 995 00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:53,160 Speaker 2: like what are some comps here? And well, maybe that's 996 00:46:53,200 --> 00:46:55,160 Speaker 2: not the kind of output that you would show to 997 00:46:55,200 --> 00:46:57,200 Speaker 2: a client, but it might get your ninety five percent 998 00:46:57,200 --> 00:47:00,480 Speaker 2: of the way there. And so that's that's extraordinary about 999 00:47:01,560 --> 00:47:04,120 Speaker 2: excel files and stuff like that. What else, like, what 1000 00:47:04,160 --> 00:47:06,960 Speaker 2: does it feel like AI is going to do to 1001 00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:09,360 Speaker 2: this space or what would be your guess or where 1002 00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:12,600 Speaker 2: today would you imagine we're already seeing AI change the 1003 00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:13,760 Speaker 2: nature of the job. 1004 00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:16,040 Speaker 4: No one really knows the answer to that question. Of course, 1005 00:47:16,239 --> 00:47:18,719 Speaker 4: is such a fast moving technology. But look, I do 1006 00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:23,320 Speaker 4: think it will change a lot about how bankers interact 1007 00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:26,080 Speaker 4: with clients because the information now is going to go 1008 00:47:26,239 --> 00:47:29,200 Speaker 4: from you know, from kind of available, but you have 1009 00:47:29,239 --> 00:47:31,280 Speaker 4: to sort of work to dig it out to available 1010 00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:33,640 Speaker 4: just literally your fingertips, and by the way, not just 1011 00:47:33,680 --> 00:47:36,200 Speaker 4: to you the banker, but also to your client. So 1012 00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:41,040 Speaker 4: I think differentiating yourself as a banker inside one of 1013 00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:43,320 Speaker 4: these firms or as one of these firms relative to 1014 00:47:43,360 --> 00:47:45,480 Speaker 4: your peers trying to win the IPO, trying to win 1015 00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:47,080 Speaker 4: the M and A deal, trying to win the bond 1016 00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:50,080 Speaker 4: offering is going to be more complicated. You'll you'll have 1017 00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:53,279 Speaker 4: you'll be more efficient in preparing your materials, You'll be 1018 00:47:53,320 --> 00:47:57,080 Speaker 4: more efficient in communicating with that client and delivering you know, interesting, 1019 00:47:57,200 --> 00:48:00,560 Speaker 4: insightful information to them. But a lot of that information 1020 00:48:00,719 --> 00:48:03,080 Speaker 4: is going to look it's going to be commodity like. 1021 00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:06,400 Speaker 4: And so the real challenge is going to be, you know, 1022 00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:09,200 Speaker 4: if a client has access to all the information you do, 1023 00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:11,720 Speaker 4: when they're getting all the feeds of you know, various 1024 00:48:11,760 --> 00:48:13,719 Speaker 4: data they like and so on, and you have a 1025 00:48:13,800 --> 00:48:15,560 Speaker 4: one hour meeting with that client, how are you going 1026 00:48:15,640 --> 00:48:17,880 Speaker 4: to use that meeting? That one hour meeting. You know 1027 00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:20,480 Speaker 4: that they already know a lot as you're walking in there, 1028 00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:22,400 Speaker 4: So how do you use that? It's got to be 1029 00:48:22,440 --> 00:48:27,080 Speaker 4: more about you know, the human dimension, the tactics, why 1030 00:48:27,120 --> 00:48:30,000 Speaker 4: this company may be more amenable to a deal now 1031 00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:31,799 Speaker 4: than they were in the past. You know, things like 1032 00:48:31,840 --> 00:48:34,719 Speaker 4: that that are more about psychology really than about math. 1033 00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:38,400 Speaker 3: I feel like the trend is towards extroverts with large 1034 00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:39,120 Speaker 3: balance sheets. 1035 00:48:39,160 --> 00:48:43,840 Speaker 2: I suppose yes. All right, Scott bo, thank you so 1036 00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:46,440 Speaker 2: much for coming back on the podcast. We love catching 1037 00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:47,799 Speaker 2: up with you, and now we got to do it again. 1038 00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:49,520 Speaker 4: I would love to it's a great probably. 1039 00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:50,080 Speaker 2: Thank you. 1040 00:48:50,280 --> 00:49:03,640 Speaker 5: That's great, Tracy. 1041 00:49:03,680 --> 00:49:04,680 Speaker 2: I love talking to Scott. 