The reputational damage to the investment banking industry in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis was one of the most significant pressure points for the recruitment and retention of top talent. The economic destruction that was blamed on the 'financial supermarkets' of the 1990s and early 2000s was not the only factor that dissuaded young people from going into finance. It was also the complete abandonment of creativity and culture by these same firms that became a significant deterrent for fresh, young, top-level talent looking for interesting and engaging work. Indeed, it was for these latter reasons that I chose to leave UBS and start Moelis & Company in 2007.
Ten years on, the industry – and the financial conglomerates in particular – continues to grapple with these issues. But it is also clearer today that the financial crisis became an inflection point for the recruitment and retention of talent for a more nuanced reason than we once thought. Specifically, the timing of the crisis could not have been worse for building a pipeline of top-performing talent.
