Older article here, but I've seen many similar examples of rising superstar bankers. For those in the VP / Director / MD stage, what does it take to make MD early on? What political positioning / business development / other things that must be done?
There's been some great material on WSO about superstar analysts / associates. Obviously its much harder to identify steps at the higher levels, but I think many would welcome big picture advice for their careers.
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I assume it's next to impossible in IBD - actual deal experience and connections matter. A CEO / BoD is unlikely to entrust some of their most important decisions to someone who simply hasn't seen a ton of different deals before. A lot of these young MDs are usually superstar traders.
This is exactly right. I have seen several guys move up the ladder to VP and even Director fairly quickly, but making that final jump to MD takes some significant deal experience, and not just being on deals, but leading deals. The guys who tend to make it the fastest, following the the path from Associate - VP - Director - MD tend to be the ones who took the initiative to start leading certain parts of the deal process while still Associates and earned the trust of their MD early on. They slowly take more and more off of their Director's and MD's plates and get comfortable working through all aspects of deals and pitches.
Diligence, drafting the marketing materials, negotiating parts of the SPA (especially by the time you are a Senior Associate).
It is collecting, verifying, preparing, and organizing the company information for the buyer. As the banker, you are essentially conducting the same diligence a buyer would, except in more detail so you aren't caught unprepared. Think of banker diligence as preparing for a test. You know the subject material you will be tested on in general, but you don't know which specific areas will be covered so you have to study for all of them, even though, at the end of the test, you may find certain areas were not covered. It's the same thing when you sell a company. You need to know the answers, have seen the skeletons in the closet, and be prepared to respond to any and all applicable questions. In reality, this almost never happens, and you need to conduct ad-hoc analysis and gather additional, buyer-requested data during the process, but that is the goal of the initial diligence.
For buyside engagements (i.e. when a Sponsor hires you to advise them on a purchase), you are on the other side of the table, and it is the inverse.