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Goldman Sachs announced this week that it had instituted ways to improve the work experience of analysts (in its BA program) and reduce the number of hours they work each week. It's the lore of investment banking to hear stories of analysts and MBA associates, too, who work long hours that stretch through the weekend and through holidays and vacation time. Goldman acknowledges that it is missing out on some top talent, when recruits have selected other finance jobs or industries because of work-life-balance issues. Talented BA's and MBA's will express an interest in corporate finance, will have the aptitude and drive to work on deals and with important clients, but, as Goldman sees it, they back out and accept offers elsewhere. And they may whisper to Goldman and other major banks that it wasn't about the compensation.  Thus, they choose pathways that take them to the shorter hours and better lifestyles offered by hedge funds, smaller boutique firms, and the f...

Applicable to all under-represented groups? So the topic that has made a torrent splash in the early weeks of 2013 is a new catch-phrase:  "Lean In," taken, of course, from Facebook COO's Sheryl Sandberg's new book of the same name. The book raced to the top of best-seller lists. The subject--how women can push (or propel?) themselves into the top echelons of business--is relevant. The advice and guidance are useful, although Sandberg acknowledges there are no quick fixes, no one special way to progress along the path, and certainly no assurances that every woman who "leans in" will one day find herself chair of the board. Nonetheless, Sandberg determined it was time to put the issue back on the table and force companies and business leaders to assess where we are.  She advises women to seize control of their destinies, bang on the door and avoid waiting for it to open. So next question. Are her advice and guidance relevant to other under-represented segment...

Buffett's Letter:  Corporate Finance 101 How often have we heard investors and equity analysts say they wish they had the Buffett magic touch? That's Warren Buffett, arguably considered the best, most successful and perhaps most patient investor of all time?  How often have we heard people wonder what special analytical skills Buffett possesses? What is that something (beyond patience and wisdom from experience) he has that myriad others don't have? The story of Buffett's investment expertise has been told often. Buffett the investment expert operates via the investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.  He has been the investing world's best-known value investor and relies, as he did decades ago, on old-fashioned, traditional investment analysis, the same tools, principles and techniques he picked up when he first encountered the conventions of Graham-Dodd analysis in school. Buffett studied Graham-Dodd principles (thoroughly explained in the 1940 book Security Anal...

Lists can be amusing. Sometimes they might be taken seriously.  Magazine and media companies like to produce them--even if they are flawed or biased, because they sell thousands of copies of issues or generate thousands of Internet clicks. They spawn discussion and banter and get people talking. Some lists should be shrugged off and dismissed. Some are worth examining, because they might offer helpful information about the topic being ranked. Employees like good pay, good benefits and, yes, fitness centers Fortune Magazine compiles many lists from year to year. One recent list in its latest issue is its "Best 100 Companies to Work For." To believe in the list and to ensure it's credible and useful, you must believe in its criteria. You must be assured that Fortune has amassed significant data and measured the information properly. Ask employees why their company is a favorite place to work, and you may get dozens of reasons, including especially compensation, benefits, v...

Citigroup caught everybody off guard this week, when its board announced it had asked for the sudden resignation of CEO Vikram Pandit. Or did it catch anybody off guard? Was this a gesture  investors pushed for? Was it the right move for the big global financial institution that seemed to have leaped a hurdle to move beyond the darkest days of the financial crisis--back when there were moments when many thought its survival was in jeopardy? Over the past few years, Pandit and team took appropriate, bold steps to make the behemoth profitable again. They sold assets en masse . They shuffled bad, non-performing, defaulted, bankrupt, and/or foreclosed assets into a special holding company and, little by little, sold off these positions, properties, securities and full operations.  By doing so, it rid itself of spoiled segments and began to polish ongoing core operations.  They downsized in every way possible--in just about every unit, operation, division, and geography. They ...

It doesn't matter the level of experience--analyst, associate, vice president or managing director.  Finance professionals everywhere are haunted when they must schedule performance reviews. They endure them twice a year.  First, a mid-year review takes place in mid-July. It sets the stage for the rest of the year, since year-end reviews flow from the tone set at the July session. In late December and early January, everybody--unless time mismanagement permits some employees to be overlooked or unless the employee has just joined the company--goes through the end-of-year review. The second-year associate has an appraisal session, as well as the experienced sector head. The frenetic, marathon efforts of an entire calendar year are capsulized in one rambling meeting that often peters out after about 45 minutes. In financial services (at banks, boutiques, insurance companies, asset managers, trading firms, hedge funds and small broker/dealers), it's a way of life. CFN last year ...

