Info Klinik Bisnis

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...

The MBA: Evolving and Adapting Press reports in the past year have occasionally announced the dismal state of the law degree. They've shown the downward trends in law school applications and the widespread lack of opportunities for new law graduates. And there is a lively, fiery debate about what is and what should be a legal education. A law student spends three years in school and, after assuming huge debt loads and making boundless financial sacrifices, graduates into the great unknown. Should she head for the dungeons of corporate law? Should he explore other channels (the public sector, e.g.), where limited opportunities for sustained employment exist? What should they do, when legal positions have dwindled in large numbers across the country in recent years? Should law schools take the lead in assisting their graduates? (Some have done just that in the past year, by hiring some of their own graduates or subsidizing them in their first-year jobs.) Should law schools spearhead ...

In the past two weeks, national media outlets hopped on a storyline, proclaiming that MBA students and graduates in finance have reached a boiling point of discouragement in investment banking and other activities in financial services.  The Financial Times and CNBC reported last week that MBAs at top schools are somewhat turned off to investment banking as a long-term career, at least based on hiring patterns the past few years. Yahoo reported similar trends last week. The Financial Times reported the dimming in popularity of banking and finance in Wharton's recent MBA classes.  In the past three years, the percentage of graduates entering banking has declined from 25% in 2008 to 16% in 2011.  At Harvard, MBAs choosing banking declined from 10% of its class to 7%. Are MBAs turned off? Or are they scared off? Are they turning away, or are they looking more closely at alternatives--like consulting and entrepreneurship?  Is there a campus backlash toward the industry...

Goldman Sachs leads; everybody else follows. Or most everybody else. So it has been for the past couple of decades in how corporate and investment banks structure themselves and recruit, develop, promote and pay for talent. And so it has been in how banks--from Goldman to regional banks involved in corporate banking and foreign banks that set themselves up on American shores--organize banking units. Traditionally since the 1980s, most corporate and investment banks (including also their trading, cash-management and processing units) recruit finance professionals into the following "programs," "classes" or "levels": 1. Analysts (those with BA or BS degrees) who join a two-three-year program and who virtually learn from scratch financial analysis, accounting, capital markets and banking on the job, while toiling away long hours doing the dirtiest of work for banking teams (spreadsheets, analysis, projections, document preparation, document printing, research...

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 ...

Over 85 Consortium first-year MBAs this year indicated an interest in finance or financial services. That is within the range of what CFN has observed over the past four years--typically a range from 80-90, about a quarter of the total number of Consortium first-year MBA students in 2012. In the aftermath of the financial crisis and amidst the occasional turbulence since then, many would swear the numbers of those expressing interest in finance would have declined over the years. MBA students, we are finding out, continue to have varying levels of interest in financial services. But most of them are less eager to rush to Wall Street to become associates in mergers & acquisitions at a big bank. The opportunities they dreamed of while applying are not always evident when recruiting season starts. And some, after they learn the process and procedures to secure Wall Street jobs, are reluctant to play the hard ball it sometimes takes to get there:  lotteries, informational interview...

UVA Darden's Dean Bruner: "Moral Courage is an all-the-time thing." Before they ventured into the land of consulting, banking, finance, and product management, MBA graduates sat through commencement--one last chance to gather noisily with classmates and then ponder what lies ahead. They sat through an on-stage commotion of deans and queues of speakers--some from from the highest rungs of business, some students like themselves. What parting words did they hear?  What taps on the back did they receive, as they set off beyond the campus cocoon? In 2012 during the MBA graduation season, some themes are prevalent everywhere. Most graduating classes endure orations describing frail economic times and the responsibility they have to clean up the messes in the financial system or to assist others who face hardships. MBA graduates are often admonished to seek achievement beyond the corporate bottom line: Don't just rush out of here, they are told, to join a 10-year race to ac...

Once the world of finance (and the world beyond, too) learned about JPMorgan 's earth-shaking $2 billion-plus trading loss from credit derivatives, the finger-pointing and the blame-gaming started.  Where were the risk-management units? How and why weren't the risks of these large positions properly managed? How could what began as efforts to manage credit risks with portfolio hedges end up as shocking market losses and a three-headed monster out of control? In financial institutions, in stable times, when profit engines hum and business is brisk,  risk-management units remain quietly out of view. They aren't glamor-seeking or aren't permitted to be. You won't see risk-management "stars," as much as you do among the deal-doers in investment banking, particularly in M&A, venture capital or private equity. Nonetheless, if they are doing their job, senior managers in risk management in normal times are as busy as ever. They touch all aspects of the instit...

On campus, the hiring process is not quite over. For some MBA students, including those in Consortium schools, whether in their first year or about to graduate, February's arrival could cause panic:  Do I have significant job offers on the table?  Will I spend the summer at my first choice--proving myself in a formal internship program that will lead to a full-time offer in August?  Or must I resort to the only choice I have? Must I return to an old job I wanted to leave in the first place?  If graduation looms, do I settle for the first offer available, or do I wait for my dream post? When February comes, some students beam and boast of offers from top-tier financial institutions, consulting firms, or big corporations. Some have already accepted offers. Others, without the offers or opportunities they covet, grow worried and try to figure out what to do with composure and a new strategy in mind.  There's no need to panic just yet.  Buckle down. This is the...

Let's get real. As we turn the corner and head toward an uncertain 2012, where are the real opportunities for MBA finance professionals ? What's the real scoop? In an environment where some tip-toe when they project better scenarios next year, but where every other day large banks announce lay-offs by the thousands, what's the real story? Who's  hiring? Who's promoting solid performers? Who's luring those interested in finance and promising long-term career paths? Where are the sectors or institutions that will harbor finance pros and allow them to grow, contribute and thrive over the the next few years? Let's take a glance and gauge vibes and signals across the sectors. 1.  Investment banking, corporate finance.   From now until about mid-2012, you know banks won't commit. Uncertainty forces them to be hesitant. They'll want to see sustained trends in an economic recovery. Until then, banks will resort to old-time habits of firing rashly and excess...

 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 ...