Transcripts
Bob Wigley
Chairman Merrill Lynch Europe, Middle East and Africa
I’m Bob Wigley, Chairman of Merrill Lynch here in Europe.
What does your job entail?
Merrill Lynch is a global company, and I am responsible for our business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where we employ seven thousand people in businesses which trade shares and bonds, advice companies and governments on how to raise and invest capital, and have fifty billion dollars of private clients’ money, which we invest on their behalf.
What does enterprise mean to you?
To me, enterprise means having an idea about what might suit a client and which Merrill Lynch ought to be able to provide and make money from, taking that idea to the client and then working that idea through to delivery. Solving a problem for a client, and making a profit in the process.
Why is enterprise important?
Enterprise is important because it is what motivates people to live their lives. It provides the means to creating wealth from which society raises tax to provide the public services we all need, and to provide a safety net for the poor and ill. Without enterprise, there is no basis for a civilised society.
How do you use enterprise in your job?
I use enterprise in my job the whole time in the way I deal with clients to meet their needs, and in the way I deal with my colleagues to motivate them.
Why should I develop a spirit of enterprise?
I got involved with the Young Enterprise company when I was sixteen, and from that I learned what a business does and how much fun doing business can be. I encourage you to learn about business and to get involved in starting a business or joining a business. It’s made my life great fun, and financially rewarding.
Samina Akram
Senior Specialist, Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management
My name’s Samina Akram, and I work as a business development co-ordinator.
What does your job involve?
My job involves just that, business development. Coming up with ideas, initiatives on ways to maintain the relationships that we already have and also trying to come up with new sort of initiatives on how we can win over new business.
Why is enterprise important?
Enterprise is important because it creates healthy competition. I think to survive in today’s business world you need people who can come up with bright ideas.
How has enterprise been important to you?
I think it’s important to know that sometimes we may not know. I really don’t have the technical side, I don’t understand the ins and outs of the transactions but I have the passion and the commitment to make things happen. And so within enterprise it’s important to understand that there’s a different skill sets and you don’t master every skill, but if you have the core you know underlying passion and commitment everything else you can build upon that.
Gurjit Wadhera
Chief Operating Officer, Merrill Lynch Equities
Hi my name is Gurjit Wadhera, I work at Merrill Lynch which is an investment bank in the City of London. My job title is Chief Operating Officer for Equities. What does that entail? That entails managing all operational aspects of the trading floor and partnering quite closely with people like tax, finance, legal, risk and technology, all of which help us support and manage our business today.
Gurjit’s four points of good enterprise
Enterprise can take on so many different layers. The first one would be to have a strength of vision, have an idea, something that you can take to the next level and generate it. So ideas are important but making them happen are much more important. Surrounding yourself with the right level of people to help you take the idea to the next level. You really need to think through your leadership style and your strategies and make sure that you are going in the direction you want to be taking your idea. So the four key areas of enterprise would be: strength of vision; strength of execution; strong leadership; and a good team of people around you to help you take the idea further. And don’t forget to have fun along the way.
Jamie Heath
Managing Director, Merrill Lynch Investment Banking
I’m Jamie Heath and I’m Managing Director in the Mergers and Acquisitions group. I’m based here in London but I spend time in New York as well.
What does your job entail?
We advise people on buying and selling companies. Companies come to us if they’re looking to make an acquisition, to grow their business, or if they want to sell a division that isn’t any longer part of their core operations. We give them advice as to how to actually make that happen.
What does enterprise mean to you?
I think enterprise really is at the heart of what we do here because enterprise for us, for me personally, is all about initiative. At heart what we do here is getting things done. People bring us problems and we try to deliver them solutions. And that’s what enterprise is. It’s about getting things to happen, it’s about using your initiative, it’s about using your personal commitment, your personal experiences to make something that wasn’t in place before come together, and to deliver that.
Why is enterprise important?
I think enterprise as an outlook, as an attitude is absolutely critical in life. If we didn’t have enterprise, if we didn’t have people who got up and said ‘I’m going to make this happen,’ then nothing would happen. It wouldn’t happen in sports, it wouldn’t happen in entertainment, in business. It’s about finding yourself on the first day of your summer holidays and thinking ‘I’ve got six weeks ahead of me, what am I going to do with this, how am I going to make a difference to my life.’
Why should I develop a spirit of enterprise?
For us, enterprise is the heart of the business, and I think for everyone outside of business, enterprise touches you all through the day without you realising it. It’s a really a personal commitment to you to the world around you, how you actually shape the world, how you get things done. And I think enterprise is really critical for that, for all of us to move forward and to make a better place for ourselves.
Jezz Farr
Director, Communications, Merrill Lynch Europe, Middle East and Africa
My name is Jezz Farr and I’m responsible for Communications for Merrill Lynch in Europe, Middle East and Africa which is a job of two parts, external communications and internal communications. External communications means managing and protecting the reputation of Merrill Lynch in the media and internal communications means effective communications to the employees of the bank.
What does enterprise mean to you?
Enterprise to me means finding interesting ways of getting messages and ideas across to both media and to employees. And I see enterprise as two parts. One is using imagination to come up with an idea. And the second part is to find a way of communicating that idea to the audience we’re targeting.
Why is enterprise important?
It’s important to Merrill Lynch because the reputation of Merrill Lynch is one of its most significant assets. Clients look at Merrill Lynch to represent a number of values and it’s important for us in communications to make sure that the media understand those values that the profile is kept positive and that employees inside the bank feel proud of working for the organisation.
How do you use enterprise in your job?
Enterprise essentially is used in communicating with the media, that’s my most difficult task. And we have quite a dry business and we have to find ways of getting journalists interested in what we do and what we represent. Sometimes it’s quite easy, a story, we say, will write itself when it’s an interesting story. Sometimes though we have to find ways of getting journalists interested in the organisation and coming into the organisation to meet bankers so we find interesting ways of getting them together. Sometimes that’s a meeting in the office, which is quite boring, really, sometimes we take them out for dinner, sometimes we take them even to concerts – we took some journalists recently to see The Killers, and that was a very informal and relaxed way of introducing the journalists to Merrill Lynch and to what the firm represents.
Why should I develop a spirit of enterprise?
To be enterprising means to use one’s imagination and to be able to translate that idea, that comes from imagination, into actions.
Lisa Rosen
First Vice President, Merrill Lynch Office of General Counsel
My name is Lisa Rosen and I’m in charge of litigation for Merrill Lynch which means that when we have a dispute with a client or an employee and we have to go to court, I represent Merrill Lynch’s interests.
What does enterprise mean to you?
Enterprise to me means that people take initiative, that they’re enterprising and that they try to do things in an original and imaginative way.
Why is enterprise important?
It’s important because in order to achieve our goals and in order to do our best, we need to take initiative and try to think in original ways and to present our ideas creatively and constructively. We’re not going to advance in the world if we keep doing things the same way, we need to challenge our ideas and push ourselves farther, and that to me is what an enterprising person does.
How do you use enterprise in your job?
We need to try to apply an enterprising and original strategy to think about
the best ways to defend Merrill Lynch. If we have a dispute with someone, with
a person or with a client, we need to think about the best ways to defend ourselves
and that requires an enterprising and original approach to problems.