1042 00:49:04,719 --> 00:49:05,640 Speaker 3: I yeah, that's great. 1043 00:49:05,880 --> 00:49:09,960 Speaker 2: I'm glad. I'm glad we met Scott. I think just 1044 00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:12,160 Speaker 2: this idea and it came up at the very end 1045 00:49:12,200 --> 00:49:16,040 Speaker 2: about the information asymmetry just being gone, and it feels like, 1046 00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:18,600 Speaker 2: you know, that's not something that is just true with 1047 00:49:18,680 --> 00:49:21,120 Speaker 2: AI now, right, but it feels like there is a 1048 00:49:21,200 --> 00:49:24,719 Speaker 2: version of this story that you could say, going back 1049 00:49:24,719 --> 00:49:28,120 Speaker 2: for the last forty five years, in which decline degradation 1050 00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:31,120 Speaker 2: of the information edge that a bank would have had 1051 00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:34,400 Speaker 2: over its clients for all kinds of different largely you know, 1052 00:49:34,680 --> 00:49:36,439 Speaker 2: technological changes since then. 1053 00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:39,439 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I found that conversation fascinating. I guess 1054 00:49:39,480 --> 00:49:44,280 Speaker 3: the two takeaways for me are the first technological revolution 1055 00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:46,799 Speaker 3: in investment banking and the idea that, well, we don't 1056 00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:50,400 Speaker 3: have to spend as many hours like actually pulling physical 1057 00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:54,000 Speaker 3: sec filings or something like that, or looking up quotes 1058 00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:58,320 Speaker 3: on a quotron or whatever, and what replaced that work 1059 00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:02,600 Speaker 3: was more meetings. Right. I feel like humans can always. 1060 00:50:02,920 --> 00:50:05,080 Speaker 2: Find a reason to meet with each other exactly. 1061 00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:08,759 Speaker 3: I know, it's crazy, isn't it ridiculous? 1062 00:50:08,840 --> 00:50:12,640 Speaker 2: Humans just love touching base and any am I maybe 1063 00:50:12,680 --> 00:50:16,440 Speaker 2: I'm revealing my own your own biases, my own biases. 1064 00:50:16,800 --> 00:50:19,120 Speaker 3: I think it's I think it's very good that we 1065 00:50:19,160 --> 00:50:21,200 Speaker 3: have an extrovert and an introvert on the show. We 1066 00:50:21,239 --> 00:50:24,000 Speaker 3: got both sides, both sides of the story. But the 1067 00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:27,760 Speaker 3: other thing I was thinking is the trend towards bigger, 1068 00:50:27,920 --> 00:50:32,320 Speaker 3: bigger balance sheets, more services, the one stop shop idea. 1069 00:50:32,880 --> 00:50:36,000 Speaker 3: And it feels to me like, Okay, if you can't 1070 00:50:36,120 --> 00:50:39,239 Speaker 3: have an informational edge anymore, and if you do have 1071 00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:42,399 Speaker 3: this sort of flattening of culture for various reasons, because 1072 00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:45,440 Speaker 3: everyone's getting smarter and smarter about what a good culture 1073 00:50:45,480 --> 00:50:48,560 Speaker 3: actually looks like and they're able to sort of execute 1074 00:50:48,560 --> 00:50:52,080 Speaker 3: on it in various ways, then it is it feels 1075 00:50:52,080 --> 00:50:53,960 Speaker 3: to me like it's very much going to be fought 1076 00:50:54,040 --> 00:50:55,840 Speaker 3: just on size and scale. 1077 00:50:56,440 --> 00:50:59,880 Speaker 2: You know, I don't think share buybacks are evil to 1078 00:51:00,040 --> 00:51:02,120 Speaker 2: a lot of people do, but it is interesting. We 1079 00:51:02,120 --> 00:51:04,520 Speaker 2: could just go back back. So interesting fact, like I 1080 00:51:04,520 --> 00:51:06,960 Speaker 2: always forget that that they haven't been around that long, 1081 00:51:07,200 --> 00:51:10,160 Speaker 2: that they were seeing as market manipulation at one point, 1082 00:51:10,600 --> 00:51:12,680 Speaker 2: we could just ban them. I mean, the fact that 1083 00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:16,520 Speaker 2: capitalism worked fine for a very long time without share back. 1084 00:51:16,760 --> 00:51:20,279 Speaker 2: Share buybacks would probably be probably wouldn't be the end 1085 00:51:20,320 --> 00:51:20,720 Speaker 2: of the world. 1086 00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:22,920 Speaker 3: We should do another episode on this, but that reminds me. 1087 00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:26,360 Speaker 3: The other thing I was thinking was this idea that like, well, 1088 00:51:26,680 --> 00:51:30,440 Speaker 3: we had an entire I mean multiple industries really that 1089 00:51:30,520 --> 00:51:35,560 Speaker 3: grew up whose entire sense of purpose was about doing transactions. Right, 1090 00:51:35,600 --> 00:51:37,400 Speaker 3: So you have the traditional Wall Street banks, but then 1091 00:51:37,440 --> 00:51:40,880 Speaker 3: you had private equity and private credit, and so you 1092 00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:44,160 Speaker 3: just have this explosion in deals. 