Email Was Meant to be Free
Imagine working for an organisation that had no holiday policy. No dress code. No set working hours. You holiday, dress, and work however you choose.
Sound unreal? Welcome to the most successful investment banking firm on Wall Street : DE Shaw & Co - trading volume equal to 5% of the New York Stock Exchange total volume. Yes, in the dry statistical world of finance exists a King Quant who recognises what is really important for a hugely achieving workplace - its creative brainpower, and what is not - rules.
The latest Fortune magazine (Feb 5/96) explores what is going down in the "Extreme Investing" end of Wall Street, focussing on the brilliant, bold, and clear visioned David Shaw, age 44.
A former Columbia University computer science professor, Shaw thinks of cyberspace as the best place to do business. His 300 employees, mostly mathematicians and technofreaks, create and play with ultra-sophisticated software for statistical arbitrage - basically detecting and manipulating market discrepancies and inefficiencies to earn vast sums of profit.
Not content to produce an average annual total return to investors of 18%, with an enviable low volatility in an extremely erratic money market, Shaw wants to push the edges of technology to fundamentally transform our world. He is doing just that.
Such as Juno, a free E-mail service. ("E-mail was meant to be free" says Shaw.)
With Juno, users do not pay a cent to send or receive e-mail to or from anyone anywhere on the Internet. Where does the profit come from ? Ads displayed on-screen while people use the software. Like network TV - if you want to watch The Wide World of Sport, you get a few ads.
The greatest challenge, as David Shaw sees it, is to create the world's first personal finance enterprise which will handle, online on their Web page, all one's money transaction needs, including banking, brokerage, insurance, and investment. The banking industry's elusive Golden Fleece.
Farsight is Shaw's secret software programme in prototype right now. In a demonstration for Fortune magazine, the system looked "slick and easy to use". No doubt, we shall hear very shortly if it is successful. We will want it. So will your banker.
Shaw established his company aged 36. His head recruiter is 26.
Most of the creatives are mid-twenties.
The 12 full-time recruiters head-hunt likely candidates years before they are needed. Sought out and identified are the top PhD students, the academics and professionals publishing leading edge stuff, the names heard around the coffee machine in the hot spots for experimental research.
"The goal is to have a list of people the company might want in the future - and then to pounce when a need arises."
The most telling point about the successful style of David Shaw's organisation is its corporate culture : hire the finest creative brains for the job, give them a magnificent work environment ("more like an art gallery than a financial institution"), no rules except confidentiality, and reward creativity (starting salaries in the low 6-figure bracket rapidly advancing to mid-six-figure).
How does your organisation shape up against this model ? Not one West Aussie company comes to mind. Please urgently fax/phone me if you know of one - my indefatigable optimism that WA is Right There in the 21st century is feeling a bit shaky.
Please leave your message on my answering machine if I am not in. I am probably out picking up my dry cleaned business suits after having the traditional Australia Day long weekend....
Business News 5 Feb 1996.
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