Something often plagues MBA students and many young professionals in finance. Why don't mentoring relationships always work as they were envisioned or designed? Why do mentoring relationships often get off to exciting, hopeful, ambitious starts, but flicker, whimper and die out? Why do they start with promise and then meander into nowhere? Not all mentoring relationships, we know, falter.  Some thrive. Some lead to life-long relationships and friendships.  Some lead to opportunities, new jobs, promotions and even new careers, activities, and hobbies.  Note the themes of thriving relationships. They suggest something refreshing, new, opportunistic, and different. But what about those that falter, the life of which oozes out and dwindles to nothing? What happens when the eager first-year MBA student at Virginia, Emory or Berkeley links up with a principal at a private-equity firm. They meet, greet, exchange business cards and discuss respective backgrounds. They deduce the...

What's next for Parsons? A fter an illustrious business career that spanned decades, Richard Parsons is calling it quits this month.  He announced he wouldn't pursue re-election as chairman of the board at Citi. (Citi , as many know, has been an important, decades-long supporter of the Consortium and a host at Orientation Programs and Consortium events in New York.) Has an era ended?  Parsons has been a pioneer in many ways, and he wraps up a career filled with quite a few "African-American" firsts."  He was CEO in the 1980s at Dime Savings Bank, at that time a well-known New York regional bank. He later became CEO at AOL Time Warner in the 2000s, landing right in the middle of turmoil from the cantankerous combination of AOL and Time Warner.    Few African-American lead or have led major financial institutions, so Parsons' exit from the Wall Street scene is noteworthy.  In 2012, Kenneth Chennault continues to preside over American Express . Stanley O’Ne...

It's bonus season at most financial institutions--big or small, behemoth or boutique. At some, payouts were made in December. At others, bonuses are paid in January after a strenuous month of evaluations, rankings and appraisals in December. For everybody involved, it's not always a comfortable time, especially in the current environment. For perhaps a generation, senior finance professionals got used to receiving the bulk of their compensation in one lump-sum payout in January. A year of doing deals, generating revenues, bringing in fees, managing risks, handling portfolios, selling services, introducing new clients, making presentations, and creating new products traditionally led to that big day of a big payout. Times are different now. The art, science and politics of compensation are as complicated as ever--because (a) in 2011 business revenues at banks, funds, and firms were volatile and unpredictable and (b) with regulation looming, not many are sure how current business...

Remember days of yore--when an MBA in finance accepted an offer from an investment bank, commercial bank, brokerage house, trading firm or insurance company in the spring of second year and thereafter embarked on a long career with one firm, one employer?  Shortly after arriving at the firm, the MBA started a training program or entry position--with the expectations of earning promotions every few years and with sights on becoming a senior manager (at the same firm) at the apex of a productive, memorable career. In those days, you had the luxury of failing or slipping up in performance (a few times, not often), as long as you showed drive, loyalty, commitment and some promise. Now and then, you could fail to win a deal, could lose a major client, or could report a decline in revenues. You were reprimanded slightly, gently coached, and learned from experience. You were confident you would get a second chance, and you envisioned a career lasting, oh, 15, 20 or more years. What happen...

 Dalio of Bridgewater Associates  Bridgewater Associates is a successful, $90 billion hedge fund, located along the Connecticut corridor where other successful, gargantuan hedge funds have a home base. Ray Dalio , a Harvard Business School graduate, is its founder and leader. The fund's investors include pension funds and university endowments. Over 1,000 people are employed in a variety of roles.  It recruits those who are tough-skinned, highly motivated and interested in a long-term career at the fund. MBAs in finance would no doubt be attracted to an opportunity there. Would you want to work there? Would it be a place where you can find a niche, thrive and be successful? Would you be able to endure hardships and demands to perform well? Would you be able to stomach equity volatility, risks of losses, and virulent market turmoil? And would you be able to perform under pulsating pressure and high expectations? Bridgewater is also known as a fund ...