Rob Parson at Morgan
Stanley (A)
Background : Rob Parson
============================================
Currently Principal at Morgan Stanley Capital Markets
Division
Recruited by Paul Nasr to give strength to this division of MS
based on his successful track record in this business.
Highly marketable - Has got strong relationships with
important players in industry.
Does what needs to be done to get business.
Nasr personally knew him as an individual and understand that
his skill may put MS on right track in business but he may not
be able to adapt to the culture in MS.
Background : Morgan Stanley Capital Market Div.
============================================
Was created to make firm more responsive to client needs
Link between Investment bank division and Sales & Trading
arm.
Professionals were organized into market coverage areas.
Understanding the client needs and work with other
professionals in firm to fulfill the needs.
Before Rob Parson, MS ranked 10th in the business with mere
2% of market share. Rob Parson has been instrumental in
bringing this rank to 3rd with 12.2% market share
Issue:
============================================
Paul Nasr implicitly promised to promote Rob Parson while
hiring based on performance evaluations.
As expected, Rob Parson had generated a great deal of new
business for the firm and was instrumental in bringing Morgan
Stanley from 10th to 3rd rank in this business.
But Rob Parson has interpersonal problems with his peers and
people working under him. Because of this his 360 degree
feedback ratings is below average ( 3.5 & 2.8) , ratings were
specially low in leadership & management of people.
Decision making to promote Rob Parson as MD of Capital
markets Division.
Q1 What do you think is the difference between working
style of Rob Parson & Culture of Morgan Stanley?
============================================
Rob Parson defies Mission Statement of Morgan Stanley:
Mission statement says People are source of competitive
advantage. Creating environment that fosters teamwork. Treating
each other with dignity and respect.
1. Rob Parson is definitely not a team worker. He take decisions
alone without consensus which might be very good for
financials but not in line with Morgan Stanleys culture.
2. He is infamous for mistreating his peers & sub-ordinates.
Though he has very good relationships with the clients but very
poor interpersonal skills within the firm.
Q1 What do you think is the difference between working
style of Rob Parson & Culture of Morgan Stanley? Contd..
============================================
Morgan Stanley is successful because of its integrity, which
originates through its Teamwork based approach. It is in the roots of
the company and is not feasible to change this for one person.
Dignity and respect for everyone is the priority for the firm. Morgan
Stanley is very particular for the internal culture. They want to
maximize the business but not on the cost of culture, teamwork and
Integrity which clearly Rob Parson is not following.
Q2 What are the Causal roots of the problem?
============================================
Culture orientation in New company
When someone joins a new company, he not only has to
understand the products but also the people, process & mission of
the firm and perform in line to the internal culture. For a long term
perspective, only financials are not important. This should have
been thought of by both Rob Parson & Paul Nasr.
Paul Nasr inability to foresee the impact of culture difference
Paul himself is aware of the importance of consensus building and
teamwork in Morgan Stanley. But he could not realize the impact. He
could have worked on early indications and groom Rob Parson
accordingly.
Q2 What are the Causal roots of the problem?
============================================
Rob Parsons Attitude
Rob Parson thought that only results matter not the way they were
Achieved and this is the only way to his promotion as Managing
Director (Reinforcement Theory). He not only take decisions alone
but also questions the knowledge of his co-workers which
definitely no one would like. On feedback he took it very negatively
and not approve of this idea.
Q3 What do you think should be done to resolve problem?
============================================
Hire strategically
This is not the Rob Parson who we are calling a problem. It is the
circumstances which have come up at this stage. It is very
important to hire based on not only the past performance but also
the cultural orientation that would fit into the internal culture.
On board deep Orientation
To all the new joiners it is very important to emphasize the
importance of organization culture and mission values from the
very first day of job.
Q3 What do you think should be done to resolve problem?
============================================
Performance feedback Management & review
It is very important to keep a tab on feedback received for an
employee and continuous monitoring so that it is incorporated.
This should be a key result area of not only the employee but also
the immediate manager
Straightforwardness of Managers in assessing sub-ordinates
The managers (like Paul Nasr here) should be straightforward in
giving advices for betterment of sub-ordinates. Just giving time
is not enough. One should be able to acknowledge the positives
and provide the negatives equally.
Q4 Should Rob Parson be promoted?
============================================
In our opinion, Rob is not suitable to be promoted to senior
managing position at this point of time due to following reasons:
Do not fit into the culture of Morgan Stanley
It is not feasible to put some as MD who defies the organization
mission values.
Lack of Team work
Firms like Morgan Stanley are successful because of the intigrity
and consistency. It can not be changed for one person.
Lack of respect
High level representatives such as Managing directors must
respect others and earn respect from subordinates.
Q4 Should Rob Parson be promoted?
============================================
Other Issues
we also can see that the capital markets division encounters
some severe straits for a long time, including a dramatic turnover
rate and serious understaffed.
Those issues wont be ignored and be even exacebrate if Nasr
promoted Rob to managing position since Rob is bad at team
play game and always wroks as a indivisual, not a community.
We can expect that those problems will be worse.
Q4 Should Rob Parson be promoted?
============================================
So Its a good timing, in our opinion, to provide him a
opportunity staying in the same position to mend his keen
attitudes toward his works, to modify his behaviours and to
improve the relationships between himself and his team and the
firm.
