Today, the research department at Merrill Lynch represents an inclusive environment where much attention is focused on talent development and work culture. I think that I would feel very comfortable working in this type of environment, mainly because of the fact that junior analysts are valued as much as senior analysts. In addition, working at Merrill Lynch would provide me with an opportunity to learn from other analysts and knowledgeable professionals, participating in collaborations and working in teams with them. The culture of research department at Merrill Lynch is based on making people feel as a part of something important, encouraging them to learn and accomplish their goals.
As mentioned above, collaborations are an integral part of Merrill’s research department. Candace Browning, head of Global Research at Merrill, puts great emphasis on developing initiatives to promote collaboration among the research analysts. Browning intended for the company “to move from a star culture where everybody operates as their own individual silo to a Merrill Lynch franchise culture where no one analyst is bigger than Merrill Lynch” (Groysberg & Vargas, 2007, p. 4). To achieve this, the research department had to increase transparency and communication between analysts. The main obstacles and challenges to this were related to the difficulty of encouraging local industries like retail and real estate to collaborate on a global level. Thus, some of the major challenges in this context included “different time zones, currencies, and accounting standards” (Groysberg & Vargas, 2007, p. 6). Despite these challenges, the company continued to work on developing different forms of collaboration.
It can be argued that one of the most successful collaborations was a cross-asset research collaboration. This from implied that analysts from different sectors and securities combined their efforts and perspectives to gain a better understanding of the company’s goals and strategies. Cross-asset collaboration at the Merrill research department also produced valuable analyses of the interconnections of different types of assets in certain industries (Bank of America, n.d.). These analyses were referred to as the capital-structure reports and were highly valuable for the company, because they had a significant success among clients, which increased the importance and credibility of the department.
I believe that analysts will continue to participate in collaborative work in the future because it has been demonstrated that there are important advantages to it. First, it helps to build trust between employees and improves the information flow. In addition, it allows increasing transparency and establishing a more effective communication with the clients. Certain challenges may arise, however, because it can be difficult to coordinate a large number of people working on the same projects. Employees may find it time-consuming and stressful, which might prevent them from participating in the collaborative initiatives.
Taking into consideration this and other challenges that may arise, it can be suggested that Browning should focus on developing the ways to facilitate the communication and interaction processes between employees. Analysts participating in collaborations should be encouraged to express their concerns and ideas for improvement. Clear views and strategies have to be established, and the management has to ensure that all the participants share a similar understanding of the department’s goals and ways to achieve them. This will allow addressing the most challenging aspects of collaboration initiatives. Candace Browning is currently the head of BofA Global Research (“Weekly market recap report from Bank of America global research,” n.d.). She is working on the ways to provide clients all over the world with investment ideas and high-quality data.