Lessons from My Bosses

by Sallie Krawcheck I’ve worked directly for 7 financial services CEOs (don’t ask…..it’s a really long story) and covered many more during my days as a research analyst. Each of them worked very, very hard; each of them was incredibly smart; and each of them was human. They each taught me a lot as I saw them work under great stress….both “what to do’s” and (unintentionally) “what to don’ts.” The best really understood the concept of NPV (net present value). By that, I mean they were willing to forgo earnings today, to invest smartly for more earnings tomorrow. For example, at Sanford Bernstein, we pulled our research analysts out of the underwriting business, with the view that an unconflicted business model, focused on...

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