Curious about the reality of banking at the senior levels. MDs often pride themselves on being "trusted advisors" to CEOs and boards, but are they really? It seems to me that on most M&A deals, especially sell-sides, the investment bankers are basically just running a process. Obviously that's important to do right, but I'm curious as to what the actual "advising" part of the job is. And if I'm a CEO, do I consider MD at XYZ bank to be a "trusted advisor," knowing fully well that his economic incentive is really just to convince me to transact?
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I tried explaining to a HC VP during a networking call that I thought healthcare mergers can sometimes lead to drastic improvement in healthcare delivery across patient populations. Found out during the call that his spouse was in the medical field. He gave me a weird look as if he thought I was kidding when I gave my answer. Proceeded to ghost me after the call via email lmao.
Highly variable, some MDs are process monkeys, some command respect from the C-Suite. The best really are advisors who have built rapport and relationships over years or decades and some are just there to run the process. Think about bankers in your group, how many actually have good ideas versus how many are offering the same generic, canned bullshit to everyone? How many actually get the industry versus just play buzzword bingo?
Yes, my MDs are trusted advisors because they’ve spent 20+ years doing M&A and financing deals for clients in this specific sector. They’ve held many of their client relationships for years, sometimes a decade+, and almost always spanning multiple titles and multiple different companies. They gather market intel from many c-suite and partner level sources, which makes them valuable as a source of information and expertise. They know their shit, and working with let’s say 100 companies on deals gives them insights that help fill in blind spots, because every senior professional has blind spots.
Yes, my MDs are also glorified real estate agents and process monkeys because they have to run sale processes that result in successful closed deals, or they have to provide buyside advisory that results in the client winning a process without overpaying to hell. That is a core skill, not sure why we’re laughing that off. No matter how “trusted” you are or how great your “advise” is, if you don’t have a track record or ability to run successful processes and get deals done, you and your clients are fucked.
You want a chef that understands flavors and ingredients and how they mix, knows lots of recipes, has studied many different techniques and preparation methods. Beyond his cool knowledge, you also want him to be able to make an edible plate of god damn food, because that’s what cooking boils down to.
One of my biggest pet peeves is people calling some “my” MD. Dude nothing about that relationship suggests any ownership over the MD. “MD I work for” is much more appropriate. They’re not yours
It’s akin to saying “my boss”, I don’t think anyone is claiming ownership of the MD they work for
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