June 22, 2012
Last week, the Blog introduced the idea of there being four cannons of taxation. Four rules, or rather guidelines you should observe when sharing out costs. This week we take a closer look at the first of them; Effort based. People & systems. Those are the two big cost blocks. Rent matters too, however invariably […]
June 12, 2012
Who should pay? What is my allocation and why? This is a really difficult topic. Firstly, because although it is about numbers it is not about math, there is not an absolutely right answer. Secondly, because it is pretty much unheard of to have a situation of harmony and contentment around this. Banking generally and […]
June 4, 2012
The Queen is celebrating her diamond jubilee and that seems a great moment to talk a little about doing things properly and dealing well with those all important cultural differences. A little more light hearted than usual, this week we focus on how things may not be quite what you expect when dealing with parts […]
May 25, 2012
The phrase “when in Rome” is most often used to describe how one ought to adapt to local norms and culture. Years ago, a good friend from days on the Salomon Brothers training programme coined a spoof on this: “When in Rome, drive like a Parisian”, no doubt alluring to the fact that inside every […]
May 18, 2012
What’s the cost? Last week, I offered some thoughts on being clear what are true benefits when you have an idea costs. To set the frame of reference, let’s think about an airline. If you can sell all the seats at full price, then happy days. Now imagine that once that is not the case […]
May 10, 2012
What’s the benefit? Quantify the savings! Both well known chants in our industry and in other industries. Benefits have to be quantified. Fair enough. Quite often, as in many things in the financial services industry, I have seen some math that just does not stand up to much scrutiny, both in terms of reflecting genuine […]
April 30, 2012
The same for less or more for the same. That is one of the mantras of life in the financial services industry and probably in other ones too. The former could easily be re-stated as “save costs”. If you are in the Operational end of a bank, that goal is part of your diet, often […]
April 23, 2012
With the pint sized French President Sarkozy about to be kicked into the long grass, it seems only reasonable to move from Swiss muppets to a French one, albeit that at least two of the three bad guys in this story live in Switzerland. As many folks are beginning to realise, Swiss bank accounts no […]
April 16, 2012
With the Olympics almost upon us in London, it seems appropriate to have a Muppet team award. This goes out to the private bankers at Credit Suisse for their tri-athlon performance on behalf of their clients in matters structured products in the holy church of open architecture. (Editor’s note: I was at CS when these […]
April 9, 2012
Kiss & Tell at Goldman Sachs! With the joke about doing God’s Work getting a little old, one Greg Smith has done himself and the gossip columns a favour with that rather stinging and public resignation letter. Now first off, as best I can tell he was not badly treated at Goldman and did not […]