1093 00:51:44,239 --> 00:51:45,920 Speaker 2: I wonder, if Michael Grimes is going to ride on 1094 00:51:45,960 --> 00:51:49,279 Speaker 2: a rocket to get the lot to space, he's gonna 1095 00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:52,680 Speaker 2: he's gonna do a little space joy ride. So to 1096 00:51:52,680 --> 00:51:53,200 Speaker 2: get that. 1097 00:51:53,400 --> 00:51:53,920 Speaker 5: It was one thing. 1098 00:51:53,960 --> 00:51:56,040 Speaker 2: Oh you know what I thought was also very interesting, 1099 00:51:56,600 --> 00:51:59,440 Speaker 2: and I think this says a lot about culture in 1100 00:51:59,520 --> 00:52:03,080 Speaker 2: general on just banking. The idea that at one point, 1101 00:52:03,760 --> 00:52:06,040 Speaker 2: for better or worse, and maybe for better, and that 1102 00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:09,799 Speaker 2: there were like clients that the banks wouldn't touch, but 1103 00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:12,799 Speaker 2: they end that they're like, no, we're above this, this 1104 00:52:12,880 --> 00:52:14,239 Speaker 2: is not what we do here. 1105 00:52:14,320 --> 00:52:17,520 Speaker 3: Well, some of them had investigators, like on staff to 1106 00:52:17,560 --> 00:52:19,680 Speaker 3: go out and investigate potential clients. 1107 00:52:19,800 --> 00:52:22,759 Speaker 2: I think that's really interesting and a certain level of 1108 00:52:23,040 --> 00:52:24,759 Speaker 2: you know what we're going to leave some money off 1109 00:52:24,760 --> 00:52:27,600 Speaker 2: the table because this is not what we do here. 1110 00:52:28,080 --> 00:52:30,960 Speaker 2: We have standards and so forth. And I do feel 1111 00:52:31,000 --> 00:52:36,000 Speaker 2: like these days it's just money. It's just across the board, 1112 00:52:36,680 --> 00:52:39,839 Speaker 2: it's just accumulating more and more money, and so the 1113 00:52:39,880 --> 00:52:43,000 Speaker 2: idea of some money isn't good enough for here, Like 1114 00:52:43,040 --> 00:52:46,120 Speaker 2: it does not feel like that's a thing anymore. Maybe. Well, 1115 00:52:46,320 --> 00:52:49,879 Speaker 2: I think a lot of people would say in retrospect, 1116 00:52:49,960 --> 00:52:52,200 Speaker 2: people they should have had better standards about who they 1117 00:52:52,200 --> 00:52:52,759 Speaker 2: do business with. 1118 00:52:52,920 --> 00:52:55,920 Speaker 3: Yeah, it feels much more a moral now. And I 1119 00:52:55,960 --> 00:52:58,080 Speaker 3: mean that in the sense that like there's a possibility 1120 00:52:58,080 --> 00:53:01,200 Speaker 3: that people hide behind that say, like, well, we shouldn't 1121 00:53:01,239 --> 00:53:05,279 Speaker 3: be making qualitative decisions about our clients. We're just here to, 1122 00:53:05,920 --> 00:53:09,239 Speaker 3: you know, share the good gospel of capitalism. Yeah, all right, 1123 00:53:09,280 --> 00:53:10,120 Speaker 3: shall we leave it there. 1124 00:53:10,280 --> 00:53:11,040 Speaker 2: Let's leave it there. 1125 00:53:11,160 --> 00:53:13,440 Speaker 3: This has been another episode of the Odd Lots podcast. 1126 00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:16,680 Speaker 3: I'm Tracy Alloway. You can follow me at Tracy Alloway. 1127 00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:19,160 Speaker 2: And I'm Jill Wisenthal. You can follow me at the Stalwart. 1128 00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:22,480 Speaker 2: Follow our producers Carmen Rodriguez at Carman armand desh Ol 1129 00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:26,360 Speaker 2: Bennett at Dashbot and Kilbrooks at Kilbrooks more odd Laws content. 1130 00:53:26,440 --> 00:53:28,600 Speaker 2: Go to Bloomberg dot com slash odd Lots with the 1131 00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:31,000 Speaker 2: daily newsletter and all of our episodes, and you can 1132 00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:32,919 Speaker 2: chat about all of these topics twenty four to seven 1133 00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:36,240 Speaker 2: in our discord Discord dot gg slash odlines. 1134 00:53:36,600 --> 00:53:38,640 Speaker 3: And if you enjoy odd Lots, if you like it 1135 00:53:38,760 --> 00:53:41,640 Speaker 3: when we talk about the business and culture of investment banking, 1136 00:53:41,719 --> 00:53:44,160 Speaker 3: then please leave us a positive review on your favorite 1137 00:53:44,200 --> 00:53:47,520 Speaker 3: podcast platform. And remember, if you are a Bloomberg subscriber, 1138 00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:50,399 Speaker 3: you can listen to all of our episodes absolutely ad free. 1139 00:53:50,719 --> 00:53:52,880 Speaker 3: All you need to do is find the Bloomberg channel 1140 00:53:52,920 --> 00:53:56,120 Speaker 3: on Apple Podcasts and follow the instructions there. Thanks for 1141 00:53:56,239 --> 00:54:21,960 Speaker 3: listening in in