Provincialism and Wall Street
At a networking event a few years back, one gentleman who I believed was one of management in technology at Citi described Citi's top-line strategy as becoming one global and unified bank while at the same time appearing as one unique bank for every citizen and customer in the world. Let me not question what he said or what Citi management are trying to do. That's not the point and, quite frankly, I don't know if that is an accurate description of Citi Bank. The point is the statement implies a mix of provincialism and globalization, 2 extremes.
What I am trying to address is the difference in the quality of people (not bad or good, just very different minded people). I am sure you have experienced this when you are trying to explain your question to Bloomberg help desk, when you are talking to people in corporate banking, when you are talking to IT colleagues, operations colleagues. I have felt this strongly when I visited a site of one of the biggest movie production/marketing/distribution company that employed a lot of "local" people.
Provincialism lives in every corner of the world. This is more observable in the US and also UK (which we consider to be a representation of more relaxed version of Europe). Lives of those who live in the capital cities, particularly those who work in finance, are becoming or have already become distinct from those "average Joe and average Mary" who see us only on TV, whose world views are determined by TV. I wouldn't say they are born and die in the same town, but close to it.
They call us "gay" when we wear a designer suit, they call us a commie or traitor when we hang out with people from foreign countries or people of other ethnicities or races. So they discourage any or some forms of globalization. Even those who endorse it only endorse it up to a point. This is opposite to what seems to be happening in Asia Pacific. In Asia Pacific excluding Australis, to my knowledge, globalization seems to be embraced.
Financial world (and corporate world in general) is becoming more nation-less, ethnicity-less, a-sexual and race-less. We are moving in one direction with some momentum. We agree to a great degree that there is no such thing as normal. The outside world is mainly moving side-ways. People outside are too busy trying to define what the "normal" life is.
The problem is these provincial people have quite a lot of power. They demand their world view to be realized at the local branches (for example, chase or citi branches). At the corporate level, recruitment, taxes, infrastructure, and stability of those seem to be the main reasons business moves. So you end up with 2 different types of employees, one hired to serve average Joes and Marys and others who can move around the globe and shape the corporation. These 2 people seem to have a very different outlook on life. We hear too often that he average Joe and Mary demand that the financial companies too hire "locals" first.
I think this is a real challenge for most corporations and financial companies. It is a tough one, really tough one. Bridging those 2 communities together inside the firm seems to demand a lot of effort, both time and money. I don't have an answer.
